La neo-liberal plan for job regained its autonomy concerning its evaluation of EU policy. The starting point is a rejection of the Maastricht criteria and the Madrid scenario. Let there be no doubt: the workers movement (national and European trade union leaders, political leaders of social democratic parties, the worker wing of Christian Democracy) could stop the neo-liberal offensive now, if they wanted to. Belgian Euro-MP Raymonde Dury argues that we could "provoke a crisis just before the start of negotiations. This would put the governments up against the wall." 9 A crisis at the summit of the EU is the lesser of two evils for the workers movement. It would mean the end to the current project of capital. A project which millions of working men and women have already expressed their opposition to in the streets these recent months. Provoking a crisis is not a programmatic response. But it would enable us to re-launch a debate that has been stifled these last ten years. * creation. In any case, the More subtle repression for Spain's European Council is free to take all the social decisions it likes, not necessarily opponents of military service taking into account the 'rules of social Europe. Only a change in the social and political balance of forces will force these gentlemen to change their minds.
• Monetary union
The single currency of the Maastricht Treaty, and the monetary union of all the social democratic dreamers will not see the day. But the reactionary policies which are supposed to create the conditions for the single currency will continue to be applied This is the only concrete conclusion of the Madrid summit. It is the only thing all the member states' governments agree about.
• EU loosing popularity
Resistance is begining. The EU is loosing the popular sympathy it once enjoyed. The more the social movements dominate the foreground of European politics, the more space there is for the development and articulation of an European left, social alternative.
It is high time the workers movement notes 1. Green Book on the transition to the single currency (May 1995), European Union (p.4 in the French version). 2. Armand Denis Scor, La monnaie unique, PUF, Que saisje? 1995, pp. 11-36/ 3. Bank of England study, cited in Oliver Piot, Finance et économie - la fracture, Marbout, 1995, p. 11 4. The Economist, 9 December 1995, p.20 5. Economic Profiles of the European Union (in Dutch), Weekberichten-Kredietbank, vol. 50, #32, 24 November 1995. 6. Instituted in 1979, replacing the currency "snake." EMS participants are obliged to keep their exchange rate within a narrow pre-arranged band in relationship to the ECU, and therefore the other European currencies. 7. The OECD recently published rosy predictions, on the basis of which the European Commission announced the virtual success of a core consisting of Germany, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Denmark and Luxembourg. Belgium was presented as "within 0.5%" of convergence. Such optimistic predictions are contradicted by the most recent reports of France's INSEE, a number of German banks, Chancellor Helmut Kohl himself, and the Belgian Employers' Federation (FEB). 8. Daniel Lenoir, L'Europe sociale, La Découverte, 1994. Bruno Mauliulo, L'Europe sociale, Nathan, 1991. E. VogelPolsky, "Maastricht ou la voie étroite du social", in Marco Telo (ed.) Quelle union sociale? ULB, 1994, pp.91-92. 9. Le Soir (Brussels daily) 8 December 1995 16 International Viewpoint February 1996
YOUNG SPANIARDS, BASQUES AND CATALANS who refuse military service will face a wider range of penalties when Spain's new Penal
Code comes into effect in May. The aim of the new legislation is to separate political opponents of militarism from the mainly religious conscientious objectors, in order to allow more effective repression of the more radical.
Starting in May, there will be categories of two main offender.
Those who are recognised as conscientious objectors, but refuse to complete the (civil) Substitute for Military Service (PSS) face
8-10 years suspension of civic rights, a heavy fine, or (in case of refusal to pay) one days imprisonment or community service for every two days alternative service refused
Those who refuse military service and are not considered to be conscientious objectors will receive | 6-24 months prison and
10-14 years suspension of civic rights.
The heavier treatment for the second group is the result of pressure from the
Ministry of Defence. They consider this insumisión total as more dangerous for the state than the "selfish" behaviour of those who ask the state to recognise them as conscientious objectors, but refuse to carry out PSS service in a hospital or town hall.
The reform aims to break the links of cooperation and solidarity between the population and the antı-militarists. Inese links were generated, in large part, by the visible harsh treatment of all insumisos (oi whom there are over 300 in Spanish jails).
The new law will create a situation where
"only" insumisos who have a criminal record will go to prison. By bringing the minimum sentence down to two years, the law enables judges to give suspended sentences to any insumisos and conscientious objectors without prior convictions. This also reflects the unhappiness of many judges with the current obligation to incarcerate, and the stiff minimum sentence of two years, four months and one day imprisonment.
But it would be a mistake to see the reform as a softening of the law. The new penalty reinforces punishment, and (they hope) the deterrent effect, by instituting a punishment of 8-14 years loss of civil rights (inhabilitación absoluta). This is defined as "impossibility to carry out any employment or role in the service of any [state] administration, public entity, nationalised enterprise, or
Autonomous [regional] organ, or to receive any grant, pension or aid of any kind".
"Some political-judicial circles have started calling this loss of civil liberties a 'civil death, writes
Santi Alminyana in El Viejo
Topo. "'Civil assassination' would be a better name for it.
Those affected will be barred from an important part of the labour market, and from all public aid." Unemployment in
Spain is an estimated 22%.
For those under
25, unemployment is higher than
40%.
"The aim is to stop any dynamic of solidarity generated by any kind of conduct which opposes the political hegemony"
argues Alminyana. "And to isolate and repress those concerned in a more subtle way. The visible, massive imprisonment of insumisos provoked more social response than this supposedly democratic regime could support. Hence the reform. The regime knows that you can punish firmly and yet democratically, as long as the repression is not visible.
"They have no intention of accepting an open debate, in which the population could participate in the taking of important decisions such as Who or what are we detending ourselves against!, How should we defend ourselves?' This is the type of debate which we provoke with the civil disobedience called insumisión." *
Source: El Viejo Topo, January 1996