The rise of Western Europe following its transformation from feudalism to capitalism was relatively easy as long as there wasn’t a super power dominating the world at that time which might block its transformation and development which was called modernity. Europeans try to show that modernity is a contribution by Europeans alone, while every society in history did contribute in world modernity.
During the Mercantile era, Europe, by its military power, destroyed the Chinese and Indian industries which were on the brink of transformation into capitalist form of development, i.e. blocked the development of the two great nations at that time and other colonized countries. By other token, Europe was and still is anti-human development or at best controlling and restraining development of other nations to keep them behind Europe.
This reminds me of the well known saying on blocked development in periphery: “No Japan after Japan”, and I like to add that that saying must be replaced by:”No Europe after Europe”. This is the European capitalist policy since that time until today.
Any careful reading of Europe’s policy for the last four centuries confirms the fact that Europe was an enemy against peripheral countries in its two stages:
· When Europe was the leading world colonial power;
· And later when Europe became a dependent colonial power behind the United States
Following World War II, the weak Europe decided to give the lead to the strong and rich United States, a dependency that was tightened by US Marshall Plan to revive European economy.
The London Economist Wrote: “We must learn that we are not the American’s equals now, and cannot be. We have the right to state our minimum national interests and expect the Americans to respect them. But this done, we must look for their lead. “(November 17, 1956).Paul a .Baran, The Political Economy of Growth, Prometheus Paper Back, 1957.
While Europe became a weak second level colonial capitalist power, it never lost its greedy lust for plunder. Accordingly, Europe practiced its colonial ambitions in two forms:
· Direct invasion against liberation movements, i.e. British, French and Zionist Ashkenazi Regime (ZAR) against Egypt 1956, and French colonialism of Vietnam since the beginning of 1950s…etc, i.e. before Europe’s final loss of leading the world.
· And as tail of US imperialism various and never ending aggression, i.e. invasions against Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and currently Syria.
The most tied ally to US imperialisms wars is the UK especially in its aggression against Arab Homeland. The labor leader of UK Tony Blaire was never less brutal than G.W Bush especially against Iraq, and the same is for the Tory leader David Cameron against Syria now.
Although most of the people who argued for Britain to intervene against ISIS towards the end of last year have effaced it from their memory, barely three years ago Cameron’s government, supported by much of the media class, favored military intervention on the opposite side of the Syrian civil war, calling for air strikes against the Syrian army and support for those jihadist elements which subsequently morphed into ISIS.
When Europe was divided into nationalist states, and when it was unified in EU, it maintained its aggressive alliance with US imperialism in NATO, even after the collapse of USSR where NATO was designed to challenge communism! Even after the collapse of USSR, the West maintained NATO and expanded its members and geographic aggressive expansion. It is now on the direct borders of Russia. EU’s military and foreign police remains aggressive and led by US imperialism.
EU is an alliance between European big capital i.e. multinational corporations of Europe. It is true that this alliance has pan-national boundaries and sovereignty, but it did not abolish the national state which maintains its formal administration to capital. This is a unification of state and capital it is a class alliance, not national. It is more as a unified capital than a unified nations or popular classes.
Accordingly, the left who imagined that the EU is internationalist is a fake left. It is actually internationalism of capital.
Following the end of post war boom around 1973, EU class leadership turned against luxury state in a clear aggression against working classes to maintain the highest rate of profit or it is class struggle between capital and labor. Since that era until today, the real face of EU became clear as a class one. UK regime under Margret Thatcher, who was called the woman of iron fist, but against working class and countries of periphery, was the “pioneer” of adopting privatization, neoliberal policies and state role in de-regulation.
Through their adherence to the damaging creed of neoliberalism, have wrought suffering on an unimaginable scale, casting millions into poverty and removing the last vestige of dignity people cling to in an economy that has fallen prey to the voracious claims of big business. They have foisted austerity on unwilling populations, creating a cycle of endless unemployment and ever increasing woe, compelling ordinary workers struggling to eke out an existence in the wake of the most painful recession in living memory to shoulder the burden of repaying a debt which was originally incurred as a result of the criminal behavior of Europe’s financiers.
Furthermore, EU monopoly capital through its bureaucracy never hesitated in torturing its second class capitalism, i.e. that of Greece not to mention the people there.
After five years in which Greece was forced to undergo the most far-reaching programme of austerity ever implemented by any European government, selling off its public infrastructure and slashing spending on social services to please its creditors. Still they are not satisfied.
Moreover, workers are suffering the consequences of EU-enforced austerity in countries like Spain and Italy would places pressure on their representatives to grant a referendum.
Is UK departure motivated by nationalism?
Eurocentricism is behind a lot of pretences that every development in Europe is applicable and represents all the world including the national question. Europeans never believed in the fact of existence of old nations and of nationalism long centuries before capitalism. But they believe in a continuity of Jewish nation for 3000 years, which is the grand lie in history of human beings.
Europe considers nineteenth century as the century of nationalisms of all the world, while it was in Europe only, but even not all of Europe.
In fact it was the first wave of nationalism, the second is that of periphery in the middle of 20th century, the national liberation movements, and the third is nationalism that is manufactured by globalism which is a dependent and a tool for the center of world order.
A lot of analysis pretend that UK step to divorce EU is motivated by national and heritage factors.
But, any reading of the two camps shows that they were split in a different manner. Part of the Labor and part of the Tory are in both camps.
Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, who called for the UK to remain in the EU but was accused of a lukewarm campaign, said poorer communities were “fed up” with cuts and felt “marginalized by successive governments”.
Big businesses are with EU which must be the most ardent nationalists. But they are with EU because they are part of what I call the Global Capitalized Public Sector (GCPS) which considers the world as its open public sector for capital. But the working class is against the “internationalist EU according to some UK left” who is expected to be internationalist.
Does that mean that there is another factor(S) behind the result of the referendum to stay or leave EU?
It is the economic interests of both sides.
As for capital, EU became its nationalism, while austerity measures, and the influx of immigrant workers, even if they are from the poor Eastern Europe pushed the workers to vote against. In the year 2015, around 330,000 workers entered UK from Eastern Europe and the total number of workers from the EU reached 3 millions. They were welcomed by capital not the working class.
What fosters more UK voters to vote against EU membership is the 2008 economic-financial crisis. The western terrorist tools of Moslem Wahhabis who invaded Syria, Libya and Iraq pushing a large numbers of refugees towards Europe. The old Ottoman colonial power renewed in the Turkey’s current regime stand behind both of:
· The western, Arab renter regimes’ plan to destroy Syria and Iraq;
· And the flood of refugees towards Europe.
As long as the UK working class is against migrant workers from the white Eastern Europe, they are absolutely against Arab refugees.
It is an irony that EU members accepted some Syrian refugees especially Germany, and that is because their capitalist class needs them seriously.
Finally, neither EU, UK working class, nor UK capitalism is internationalist. The collection of several capitalisms in one sack never makes an internationalist camp to recall what Marx said in his example of potato in negating that the peasants are a class.
Despite the fact that British working class is the first in modern human history, but it is still a racist class polluted by chauvinism.