The Young Socialists oppose the European Union (EU) as we oppose any imperialist military or economic pact. The EU is a project through which capitalists in Europe try to gain a competitive edge over their imperialist rivals, primarily the U.S. rulers. As is the case with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the EU has nothing to do with free trade or fair competition.

Instead, it is designed to squeeze more surplus value out of workers and farmers in the EU member states and in other countries they trade with. Hand in hand with the EU and the introduction of the euro come austerity measures, assaults on the social wage, and demands by the employers and their governments on working people for more "labor flexibility." The YS opposes the common currency, the euro, and the 60,000-strong rapid reaction force now being organized under EU auspices.

The Young Socialists agree with the demand "Sweden out of the EU." We also demand that this organization be dissolved completely. Sweden is currently holding the rotating presidency of the EU. One of the issues the Swedish government has focused on is the enlargement of the EU to include some Eastern European countries, hoping to collaborate with pro-capitalist regimes there to further erode the remaining conquests of the workers states and open up a new region for capitalist investment and markets. The YS urges workers in these countries to reject moves by the governments there in this direction and to oppose the entry of any country into the imperialist NATO military alliance.  
 
Anti-immigrant Shengen Agreement
The Shengen Agreement is a part of this cooperation between the capitalist governments in Europe to strengthen their hand against working people. This legislation targets the rights of immigrants and makes it more difficult to enter the EU from a non-EU country. It also includes moves toward more police control and registration of working people. The YS opposes this anti-working class legislation and demands opening of all borders.

The fact that the EU is part of making working people bear the burden of the world capitalist economic crisis does not mean that protests against the EU are necessarily progressive. Communists need to advance a clear class perspective in mobilizations against the EU.

The demonstration in Stockholm was politically similar to the protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization (WTO), and others in Prague and Quebec City. They are a diversion for working people and youth. The forces within the anti-EU demonstrations advance a nationalist perspective.

This demonstration was mainly an activity of petty-bourgeois organizations and their supporters and is part of their "Sweden First" campaign. They express worries about what consequences the EU has on the "Swedish model." They portray Swedish imperialism as less brutal and Swedish capitalism as more democratic. They argue these Swedish "qualities" are undercut within the EU. Accordingly, they say, Swedish capitalism without the constraints of the EU would develop in a more democratic fashion.

These perspectives are reactionary because they let the imperialist government of Sweden--a government against which we aim to lead a revolutionary struggle to put in place a workers and farmers government--off the hook. They reinforce the myth put forward by the capitalist class here that they represent a better "socialist" capitalism. Bourgeois liberals, Swedish social democracy, and Stalinist currents here have all helped divert working people from revolutionary struggle with this myth. They appeal to the capitalists to make their system more humane through reforms.

The actions themselves had no progressive content that a working-class organization could support. This is why we did not support them, not because we consider it wrong to demonstrate against the EU.

Strikingly, YS members and Communist League members in workplaces did not notice any discussions about this demonstration, while at the same time many co-workers had opinions about the recent massive layoffs at Ericsson.

Our experience is that demonstrations in this framework are poor ground for recruitment to the communist movement, even if sales can be good. We do not let ourselves be organized into this kind of activity by petty-bourgeois radicals, who have been holding similar activities during this half year of the Swedish EU presidency.

The YS was founded with the conviction that we cannot simply preach revolution, but must bring the lessons of working-class struggles and Marxism to workers, farmers, and young people we are involved together with in struggles. We have had plenty of opportunity to build and participate in mobilizations that, regardless of their leaderships, objectively advance the working-class and anti-imperialist movement. These include protests against the military assault on Iraq, actions against police brutality, and demonstrations for abortion rights and for immigrants’ rights. We visit picket lines and join strikes as we follow the lines of resistance of workers and farmers.

The crisis of capitalism will propel workers and farmers to join forces on a European scale as they transform their unions into instruments for struggle and forge revolutionary parties. They will fight against their own capitalist governments and certainly mobilize against the assaults carried out under the flag of the European Union. We celebrate the strengthening of these working-class struggles and the weakening of the EU. We look forward to a visit to British-occupied Ireland and extend to you an invitation to visit us in imperialist Sweden at the earliest opportunity.

Kristoffer Schultz
Björn Tirsén
Stockholm, Sweden
 

Unfortunately, the rest of this letter is concerned with the contents of an article written by a YS member from Sweden containing an argument which I felt was not properly thought out. According to the article, the YS did not support a protest organized around an EU summit in Stockholm as they construed it as being conducted "in a nationalist framework," as opposed to one in "the common interests of working people around the world." They instead preferred to focus upon "the alternative of making socialist revolution."

Whilst we all must agree on the need for consistently focusing on the latter, it does not preclude us from dealing with the key issues coming out of the EU integration and expansion project. Moreover, I feel that a popular opposition across the continent, with a base in the working class, could be built around opposition to the undemocratic and wholly unaccountable structures of the EU and the ECB [European Community Bank].

Björn Tirsén noted the presence of nationalist banners and flags, something which has been repeated throughout such protests across Europe. These are indicative of the fear which petty-bourgeois elements feel at the effects and consequences of EU integration, directed, as it is, in the interests of the "all-powerful" and wholly unaccountable Financial Sector and the Big Bourgeoisie. However, just because protests have a nationalist direction, it doesn’t mean that we socialists must avoid uniting in common cause against anti–working-class legislation. (A fact testified to in the original article which recognised the anti-immigrant implications of the Shengen Agreement. Yet the YS does not seem to oppose this legislation?)

In essence, EU enlargement will orchestrate the subjection of the working class throughout the continent to the requirements of International Finance. Moreover, this subjection will go hand-in-hand with an increase in interimperialist frictions, within the EU and also with the United States, not to mention with China or the former Soviet Union. Consequently, EU enlargement and integration have been accompanied with the development of a pan-European rapid reaction force, itself the subject of an attempted NATO takeover. Clearly then, the issues of EU integration and enlargement are center stage within the struggle of the working class and farmers across the continent.

It is against this backdrop that a reluctance to view the issue as an arena for struggle, and instead focus on promoting revolution alone, must be analyzed as bordering on ultraleftism. Indeed, such a view will isolate potential revolutionaries from the center of conflict and away from other advanced sections of the working class. I trust that my comments are taken in a spirit of comradeship as I truly wish the YS in Sweden the very best and would welcome a visit should they decide to come to Ireland.

D.O.
British-occupied Ireland  
 
 
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