The EU is the edifice of the imperialists
It is an instrument of exploitation, occupation and oppression of workers and peoples
It is a bastion of racism and war
Out of the European Parliament, against the EU is the way of workers and peoples!
Abstention from the European elections!
The elections for the European Parliament in May-June will take place in a period of multiple-level attack on the rights of the peoples of Europe and furthermore in a period of war and bloody conflicts on the European continent.
In all previous years, the dominant imperialist powers in the European Union have consolidated the exploitation and plundering of the peoples and workers in the countries of Europe. Extreme austerity policies have been implemented, the poor and middle classes have been squeezed with salary cuts and the attack on their labour rights, and the peasants have seen the onset of the CAP policy that targets them. Youth continued to be at the centre of the attack with European policies striking at studies and labour rights; additionally, not only did the Bologna policies not bring better days for young people studying, but it worsened the conditions of studying and even forced many students to abandon education. Working youth, poor working class youth, those living on the fringes of poverty, migrants and “second-class citizens” as they are called, have been dealt a severe blow. On one hand they were the first to accept the measures of cuts and austerity; on the other hand they saw their democratic rights being overturned.
In all the developments of recent years, the EU is once again emerging as a force that supports and participates in unjust wars, a force responsible for the slaughter of peoples. The unjust war in Ukraine, apart from the stamp of the imperialists of Russia and the USA, also bears the stamp of EU’s intervention and support of fascist and far-right groups. The Ukrainian people have the right to resist against any invasion and fight for independence and the right to be sovereign. And this cannot be achieved by the reactionary Zelensky government and the Ukrainian ruling class, nor - much less - by the US-NATO and EU imperialists. At the same time, the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people has the support of the forces of the European Union. The repression and the ban on the mobilizations of solidarity to the Palestinian people is the primary direction of the EU countries. The decision of the European Parliament -by an overwhelming majority- to recognise "Israel's right to self-defence" while there is a prolonged massacre in Gaza of a people living for years under the occupation of the fascist state of Israel is an obvious example of how democratic and humanitarian the EU edifice is. It is clear that solidarity with the Palestinian people and the struggle for freedom in Palestine means abstaining from the war-mongering EU edifice and abstaining from the European elections.
The policies of extreme racism, the rise of far-right parties in the countries of the European Union and in the European Parliament are supported by and underpin the reactionary, racist and anti-communist policies of the main systemic forces. In the face of this we demand equal political, labour and social rights for all refugees and migrants through the common struggle of peoples/refugees/migrants. New forces have emerged and old forces have been strengthened, which represent the extremes of capitalism, exploitation and social, ethnic, religious, cultural and gender discrimination. All this ideological and political offensive that has proceeded in parallel with the attack on the rights and conquests of decades was necessary for the imperialist bourgeoisies of the EU. It was needed to put the workers and the oppressed in the spotlight and put the blame for the ongoing crisis on them. These far-right and fascist policies not only do not oppose the EU but are its “flesh and blood”. This is the political perception of the capitalist imperialist system which manifests itself when it is in crisis or in danger.
At the same time, the pandemic crisis and the outbreak of SARS-Covid 19, although initially did create a problem for the production process and the capitalist system as a whole, turned into an opportunity for an additional attack through anti-worker and anti-peoples laws.
The myth of “Europe of the peoples”, of the social-human face of the European Union is now showing its true face. The face of war, exploitation and barbarism. The face of imperialism-capitalism which is only interested in the reproduction of its profits and its political supremacy over its opponents. It is obvious to anyone who wants to see it that a handful of imperialist countries are running the EU. They are promoting the exploitation of the bourgeoisie against all the other peoples’ and working classes and at the same time they are squeezing the wealth out of the remaining dependent countries. This is the reality of the European Union. A union dominated by contradictions and antagonism, a union that is doomed to fail.
This rotten and exploitative edifice also needs the semblance of democracy to be sold to the people. It needs the European Parliament to work to disorientate the people and convince them that it can be changed and fixed. But the truth is that the European Parliament is a puppet without any meaningful and decisive functions, a spectacle set up to deceive the peoples of Europe and to distract them from their struggle. It is a “greenhouse” where the system's lobbies grow, in which the only thing the so-called MEPs obey to is the “money bags” available to the capitalists to promote their interests inside and outside the EU.
We support the struggles of the peoples and workers. These are the struggles that the governments of the EU countries are bashing and vilifying. We support the strikes that broke out in France for the right of the people to a pension they can live with, the strikes of transport workers in Germany and Spain. We support the struggles of the peasants like recently in France and Greece. The continuation and the path towards justice for the workers' and peoples’ struggles does not go through the acceptance of the miserable illusions about the European Parliament and the EU. The working peoples’ mobilizations are the hope for a better future for the workers and peoples of Europe.
The way of the peoples is outside the European Parliament and against the EU, a way of solidarity and fellowship. For a life with rights and gains against imperialism and exploitation. A life that can only be won by a COMMON FRONT of the peoples against this barbaric and reactionary alliance of imperialists and capitalists.
All of us who sign this document, left and communist organizations, refuse to legitimate the operation of embellishment of a historically reactionary imperialist construct. We refuse to participate in a farcical and mockery process like that of the European elections. We call for mass abstention from the European elections and actively fight to bring the working peoples’ movements to the forefront of the struggles. We call on the peoples of Europe not to vote in the European elections as they are a farce, and become active subjects in the struggle against the policies of the European Union. We call on democrats and progressive people to put a stop to the war-mongering policies supported by the European Union that have brought war in our neighbourhood. We are fighting to get our countries out of the EU edifice. We support the right of peoples to fight and struggle for their rights, for a society without exploitation and wars. We call for mass abstention from the European elections and for mass and active participation in the peoples’ struggles.
CPG(m-l), Greece
Kommununistischer Aufbau, Germany
OCML-VP, France
RK, Norway
Trotzalledem, Germany
Unite Communiste, France
