The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.13           March 31, 1997 
 
 
For International Solidarity  
The march in Brussels by tens of thousands of workers from across Europe protesting jobs cuts shows the broad desire among working people to unite internationally to combat the devastation wrought by the capitalist system in its death agony. So does the united response of Renault workers in France and Belgium to the company's announcement that it will close a plant in Vilvoorde, Belgium. But the type of national socialism that these fighting workers heard from both the Stalinist and social democratic representatives of the labor movement who spoke at the March 16 demonstration, runs counter to their instinct for working-class solidarity.

French Communist Party leader Robert Hue called the demonstration the "burial of Maastrict," referring to the treaty on European monetary union. In a December interview, he made clear that his party's opposition to the imperialist trade policies is based on the needs of France. As if the interests of French workers are the same as those of the French ruling class! He said, "We need a national currency. That's what gives a country its strength and independence."

The leaders of the Communist Party have a long track record of making peace between workers and the rulers in France in the name of the national interest - from 1930s to today. Far from leading workers to defeat fascism, it was their misleadership that led to the defeat of the revolutionary upsurge in 1936 and opened the road to the Nazi occupation and the Vichy regime.

Social democratic politicians like Lionel Jospin, head of the Socialist Party in France, likewise try to keep workers in the framework of the capitalist rulers, calling for a "social Europe" - that is reforms within the framework of the European Union. But this is a "union" of capitalist nations, in a period when the world capitalist system is in an economic depression. The Socialist Party, like the leaders of most other social democratic parties in Europe including Belgium, backed the colonial policy of their own ruling class for years and eventually led the workers of France into World War I to defend the interests of the French rulers.

Far from granting reforms, the bourgeoisie in every nation in Europe is trying to find ways to slash workers' wages, living conditions, and social gains in order to boost their profits. They are driven to do this by the fundamental laws of capitalism. Taking either side in the debate between the different interests in the ruling classes of Europe about how best to defend the profit system is a dead end for working people - it leads to nationalism, not internationalism. Only through a decisive struggle against the bosses and their system - regardless of the shifting economic, political, and military alliances among the different nation states - can the working class defend itself and forge the unity needed to overturn the wages system and open the road to organizing society to meet human needs and potentials, not those of big business.

The Stalinist and social democratic misleaderships advance anti-immigrant chauvinism at home and support for their "own" governments' imperialist course in Africa and throughout the semicolonial world. This course opens door to fascist forces, such as the National Front in France and the Vlaams Blok in Belgium, to gain ground. These organizations are bred by capitalism in crisis as its ultimate defense against the struggles of workers and small farmers who would overthrow it. The fascists use radical, nationalist demagogy to win adherents among the middle class and demoralized workers looking for answers to the social and economic problems they face. They scapegoat immigrants, and particular bosses and politicians who they say are corrupt, not the class system they are part of. They pretend that workers can defend themselves against the crisis with import controls and buying nationally produced goods, but this only gives workers' own bosses more power over them. The fascists aim to build a cadre that can ultimately be used in the streets to smash the workers' organizations.

They must be answered with a program that truly advances interests of the international working class. This includes demands such as jobs for all, a shorter workweek with no cut in pay, massive public works programs to create more jobs, equal rights for all immigrants, and cancellation of the Third World debt, which the imperialist rulers use to suck blood from millions of workers and farmers around the world. Is this "realistic?" Only with a fight that breaks completely from the bosses and all their policies, uniting toilers of all nationalities. That's the struggle that's needed.  
 
 
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