File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1998/marxism-international.9802, message 59


Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 23:49:49 +0000
From: James Heartfield <James-AT-heartfield.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-I: Re: Amsterdam Treaty


In message <Pine.SOL.3.95.980205115820.29152A-100000-AT-gamera.syr.edu>,
Siddharth Chatterjee <siddhart-AT-mailbox.syr.edu> writes
>It is time to look beyond the narrow confines of European chauvinism -
>including for those on the left. To remark on the revolutionary potential
>of the EU is fantasy. Rich, well-fed people, especially those
>indoctrinated in the ideology of white supremacy and anti-communism
>from their very birth will not bring about revolutions as long as the
>current state of affairs continues. But it is also true that without
>the participation of the European, North American and Japanese
>working class, the revolutionary transformation of the world will not
>be possible, will not be complete.

I share your cynicism about the EU.

It is vey marked here that the middle classes [sorry Carrol, for the use
of this unscientific category], who used to be very chauvinistic in the
little Englander way, are today the most avidly pro-European. If you
listen to the Euro-rhetoric there is an underlying direction to the
argument: Pro-Europe means anti-Westminster. The European parliament
looks attractive to those political groups for whom the party political
process in Britain seems unnecessarily tied up with winning the popular
vote. Euro-politics is all about wealthy cliques of people, who, by
definition, can afford to jet around a lot. They gravitate towrds Europe
in direct proportion to their desire to rid themselves of the baggage of
the vulgar national electorates. It's internationalism of a kind, but of
a kind that brings together a very narrow elite, and excludes the vast
mass of ordinary people, for whom Brussels is a long way away.

Fraternally
-- 
James Heartfield


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