IV360/1 - Autumn 2004

European Union today - 27 country survey; Middle East; Germany.

European Union A crisis of legitimacy G Buster Following its enlargement to incorporate central Europe on May 1, 2004, the European Union (EU) appears plunged into ever more serious crisis. The very high abstention rates at the European elections on June 13, 2004, especially in the new member states, accentuate a crisis of legitimacy. - read article...

Austria Creating an alternative Hermann Dworczak The main results in Austria were victory for the social democrats and greens, despite their right wing orientation. The Conservatives came second and there was a total defeat for the right populist FPÖ of Haider. A new “moderate” populist list won 14% of the vote while the left wing “LINKE” won a modest 0.8%. - read article...

Belgium A new “Black Sunday” Ataulfo Riera Belgium’s European elections took place amid relative indifference, not the least of paradoxes in the country which is home to the European Parliament. Significant regional elections (since Belgium became a federal state, the Flemish, Brussels, Walloon and German-speaking regions possess greater powers) were held at the same time and these commanded all the attention. - read article...

Cyprus Nationalism on the rise After the overwhelming rejection of the Annan plan for reunification in the form of a “Cypriot Confederation of two independent states” at the referendum of April 24, 2004, the European elections confirmed the rise of Greek Cypriot nationalism. - read article...

Czech Republic The Czech communists’ road to Europe Mark Johnson The Czech Communist Party will bring to the European parliament its peculiar mix of progressive social and economic policies and an unattractive attachment to authoritarian and nationalist sentiments. But the decline of anti-Communism at home, and exposure to the libertarian currents of the Western left are likely to transform the party into a modern anti-capitalist force. - read article...

Denmark Euro-political realignment? Bjarke Friborg With victory for the social democrats and a setback for the "Eurosceptics" an established tradition in Denmark seems to have been broken. For the left wing it places the question of an anti-capitalist answer to European integration high on the agenda. - read article...

Denmark Breakthrough for MP Søren Søndergaard Thomas Eisler Denmark’s Red-Green Alliance didn’t stand in the June elections to the European Parliament. Instead it campaigned for Red-Green Alliance members on the slate of the June Movement and the Peoples Movement against the EU. - read article...

Denmark Anti-capitalist resistance to EU Statement Socialistisk Arbejderparti - SAP The election to the EU-parliament gave some hints on the political situation and the attitude to European Union. - read article...

Britain Meltdown for Labour Alan Thornett There were three elections on June 10, 2004 in Britain. In addition to the election for the European Parliament there were local elections in some parts of the country, and elections in London for the assembly and mayor. - read article...

Estonia Scandals and demagogy Since independence in 1992, Estonia has been subjected to a brutal capitalist restoration and ultra-neoliberal policies. The main political parties do not differ on the main issues (the economy, foreign policy, joining NATO and the EU). - read article...

Finland The exception Unlike other European countries, the rate of participation in this European election in Finland was higher than in 1999, even if largely below the rate of participation in national elections. - read article...

France Rejection and passivity Anne Leclerc , Pierre-François Grond The results of the European elections in France partly confirm those of the regional elections in a context of a remarkable rate of abstention. - read article...

France The LCR-LO campaign The alliance adopted last autumn between our two organizations concerned the regional and European elections of 2004, where we put forward a series of concrete measures including: an emergency social programme based around mobilizations breaking with capitalist logic; increases in wages and social subsistence; a ban on layoffs; redistribution of wealth; lifting of banking, industrial or commercial secrets; defence of public services. - read article...

Germany Between rage and impotence Angela Klein As was the case in other EU countries, Germany’s European parliamentary elections were marked by a growing discontent - primarily with the policies of the federal government. If most commentators see it as a protest vote, it is nonetheless increasingly difficult to define it politically because it takes the most varied forms. - read article...

Greece All passion spent Andreas Sartzekis As in most European countries, the campaign in Greece for the elections on June 13 did not excite great passions, unlike the parliamentary elections of March 7, which saw PASOK (the Greek Socialist Party) clearly beaten by the right in the form of the New Democracy party (ND) of Kostas Karamanlis. - read article...

Hungary Government punished Since 1990 Hungary’s political landscape has been marked by a perfect balance. At each election the governing parties are punished and have to give way to the opposition. The specificity of the European election of 2004 is that it did not lead to a change of government. - read article...

Ireland Breakthrough for Sinn Fein Sinn Fein was the big winner at the European elections in the Republic of Ireland. The party practically doubled its score, going from 6.3% in 1999 to 11.4% in 2004. As a Sinn Fein European MP was also elected in the north of Ireland with 26.1% of the vote, the organization became the first European political party to have deputies elected from two different member states. - read article...

Italy Setback for Berlusconi, hope for left Salvatore Cannavò The European Parliamentary elections in Italy were a defeat for the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. They also marked a setback, albeit a minor one, for European Commission president Romano Prodi’s plans to unite the centre-left and a success for Rifondazione comunista (the Party of Communist Refoundation, PRC). - read article...

Latvia Chauvinism triumphs Representing more than a third of Latvia’s inhabitants, the Russian-speaking minority (less than half have Latvian nationality and civic rights) polarizes political life in Latvia. Fighting for civic rights, its political party, the PCTVL, made a remarkable breakthrough at the 2002 parliamentary elections. It won a seat in the European parliament at these European elections. - read article...

Lithuania Setback for social democrats A new party which calls itself a “Labour” party, created in autumn 2003 by an entrepreneur who made his fortune in canning, topped the polls at the European elections, beating the social democratic party of Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas, the conservative party of Vyatautas Landsbergis and the established liberal parties. - read article...

Luxemburg Christian Democrats as final hope? Tun Jost The elections to the Chamber of Deputies, which had been fixed for the same day as the European elections, largely dominated the electoral campaign in Luxemburg. - read article...

Malta Defeat for pro-European government The Nationalist Party (Partit Nazzjonalista) emerged shaken from the European elections, losing more than 10% of its votes in relation to the parliamentary elections of 1998 and those of April 2003. It paid the price for its polices of “adapting the Maltese economy to the European Union”. - read article...

Netherlands Left progress, setback for government Setbacks for the Christian Democrats and the liberals of the VVD and D66, who have governed the country in coalition since 2002, progress for the social democrats; the European elections in the Netherlands followed the pattern of many other countries, with the government being punished and the opposition making progress. - read article...

Netherlands The Socialistische Partij: A Dutch phenomenon? Leo de Kleijn At the European elections in June 2004 the Socialistische Partij (SP, Socialist Party) gained 332,326 votes in the Netherlands, or 7% of the total votes cast and two seats in the European Parliament. At the European elections of 1999, with 178,666 votes (5.1% of votes cast) it had one deputy elected. It is a remarkable success for a party which is situated to the left of social democracy and the Greens. - read article...

Poland The elections that didn’t take place Konrad Markowski If not for the low rate of participation (20.87%), neither the liberals nor the radical right would have been able to hope for the good scores they registered at the European elections. Their triumph only reflects the depth of the social crisis in Poland. - read article...

Portugal Left Bloc elects first European deputy Jorge Costa The European Parliament elections of June 13, 2004 saw the worst result for the right wing parties since the revolution of April 25, 1974. The Socialist Party was the main beneficiary, but the Left Bloc achieved its best score since it was set up and it was the only party to increase its number of votes in relation to the parliamentary elections of March 2002. - read article...

Scotland Neither celebration nor despondency Alan McCombes The European election in Scotland had none of the high drama or excitement of the Holyrood election [to the Scottish assembly] last year. Both the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Greens had hoped to make a breakthrough into the European Parliament. Several polls had predicted that the UK Independence Party would take 11 per cent of the vote. But when the votes were finally tallied up, there was virtually no change in the arithmetic of the Scottish contingent of MEPs. - read article...

Slovakia Apathy and confusion Mark Johnson Less than one in five Slovaks participated in the European Parliament elections in June. A succession of demagogic and dishonest governments have created a culture of apathy and lack of interest, where neither social democratic nor anti-capitalist currents seem able to take root. - read article...

European Union How low can you go? Across the European Union, the minimum wage varies from 121 EUR in Latvia to 1,403 EUR in Luxemburg. - read article...

Slovenia Three surprises Sacha Mlinar Contrary to predictions, Slovenian voters showed no great enthusiasm to participate in these European elections. During the referendum on Slovenia’s entry into the European Union in March 2003 the abstention rate was only 45% - less than in a number of eastern European countries. This June 13 it was 71.6%. - read article...

Spain Serious setback for IU Diosdado Toledano , Jaime Pastor , Josep María Antentas The results of the European parliamentary elections in Spain were characterized in the first place by the highest rate of abstention registered in our country since 1977 (55.8%), reflecting thus the tendency, common in the majority of EU countries, towards a growing distance of the public from the Parliament and the European institutions. - read article...

Sweden Everybody but the bourgeoisie loses Anders Svensson The European Parliament elections in Sweden have once again shown the mistrust the Swedish working class has for the European Union project. The highest abstention rate in Swedish history and the breakthrough of a new party symbolize an election of protest towards the ruling classes and their parties in Sweden. - read article...

European Union European Left Party founded François Vercammen Fifteen parties from the Communist tradition from eleven different countries held a congress in Rome, on May 8-9, 2004, to found the European Left Party or ELP. - read article...

Syria Interview with Marwan Othman leader of the Kurdish party Yekiti Chris Den Hond Marwan Othman, aged 45, identifies himself as a Trotskyist and is one of the leaders of Yekiti, the second most influential party among Syrian Kurds. - read article...

Middle East An interview with Gilbert Achcar Gilbert Achcar We reproduce here an interview Gilbert Achcar gave on May 5, 2004 to Jean-François Marquis which was published in the new Swiss monthly “La Brèche” (June 2004). We have completed it with four further questions to which he replied on June 28, 2004. - read article...

Iraq Is the Empire being defeated? Phil Hearse Despite all the media attention, the true scale of the Iraq conflict is concealed from the public in the West. What is happening is an utterly brutal all-out urban guerrilla war, with savage atrocities being committed by both sides. The scale of this is concealed with reports of “attacks” and “bombings”, apparently by disparate bands of desperadoes. Only occasionally, as with the turning-point battle of Falluja in April, does anything like the real scale of the fighting and the extent of American casualties get fully reported in the press and on TV. - read article...

Italy Victory at FIAT Franco Turigliatto FIAT workers at Melfi, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, were involved in a 21 day industrial struggle in April-May which ended with the management being obliged to yield to their demands. - read article...

France What I actually said to Le Figaro regarding the headscarf February 2010 The decision of the local NPA in the Vaucluse region in France to include a headscarf-wearing candidate on its list for the regional elections has caused a lot of debate in the French media. Here Olivier Besancenot, spokesperson of the NPA, corrects inaccurate reporting of his words. - read article...

Fourth International Commemorations of Daniel Bensaid January 2010 Commemoration meetings for Daniel Bensaïd have taken place or will do so in Paris, Toulouse, Porto Alegre and London. - read article...

Mauritius LALIT calls for Diego Garcia military base Inspection by IAEA December 2009 With US military activities growing fast in Africa, including the setting up of Africom, and with the new African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty (known as the Pelindaba Treaty) now in force, the huge base on Diego Garcia becomes a key issue. - read article...

Pakistan Four Labour Party leaders killed December 2009 Four LPP leaders died in a road accident yesterday in Baluchistan. They were coming back after meetings to organise home-based women workers. Three of them are shown in this photograph, taken at Khanis Pur Murree last year during a socialist school. - read article...

Mexico International Solidarity with SME urgently needed November 2009 Call for * Day for International Action in Embassies on December the 3rd. * To send International Delegations * To provide economic support - read article...