The Danish Working Class in Struggle Against the EU

Communist Party of Denmark – Marxist-Leninist (DKP-ML)

Contribution to the International Communist Seminar
"The world socialist revolution in the conditions of imperialist globalisation"
Brussels, 2-4 May 2001

The Danish communist movement, the Danish working class and the Danish working people in general have a 30 years long tradition of opposition to the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Communities. During all these years we have raised the banners of national self-determination and national sovereignty, which is one of the topics of this Seminar. This means that we consider the national question a matter of relevance, importance and actuality in a small, but highly developed imperialist country in the very heart of Europe. We are against the further integration and construction of the European Union because we consider it a project of big European transnational monopoly capital. It is being built on a neoliberal ground in order to oppress the peoples of Europe and squeeze even more surplus value out of the working force. It is being built in order to give the European transnational companies a  »home» basis for their plans to exploit the peoples of the world, especially the peoples of the former colonies in Africa, America and Asia, and to compete with transnational companies from other regions, especially from USA and Japan. The EU is being built in order to seek regional and world dominans and hegemony in competition with the other imperialist powers. In its essence, the EU is directed against the working class and the working people of Europe. It is directed against the peoples of the world. In our view, there is nothing positive or progressive in this Union. We know that there are peoples and countries, especially in the third world, that are trying to exploit the contradictions existing between the United States and the European Union in order to advance the struggle to defend their interests and rights and develop their own countries. We think that it is completely correct and necessary to do so. But this doesn’t mean that we, as communists, should defend and support the building of this new imperialist power. Quite the contrary ! We wouldn’t be communists if we didn’t support our working class and working people in the struggle to defend their rights, which are so heavily being undermined by the neoliberal policy of the EU. We believe that in order to achieve any progressive and, even more, any socialist development in Europe, it is necessary to destroy this reactionary imperialist superstate. And this would, at the same time, be a gesture of internationalist solidarity with the peoples suffering from oppression and exploitation by the European capitalist class. But how should this be done? We have a general idea how to do it in Denmark. But we don’t think that there is a common way for all the member countries. There is a common goal, but no common way – although our activities should be co-ordinated in a much more systematic and conscious way than today. We think that this co-ordination is both urgent and possible, because in spite of the differences in our national realities we are fighting against the same enemies and the same problems.   In Denmark the communists link the struggle against the European Union with the struggle for socialism. As such, the struggle against the European Uniion is part of our stratetic thinking and reflections. We will never reach socialism being an integrated part of an imperialist superstate. And most probably, as a small country we will never be able to achieve and even build socialism with such a big imperialist power existing along our borders. But on the other hand, it would be possible to leave or even destroy the European Union without reaching socialism at the same time. There is no automatism in this question. But if we, in an intelligent way, combine the struggle against the European Union with the accumulation of forces with a socialist perspective, then this struggle could be a spring board for a socialist revolution. We believe that the struggle for socialism must base itself on the reality in each country – not only the material, economic, political and social situation, but also the traditions, culture and ideocracy of the people of each country. In Denmark, the political, economic and social system that developped after the second world war gave the working class and the working people a number of important social and democratic rights, for which they had fought during decades. It was still capitalism, it was even a special Danish form of state monopoly capitalism. But the social and democratic rights were important rights achieved because of the special situation and relation of forces that existed in Europe after the war, i.e. the existence of a strong and victorious Sovjet Union, the birth of the socialist camp, the strength of the working class movement due to its crucial role in the victory over fascism, the strength of the communist parties due to their leading role in the resistance and armed struggle against the nazi occupiers. All these rights were embodied in what was misleadingly called the Danish «welfare state». This «welfare state» had similarities with the «welfare states» in other European countries, but also differed from these in many ways. On that basis, Social Democracy spread the illusions about a peacefull and gradual transition to socialism. For decades the communist had to fight these illusions that were nurtured by the existing objective situation and had big impact on the working people. All this changed in the beginning of the 70’s with the outbreak of the economic world crisis. It was, however, in the same period (1973) that Denmark intered the EEC. So, the general attack against social and democratic rights, against the whole «welfare» model, that began in those years had either some thing to do with the Danish bourgeoisie’s desire to enter and integrate itself in the EEC or it came directly from the EEC and later the EU. In this way, the struggle against the imperialist European project became, from the very beginning, a struggle to defend the existing social and democratic rights. And the struggle to defend these rights became, vice versa, a struggle against the EEC/EU. And this could only be done defending national self-determination and national sovereignty, i.e. to raise the struggle for a Danish withdrawal fro, the EEC and later the EU. In this way, the national struggle was, at the same time, a class struggle against the leading circles of the Danish bourgeoisie that showed up to be completely anti-national. With this class character and social and democratic content in the anti-EEC and anti-EU struggle, it was completely natural that the communists and the working class from the very beginning played an important and leading role in the movement against the European project. With the further integration and development of the European Union, especially after the Maastricht Treaty, more and more petty bourgeoisie strata and even some parts of the national capitalist class have felt the pressure from the transnational monoply capital and its project for an United Europe on an imperialist and neoliberal ground. Although some of these forces were always present in the anti-EEC/EU movement, more and more of them have joint it during the last decade. This means that we note growing contradictioons even within the bourgeoisie over the question of European integration. These contradictions have an objective basis and will grow in the future. And as communists we must, of course, try to exploit them. The «Popular Movement Against the EU», an organisation that has existed for almost 30 years and are strongly influenced by the communists, has increasingly tried to establish unity in action or even some kind of alliance with these petty boourgeoisie and bourgeoisie anti-EU forces for the benefit of the common struggle against the EU. We have had big success in this policy of unity and alliances, and this is one of the main reasons why we have succeeded twice in winning a referendum against the pro-EU policy of the Danish government, the referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the referendum, last year, on the third phase of the Economic and Monetary Union, i.e. the single currency among other things. This is also the reason why we, to a large degree, have succeeded in isolating the chauvinist and xenophobian line that has its basis in some bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie sectors trying to use to just struggle of the Danish working people against the EU for their sinister plans and projects. This we have done by alway maintaining that we only accept unity and alliances on a non-xenophobian basis and, thus, excluding all kind of racists and chauvinist from the movement. We note in the Danish working class and working people a big sensibility towards the national question, a lot of profound feelings for national culture, identity and self-determination, and we think that if we had a nihilist approach to this important question, if we just ignored it, this would only open the way for the rightist forces and their ultra-nationalist, chauvinist and xenophobian project. From the analysis that we have made of the European development, we have reached the conclusion that the national question will sharpen all over Europe in the comming years due to the further integration of the EU and the restrictions on social and democratic rights, among others, that follows in the footsteps of this process. The way European transnational monopoly capital is dealing with the sharpening of the general crisis of capitalism, i.e. the way it is trying to shift the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of the working class and working people, leads it to take further steps in the construction of a more and more unpopular and totalitarian project that leaves no room for the peoples to express themselves in a free and democratic debate. While power is being transmitted from the national parlaments and governments to the EU institutions, the democratic room, i.e. the bourgeoisie democratic room, that disappears at a national level is not being reproduced on a European level where transnational coorporations exercise a much more direct influence over policy making and decisions, some thing which can be seen, e.g., in the role that the so-called European Round Table of Industrialists is playing in the very heart of the EU institutions. I will put one example only. Some months ago, in my home town, Aarhus, which is the second biggest city of Denmark, the local authorities decided to privaticise the public bus service. When the bus drivers’ union together with other local unions and social and political forces raised a protest against this unpopular, neoliberal decision, we were told that the decision was due to a dictate coming from Bruxelles, i.e. the EU, and that it is no longer a question that can be decided by the local authorities or even by the Danish government, but only at a EU level. The local authorities could only put their stamp and signature under a decision already taken in Bruxelles. This means that the very possibility of changing an unpopular decision on a local level was taken away from us. This is what we call a democratic deficit. The workers rigthly say that they prefare national democracy of bourgeoisie style to EU dictatorship. As communists, we support the workers and agree with them that the power of taking this kind of decisions should be given back to the corresponding national authorities. This means defending national sovereignty in a concrete way. Our conclusion is that class contradictions and the national question inside the EU will sharpen in the years to come. Only this week we learned from a new opinion poll that there is a decreasing support in all European countries for both the Euro and the so-called amplification towards the east, i.e. the annexation of a number of former socialist countries as well as some Mediterranean countries. Our experience tells us that this can be used both by the leftist forces and the chauvinist rightist forces. If we don’t have a concrete policy and practice concerning these and other related questions and especially the national question, then we will let the ground open for the chauvinist forces. If, however, we take upon us the defence of national culture and national self-determination with a social and democratic content, i.e . a class content, and on an anti-xenophobian and internationalist basis, then we will surely be able to deal a heavy blow not only to the chauvinist forces, but also and especially to the plans for the United States of Europe that European transnational monopoly capital is preparing. After 30 years of resistance to the European project of monopoly capital, the Danish working class has developed profound national feelings and an equally profound understanding that, at the present stage, social and democratic rigths can only be secured in struggle against the EU. But at the same time, through its many years of experience in this struggle, it has increasingly developed the consciousness that its main enemy is European transnational capital and that the only way to defeat this enemy is co-ordination, co-operation, unity and solidarity with the working class and working peoples of the other European countries. Therefore, we are happy to say that the present Danish working class has not only developed profound national feelings, but also a growing internationalist consciousness and understanding of the need for international solidarity, some thing which it is showing in many ways. The Danish communists and the Danish working class have already made our modest contribution to the struggle against the EU. I can assure yoou that we will go on along this line in the future. I hope to see some of you in the big demonstration against the EU in Göteburg in June, organised, among others, by the swedish communist party, the KPKL(r). I hope to see you once more in the activities and demonstrations that we are planning in Copenhagen in the autumn of 2002 when Denmark has the presidency of the EU. And I hope that we will all join together in the year 2004 when we have to fight the new European constitution that will mean even more blows against the national, social and democratic rights of the European peoples.    

Contribution to the International Communist Seminar
"The world socialist revolution in the conditions of imperialist globalisation"
Brussels, 2-4 May 2001