https://archive.ph/WyY1R

Veteran Austrian anti-imperialist Willi Langthaler, with Palestine Solidarity Austria, told Workers World that the event “is memorable, because it is the first time in many decades that anti-fascism has been publicly returned to where it came from, namely as a component of the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. The concentration camp prisoners of Mauthausen expressed this in a magnificent and unmistakable way in their oath.”

Langthaler added that the régime had cynically used false anti-fascism to vilify any political leaders — mostly those from the Global South — who opposed [neo]imperialism, calling them “new Hitlers,” and Palestinians who resisted colonization were called “antisemites.”

“The event in Morzinplatz,” said Langthaler, “although still at a symbolic level, shows that witnessing nine months of genocide has made a change in the consciousness of the people and that anti-fascism can regain its place in the anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggle. This is vital not only in Austria, but also in France and Germany and throughout Europe.”

I don't even have words for this right now.

Please excuse the trot publication, I didn't feel like looking for another English article.

German Article - Junge Welt

It is therefore worth asking whether the purpose which, on the European side, fueled the creation of the Union in its various stages, still has any legs to stand on. The EU’s ruling elite does everything it can to make it look like it does, but reality shows that divisions between member countries are deepening as the conflicts of interest caused by European capital’s loss of autonomy worsen.

It is in the patent absolute domination of the U.S., in its dictatorial impositions — not just resulting from the war in Ukraine, but stemming from the effort to maintain hegemony over the whole world — that the reason must ultimately be sought for the growing divisions between European countries that tear up the EU and threaten to break it apart. To a large extent, the EU is already an empty shell. The signs are many.

Goodbye prosperity, goodbye peace

First of all, the economic and political debacle caused by the war is obvious. The promises of prosperity and eternal peace that fueled the “European project,” which have been irreparably compromised, have turned into their opposite: a call for material sacrifice and a mindset for war.

Even if, for the time being, there is no public opinion willing to fight for an end to the conflict, the visible worsening of living conditions, the fear of the spread of the war, the pressure to increase military spending, the threat to European social policies that all this entails alarms people.

These have been sufficient reasons for governments such as Hungary or Slovakia (members of the EU) or Serbia (a candidate for the EU) to put up strong obstacles to NATO’s determinations and those of the subservient ruling clique in Brussels. Regardless of their political color, what marks the position of these governments is their attempt to assume a sovereign position in the face of an EU that is in thrall to the U.S. and oblivious to the interests of the people of Europe.

(Emphasis original.)

https://archive.ph/s3ijs

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2801092

Link to the article here

“We were elected to implement an aggressive reform program. And that is what we are doing now. We now have three years without further elections ahead of us, our performance will be assessed in 2027.”

It almost sounds like a threat from the conservative Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. His centre-right party Nea Dimokratia With 28.3 percent of the vote, it easily took first place in the European elections, almost twice as many as the left-wing opposition party Syriza (14.9 percent). However, it remained far below the 33 percent target set by Mitsotakis.

The reason given was the currently largest It rises of the Greeks: the high Cost of living,According to the Bank of Greece, 27 percent of the Greek population spends more than 40 percent of their income on housing costs.

Mitsotakis wants to counteract this – and focuses on employer-friendly measureswhich, however, causes the unions and left-wing politicians to cry out.

Employees must be informed 24 hours in advance

From 1 July Employers may invite their employees to Six-day week This will make Greece the first country in the EU to introduce a 41-hour working week. Previously, this was only possible in the tourism and food industries, but now the arrangement of a sixth working day is permitted for all private and publicly controlled industries (but not civil servants). The employee must have at least 24 hours before For the sixth working day, a Surcharge von 40 percent of the daily wage; 115 percent if the day falls on a public holiday.

Overtime is not possible. The day must be entered into a system that is to be controlled by the state.

This is intended to ensure that “industrial companies with rotating shift work and highly specialised staff do not have to interrupt their processes,” quotes the HE DOES the Greek Ministry of Labour. Furthermore, every employee also has the right to eleven consecutive hours off work per day or night and to 24 hours every seven days.

Up to two jobs

But critics stress that workers are already under a lot of pressure: wages are too low, and many Greeks are forced to work two jobs to cover the cost of living – about eight hours a day in one job and up to five hours a day in the other.

Also that the Right of termination to be relaxed, will tighten working conditions: employers are to be first year can dismiss the employee at any time. Mitsotakis wants to encourage companies to hire more people: The Unemployment rate in Greece is twice as high as the Eurozone average (2023: 10.9 percent). Social security contributions employers should be reduced. A reduction in the VATwhich is often seen by left-wing economists as an effective measure to combat inflation, the Prime Minister vehemently rules out.

Protest by trade unions in September of last year when the law passed parliament.

Many working hours, but little productivity:

Economists have long complained about the low labour productivity in Greece – one of the lowest in the EU, while Greek workers already have the longest working hours in Europe compared to the EU. The German Federal Statistical Office According to 2022, an average of 41 hours per week, the European average was 37 hours per week. In Austria The average working hours per week were 35.7. The lowest value was reported for the Netherlands at 31.3 hours per week – due to the high proportion of employed people in part-time employment (43.4 percent).

We need to focus on increasing productivity and automating processes, otherwise the competitiveness of the country is not sustainable. This could also be achieved with a Reduction of working hours cites the HE DOES the head of the German-Greek Chamber of Industry and CommerceAthanassios Kelemis.

If this gesture was meant to placate Salis’s supporters, it failed. Rather, Italian anti-fascists rejected the diplomatic compromise between the two far-right governments. Ahead of her trial which was scheduled for May, the Greens and Left Alliance — an electoral coalition of progressive and democratic socialist organizations that formed in 2022 — offered Salis their nomination for the upcoming European Parliamentary elections.

Her subsequent victory this June meant that as an elected European Union parliamentarian, she must be granted diplomatic immunity, a longstanding agreement of international law which prevents foreign governments from prosecuting other country’s diplomatic representatives.

This electoral gambit paid off, and Salis was released from house arrest in Hungary. But egregious violations of centuries-old diplomatic mores have been committed in recent history. In 2020, the U.S. arranged for the illegal arrest and rendition of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab who was held until his release last December. In April, [neocolonists] murdered 14 members of the Iranian diplomatic delegation in an airstrike targeting that country’s embassy in Damascus, Syria.

In this case, it was not just a legal loophole that won her freedom.

It was the mass pressure of the radical Italian working class that made Salis’s case an international cause celebre, then elected her to office and then kept up the momentum until she walked free.

[…]

On April 25, Italians commemorated the liberation of Italy from [Axis] forces in 1945. It is a national holiday that took on newfound meaning after the rise of the neo-fascist Brothers of Italy party under President Georgia Meloni. Marchers chanted “Ilaria will be free!” and demanded Italian officials call for her immediate release.

Salis, in a letter to demonstrators delivered by her father, wrote, “In my homeland, we honor the end of World War II and the expulsion of Nazi fascists, a testament to the valorous efforts of partisan men and women. From my confines, I earnestly hope that my nation upholds its storied legacy. May it continue to confront global injustices and remain steadfast on the right side of history. Happy 25th of April!” (Hungary Today, April 26)

“Ilaria epitomizes the spirit of anti-fascism today,” Roberto Salis said of his daughter.

Following the demonstration, activists accused Meloni’s government of censoring the broadcast of another speaker’s remarks, which detailed the history of Italian complicity in the Holocaust and other [Axis] war crimes.

After the elections, in which the Greens and Left Alliance won 6.8% of the seats for Italy’s European Parliamentary delegation, the coalition released a joint statement saying, “Ilaria Salis can now return to Italy and fulfill her new role as indicated by hundreds of thousands of voters.

“Our thanks go to all those who, like us, have been outraged and have not accepted the terrible condition in which she was held in Orbán’s prisons over these months. Now she can defend civil and social rights of the most vulnerable together with us.” (Houston Chronicle, June 14)

This vote, in which only about half the eligible voters participated, is an early warning of a threat from the far right, rather than a signal of immediate change in EU policies or in that of the individual countries. That’s because the executive and main legislative body in the EU is the European Commission and not the EU Parliament, which can only either support or veto the EC’s proposals. The European Commission remains in the service of the big West European and U.S. banks.

It’s expected that Ursula von der Leyen, the current president of the EC, will remain in office. Though not considered of the far right, Von der Leyen has been actively promoting NATO’s war charge against Russia.

The far-right parties base their support on a racist and xenophobic appeal, which is strongly anti-migrant. Some analysts have expressed worries about the danger of [neo]fascism from the far-right parties. They observe that the changes shaking society — U.S. loss of its former overwhelming power, danger of economic crisis, threat of major wars against Russia, in West Asia, and in the South China Sea — may encourage the [neo]imperialist ruling class into promoting a fascist-style party to save its domination.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron reacted to his party’s defeat in the EU vote by calling new parliamentary elections June 30 and July 7. There is a strong possibility that a representative of the far-right National Rally (formerly National Front), which came in first in the EU elections with more than 31% of the vote, will wind up being the new premier. (Macron’s party got less than 15%.)

[…]

The drop in support for the establishment capitalist parties and the social democrats brought no significant gains by left parties. There were a few exceptions: To the nearest percent, the Workers Party of Belgium (PTB/PvdA) increased its support from 8% to 11%, the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) grew from 1% to 3% and the Communist Party of Greece (KPE) grew from 5% to 9%.

Meanwhile, the ultraright parties made large advances. Alternative for Germany (AfD) came in second in Germany with 16%. The extreme right-wing Freedom Party in Austria (FPÖ) and Vlaams Belang of Belgium both came in first in their countries, with 26% and 14% of the vote respectively. And in Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government bloc, considered the most reactionary since Benito Mussolini, got nearly half the votes.

The U.S. corporate media sometimes presents the Western European far-right parties as anti-NATO or pro-Russia, or as defenders of national sovereignty against the European Union. This is false. Where these parties have grown closer to winning office through votes, they have accepted pro-EU and pro-NATO positions, acceptable to EU and U.S. bankers, while blaming migrants for everything.

Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen, head of the National Rally in France, have supported the EU and increased funds for weapons and been sharply anti-Russia. The AfD has backed all the moves by the German government to arm Ukraine and to allow Kiev to use the weapons against targets inside Russia.

With few exceptions, the far-right parties are on the same page with nearly all the center-right and nominally social democratic parties regarding preparations for war, support for West European [neo]imperialism in alliance with the U.S. and support for [Zionism].

The next battle with the far right is shaping up in France with the impending parliamentary elections. Macron, who won two elections for president by presenting himself as the only alternative to Le Pen, now appears to be ready to share authority with the National Rally.

Other left parties in France — La France Insoumise (led by Jean-Luc Mélanchon), the Communist Party, Greens and the humbled Socialists, have made an electoral alliance to provide an alternative to both the National Rally and Macron’s party. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in the streets of French cities on June 15 to oppose the far right and Macron’s pro-war center right.

This very insightful tweet by the author of the article ties the whole picture together of what is happening in Europe at the moment:

"The sudden panic over France’s deficit is a crystal clear example of how the euro is used to subvert democracy. Elect the wrong government (or even just consider doing so) — and the supposedly “apolitical” and “independent” ECB won’t think twice about resorting to monetary blackmail and engineering a financial/fiscal crisis in order to bring the government, or the voters, back in line.

As I write in my latest article, as soon as Macron called a snap election in response to Le Pen’s crushing victory last week, the “spread” between French and German government borrowing costs immediately rose to the highest level in years. Now, this could be seen as a “natural” reaction of financial markets to the prospect of a “populist” majority coming to power in France — and this is certainly how much of the media is framing it. But this ignores the fact that, ultimately, the spread is determined by the central bank — in the EU’s case, the ECB — which always has the power to bring down interest rates by intervening in sovereign bond markets. Markets only have power over states insofar as the central bank refuses to act.

Regrettably, the ECB has a long history of selectively refusing to intervene in support of sovereign bond markets, and engineering financial and fiscal panics. It did this, for example, with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni — allowing interest rates to rise as soon as her government came to power, until she pledged to submit to the EU’s economic agenda. It would now appear to be pre-emptively applying the same strategy against Le Pen in France.

This does, of course, run contrary to what should be the ECB’s principal job: keeping the spread down, or at least mitigating its rise, and thus allowing the democratic process in France to proceed as smoothly as possible. But unfortunately, the ECB isn’t a normal central bank; it’s a full-blooded political actor that has no qualms with coercing governments to comply with the overall political-economic agenda of the EU. It seems inevitable, for instance, that if Le Pen were to win the next election, the central bank’s pressure on France would only increase: expect hysterical takes on France’s ballooning fiscal deficit, despite the fact that France has had a higher-than-average deficit for years, though this was never a problem so long as pro-EU governments were in power.

Ultimately, this is a reminder that the euro is incompatible with any notion of democracy or popular sovereignty. A system where where democratically unaccountable institutions, such as the European Commission and ECB, are able to arbitrarily decide the policies of elected governments — or even forcibly remove them from office — cannot qualify as democratic.

As the British economist Wynne Godley famously wrote, “the power to issue [one’s] own money, to make drafts on [one’s] own central bank, is the main thing which defines national independence. If a country gives up or loses this power, it acquires the status of a local authority or colony”.

In fact, I would argue that we are in the presence of an extreme form of capitalist authoritarianism that is structurally post-democratic to its very core. Furthermore, this was not an unintended consequence of the “mistakes” committed along the road — in good faith, it is often claimed — by the architects of the euro; on the contrary, constraining national democracies was one of the euro’s principal aims all along .

For this reason, any belief that the EU can be “democratised” and reformed in a progressive direction is a pious illusion. A system that was created with the specific aim of constraining democracy cannot be democratised. It can only be rejected."

https://archive.ph/iJXvU

A surprisingly lucid article for such a dubious publication. Although this article gives more credit to the so-called "populist" right than it deserves, the main point it makes is more or less what i've been saying as well, namely that due to the profoundly undemocratic nature of the EU and the iron institutional and ideological grip of the liberal Atlanticist establishment on all EU institutions and most European governments, not much will change in the broader picture as a result of these most recent elections.

We may see some minor changes on the local level, in some places for the worse, in others hopefully for the better, but the overall trajectory of Europe remains the same. It seems no political force at the moment, either on the right or the left, has found any way out of the predicament we are in. The EU is a prison of nations, it is unreformable and there is no way forward as long as we are stuck in it. So the outlook is bleak: deindustrialization, austerity, permanent US vassalage, global irrelevancy, war.

Or if i may use another metaphor: we are locked in a vehicle heading for a cliff, the steering wheel is stuck, and the driver refuses to take their foot off the gas.

Italy has already elected a far right government that endorses fascist rallies

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/01/10/italy-s-government-under-fire-from-opposition-after-fascist-rally-in-rome_6420540_4.html

AfD is making record gains in Germany

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germanys-far-right-makes-strong-gains-eu-vote-despite-scandals-2024-06-09/

National Rally are poised to win elections in France

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-69102843

President Putin delivered Russia’s strongest warning to date against the NATO escalation. He chose a meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with top Uzbek officials. With 37 million people, Uzbekistan is the second most populous country of the former Soviet Union.

The Russian delegation to Tashkent included nearly half of the key Russian government ministers, heads of regions and Cabinet ministers from both Russia and Uzbekistan. It was held to move forward with joint plans of industrial cooperation, energy and infrastructure.

At a large press conference following the meetings, Putin said, “Long-range precision weapons cannot be used without space-based reconnaissance. […] Final target selection and what is known as launch mission can only be made by highly skilled specialists who rely on this technical reconnaissance data. It can happen without the participation of the Ukrainian military.

“Launching other systems, such as ATACMS, for example,” Putin continued, “also relies on space reconnaissance data. Targets are identified and automatically communicated to the relevant crews. […] The mission is put together by representatives of NATO countries, not the Ukrainian military. This unending escalation can lead to serious consequences. If Europe were to face those serious consequences, what will the United States do, considering our strategic arms parity? It is hard to tell.

“Presidential election is coming soon, and the current authorities want to confirm their status as an empire. Many in the United States do not like this, do not want to be an empire and bear the imperial burden.” (For the entire news conference, see en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/74132)

General Ivan Timofeev, Director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), warned: “NATO is spending ten times as much as Russia — if not more — on defense. It’s certainly a dangerous scenario.” (Tass, May 30)

This enormous expenditure is not sufficient to save the Ukrainian government, built on a U.S. orchestrated coup in 2014, from total collapse.

Rather than reassess their deteriorating global position, U.S. strategists seem determined to put the fate of the world at risk.