European Divisions Are Only Going To Worsen

The old dream of people like Jean Monnet (one of the men who designed the project that became the European Union) was that the divisions between the ruling classes of the continent could be overcome. He, and those like him, dreamed in utopian terms of united Europe that could stop the destructive wars of the early 20th century breaking out via the creation of economic and political unity. These mens minds were concentrated even further by the October Revolution and the creation of a powerful socialist state in the USSR together with the presence of powerful domestic Communist Parties. The idea of a unified polity was appealing as it would (they thought) overcome the contradictions between the imperialist powers and unite them against the Communist enemy. Times have changed and it appears that Monnet and his fellow dreamers may have got their way. The European Union stretches from Ireland to Finland but as it has grown it has revealed that unity is ever harder to come by. Unity in the Cold War era was achieved with US military control of Western Europe uniting it into a block against the USSR and the People’s Democracies. At the end of this period some in Europe dreamed of a unified Europe being able to steer its own course.

This trend withered after the brief stand made by Chirac and Schroeder over the Iraq war was cancelled out by the further expansion of NATO to include the yapping reactionary dogs who run the Baltic states. The government’s of these countries are all purely creations of the US and act as cheerleaders for the most reactionary actions of the American imperialist system. This combined with the relative economic decline of French and German imperialism ensured a Europe that was incapable of independence from the US. Merkel was the last leader who attempted to steer a course between the US, Russia and China with her efforts ending in catastrophic failure and the elevation of the wretched creature known as Scholz to the Chancellorship. Europe now is only united by its subservience to the US upon whom the major countries all depend upon militarily as Trump was keen to point out. The US is the only power that is capable of waging war to enforce the interests the European states in places such as sub-Saharan Africa where the French are rapidly being evicted following a long period of neo-colonial domination of nations such as Mali and Burkina Faso. Without the presence of US imperialism the EU now will fall into ever greater chaos and division as its major economies decay.

When it comes to the matter of splits within the ruling classes of Europe even the mad dogs of Warsaw will be subject to divisions. There will be at least a section of the Polish reactionaries who favour cutting some kind of deal with the Russians, even one that is unspoken and denied publicly, if it means getting their hands on western Ukraine without having to risk a war with the Russians.

This will be something that thr Germans are bitterly opposed to as a larger Poland will present greater problems inside the EU and will create a bitter backlash within Germamy where there are still some who resent the border changes forced on them by the redrawn borders at the end of WW2.

What the Nato war is unlocking is all the pent up tensions and contradictions between the European nations that were kept at bay after 1991 by the entirety of Europe essentially being a possession of US imperialism.

If this war ends with a bargain being struck, NATO is revealed as being ineffective, the EU plunges into recession and US imperialism reorders its priorities then a time of even greater instability will unfold in Europe. The NATO – Russia war in Ukraine is only the start of an ever greater turbulence that will follow as European capitalism lurches further into crisis.