Lampedusa migrant deaths: The real face of the European
Union<
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http://www.sott.net/article/267772-Lampedusa-migrant-deaths-The-real-face-of-the-European-Union
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/10/17/pers-o17.html
Peter Schwarz
World Socialist Web
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Thu, 17 Oct 2013 16:59 CDT
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The horrific images of hundreds of drowned refugees off the coast of the
Mediterranean island of Lampedusa reveal the real face of the European
Union. Twenty-one years after the signing of the Treaty of Maastricht, the
project of European unification under capitalism has turned into a
nightmare in every respect.
>From the outside, *the EU resembles a fortress, before whose walls
thousands of refugees lose their lives. Inside it resembles a prison, in
which poverty, exploitation and oppression are rapidly increasing and the
benefits of "unity" are exclusively reserved for the rich and powerful*.
The dead of Lampedusa are victims of the European Union (EU) in a double
sense.
*The imperialist wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, supported by Europe;
the fomenting of civil war in Syria; the looting of raw materials and the
neocolonial exploitation of the countries of the Middle East and Africa
have created conditions under which escape is the only hope of survival for
many*. Only a small fraction of the millions of refugees from the countries
concerned make their way to Europe.
To bar their way, the EU has established the FRONTEX border agency, which
has its own fleet of planes, helicopters and boats, uses drones and
advanced surveillance technology, and can deploy border guards from various
member states at any time. FRONTEX has sealed off Europe's land borders
with massive fences, so that the only way open for refugees is a
life-threatening route over the Mediterranean. The disaster off Lampedusa,
where 364 bodies have been recovered so far, and the capsizing of another
boat a few days later with the loss of at least another 38 lives is the
result.
According to refugee organizations' estimates, *25,000 people have drowned
while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe since 1990.*
The ruthlessness with which the EU treats refugees is the sharpest
expression of its attacks on the entire working class. The past few years
have been marked by *relentless austerity diktats that have destroyed the
livelihoods of millions. Democratic rights have been systematically
dismantled and hollowed out.*
Meanwhile, 27 million people are officially unemployed in the 28 member
countries of the EU. Some 120 million are poor, 43 million do not get
enough to eat, and 18 million depend upon food aid from the EU. The youth
are especially hard hit. In Spain, Greece and Croatia about 60 percent of
workers under 25 are unemployed.
The army of the unemployed is used to push down wages and working
conditions. Even in a "rich" country like Germany, a quarter of all
employees face precarious working conditions. Contract workers from Eastern
Europe are exploited at hourly pay rates of €2-€3. Some 880,000 people in
Europe are virtual slaves who, according to a report by the CRIM European
Parliament Committee, are exploited by criminal gangs active in
prostitution and other activities.
*At the other pole of society, wealth is growing enormously. Despite the
recession, stock exchanges have reached record highs and the number of
millionaires as well as their wealth and incomes are growing.*
Those responsible for this development are the politicians, political
parties and trade unions that support the European Union and determine its
policies - from the conservatives and social democrats to Germany's Left
Party and other pseudo-left organizations. Some of them are now shedding
crocodile tears over the victims of Lampedusa, but they all defend the EU,
which is responsible for the catastrophes.
They leave opposition to the EU to far-right parties such as the French
National Front, which spreads nationalism and xenophobia, incites backward
elements and intimidates the working class.
The 28 EU countries are now home to about 500 million people. The fact that
the European Union is hermetically sealed and not able to absorb a few tens
of thousands of refugees is an expression of its historical bankruptcy. It
brings to mind the period before the outbreak of the Second World War.
At that time, Leon Trotsky remarked:
The world of decaying capitalism is overcrowded. The question of admitting
a hundred extra refugees becomes a major problem for such a world power as
the United States. In an era of aviation, telegraph, telephone, radio, and
television, travel from country to country is paralyzed by passports and
visas. The period of the wasting away of foreign trade and the decline of
domestic trade is at the same time the period of the monstrous
intensification of chauvinism and especially of anti-Semitism.
For decades, right-wing propagandists exploited the victims of the Berlin
Wall, claiming they provided evidence of the alleged failure of socialism.
In reality, what existed in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR -
East Germany) was not socialism, but a Stalinist dictatorship. But if the
same yardstick is applied to the EU, the inescapable conclusion is that it
has failed a thousand-fold.
At Lampedusa, more than twice as many people died on a single day than at
the Berlin Wall in the 28 years of its existence. According to the Centre
for Historical Research, a total of 98 East German refugees died in the
attempt to get over or under the Berlin Wall. There were another 30 people
from East and West Germany who were accidentally killed or shot although
they were not trying to escape, and eight border guards were killed while
on duty.
Only the working class, which is everywhere coming into conflict with the
ruling class, can show a way out of the impasse of European capitalism. It
must conduct an irreconcilable struggle against the European Union and its
reactionary institutions, unite across Europe, and fight for workers'
governments that will reorganize society on a socialist basis. Its goal
must be the establishment of the United Socialist States of Europe, and the
defense of refugees and their rights must be an integral part of this
struggle.
http://www.sott.net/article/267772-Lampedusa-migrant-
deaths-The-real-face-of-the-European-Union
Received on Sun Nov 03 2013 - 20:51:51 EST
