Join forces against the imperialist EU - Strengthen the ICOR!

Commission President von der Leyen – pioneer of EU-imperialism

After weeks of a tug of war, the European heads of government in the EU Council appointed the extremely ambitious Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission. The EU parliament complied with this decision and gave it a democratic veneer in mid-July. The former German secretary of defense had proved herself to be a pioneer of EU imperialism, she had taken the initiative at the end of 2017 for PESCO as a forerunner of a EU army. And, on 17 June 2019, together with her colleagues from France and Spain, she signed an agreement for building a new EU combat aircraft, costing at least 100 billion euros. With her call „The world needs more Europe“ she states very openly the claim of the European monopolies to become a global political power. The upcoming Brexit can give rise to an open political crisis of a new quality in the EU.

Pseudo-alternatives from nationalists and „pro-Europeans“

The ruling powers used the European elections at the end of May for spreading social-chauvinist propaganda: Illusions in a „peaceful, social and democratic Europe“ were promoted and pseudo-alternatives were built up between „nationalist opponents of the EU“ and allegedly progressive „pro-Europeans“. The leading governments in the EU actually meant themselves with this. However, most of the government parties in the EU suffered considerable losses in votes, which triggered open party and governmental crises, as in Germany or in Greece, and accelerated the crisis of the EU. „Green“ parties were partly able to take advantage of growing environmental consciousness. Prominent is that the ruling powers were hardly able to confine mass protests in many European countries. That shows the Europe-wide progressive change of mood! Some nationalist or proto-fascist parties were able to gain votes as seemingly protest parties against the EU. However, they are actually not against the imperialist EU, but for a stronger influence of their own monopolies in the alliance of the European imperialists.

The ICOR parties and organizations as anti-imperialist alternative

A real, left, progressive alternative are the ICOR parties and organizations. Under the motto „Rebellion against the imperialist EU is justified“ the ICOR Europe for the first time conducted a joint campaign.

We can be proud of that! We propagated the joint cross-border struggle and the practical cooperation in class struggle and party building. Thank you to all friends and comrades who supported our campaign and helped to organize it.

We can learn a lot for the work of the ICOR Europe and the worldwide building of an anti-imperialist and antifascist united front :

• with the jointly conducted ICOR rallies in Germany (Aachen and Karlsruhe) of MLPD, Rode Morgen, UPML and ULC (France), the ICOR organizations from Togo, Cameroon, as well as greetings from the KOL (Luxembourg) and MLGS (Switzerland);

• Events and participation in protest actions in various countries (including France, Netherlands, Portugal, Hungary, etc.) on the imperialist character of the EU; the distribution of the joint ICOR-declaration during the ICOR days of struggle like May Day, on the websites of ICOR organizations or in party newspapers;

• Participation in protests of ten thousands against the rightward development, against the inhumane refugee policy of the EU and for the protection of the environment;

• successful participation of the ICOR party MLPD (Germany) in the European elections as a joint candidacy of various forces of the Internationalist List/MLPD; they joined with the protests of 120 000 (Europe-wide 500 000) against the rightward development, against the inhumane refugee policy of the EU.

• well-made ICOR posters and stickers and distribution in various countries;

• collection of donations for financing the ICOR campaign;

• ICOR organizations reported that they were able to strengthen their forces. New cooperation with further revolutionary forces developed;

• with the ICOR declaration, the paper on the EU and own analyses we succeeded in giving impulses for educational work on the imperialist character of the EU.

Practical fields of the cooperation of ICOR organizations are the joint cross-border struggles of the working class against threatening mass dismissals in the large European corporations. The mass protests against the rightward development of the governments and bourgeois parties also demand clarity and cooperation – such as the environmental movement, especially the „Fridays for future“ - youth movement. A new peace movement against all imperialism demands the cross-border struggle against the increasing militarization of the EU. We lead these struggles as a struggle for societal change with a revolutionary perspective.

• Let us build up a worldwide anti-imperialist and antifascist united front!

• Workers of all countries, unite! Onward to socialism!