Reclaim the Manifesto of VENTOTENE What future for the EU? Reclaim the Manifesto of Ventotene What future for the EU? Authored by Elmar Altvater, Bertrand Badie, Etienne Balibar, Aristides Baltas, Lubos Blaha, Peter Brandt, Michael Brie, Luciana Castellina, Dimitris Christopoulos, Judith Dellheim, Klaus Dörre, Yannis Dragasakis, Jean Pierre Dubois, Rainer Land, Gustave Massiah, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Michalis Spourdalakis, Antje Vollmer and Frieder Otto Wolf Published by GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament Publishing information: Published by GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament Order and contact: GUE/NGL Communications Unit, European Parliament, PHS 05B075, Rue Wiertz 43, B-1047 Brussels E-mail: [email protected] / Tel.: +32-(0)228-32299. Editing and Proofreading by Christine Achtermann Jones Typesetting and Layout by VSA: Verlag Hamburg GmbH Table of Content Reclaim the Manifesto of Ventotene! .................................................................... 5 Michalis Spourdalakis Thoughts on the conditions for the discussion on a promising future for Europe ........................................................................... 7 Etienne Balibar The future of Europe? .......................................................................................... 14 Luciana Castellina Take care of European society and commit to building agents of change .......... 17 Frieder Otto Wolf The challenge of the Ventotene Manifesto today ................................................. 24 A few dogmatic remarks Rainer Land Euro crisis or ecological reform .......................................................................... 27 Klaus Dörre Six Theses on a New Socialism for a New Europe .............................................. 36 Elmar Altvater Overhauling the project of European integration ................................................. 43 Three quarters of a century after the manifesto of Ventotene Bertrand Badie Approaching Globalisation from the Left ............................................................. 50 Gustave Massiah Europe and the European Social Movement ........................................................ 54 Jean-Pierre Dubois Europe, rights and democracy ............................................................................. 60 Dimitris Christopoulos Mediocre Europe ................................................................................................. 65 Yiannis Dragasakis The crisis in the European Union and the response of the progressive forces of Europe ..................................................................... 71 Aristidis Baltas The European acquis: foundations and prospects ............................................... 76 Lucas Blaha Alter Europe – still possible? .............................................................................. 79 Peter Brandt/Antje Vollmer Ventotene – it is time we wrote new manifesto! ................................................. 85 Judith Dellheim Provide a Marxist Critique of the Ventotene Manifesto! ...................................... 91 Michael Brie The Left in Germany and its responsibility towards Europe ................................ 97 Boaventura de Sousa Santos A New Vision of Europe: Learning from the South ............................................ 103 Altiero Spinelli/Ernesto Rossi The Manifesto of Ventotene (1941) ................................................................... 118 Biographies ....................................................................................................... 133 Reclaim the Manifesto of Ventotene! At celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome last year, the praises of European integration were sung loudly. Considering the deep cracks in the foundation of the European edifice, we saw little reason to celebrate. These cracks have been a result of the current EU policy direction in which compe- tition prevails over solidarity, austerity over investment and isolation over integration – and in which democracy is being replaced by ‘governance’. The increasing influence of reactionary forces which openly fuel resentment, discord and hate, and challenge an open-minded perspective for Europe, calls for resistance. The idea of European integration emerged from anti-fascist movements. Sev- enty-five years ago, the authors of the Ventotene Manifesto criticised the autarkic economy trying to escape from political regulation and democratic participation, and pre-empted the political battle against the totalitarian side of neoliberalism. As a starting point for a joint debate, we propose to reclaim the Ventotene Man- ifesto, which in our opinion represents one of the most important contributions to European integration. EU leaders take this manifesto for granted and use it for their agenda. They con- cealed that Spinelli and his fellow inmates envisioned a socialist integration that would guarantee human freedom and prevent future wars between states in Europe. Given the current development of the EU, we see a critical reappropriation of the Manifesto of Ventotene, in a post-Fordist world, as necessary. Much has changed since the Manifesto was published. Growing inequality between the different world regions together with climate change and globalisation in all its forms represent new challenges today. New questions arise which left and progressive forces must face. Do we need new forms of resistance, new utopias, a new culture of transnational cooperation? How can we combine local action with a global framework? What are the relevant political subjects needed for the necessary change on the local, regional, national European and global level? We admire the Manifesto of Ventotene for its clear analysis and identification of the necessary actors for change, together with its linguistic power to promote a peaceful and socialist future. Seventy-seven years after the Ventotene Manifesto, people are being imprisoned again on islands in the Mediterranean. It is our job to end this inhumane policy. It is time for a new common, leftist vision of a solidary and socialist Europe. 5 Last year we called for this historic document to be used as the basis for a lively and self-reflexive debate. Together with Spinelli's daughter Barbara, we have asked left-wing intellectuals from several EU member states to reassess the Manifesto of Ventotene. Their visions, thoughts and ideas, are published in this e-book. It is as part of our contribution to a general debate. Our enormous gratitude goes of course to all the authors who joined us for this project. Without them we could not have initiated this debate. Gabi Zimmer, Barbara Spinelli, Helmut Scholz, Marisa Matias, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Martina Michels, Josu Juaristi, Marie-Christine Vergiat, Thomas Händel, Cornelia Ernst, Stelios Kouloglou, Merja Kyllönen, Curzio Maltese. 6 Thoughts on the conditions for the discussion on a promising future for Europe By Michalis Spourdalakis Although it is not a completely unexpected development, the ‘present of Europe’ seems increasingly contradictory. Indeed, recently, the contradictions and the rele- vant accompanying reactions have seriously challenged the ‘future of Europe’. This finding is commonplace not only for those who, against their stated internationalism, suffered from chronic and acute euro-scepticism, but also for those starting from a completely different logic: the progress of society can only be based on solidarity that goes beyond national borders. The latter was the main reason for the renewed radical left to support European integration. The only prospect for our suffering continent, particularly after the expe- rience of war, is the vision of a pacifist Europe which plans and pursues its prosperity through its integration processes and institutions. Taking into account this strategic goal, the recent negative developments (the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU, the rise of nationalism and the extreme right, the frequency of terrorist phenomena, the standardisation of the financial gap between North and South, the apparent rise of an irrational and polysemic euro-scepticism, etc.) have raised absolutely valid ques- tions for the positive prospect of the EU. For this reason, the initiative ‘Progressive Caucus’, of all the progressive powers of the Parliament, i.e. of all those who worry about the exceptionally negative dynamics of the current circumstances, is more than welcome; it is necessary. Nevertheless, the interventions of the opinion-formers (politicians, journalists, special researchers, academics) seem to focus almost always on particular phenom- ena, contradictions and malaise related to the above developments.1 Neither the imbalance between the competencies of the Union, its often irrational bureaucracy, the short comings of the leadership, the financial competition presented as the usual interpre tation to the phenomena of racism and nationalism nor finally the calls to deal with the ‘democratic deficit’ can deal holistically with the obvious substantial or maybe even complete collapse of the European project. On the contrary, the seriousness, the depth and the scope of the challenges that the EU faces cannot be dealt with just with scattered ideas, no matter how good and inventive those are, since they 1 This observation refers not only to those who make mainstream interventions but also to those who would be expected to have a more in-depth approach. For example: Solty Ingar, ‘After ‘Brexit’: A Social-Democratic