European Union

All the forces of the bourgeoisie, the left, the right, the far right and the extreme left, not to mention the trades unions, all came together in the grand electoral orchestra, whether in France and Holland for the referendums on the European constitution, for the parliamentary elections in Britain, or the Länder elections in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany's most heavily-populated region).

After the No votes in France and Holland for the new European constitution, a storm suddenly blew up over the British rebate and the spending on the CAP (the common agricultural policy of the EU). These well worn themes were rolled out by the French and British bourgeoisie to distract attention from the complete failure of the European states to convince their populations of the benefits of the European ‘project’...

Europe was the main military theatre in both world wars; it constitutes the epicentre of the world's imperialist tensions and it has never had any real possibility of overcoming the contradictory interests of each national bourgeoisie. In fact, "because of its historic role as the cradle of capitalism and of its geographic situation (�) Europe in the 20th century has become the key to the imperialist struggle for world domination" (International Review 112, 'Europe: economic alliance and field of manoeuvre of imperialist rivalries'). The EU, an expression of post-World War II tensions