WIll McMahon
THE MAASTRICHT project is now in jeopardy.
Millions of workers in Italy. Belgium and now France have gone on strike in defence of the welfare state and against Maastricht.
What was obscured in the fine print of the treaty has come to life because of the governments' attack on welfare provi• sion.
Governing parties across
Europe are caught in the vice of the demands of the global mar. ket and the organised resistance of the working class.
Suffering
And now because of the strikes they are suffering huge political setbacks in their attempts to carry through ruling class wishes to create an integrated European economy.
ver the treaty is critical tor large-scale European capital.
It is a necessity If it is to engage in inter-imperialist compe. tition with NAFTA and the developing regional trading bloc in car caste Maastricht serves solely the interests or european capitalIsm. This is what is at its heart.
Those on the Left who abstain or equivocate over Maastricht need to grasp this Socialists cannot justify hiding behind the spurious notion that the European Union has "progressive" aspects.
Nor can it be suggested that Britain needs to be part of such a project because it is in some way nistorically backward These arguments should be abandoned to the urgent necessity of the practical struggle against the consequences of Demands The main problem is how to transform national struggles fects into a continental campaign with a comprehensible set of demands. However there Is no readily avallable way of achieving this.
In Spain, France, Italy and Germany left-wing parties are mobilising support on the basis of opposition to Maastricht.
However if the working class manages to destroy the treaty without the Left fighting for a viane calleran auroocan vision the situation will remain dangerous.
Unemployed
European capitalist integration is driving the petit-bourgeoisie out of business and has created tens of millions of unemployed.
And part of the been to polarise a layer of petitbourgeoisie and unemployed beThus a failure to create an al. ternative may well leave socialists staring down the barrel of a chauvinist gun. This is not a mindlessly cata. strophic view-a fragmented poses as many dangers as one A fragmented capitalist Europe in decline poses as many dangers as one attempting to stride the world stage attempting to stride the world stage. As Internationalists, the Left's alternative to capitalist inMembers of Belgium's Socialist trade union federation demonstroting ogainst Moostricht's austerity tegration should not be to defend national sovereignty.
Any campaign that has even the slightest trace of "little England" is unacceptable. A camDaish bacon chauvinism will fail. A programme is reintegration of European economies in the interests of the mass of the population.
It peeds to ensure a Europe -which guarantees full employ. ment and a welfare state.
The programme should promote equality for women, call for an end to racist immigration controls, push for a defence of ecology and a break from the economic exploitation of the third world.
Europe has enormous resources to guarantee all of these things, but it means taking a very different road from that put forward in the Maas. tricht Treaty.