Vol. 80/No. 10 March 14, 2016
Capitalist crisis, refugee surge strain fabric of ‘united Europe’
The passport-free Schengen area is already effectively suspended as a growing number of national governments have instituted border controls. New regional alliances are taking steps to seal their borders, defying and undermining German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s attempts to cobble together a Europe-wide solution.
“Every EU member state is currently withdrawing to its own position and is taking its own national measures,” Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil, a Social Democrat, put it recently.
Contradictions within the EU — marked from birth by competition between the national capitalist classes involved and the uneven levels of productivity and development among them — have sharpened over years of declining production and trade worldwide. These trends underlie the growing support throughout Europe for parties opposing the EU in favor of nationalist political platforms, including in the United Kingdom. A referendum on “Brexit,” whether to leave or stay in the EU, is scheduled there for June 23.
The Austrian government convened a meeting Feb. 24 with officials from nine Balkan states, including six non-EU members, to discuss how to further restrict refugees traveling north from Greece. Athens and Berlin were not invited. The group agreed to send more police to help Macedonia beef up its border with Greece. The governments of Austria and Macedonia have already set caps on migrants entering their countries, leaving thousands stranded in Greece.
Athens recalled its ambassador to Austria Feb. 25 and turned down a request by the Austrian interior minister to visit. “We will not tolerate being a warehouse of souls,” said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Growing crisis in Greece
More than 100,000 people have arrived in Greece in the first two months of this year, even before warmer weather sets in. Shelters are filled to capacity and thousands of asylum seekers sleep in parks and along highways. The government has opened up military facilities, established five more temporary camps in northern Greece and even rented ferry boats to house refugees.This only worsens the economic crisis in Greece, where working people have been battered by years of high unemployment, slashed wages and pensions, and massive cutbacks in health care and other social needs. The stronger imperialist rulers, in Berlin and through the International Monetary Fund, are demanding Athens impose more severe assaults on the working class as a condition for new loans to avoid bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro currency this summer.
IMF officials say Athens should cut its budget by 4-5 percent of its gross domestic product over the next three years, most of it from pensions, because other public spending has been “cut to the bone” and taxes are already “stiflingly” high. Athens has offered cuts worth about 1 percent of the GDP this year.
Another summit between officials of the EU and Turkey is set for March 7. Since October German Chancellor Merkel has negotiated with the Turkish government six times in hopes of reaching a deal to control the flow of migrants departing the Turkish coast and to set up a quota system to settle refugees across Europe. Among Merkel’s concerns is that Athens might turn to Moscow for assistance in face of the refugee and debt crises. This would give Russian President Vladimir Putin an opportunity to drive further wedges between EU governments.
There are some 2.5 million refugees in Turkey, with tens of thousands of new arrivals fleeing Moscow’s bombing campaign of Aleppo in Syria. “We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on buses,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the European Commission in November. He is using the refugees as a bargaining chip, including in Ankara’s effort to stop any advances for the Kurdish national struggle, and is looking to a deal that will resettle Kurdish refugees from Syria in EU countries.
Merkel’s plan for refugee quotas within the EU has gone nowhere. The Hungarian government has campaigned intensely against it and won support from the governments of the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia. “The quotas would redefine Europe’s cultural, ethnic and religious image,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a press conference Feb. 24.
The German chancellor’s “open border” policy also faces growing opposition at home. The Alternative for Germany, a party opposing the EU and favoring border controls, is doing well in polls ahead of March 13 elections in three German states.
Attacks on freedom of speech
Amid this increased turmoil, many governments in Europe have taken measures that limit freedom of speech, often in the name of fighting terrorism. Last year the Spanish government expanded a decade-old law against “glorifying terrorism.” Among the latest people to be prosecuted are two puppeteers who put on a satirical show suggesting such laws are being used for witch hunts. Madrid also implemented the Citizens’ Security Law, known as the “gag law,” restricting unauthorized public demonstrations.Authorities in Denmark have stepped up use of both “glorification of terrorism” and “hate speech” laws to limit freedom of expression.
And the UK Counter-Terrorism and Security Act of 2015 gives the government broad powers to control speech on university campuses.
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