Transf11 ENGL.Pdf

english edition transform! european journal for alternative thinking and political dialogue 2012 2012 11 PowerPower RelationsRelations inin EuropeEurope Gauthier | Hobsbawm | Wright | Frangakis |Brangsch | Dardot | Zimmer Photos by Mario Lang Impressum: transform! european journal for alternative thinking and political dialogue Edited by transform! Europe, Brussels Published with support by Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Editors: Walter Baier (V.i.S.d.P.), Eric Canepa and Lutz Holzinger Photos by Mario Lang transform!11 Rue de Parnasse 30, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium Publisher: VSA-Verlag, St. Georgs Kirchhof 6, D 20099 Hamburg, e-mail: info@vsa-verlag Layout: typothese.at Printing: MediaService GmbH, Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin Price: 15 Euro, Subscription: 25 Euro for 2 issues ISSN 1865-3480 Distributed by VSA-Verlag, St. Georgs Kirchhof 6, D 20099 Hamburg, e-mail: info@vsa-verlag Power Relations in Europe transform! european journal for alternative thinking and political dialogue 11/2012 2 Content Editorial 4 Lutz Holzinger Leading Articles The Communist Manifesto in Perspective 7 Eric Hobsbawm Class Struggle an Class Compromise 22 Erik Olin Wright Focus on the EU and the German Model The Stability Treaty – An Error or a Crime? 46 Jean-Marie Harribey The “Hard Core” of European Integration 51 Lutz Brangsch Germany as Hegemonic Power: The Crisis of European Integration 60 Joachim Bischoff and Richard Detje German Economy and Balance auf Power Relations 67 Roland Kulke German Capitalism and the European Crisis: Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem? 76 Steffen Lehndorff The Puzzle of European Integration: Will Greece Be the First Piece to Be Lost? 96 Marica Frangakis Challenges for the Left Europe: Existential Danger – New Political Challenges 109 Elisabeth Gauthier 3 About Hegemony 117 Pierre Dardot For a Left Showing Solidarity 121 Gabi Zimmer A class interpretation of the Greece Election 2012 128 Christoforos Vernardakis Democracy in Times of Crisis 135 Alex Demirovic´ Left Political Forces in Russia 144 Aleksander Buzgalin Basic Income in Finland 148 Kaisu Suopanki Engagement of the Youth Political Engagement of the Youth 154 Michel Vakalalouis Quebec Spring – The Roots of Resistance 163 Laval University Review Asbjørn Wahl on the Rise and Fall of the Welfare State 174 Lutz Brangsch List of Contributers 178 4 Editorial ith the death of Eric Hobsbawm the left has suffered a heavy loss. WTransform! is honouring him in this issue by publishing a text that makes immediately evident the famous hallmarks of this great historian – a universal historical culture, the capacity for systematic and bold analysis as well as his accessible style free of all academic jargon. If, at the end of his de- liberations Hobsbawm points to the alternative of “socialism or barbarism” that the 21st century must confront, he provides a clear indication of the di- rection in which the left should attempt to go. That we are obviously far from being in a revolutionary period is clear from the comprehensive analysis of social development since the Second World War which Erik Olin Wright presents. In it he examines various types of class compromise and identifies the factors that can lead to positive results from the point of view of workers. The essential focus of this issue is constituted by a series of analyses aiming at deepening our understanding of the causes and consequences of the crisis that continues to affect the European Union and the Eurozone. Among other things, the flaws in the fundamental conception of the Community and the problems created by Germany’s dominant role in the shaping of EU policies are examined. Despite the stable and peaceful post-war development of Europe, the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize cannot distract our attention from a fundamental fact: Europe’s economic and social condition has become aggravat- ed in 2012. An end to the crisis is not in sight. The austerity process imposed by the Troika has – far from showing a way out – unleashed a process of social destruction in Europe’s south, which threatens to drag the whole Euro- zone into a recession. While some countries are facing a humanitarian catas- trophe, Europe’s power centres, the European Commission and the European Council as well as the European Central Bank, have imposed a quantum leap in the integration of Europe on a centralist and authoritarian basis. Howev- er, this can only further sharpen the contradictions of the Eurozone and the European Union. On the other hand, 2012 can also go down in history as the year in Europe’s post-war history in which the populations, the workers, youth and the pre- 5 Editorial carious, spoke up with hitherto unseen resolve. This has been expressed in the reinvigoration of a consistent political left in elections in a series of countries, among them Denmark, Spain, France, Greece and the Czech Republic. As this issue of transform! appears the first cross-border general strike in the history of the European Union is taking place on November 14. The Spanish, Portuguese and Greek unions have taken the initiative in this, and the Euro- pean Trade Union Confederation has extended it with a EU-wide Action and Solidarity Day for a European Social Pact. This, however, is not the only novelty. An important new element in the ef- fort to make resistance to austerity policies and the authoritarian turn more effective is represented by the project of an “Alter-Summit” in the first half of the coming year. The project – which is being sponsored by more than 80 or- ganisations, among them the biggest European trade unions (CGT, CGIL, CCOO and CGT-P) and important social movements like ATTAC and also NGOs, and which also enjoys the support of ETUC and is supported by important political personalities of the Party of the European Left, among them its chair Pierre Laurent – represents a two-fold ambition: on the one hand, turning the rejection of the prevailing policies into a broad struggle for an alternative and, on the other hand, translating this alternative into a politics for changing the relation of forces in Europe. Transform! Europe is an active part of this process, which can connect the social, cultural and political left to the struggle for a new, common hegemony. In her article, Elisabeth Gauthier looks at the existing strategic possibilities for the left in the present conjuncture. In addition to this focus, the condition of the left is addressed by articles touching on various issues ranging from a detailed analysis of the Greek elections to left formations in Russia. Lutz Holzinger We are fortunate to have the Austrian photographer Mario Lang as illustra- tor of this issue. Mario Lang was born in 1968 in Vienna, was trained as an optician but since 2000 has worked as a photographer and editor of Vienna’s street news- paper Augustin. He was the photographer for several books of reportage and also directs the Stimmgewitter Augustin Choir (www.stimmgewitter.org). He is active in the local music scene as a music (lover) worker, has a penchant for rivers, including the Danube, and the East and lives and works in Vienna. www.mariolang.com 7 The Communist Manifesto in Perspective Eric Hobsbawm I. In the spring of l 847 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels agreed to join the so- called League of the Just [Bund der Gerechten], an offshoot of the earlier League of the Outlaws [Bund der Geächteten], a revolutionary secret society formed in Paris in the 1830s under French revolutionary influence by Ger- man journeymen, mostly tailors and woodworkers – and still mainly com- posed of such expatriate artisan radicals. The League, convinced by their “critical communism”, offered to publish a manifesto drafted by Marx and Engels as its policy document, and also to modernise its organisation along their lines. Indeed, it was so reorganised in the summer of 1847, renamed League of the Communists [Bund der Kommunisten], and committed to the object of “the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the rule of the proletariat, the ending of the old society which rests on class contradiction [Klassengegen- sätzen] and the establishment of a new society without classes or private property”.A second congress of the League, also held in London in Novem- ber- December1847, formally accepted the objects and new Statutes, and in- vited Marx and Engels to draft the new Manifesto expounding the League’s aims and policies. Although both Marx and Engels prepared drafts, and the document clear- ly represents the joint views of both, the final text was almost certainly written by Marx after a stiff reminder by the Executive, for Marx, then as later, 8 found it hard to complete his texts except under the pressure of a firm dead- line. The virtual absence of early drafts might suggest that it was written rap- idly. The resulting document of twenty-three pages, entitled Manifesto of the Communist Party (more generally known since 1872 as The Communist Man- ifesto), was published in February 1848 and printed in the office of the Work- ers’ Educational Association (better known as the Communistischcr Arbeit- erbildungsverein, which survived until 1914), at 46 Liverpool Street in the City of London. In 1998 we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of this small pamphlet, which is almost certainly by far the most influential single Leading Articles piece of political writing since the French Revolutionary Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. By good luck it hit the streets only a week or two before the outbreak of the revolutions of 1848, which spread like a forest fire from Paris across the continent of Europe. Although its horizon was firmly in- ternational – the first edition hopefully, but wrongly, announced the impend- ing publication of the Manifesto in English, French, Italian, Flemish and Dan- ish – its initial impact was exclusively German.

Load more