The EU and the warning signs of Fascism
Kit Knightly
![](https://off-guardian.com/wp-content/medialibrary/profimedia-0314227649.jpg)
Image source – here.
Things are spiralling out of control in Europe, faster than many predicted. Outside of Brexit, there is strong anti-EU feeling in Hungary, Spain, Italy, Greece and France. The EU is in danger of crumbling, and people afraid of losing power are prone to extreme acts of dictatorial control.
How long before the EU truly becomes the authoritarian force that people from both ends of the political spectrum have always feared?
The EU Defence Force
Earlier this year, the EU voted to “punish” one of its own members, Hungary, for the internal policies of its elected government. To be clear about this – whatever you think of Viktor Orban, he was elected by the people of Hungary. He is their legally recognised democratic leader. Hungary voted for him – in contrast, Hungary did NOT vote for any of the 448 MEPs who supported the motion, posed by Dutch MEP Judith Sargentini, that:
The Hungarian people deserve better…They deserve freedom of speech, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice and equality, all of which are enshrined in the European treaties.”
Note that “democracy” is not included on that list. “Tolerance”, “justice” and “equality”, but not democracy. A Freudian slip, perhaps.
The European Parliament vote was, itself, a corrupt nonsense – one in which abstentions were disregarded so the 2/3rds majority could be reached. Forcing through a bill that, essentially, calls for a change of regime in Hungary via:
appropriate measures to restore inclusive democracy, the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights in Hungary”
One suggested punishment – “The Nuclear Option” – is a loss of voting rights. Hungary would still be a member of the EU, would still have to pay into the EU, would still have to obey all EU laws and regulations, but would no longer have a say in what those laws were.
This would, notionally, be in defence of “inclusive democracy”.
How long before disapproval and punishment of certain leaders turns into outright removal? Can we really say that would never happen?
This month, Paris (and other French cities) have seen the massive Gilets Jaunes protests against the fuel tax, austerity and income inequality. The violent repression of these protests has received no criticism from either individual member states of the EU, or the EU itself. However, an armored vehicle painted with the EU’s insignia was seen on the streets of Paris.
Both Macron and Merkel have talked, recently, of the need for an EU Army – will these protests in France be used as an excuse to implement those plans?
Let’s assume the EU Army is brought about – let us supply the European Union with its coveted “defence force”. 250,000 hypothetical men, drawn from all the member states. What is their purpose? What is their function?
For example, would they have been deployed to Catalonia last year to “keep the peace”? Would an EU army have moved against a peaceful vote to “defend” the integrity of the Union?
Would a possible step in dealing with Viktor Orban’s government be to deploy the EU Defence Force to Budapest and remove the man who is a threat to “equality”? Would that count as “appropriate measures to restore inclusive democracy”?
If Brexit is ruled a “threat to human rights” (or some other collection of buzzwords), would the EU army be rolling armoured vehicles along the streets of London to protect us from ourselves?
There have been, and could be, many situations in the EU’s recent past where military intervention was only avoided because it literally wasn’t an option. An EU Army would make it an option, do we trust Brussels not to avail themselves of it?
Some argue that an EU Army would be a good thing because it would decrease Europe’s reliance on NATO, and remove US influence. I don’t believe that to be the case, and as evidence, I supply the fact that the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a well-known US-backed NGO, is very much in favour of the plan.
The EU’s Ministry of Truth
Of course, the increasing possibility of an EU consensus imposed by force is only one part of the threat.
Outside of physical repression – both by the EU (of national sovereignty), and by the state (of the individual right to protest) – there are warning signs of intellectual repression. A coming crackdown on freedom of expression and opinion.
There is a scary article on The Guardian today: Russia ‘paved way for Ukraine ship seizures with fake news drive’ . It’s not scary because of the headline – it’s scary because of the motivations behind it, and the implications for the future of Europe.
The meat of the article is an unsourced, unlinked, evidence-free claim of Russian malfeasance, and as such, Hitchens’ Razor applies.
The first half of the article is riddled with lies, omissions and mistakes. It’s the Guardian, you expect that. Disregard the babble about cholera and nuclear bombs. Disregard the factual errors – many though they are. In this instance, none of it matters.
All that matters is the second half – the proposed “solution” to the “problem” to which this article is a “reaction”. Namely, online disinformation. Specifically, “Russian” online disinformation.
Julian King, former UK ambassador to France and now EU security commissioner, wants tech companies to take steps to prevent the spread of “fake news”. It’s a war against dissent, with three fronts.
One – establish the “truth”:
Last week the European Commission announced it would set up a rapid alert system to help EU member states recognise disinformation campaigns
Essentially, there will be an EU mandated list of acceptable “news”, and anything which deviates from that in the slightest way will be branded “disinformation”. This will allow people to dismiss, rather than engage with, views that differ from their own.
Two – eliminate dissent:
King said social media platforms needed to identify and close down fake accounts that were spreading disinformation.
By “fake accounts”, they mean accounts which spread “disinformation”. Being a “bot” is not about whether or not you are a real person, it’s about whether or not you have the right opinions. As has been demonstrated, they either do not know or do not care who is real and who is not. Perfectly real people have been labelled Russian bots in the media, when they are proven to be neither Russian nor bots. Whether this is incompetence or corruption does not matter, the point is governments have shown they cannot be trusted on this issue.
Three – control the narrative:
We need to see greater clarity around algorithms, information on how they prioritise what content to display, for example. If you search for anything EU-related on Google, content from Russian propaganda outlets like RT or Sputnik is invariably in the first few results….All of this should be subject to independent oversight and audit.
The Google algorithm is allowing news that either disagrees with the EU, or is directly critical of it, to be shown in their results. This is unacceptable. What the EU security commissioner wants is for Google to “fix” their system, to make sure news that deviates from the EU’s agenda does not show up in their results.
Now, if you think that sounds like censorship, don’t worry because [our emphasis]:
What we are not trying to do is to censor the internet. There is no suggestion that we – or anyone else – should become the arbiter of what content users should or shouldn’t be consuming online. This is about transparency, not censorship.
The EU wants Google to remove certain websites from their algorithm, but it’s about transparency, not censorship. So that’s OK.
Conclusion
To sum up:
- The European Union’s two major figureheads are both in favour of an EU army.
- The European Union’s flag is painted on armoured vehicles repressing anti-government protests in France.
- The European Union is putting aside £4.6 millio (5 million Euros) to “help people recognise disinformation”.
- The European Union wants to pressure social media companies into “shutting down” accounts that spread “fake news”.
- The European Union wants Google to alter their algorithm, to promote news that praises the EU and demote sites critical of it.
- The European Union wants us to understand that this is about “transparency” and is definitely NOT censorship.
Does this sound like an organization of which we want to be a part? Are we supposed to like the proposed multi-national EU “defense force” putting down anti-EU marches on the streets of Barcelona or Rome? To cheer on the idea that the EU Army could be sent into non-cooperative member-states to remove “dangerous” elected leaders because they are a threat to “equality”?
We won’t even be able to get to truth of those matters, because the EU will be supplying lists of “fake news” social media accounts to Twitter and Facebook, who will dutifully shut them down. While Google alters and re-alters their algorithm to make sure any news covering EU repression of democracy is pushed so far down the results pages it may as well not exist.
The British press, pundits and talking heads are constantly referring to the “Brexit crisis”, but that’s just hysteria and fear mongering. Re-negotiating your position in a trade bloc is NOT a crisis. A crisis is what happens when an unelected, bureaucratic power structure suddenly senses its grip on power is slipping, and acts accordingly.
And a crisis could well be on the horizon. The signs are there, if you want to see them.
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“250,000 hypothetical men, drawn from all the member states.“ Extract.
I need to read this article again and ‘think it through’.
Just a few quick questions: how can you form an army of hypothetical men?
What about army which includes women?
Presumably this armed force doesn’t include an airforce or navy?
It was Mussolini who said of the common people “When they have learned to obey, they will believe what I tell them … The people do not know what they want; they do not know what is the best for them…..Fascism is definitely and absolutely opposed to the doctrines of(economic and political) liberalism” And just like the current EU project, the aim of Left-Wing Italian Fascism was to spread socialist ideas via control of the big corporations. Mussolini said “in the world’s social revolution will be followed by a more equitable distribution of the earth’s riches.” That is essentially what it is all about, and why Vladimir Bukovsky the Soviet dissident said “…socialist is the project of the European Union, which was born in Maastricht in 1992. The intent was to save socialism in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall” Franco’s ideas are well represented by the EU… Read more »
Here’s a scenario – so if the theoretical EU Defense force moved to ‘liberate’ a country like Hungary of its democratically elected leader because ‘equality blah blah’ (they have form here – look at what the EU did in Ukraine), I can only assume the Hungarian Army would remain under the command of Hungary’s democratically elected leader – well, that’s one scenario, in which case the rest of would be treated to the spectacle of a war in Europe between Hungary (and maybe some like minded allies?) and the EU dictators army. The media would of course brand one side the ‘axis of evil’ and the others the noble liberators, no prizes for guessing which would be which. I guess the other scenario would be the Hungarian military command being split between those loyal to the Hungarian PM and those prepared to collaborate with the EU to overthrow the PM,… Read more »
Glad to see you only inhale now days but perhaps you need to get your sticks sharpened again! Your name sake conducted a pretty impressive gurrileur war against a vastly larger organisation for some time.
Like UK, Hungary is free to leave EU. Also Orban was not elected directy by the people of Hungary, just his party won the votes (by 52%) – mostly with false campaign. Currently many actions that Orban’s government are conducting are protested in Hungary.
What’s ther matter, Peter? Does people protecting their home nations from the reborn fascists in Brussels “offend” you?
Free to leave my arse! Hungary is a relatively small country (economically) compared to the UK and look at the blatant bullying that’s going on the EU have made it almost impossible for the smaller countries to stand up for their rights Greece and Italy are testament to that
I don’t agree with a lot I have heard he does but that’s not the point. Should the EU have powers to send the military in because they don’t like the democracy in a country?
I was banned three times from commenting on the Guardian.
Scaremongering I fear but time will tell.
Interesting, i just saw that Russian news source published this article, though i didn’t see any references to original piece by Kit Knightly.
http://ktovkurse.com/a-vy-kurse/es-i-nadvigayushhiesya-priznaki-fashizma
I say we take all the websites that governments and social media ban and visit them. I mean if they do not want you seeing them, then you should probably be reading them. Kind of like what happened with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum
One of the things that amuses me on my increasingly rare visits to CiF is to see posters (often in the same comment) spewing out their hatred of the House of Lords while singing the praises of the saintly EU.
What is the EU Commission after all, other than the House of Lords with a staff of 25,000 and a budget of £150 billion, plus the sole right to propose, introduce and initiate legislation for the UK?
Lol life imitating art! We always suspected that Gary Numan was a bit of a seer?
Here in my car
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It’s the only way to live
In cars
Here in my car
I can only receive
I can listen to you
It keeps me stable for days
In cars
Here in my car
Where the image breaks down
Will you visit me please
If I open my door
In cars
Here in my car
I know I’ve started to think
About leaving tonight
Although nothing seems right
In cars…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldyx3KHOFXw
Steve Bell as usual on point too.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2018/dec/11/steve-bell-on-the-german-chancellors-refusal-to-reopen-the-brexit-deal-cartoon
(Sorry i try not to post links to the Groan if i can help it).
Another staged atrocity in Strasbourg tonight, working to de-stabilise Macron, the French President who has recently called out the US for being a potential threat and therefore requiring a standalone EU army.
The US and Zionist NGOs are working hard to remove Macron, they thought he was one of theirs, in fact he was, but the boy finally woke up, smelt the coffee, and grew a pair.
Laughable.
I’ll have a pint of what he’s drinking ….
The only reason they want and have a EU army (of sorts) is so that if the French kick off its much easier for a polish soldier to hit and possibly even shoot a Frenchman the same way it would be much easier for a British soldier to shoot a Hungarian down and have another tolerant European nation shoot down the British
this what i’ve been saying and was predicted years ago in an article in some fringe magazine like Nexus
The EU: hated by the neoliberals, hated by the Marxists, so they must be doing something right for the vast majority of people!
bollocks
The EU are neoliberals you dimwitted buffoon
Calling names rather than arguing your pointm as I have done several times on this thread.
Maastricht is a neoliberal blue print, you troll you.
Troll? How charming. Is this site only for EU detractors?
The EU is ome biggest economic and financial threat to the US neoliberals, that’s why they are doing their utmost to break it apart: neoliberal UK on the western front, neoliberal Poland on the eastern front, classical pincer movement.
You use exactly the same MO on the Grauniad, troll.
Bait and switch.
Obviously you’ve never heard of competition law, fixed budgets, running budget surpluses, or studied any of the treaties from Maastricht onward. The EU IS neoliberalism.
Well, according to much of the left, the EU is neoliberal. Most Marxists, meanwhile, support it. I think you’re confused.
Most Marxists support the EU?
That’s a bold assertion that needs some serious fleshing out to be taken seriously.
Please.
While the IMF warns about the next huge financial crisis…
Something which people could see coming even as the last crisis was dying down (being glossed over by the mainstream media), since the people and organizations which caused the last crisis have never ceased to continue with exactly the same reckless behaviour which causes huge financial crises…
Perhaps they are hoping that a new crisis will reinstate the few criminals who actually went to jail for causing the last one…?
Good article and timely warning
I think the underlying problem is neoliberalism; not the EU per se. I think neoliberalism is classical fascism in the sense of the corporatization of the State. Neoliberalism is also dogmatic and totalitarian. It was best expressed by Maggie Thatcher at the beginning of it rise to dominance – There is no alternative.
Although I do not like the way the EU is developing at this time, I am not opposed to the EU in principle and I do not want to see it broken down or broken up. I want to see it fixed from within.
I want to see it fixed too.
But criminally corrupt organizations rarely want to “fix themselves from within” …
Standby for the upvotes for the Pavlovian EU hate.
The EU: hated by neoliberals, hated by Marxists, so they must be doing something right for the vast majority of people!
Sheep you’re a fucking idiot thinking the EU is your friend! You are either paid or very stupid and when we win we will hunt you down and find a place for you
Admin – are you going to control the outright insults? I’m all up for arguing my case, several times on this thread, but if you are going to allow it to descend into the gutter then you’ll be failing in your mission, I would humbly suggest.
If you really are up for arguing your case, you will stop assuming that I am either a neoliberal or marxist. I am neither of those. I am a run-of-the-mill noticer of organized EU corruption, and have no party affiliation at all. My gripe with EU corruption is also matched by my gripes concerning all kinds of other corruption in the circles of those who claim to represent us, but do not.
Neither do they intend to.
As for “Pavlovian”, making such assumptions really takes the cake there.
The incipient fascism, which is what this article is trying to warn us against, makes exactly such assumptions, and always has.
Thinking for yourself is to be recommended as an easily accessible antidote.
My point was intended to be a general one concerning the thread and not specifically aimed at you. I was frustrated at the point of reading your post but I repeated my general point at the top level. Apologies that it was penned directly under your comment and therefore you and everyone else assumes it’s aimed at you, sorry.
Silence the blasphemers!
Yep, it feels like that here on any article to do with the EU, automatic reflexes from some people rather than discussion.
Disgraceful. Trotskyist?
The neoliberals dont hate the EU. At the moment they control it. The neoliberals aka globalists are the problem; in Europe and in the US. They control the US too; that’s why their corporate media demonizes Trump. That’s what the Russiagate hoax is all about. Trump is an old fashioned bricks & mortar capitalist, not a neoliberal.
If there is no alternative according to Thatcherite Neoliberalism and Progressive Blairite imperialism which was the catalyst that drove all socialist parties in Europe to switch to Neoliberalism. Then how could it ever change within? Corbyn thinks they would listen to him. Why should they? Even the progressives in his own party don’t listen to him.
Let me pose a few questions: 1. the recent EU GDPR data protection regulation which introduces data protection of our details held online, whih has been heavily criticised by Google, Facebook and most US politicians – is this legislation logically a product of a neoliberal or fascist project, or is it a product of an organisation more concerned about the impacts of corporations upon people and society? 2. EU working hours directive which places a limit upon the total amount of hours a person can work – is this legislation logically a product of a neoliberal or fascist project, or is it a product of an organisation more concerned about the impacts of corporations upon people and society? 3. EU environmental regulations – are these regulations logically a product of a neoliberal or fascist project, or is it a product of an organisation more concerned about the impacts of corporations… Read more »
Where is mainland EU? It’s not a country. Nobody goes to the continent and says they are going to the EU and probably never will.
By mainland i mean the EU excluding the neoliberal disUnited Kingdom.
The people of Greece elected a socialist government with socialist polices to address their economic concerns. Please note these concerns weren’t mobile phone roaming charges – how bourgeois is that! The socialist proposals of Syriza were ruled out of court by the Neoliberal EU who see them as debt serfs to suffer the penalties of neoliberal justice. The rest is history but please let us all be thankful that the EU is concerned in principle about google and the rest of your defence of it.
Your point about Greek socialists and the EU misses the point. I am arguing a case for the EU, not the Euro curreny zone.
There are all sorts of issues with the Euro currency, however, once a country decides to join it, they give away a lot of decion making precisely because they are working in a collective currency which is as weak as the weakest link. Greece also fiddled its books in order to enter the Eurozone, so off course the ECB must take a strong stance.
The Greek socialists COULD have exited the Euro and returned to the Drachma, but the majority of Greek people did not want that; go figure.
So much to unpack here. You did not answer my request to explain the ESM . I take it you do not know what the ESM is or if you do you really don’t want to talk about it. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/eurozone-esm-bailout-fund-on-the-road-to-expansion-a-1232958.html The European Stability Mechanism is not a mechanism at all, it is the institutional application of the Neoliberal principles of getting countries into debt and then imposing austerity upon them and stealing their public assets etc and establishing those political and economic choices in the very heart and bureaucratic framework of the EU institution itself. It is a huge and growing secretive office within the EU that is prepared to implement extreme Neoliberal economic ‘medicine’ at its most convenient opportunities. I bookmarked this article in 2013 when I read it in which you can see the EU and the ESM testing the water as to how it will be applied… Read more »
I do have a clue, I’ve lived and breathed the EU for 45 years. What I don’t have is time to write long, nuanced posts here nor anywhere else. I’m also a pragmatic person, always looking for simple answers and effective solutions to complex problems which people or organizations have needlessly created. You make very good points, however, fundamentally, a corrupt Greek government with the help of GS lied their way into the Eurozone, and unfortunately for the sake of the currency stability, the medicine is extremely unpalatable. Furthermore, Greece has been mismanaged for decades and got itself in serious debt not just because of the Euro or even EU. Again, there are unpalatable consequences. If you or I can’t pay our debts after renegotiating them numerous times, and we don’t improve our income, then we’ll have our assets possessed. The EU has helped them massively for a long time,… Read more »
It’s what it always comes down to with the fanatic culted Remainers: they are selfish creatures who are only really out for themselves. Shame that while you were off sucking up to the EU for 45 years they did sweet FA for the people of Britain you turned your back on.
Please explain the ESM for us all.
“I’m sorry to see a collective cognitive dissonance here” Yes, me too. I would answer your questions in detail but I too am short of time. Just to say that answers to all are not simple yes/no replies But let’s take the issue of EU roaming charges: The EU was first asked to abolish roaming charges by a global body, the International Telephone Users Group (“INTUG”) back in 1999. The EU delayed and delayed such that eventually INTUG approached another global body, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD involved a third global body, the International Telecommunications Union (“ITU”) which used the rules of a fourth, the World Trade Organisation, to ensure that by 2013 roaming charges were being abolished right across the world. The EU eventually fell into line. (credit Dr Richard North). The other three topics are equally complex with many of the rules and… Read more »
Well let’s ignore that the EU is probably the only free trade zone on the planet where mobile roaming charges are reduced / eliminated. That’s just a minor example. The other ones are stronger, and there’s far more.
Frank, all of your points don’t show a fluffy benevolent state, they show a power hungry state desperate to tie up society in regulations. Regulations you clearly support. Regulations that have seen massive suffering imposed across western Europe, and have now sparked massive protests that are only going to get bigger. The EU is the very definition of big brother, only its worst that just a dictatorship, its a corporate oligarchy where the corporations make the rule and those regulations you love so much work for the global multi-nationals and against local competition. The EU is the very definition of the fascism it arose from: and is fast returning to. You like it so much, go live there, because we aren’t having it here. You don’t get to debate much do you, trying weak lines like this. Are you seriously citing roaming mobile phone charges as a reason to Remain?… Read more »
Like a lot of people in Britain my head said stay in and reform from within my heart said leave! While Cameron made a huge mistake of not getting any kind of reform or help he set himself up for a fall. However, it was the arrogance of the institution and its disregard for peploes concerns that finally did it for me. e (the English, cut off the head of a monarch over the issue of “No taxation without representation” and then did the whole bloody thing all over again in the 13 Colonies! The Anglo-Saxon by nature want’s a say in the details of their lives. The EU is no longer a trade organisation it is an Empire building exercise for an illiberal elite based on Bismark’s Empire building ways. He used a single currency as his primary method of control and while Military power was important (Against Denmark… Read more »
One of the commenters on an article at theautomaticearth.com posted a response that is worth reading at length. It really summarizes perfectly what was wrong with the European project from the start–namely, the agenda behind it was so anti-European: https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/12/macron-heralds-the-end-of-the-union/#post-44265 Here’s a little excerpt: “With a land as great as Europe, why would you wish to become like the United States? For unlike the American founders, the European founders hated Europe: hated its smallness, the unique pockets and traditions, hated its diversity, hated its languages, its cultures, hated that it could no longer colonize Libya, Africa, and Syria, could no longer invade and lose to Russia every few generations. They spent all this 20 years erasing flags, borders, traditions, cultures, budgets — whole peoples, the fathers of Europe and Democracy. They hate everything that makes Europe great, everything that makes its own people love and defend it, and so, besides… Read more »
I’m more concerned about fasicsm than thou.
Female genital mutilation = fasicsm, murdering cartoonists = fascism, homophobia = fascism, mistrating apostates = fascism, desecrating 2,000 architectural gems = fasicsm etc etc etc.
Whichever organisation is responsible for these crimes is obvously a fascist organisation.
The western powers don’t waste time mutilating individual genitalia* when they possess the wherewithal and the desire to annihilate entire cities in which reside women, cartoonists, homosexuals and their families and acquaintances..with a few cluster bombs and some white phosphorous.
*most of the time
Islamophobia equals fascism. Oppression of the population of occupied Palestine equals fascism.
Islamophobia equals fascism…
Just for the sake of argument, Haltonbrat, let’s imagine you’re a white person. And again for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that you move with your family to a black African country, and you move in next door to a local black African family.
Shortly afterwards, your neighbours discover that you are teaching your 4-year old daughter and your 5-year old son that it is the literal truth that God hates black people so much that he’s going to burn their skins off in a fire, and then keep giving them new skins so he can burn them off as well.
Would you consider your new neighbours to be “fascists” if they took exception to your behaviour?
Ha ha hasbara.
.
Reminder. FAs$hhitt UKU$ DS – for many year – pi$$ing on and intimidating most European countries. Most if not all of Southern America will confirm.
To suggest it’s an EU ‘thing’ – naz$ti fasshism – with no mention of the usual suspects is gobsmackingly naive. imho.
Where have you been the last 100 years?
The DS offshore crooks don’t like the idea of EU basic human rights or any other human rights (it reduces their global profits.)
Surprise surprise DS shhitt on EU have a go at the EU.
(Obvs bog standard DS psyops durrhhhh!!)
Sláinte
.
I need dto add to my earlier comment. Most of those objecting here to the EU seem to be people not actually living in continental Europe and / or not fully understanding European history and the prime reasons why the EU was formed. It was NOT a neoliberal project at all, it’s aim was to have greater cooperation between neighbouring States and aim to prevent yet another devasting war on its continent. To do that required the REMOVAL of fascism. Try listening to what the right wingers and Brexiteers call the EU, they label it as the EUSSR, which is a reference to the communist Soviet state! Indeed, the EU can be validly accused of being a socialist cooperative endeavour, and I am entirely fine with such claims because they are correct. This article is “arse about face”, sorry Kit, brush up on your European history, I really like your… Read more »
… way off the mark…in terms of its conclusions.
“It was NOT a neoliberal project at all”
OK. It wasn’t intended to be a neoliberal project, that’s nice but hasn’t it turned into one?
It’s romantic to think of Europe was intended t be a socio-Heaven on Earth. But no such a thing would be allowed when Uncle Sam is still alive.
(It’s a mystery to see all the refugees were ‘directed’ to Europe when the logical place for them would be the countries that instigated the wars, the US, UK and Saudi Arabia + UAE)
The refugees and immigrants were directed at the EU because they are generally well meaning people who would like to help others. The fact is that they under-estimated the size of the problem, or where hoodwinked by Soros and his NGOs into keeping the doors open.
Hungary, Poland and one or two others, and finally Italy, have put a stop to this nonsense. Yes, these are EU countries who put a stop to it. Hungary has been the most vociforous in this respect, and guess what, it’s leaders still remain pro-EU despite the attempts by some quarters to sanction it.
In other words, the EU has its own internal politics, different wings, and this is also very visible in the elected European Parliament where Farage and others attend and debate openly and democratically vote.
The people of the EU might indeed be well-meaning, as are most educated people, but the problem is not the people, but their so-called representatives. Honest representation of us, yes, us, was hijacked long ago, and the people who lead most of the world’s countries today went into politics because of the good wages and the feeling of importance.
Heaven knows, it’s an old enough story to be pretty obvious to modern observers.
So, amongst all your other qualities, you’re anti refugees now too.
Is this a new wrinkle in the Grauniad script?
If you are replying to me, if you bothered to read all my other posts not relating to the EU, you’d see that I no longer support the Guardian and rarely visit it. Being called a troll and Guardian supporter by you is laughable, to put it mildly.
Whatever the aim of its creation, the EU is now just another IMF-controlled block. The idea it offers some sort of resistance to NATO and the US is absurd. Obama was in the UK during 2016 begging voters to vote Remain, because the EU and NATO are just representations of the same set of narrow interests under different names. Not that Brexit is a solution. Anyone who thinks that is similarly deluded.
Admin – Obama was for Remain, Trump and his mob are for Brexit and weakening the EU. Your comment proves nothing in relation to the EU’s ability to distance itself from the US or NATO. President Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of Nato’s integrated military command in 1966, saying it undermined France’s sovereignty. It did not rejoin until 2009 under neoliberal Sarkozy. I would suggest that Macron has made it very clear that he sees the US as a potential threat, and I believe it could leave NATO again, this time even taking with it the rest of the EU members who are increasingly anti-US/Trump. Since Macron made his views clear and proposed an EU Army the protests have waged against him, surely orchestrated by US funded “NGOs” in order to have Macron removed. This mantra that the EU is a neoliberal project, turning into a fascist state, glued… Read more »
Fascism is not solely a right-wing phenomena. Surely you understand that much?
Increasingly, it is appears to also be a centrist phenomena
Facism is right wing. It’s a collusion between politicians and corporations, surely not left wing.
You are probably refering to totalitarianism which can be of the left, by fascists, or of the left, by Bolsheviks etc.
Oops typo error. Totalitarianism can be of the right via fascists or Nazis, or of the left via Bolsheviks, Communists, etc.
Dear, oh dear.
Dear oh dear.
There’s always one isn’t there? Christ on a bike.
Yes, there’s always an independent thinker, you’re correct. I try and avoid being taken in by ultra right and ultra left propaganda.
I wasn’t referring to you, troll.
The European Army was brought into being by the Lisbon Treaty of 2007. The main question however should be why would a mostly single land mass trading block need any form of unified military? NATO has kept the relative peace in Europe for the best part of 70 years partly due to the USA’s involvement. Trump highlighted the fact most countries fail to meet the 2% spending expectation. The USA spending is closer to 4% of GDP, which is good for their economy, which may well be why both the French and German Gov’ts are keen on this. The other main issue here is that there is already an international Gendarmerie force because turning troops on civilians could be seen as politically toxic but better trained ‘super police’ would be acceptable.
“Obama was in the UK during 2016 begging voters to vote Remain…”
To be more accurate, Obama was in the UK in 2016 grandly ordering voters to vote Remain, under the threat that we would be at the back of the queue for any kind of trade agreement with the USA if we didn’t do as we were told.
The arrogant prick seemed to have forgotten that as of November 2016 he wasn’t going to be POTUS any more. Or perhaps, like all the other bien-pensants, he simply assumed that the anointing would take place as planned, and then everything else would continue as planned…
In today’s news, opposition politicians in France, such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, called for “citizen’s revolution” to continue until a fair distribution of wealth is achieved.
Marine Le Pen president of the National Rally (previously National Front) is accusing the French president’s model of governance is based on “wild globalization, financialization of the economy, unfair competition”
Controlled mass media in Western countries are not explaining why Yellow Jackets are in high-gear protests. They are afraid of giving ideas to the dormant sheeple –the herd of people easily controlled by government propaganda.
It’s not a question of what it’s “supposed to be”, but about what it is inevitably becoming as a result of trying to represent dozens of different countries. That can never be democracy in any meaningful way.
Yeah why not dismantle all the geolocal bodies across the planet, hell start with the UN – that is xtremely disfunctional and a total tool of the wankers.
The fewer collaborations the better – easier to send our nato gunboats to protect them.
You’re comparing the EU with the UN???
Even the loonies at CIF don’t go that far.
ECHR?
The EU did more for the industrial wastelands of the North and Wales and Ireland than the UN could.
Indeed. As I wrote earlier, there’s way too much simplistic, binary thinking concerning the EU, especially from those who have no direct experience of it.
Speaking frankly about history; you must have read, therefore the three documents I post here for your perusal:- >http://www.bilderberg.org/EW G.pdfhttps://www.denouncethedeception.co.uk/documents/2017/07/shoe-horned-into-the-eu-original.pdfhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDc7nzmffSY<
I agree with Frankly, the EU is a good man gone wrong. It is more criminal than Fascist. The first sign of this slide toward criminality (that I noted) was the revelation of a case of nepotism when Kinnock was selected. Instead of firing the malefactors, Kinnock reprimanded the _whistleblowers! It’s been downhill ever since. But I believe the original intentions and deeds of the EU were good, and the way is always open for sinners to repent.
A EU imitation of the US would require a replication of the Civil War that brought together ( violently ) into the USA we know today. Cast your mind back to the two World wars in Europe and those alone were the reason for setting up the European Union. Put starkly it was to contain German power and invaded France clings the most to that experience. The problem for the EU is that it is still dominated economically by Germany with its economic surplus. Germany therefore is the arbiter of where and when the theoretical surplus is re-distributed to the other EU nations. The EU Central bank is run mainly by Germany. The Gilet – Jaunes – the Brexit voters in the UK and many many more throughout Europe are protesting against austerity. That is that trickle down economics has not trickled down to them. The Financial Crash has eventually… Read more »
Spot on.
Remember when the EU forced Ireland to have several votes until it got what it wanted and throttled the Irish economy to get its own way and now Ireland has a ridiculous homeless situation?! Probably not! We will find you you know
Stop threatening people.
Ireland was wrong to pay off the non-seured loans, it shoud have defaulted. That said, the Irish economy is now recovering well, powering ahead, and will benefit from Brexit as non-EU businesses relocated to Dublin and other parts of Ireland, principally because it is still in the EU and English is the first language.
The EU was born out of Nazi Germany, and was structured to give Germany supremacy (=why Britain lost its steel and coal) how can you not know this and claim to know the history of the EU? Pulled the wool well and truly over your eyes Frank.
I think the European army is as far away as ever. It was only ever France and Germany that wanted an EU army, can anyone seriously see a unanimous vote by the 27 to cede sovereignty on defence? Say they did all agree to have an army, how would they fund it with their fixed budgets? Germany and France could afford it but for the rest it might well be the straw that broke the camel’s back. This is hot air being blown at Trump imo.
would you ike to explain the anglo-french treat and organisation because nobody has talked about it in parliament – yet the tories have it as a going concern – totally undemocratic of course
“Russia ‘paved way for Ukraine ship seizures with fake news drive” In the era of Bumper Sticker News this headline from the Guardian is classic. It completely conflates three memes about Russia Russia = bad; fake news = bad,bad; Russia + fake news + paving [the] way = bad, bad, bad!!! Kit is right there is something rotten in all this and the French who have a good nose for this shit have taken to the streets with 80% of the popular opinion. The Globalist Cabal is rattled and are flexing their deep state dark arts to threaten all who are not in the club. Russia capitalists, not in the club. Chinese capitalists not in the club and of course Workers of the World, not in the club. In other words those who are not part of the Globalist Cabal are not – in – the club. I think George… Read more »
Tutti, “somewhere in the Ukraine” the EU$A’s Jewish led Nazis are planning a 911 type False Flag, according to today’s Saker. To which the Leader of the intended victims reply=ies:
“Strangely enough, I urge the Ukrainian police to increase vigilance and try to prevent the terrorist acts planned by SBU. Remember, you do not serve the criminals who came to power as a result of a coup, you serve the people ”
The same message ought to be sent to our own police.
Khochoggi was punished for his dissent, and before him Qaddafi, and before him Hussein, and before him.. . n(1) …n(infinity).. no body came to his (their) defense.. its not just Europe, its a universal human problem. The deep state(military industrial state, bankers, brokers, and foreign interests highly coordinated by the interstate connected intelligence services) uses the governments and military of the USA, UK, Canada, France, Saudi Arabia, Australia, in actions designed to deny the governed rights to self determination, independence and democracy, Gaza Settlement minded investors have Israel denying its domestics and killing off the Palestinians in occupied Gaza, its Saudi vs the people in oil rich Saudi, where dissenters are executed as in Egypt. .. In Yemen a third party foreign government kills off domestic dissenters, in Iraq a foreign government dictates against the will of the majority empowered leaders, in Afghanistan the same, and in South Africa the… Read more »
I don’t even think their aim is to disfranchise the masses.
That’s just collateral damage from their aim to see how wealthy a human being can become by controlling everything.
George Carlin…please
Theme itself is interesting, but the article seems to me a little bit raw, insufficient, incomplete. Seeing the title of the article, I expected to read something serious, “more tangible” about the signs of rehabilitation of the once forbidden ideology. But the author of the article, in fact, mentions only the vague intention of some EU members to create the “United European Army”, as well as the growing censorship of the European (I would say Western, in general) media. To call this “a signs of Fascism”? I think that’s too much. There are undoubtedly signs of a revival of a dangerous ideology (Fascism/Nazism) in the Western World, they are much more obvious and serious (than what’s mentioned in the article), but the author of the article hardly mentions them, so the text seems raw and “lean”. Mean, not enough actual material. Regarding the “United European Army”, I would rather consider… Read more »
I believr this is the orogin of the EU symboled armoured car tale.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/747052/gilet-jaunes-paris-eu-flag-vehicles-riots-yellow-vests-protests
what would you call it – havinalarff maybe?
“How long before disapproval and punishment of certain leaders turns into outright removal? Can we really say that would never happen?”
Suggestion: if you must opine on a topic, please have the faintest familiarity with the facts. The rhetorical question above was answered in 2011 with the appointment of Mario Monti as Italian Prime Minister to lead a technocratic government. A similar procedure was followed in Greece. Both moves form a bedrock for leftist opposition to the EU.
“Suggestion: if you must opine on a topic, please have the faintest familiarity with the facts…”
What are the “facts” about things that might happen in the future, and how do you become “faintly familiar” with them?
The 2016 Referendum was our one and only chance to get out of this corrupt, arrogant, remote, anti democratic, loathsome organisation. Luckily, and almost unbelievably, the people grabbed it with both hands. If this opportunity to get out is lost or betrayed, we will not get another. We will go down with the sinking ship of the EU. The EU is disintegrating before our eyes – France, Greece, Spain, Italy, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Hungary. It was terminally damaged by the Euro fiasco. Like the Bourbons, Brussels has learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. Its reaction to a succession of disasters is to double down as if nothing has happened with a European Superstate and an EU army.
Parliament unLawfully passed the EEC act. The “queen” abrogated her coronation oath, (becoming a mere suzerain). The government of the day used falsehoods to sway the people to achieve their ends. Maxim of Law, — “falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus”. ie , that from 1972 on all matters relating to EU and Parliament are void and can be undone. On the peoples side there is also “Article 61 of Magna Carta 1215′, (AKA lawful rebellion), Lawfully invoked the 23rd March 2001. Parliament can’t touch that one, The treaty was signed some 50+ years before Parliament was established. Ps. edit button urgently required
Kit – it is understandable that one can’t be at the top of ones game every match. Please take it at as constructive criticism if I suggest that this article seems to be suffering from tabloidish hyperbole? You have deployed multiple ‘?’s’ A few too many? The sight of a bit of claret on the French avenues always raises the terrors a bit. Having checked as many sites as i can – it seems one vehicle was seen with a euro stars marking. I’m sure if there is one there are more? Anyway conflating that with a fascist EU army rolling into whitehall through the Chunnel is a bit of a leap. A little light research gives you the evil masterplan in all its diabolical EU technocratic ubiquity. https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-founded-as-project-of-peace-debates-a-militarized-future-nato-european-defense-fund-russia/ They call it PESCO it has been long planned. https://cdn5-eeas.fpfis.tech.ec.europa.eu/cdn/farfuture/wM5QZfoVgVbC4zSzD-u–4o8E9TqYoThT3aNfAC6TQA/mtime:1542983709/sites/eeas/files/pesco_factsheet_november_2018_en_0.pdf ‘PESCO is a Treaty-based framework and process to deepen defence cooperation… Read more »
“The UK is not part of it” ???????
ukcolumn.org have been pointing out for ages that our armed forces are being quietly, indeed covertly, merged with French forces.
Use the search box.
John Doran.
JD. Feel free to point me to the EU document on PESCO, where the UK is part of any of their 17 published projects or wll be post-brexit. Also the sections where a ‘EU force’ can be deployed in civil unrest in a EU country? The above document makes it clear it is ‘international’, not domestic, although there is something about ‘disasters’. While you are at it can you let me know how many armoured vehicles with EU flags were actually deployed, who manned them and which organisation was in charge of them. I don’t approve of the EU totally, what they didn’t do in the Catalan oppression of a regional vote, showed their corporate elitist faction in control. But like the baby and the bathwater conundrum, we must be careful about chucking the whole lot out. Like some great man said the EU is 7/10 good – we need… Read more »
From my perspective, the EU is a Corporatist Fascist state run on the US lobbying system & fully dedicated to the Bankster Globalist plans, via Austerity, to tax us back to serfdom, while the 1%s multibillionaires hoover up ever greater riches. I’ll not go looking for documents when I can see what’s happening before my eyes: I see Brit troops exercising with EU insignia on their uniforms in Bosnia; I see Greece raped by Goldman Sachs & German & Dutch banks, pensions halved & benefits shredded; I see EU complicity in installing a bunch of Nazi thugs after the US led coup in Ukraine; I see Italy on the point of bankruptcy, with Spain & Ireland not far behind; I see dreadful rates (25%) of youth unemployment across southern Europe & ze commissars are thirsting for an EU army!!!!! For me, the EU is 0/10. In fact it’s in deficit,… Read more »
control the narrative
Over the entire weekend, our beloved Guardian had the most space for one news item reserved to tell the world that “Trump is incompetent” and “Trump is the biggest liar”.
The fourth weekend of the Yellow Jackets protest escalation, making Paris a war zone, was given the smallest possible space on the main page and was pushed way below the headlines, after opinion, after Spotlight and after Sports.
The BBC is showing their true colours with an explainer “Who are the Yellow Jackets?”, where they focus on violent protesters. They are not only protesters but have had prior convictions’, i.e protesters are already ‘bad’!
To balance their reporting, they indicated they found one butcher and one student among the protesters!
Interesting to see what you say about the BBC’s representation of the “Yellow Jackets”. When I was watching the live transmission of the demonstration on RT a few days ago what struck me immediately was how many of the peaceful but demonstrative “Yellow Jackets” were middle aged and respectable looking men and women – not what you would automatically consider to be active anti-Government demonstrators and certainly not trouble seeking activists. I actually thought to myself that it would be difficult for the MSM to portray the protests simply as the actions of ‘trouble makers’ but clearly they have tried to do just that.
“Over the entire weekend, our beloved Guardian had the most space for one news item reserved to tell the world that “Trump is incompetent” and “Trump is the biggest liar”.”
And today it is his shocking spelling. He had the temerity and manifest ignorance to misspell the word “smoking”. How very dare he.
Is the western world safe with someone who makes such shocking and easily corrected spelling mistakes in his already awful tweets, is what the Graun seems to be asking us today. It was a leader this morning. Still, I expect it makes all of those members of the #resistance feel warm and fuzzily superior whilst slogging their way to work for a pittance in a shit job with no carrer prospects and job satisfaction whatsoever… But Trump’s an idiot, so it’s all fine.
Carry on.
It actually makes me feel sick.
The ultimate authority/force is fascism.
The ultimate aphrodisiac is corporate fascism.
Old rich men (in the main) who can’t get it up.
Pathetic isn’t it?
Just like Obama, Macron came from nowhere and stole the elections with ‘style’ and ‘hope’.
Europe Defence Force is here.
The yellow jackets, or les Gilets Jaunes, are the European Army, as they are the only ones who are taking actions to defend Europeans against rampant neoliberalism and against selling Europe to the rich and Big Corporations.
Until today I had never heard of the ‘progressive’ Euston Manifesto.
I would ask anyone here to find if there is anything in that manifesto that the Project for a New American Century or the Neoconservatives would either disagree with or not sign up to?
http://eustonmanifesto.org/the-euston-manifesto/
How is it a philosophy of the left when it dovetails so neatly with the PNAC?
*sighs* what is this false populism that implies an imperialist doctrine is somehow working class if it is formulated in a station such as Euston?
It came out around the time of Iraq and is full of Hitchens C groupies.
It’s funny how brother Peter – and Peter Oborne – now write for The Mail the kind of articles The Guardian carried before they were taken over by neocons.
EU Military Unification is a long term elite European project. The precedent was written into the Maastricht Treaty. A ‘Common Security and Defense Policy’ has been the goal of the EEC (EU) since then. Whilst I am pleased that we are starting to talk of an “EU Army”, I can’t pretend that I am not a little frustrated too. The warning signs of EU fascism have been apparent for years (pre-Brexit) …for those who want to see them. The one source of information has been and is the UK Column. The deal, the whole deal, and nothing but the deal, as David Ellis might say, the only Brexit (without the exit) deal has been EU Military Unification (see his public emergency briefing on link page). In August, British troops deployed on exercise in Bosnia resplendent with EU insignia. Preceding the Gilet Jaune protests by some months. To complement its incipient… Read more »
Its hard to see a good option either in or outside the EU.
Brexit essentially hands the last vestiges of UK sovereignty to Trump or Hillary, with the NHS disappearing as quickly you can say Kaiser Permanente, and wars with Eurasia becoming a near permenant state of affairs, while ‘remain’ sees the loss of meaningful democracy to a remote, undemocratic federal supra-state.
I’ve somehow persuaded myself that Remain might be the lesser of the 2 evils, in part because I find the swivel-eyed zealotry of Brexit advocates like Priti Patel, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and the eternally shifty Liam Fox utterly terrifying.
Our glorious leaders are determined to dismantle the NHS anyway. They have already gone a long way towards achieving that. But that, and everything else that goes wrong for the next 20 years, will be blamed on Brexit. It’s almost as good an all purpose scapegoat as “Russian Bots.”
OUT & break up the Globalists’ One World Fascist Govt project, which is largely a Wall St. & City of London Bankster project.
John Doran.
Everyone should read this new article – Sad Radicals by Conor Barnes
https://quillette.com/2018/12/11/sad-radicals/#comment-52250
Unfortunately he has come through ‘progressive’ hell, but is still yet to see the issues with Neoliberalism.
Go and watch David Owen on the subject. Plenty of fine speeches on Youtube.
Center left Europhile who realised it was time to leave. Very persuasive arguments that have little to do with the folk who give Brexit a bad name. Highly informative, and coming from someone who was a long time believer.
Sorry Kit Knightly, I like your other articles, but this is just a mish-mash of jumbled up nonsense, falsehoods, half-truths, but to your credit contains one or two truths. Let’s stand back for one moment… There is one main force which objects to the EU and would like to see it destroyed because it has grown to be an economic and financial competitor; the Neoliberal and Neoconservative factions of the USA. They have steadily worked to destroy the EU as other countries such as Iraq and Libya and others have looked to using the Euro rather than the Dollar. The neoliberals and neocons hate it’s social provisions and safety nets, workers rights, environmental laws, data protection laws, competition and anti-monopoly laws, and so much more. The EU have fined Micorsoft, Google, and many others. These extremists want the UK to leave the EU, also Poland to leave, and a few… Read more »
OG, please give us an edit function!
We’re working on it !
No one is a ‘Trumpist’. Trump is just an opportunist US Oligarch who realized that no political party was interested in representing the people anymore so he turned up and falsely suggested he would and the US voters bought into it. The EU is a bastion of a totalitarian Neoliberal progressive ‘values’ *laughs uncontrollably* and its a club you can never leave if you’re prepared to believe projects fear and smear. Your choice but some of us see through the bull.
Oh please. The EU fits US imperial aims and is, of itself, a neoliberal institution.
Talk about disinformation.
Sorry but you simply cannot assign this to Kit’s article: “…this is just a mish-mash of jumbled up nonsense, falsehoods, half-truths…” and then expect the remainder of your comment to be taken seriously. Anti-monopoly? OK, what about the monopoly of technocratic power that the EU and ECB are amassing for themselves across Europe over the lives of 500 million people? Originally the populace was ‘told’ that the project was an Economic Community, yet within 20 years it had evolved into a gigantic political entity with ambitions to become a super state, with the broader aim of superseding national governmental power/sovereignty altogether. The single currency has been a disaster across large parts of Europe’s south, the rampant price inflation brought about by a singular monetary policy for a wide range of economic needs has failed. Next they are driving towards fiscal control, which will result in the EU having all the… Read more »
“Going off the media in the UK it would appear that the vast majority are pro-Brexit, just as it did before the EU referendum (the original People’s Vote)!”
I meant: “…are pro-EU”
Woops!
I’ve been pushing the same points for the last 2.5 years, it was how I got banned from the Guardian, for asking the questions no one would answer.
“Originally the populace was ‘told’ that the project was an Economic Community, yet within 20 years it had evolved into a gigantic political entity with ambitions to become a super state” The EU can only do whatever the Member States allow it to. As for your point about the Euro, I already said that it does not work for some States. A solution will need to be found, and they are entirely free to leave the Euro if they wish and revert to the Drachma, Lira, etc. None have chosen this path yet because they know that despite the issues with the Euro their economies and people’s savings will be massively hit if they leave, however the choice remains. Not all Member States want a Super State. There is already a 2 speed EU divided by those in the Eurozone and those outside of it. A Super State is not… Read more »
The EUSS was a CIA (USUK Bankster Deep State) project from the start.
Ambrose Evans Pritchard revealed this in The Telegraph long ago.
He researched post WWII documents.
You should find, read & absorb his article. Learn the true nature of The Beast.
John Doran.
“The EU can only do whatever the Member States allow it to.” Speak to those who voted in the referendum to join the EEC in the 1970’s and nobody will tell you that it was for a political union. Ted Heath and co lied to the British public then as we are being lied to now. “Most of those objecting to the EU seem to those not actually living in continental Europe and / or not fully understanding European history and the reason why the EU was formed…” What difference does it make? There are tens of millions of continental Europeans who are against the EU creeping into every facet of their lives. If democracy is the answer then why not have an EU wide referendum in every member state to decide once and for all if the people of Europe want to be governed by a tiny elite in… Read more »
frankly speaking you talk bullshit
Hell of a of a choice isn’t it?
The eternal EU jackboot or Britain’s 1,000 year neoliberal reich, probably led by Priti ‘potato famine’ Patel or Jacob ‘will no-one of the bankers’ Rees-Mogg.
No doubt Esther McVey is preparing an Anschluß even as we speak.
What we’re seeing now is the power interests that have always been behind the EU taking off their masks – because they see their beloved “super-state” project falling apart before it has been completed. The Atlanticist “United States of Europe” (Churchill’s designation)/Monnet’s “European super-state” was meant to be put in place without ‘the people’ realising what was going on – until it was too late, of course. There were signs of unrest, especially after the appalling treatment of Greece and Catalunya, but the unexpected ‘Leave’ vote really put the cat among the pigeons and, as it would seem, pushed the so-called ‘elites’ to speed up that part of the plan that could still allow them to keep the plebs under control: the EU military alliance and, among much else, its merging of police and army as the primary backstop to suppress dissent. Thanks to the French, there’s a good chance… Read more »
“People need to wake up and be prepared to ‘walk out’/down tools/block roads before it’s too late …”
Indeed. If the worst comes to the worst as I fear it will then a general strike. But not only a general strike but also a consumer strike to double the effectiveness of the labour strike.
Of course if the same extent of both the French protests themselves – and the French government’s violent response to them – were instead taking place in ANY of the U.S. & Western empires sworn targets for regime change, i.e. Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Nicaragua, etc. – Western MSM, pundits and the Western “human rights” organizations would all be clamoring to implement a “no-fly zone” and engage in another “humanitarian intervention” as soon as possible as our solemn duty to protect “innocent civilians.” We now apparently live in an “irony-free” world in the West where such an observation is essentially incomprehensible to the majorities of the populations. If anyone in Europe is watching the (Russiagate “and all things Trump” mania), here in the U.S. and thinks the Democratic “resistance” is some kind of sane alternative to the Orange One, let me be the first to unceremoniously burst your bubble. The latest… Read more »
Excellent stuff Kit
Meanwhile there was a very good article by Tim Morgan recently situating the French demos in their economic contexts.
Well worth a read.
https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/140-are-yellow-jackets-the-new-fashion/
The EU is finished, kaput a dead parrot. Any observable movement is just rigor mortis. And good bloody job.
I wish.
JD.
Whilst I am waiting for my comment to be moderated I just want to say thanks for another great article, Kit.
I used to date someone who worked for Bertelsmann in Germany. This is typical of the type of publications that they publish, chiefly encouraging an EU army, which has been referred to as the European Rapid Reaction Force over the years. “Enhancing the European Union as an International Security Actor: A Strategy for Action” (now out of print) https://www.amazon.com/Enhancing-European-Union-International-Security/dp/3892045089 and “Why the World needs a Strong Europe…and Europe needs to be Strong.” https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/fileadmin/files/BSt/Presse/imported/downloads/xcms_bst_dms_16119_16120_2.pdf Bertelsmann rose to prominence during the Third Reich (surprise, surprise) although it had been in operation beforehand. Bertelsmann even attempted to whitewash the findings of its own research into its role during this period. It is now one of the largest media conglomerates in Europe, with tentacles stretching across politics, lobbying, propaganda, etc. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/truth-comes-bertelsmann-admits-nazi-past/160317 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1040604506118389713 It does not surprise me that it is once again giving full support to pan-European fascism. The Brexit Betrayal is under way… Read more »
Why is it that when one lifts the stone of anti-EU commentary (right or wrong) one always finds the old bogeyman of GERMAN villainy? Has no one observed the clear parallels between today’s inane, warmongering Russophobic propaganda and the massive campaigns of anti-German propaganda that helped to whip up two world wars? Why is it always the terms ‘Nazis’ and ‘Nazism’ that always serves as the ultimate benchmark of ‘evil’. NB it was Hitler who foresaw that if Germany were defeated Europe would become a weak and squabbling talking shop under the heel of the U.S.empire – responsible, together with the British empire, for countless more wars and deaths than Germany ever was.
Indeed. Not well known is that International Banksters founded, funded & fostered both Nazism & Communism. Summer 1917, in the middle of WWI, a gaggle of Banksters from ALL warring nations met in neutral Sweden to determine the funding of Lenin & Trotsky to overthrow the Russian Czar. It was agreed that Kuhn-Loeb of New York would place $50,000,000 to the credit of Lenin & Trotsky in the Bank of Sweden. Expensive projects, revolutions. Trotsky was detained by Canada in Nova Scotia. A word from the Banksters & he & his gang of revolutionary gangsters were released & given safe conduct through the Brit Blockade Zone. Lenin, meanwhile, was transported from Switzerland to Petrograd, with the aid of the German High Command. Lenin & his gang were provided a private railway carriage for their journey across Germany. Excerpts from Chapter 9, Political Intrigue, pages 107-108 from William Guy Carr’s book:… Read more »
Hi Peter, sorry if my comment came across in that way. I lived in Germany for 11 years and do not have an anti-German bone in my body. If there was a country in the world where I would live the rest of my life it would be there. I am not someone who draws a line between Germany and the Nazi’s, so I apologise that it came out the way it did.
After reading Kits article I was just reminded of some literature I read about 15 years ago published by Bertelsmann where they went into great detail – statistical – about the composition of an EU army (then called Rapid Reaction Force), which is relevant to the article here.
“One suggested punishment – “The Nuclear Option” – is a loss of voting rights. Hungary would still be a member of the EU, would still have to pay into the EU, would still have to obey all EU laws and regulations, but would no longer have a say in what those laws were.”
Isn’t this also a perfect description of the “deal” that Theresa May has “negotiated” with the EU?
Welcome to the Hotel California AKA The EU !