At 14:47 31.05.2005, Marc Lavoie wrote:
>Hi!
>
>I can confirm what Joseph Halevi just said.
>..........................(snip).............
>what really
>struck me was the depth of the debates among ordinary French citizens. Last
>Saturday, on the eve of the vote, I had supper with friends that were
>neither intellectuals nor politically involved, and I was amazed at the
>depth of their knowledge of the constitution.
>.....
I agree with Marc and Joseph: The discussion in France has been an unusually
informed one. As opposed to in Spain. And the more knowledgeable the more a
population tends towards rejecting the proposed "constitution". This really
says it all, but will not have much impact on the autistic so-called European elite.
But I write this to make another point: While the French have updated
themselves very thoroughly on the character of EU during the campaign, they
seem to have illusions about there being a fundamental difference between
the "neoliberal constitution", and the EU as such: "I am
against the proposed constitution, but for the EU".
I cannot see the important difference. Neoliberalism was set in stone in the
original Treaty of Rome, with the four "freedoms": Unfettered movement of
goods, services, labour and capital. National control of a macroeconomy is
through this impossible. The Euro and the further removal of national
autonomy in all sorts of areas are in my opinion logical extensions of the
principles in the Treaty of Rome. This has also, quite correctly, been
pointed out by some of the supporters of the "constitution": they say that
there is nothing new in the neoliberal principles formulated in that document,
so why all the fuss?
This is the reason that a majority in Norway has voted no to mebership, both
in 1972 and 1994. This quite well-informed majority has the same political
composition as that of the today's French NO majority -- it is not and has
not been a right-wing, xenophobic movement.
The race to the bottom now happening because of poorer Eastern European
countries having joined, has been the intention all along. To some degree it
has been taking place for many years, by industries being moved to more
exploitation-favourable countries like Spain and Portugal.
The French has IMO now -- through the debate about the "constitution" --
started to discover what the EU really is. Good.
Trond Andresen
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Received on 01-06-05
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