BRITISH CAPITALISM

FOR THE third time in ten years, entry into the Common Market, or European Economic Community, has become a major issue in British politics.

Both the Tory and Labour leaderships are declared supporters of entry but there are divisions within each With so much at stake for the future of British capitalism, it is not surprising that there should be deep divisions within the ruling class and that they should be reflected in the labour and trade union bureaucracy.

This led to some strange alliances in 1961-1962 and no doubt will again. Further shifts in position can also be expected since the decision of Enoch Powell to ride in on the widespread concern at what entry into the Common Market would mean for food prices and the cost of living.

The lengthy editorial in "The Times' on September 6 strongly supporting an application is an index of the seriousness of the bid which is now going to be made.

It represents the policy of major sections of British capital which hope thereby to find a solution to otherwise insurmountable financial and economic problems. came even more sharply defined within the new organizations. problems The gatherings of the Common Market countries, far from taking place in an atmosphere of co-operation and goodwill, have witnessed some of the hardest bargaining for short-term national interests ever seen in the annals of European diplomacy.

At the end of last year the odious Herr Franz Josef Strauss, West German Finance Minister, who should know, expressed himself frankly on the subject. optimism the wrote aural 'Were natural not be talking about Europe at all any longer, for all we can see in Europe today is a melancholy our own helplessness, of our hopeless political impotence.' his Condon Market painerot 'Their European policies sometimes look like an endless succession of diplomatic manoeuvres, mutual blocking tactics, deceit and haggling percentages and agricultural contributions.' There is a tendency to blame the present strained relations within the Six and the lack of progress towards economic integration as laid down in the Treaty of Rome upon the nationalist intransigence of General de Gaulle.

The implication is that now GENITAIN ! SWiDEN The British government used this against the French to win support with the Germans and others to strengthen their future bid for entry.

But if the former French president had no scruples about going behind the backs of his 'allies' , and the British disclosures were made as part of a diplomatic manoeuvre, Strauss and his colleagues have employed the same methods.

Strauss came to London with proposals for political and military. co-operation which would have had the effect of diminishing French influence in Europe and preparing the return of Germany to a greater political role.

Again London would not play ball, for its own reasons.

Each government-at least those of Britain, France and Germany-considers the quesion ot European unity purely rom a national point of vien and tries to line up the smaller countries on its side.

The old struggle for hegemony thus goes on in a new form within the EEC and in relation to Britain's role. No one country is in a position to dominate without support from one of the other big three in Europe.

Under de Gaulle, France was able to play a political role which greatly exceeded her relative economic power.

Since the spring of 1968 this position has changed and the departure of de Gaulle only gives formal expression to the sharp deterioration in her financial and economic position which has taken place.

The struggle for hegemony In fact in the Six France now plays the role of the sick man supported by an ailing Italy and a scarcely healthy Belgium, with only Federal Germany apparently vigorous.

Some accounts of the ComNORRAY W.GERMANY FRANCE: NATRZA SMTZI Margaret McKay, MP for Clapham, about Jewish MPs. Mrs McKay was on a four-week tour of the United States, during which she addressed a meeting held in New York by a body called the Inter-Faith Committee for Middle East Peace and Development' She was reported to have said at this meeting that 'with 62 Jewish Labour MPs in the Commons it was impossible for the government to be anything but pro-Israel in its policy'.

Protests

Mrs McKay is a member of the Anglo-Jordanian Parliamentary Alliance. Her alleged remarks brought protests from Jewish MPs and organizations. It was pointed out that only 37 MPs were Jewish.

On September 18, Mrs McKay flew back into London and told reporters that she was 'flabbergasted' to hear of the way she had been reported.

She said that she had spoken "Their European policies sometimes look like an endless succession of diplomatic manoeuvres, mutual blocking tactics, deceit and haggling on percentages and agricultural contributions' HERR FRANZ JOSEF STRAUSS, West German finance minister. mon Market focus attention national framework. on the growth in industrial production and trade with Common Market policies which the member countries play little part in national polihave been favoured in recent tics except in evoking oppoyears.

It is true that there has been significant growth and that this has been particularly disquieting for the British capitalists in view of their intensified eccnomic problems.

But the world background of growing economic crisis has had direct effects in Europe.

The failure of the EEC, despite the formal ending of tariffs between member countries on July 1, 1968, to make a real move towards economic integration is part of this crisis.

The repeated money panics, the balance of payments prolems of the USA, Britain and France, fear of industrial recession and agricultural overproduction, have intensified the competitive struggle within EEC and between member countries and others.

Even the firmest EEC supporters admit that it is, as yet, little more than a customs union.

There is no sign that practical steps are being taken to unify the banking and monetary system or to harmonize overall economic policies.

Co-operation in science, technology, social services and other spheres remains very limited.

For instance, there are national regulations regarding hygiene, grading, labelling, etc.

There are certain restrictions on currency movements and other administrative obstacles.

Governments show no hurry to remove these further protective devices for national producers.

The Treaty of Rome itself set up no machinery for the co-ordination of economic policy, which remains firmly in the hands of member states, none of whom show any inclination to surrender their powers to an authority in Brussels or anywhere else.

The state bureaucracy, set up by the bourgeoisie in each national state, has a vested interest in preserving the old at a private meeting and did not know that reporters were present. She denied making the remark attributed to her.

Into the fray came Sir Barnett Janner, MP for Leicester North West, and President of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain. He declared that since Arab states were untriendly to Britain, it was 'patriotic' for MPs to support Israel.

Accurate

However, United Press said that their reporter had been present at the meeting and that he was 'sticking to his story'. The chairman of the New York meeting, the Rev. Dana Klotzle alleged that the story was accurate and said: 'There were 32 people present. How can she deny it?' According to the 'Daily Telegraph' of Friday September 19, Mrs Mckay said:

'It is utterly ridiculous to I attacked the British govsition where some particular interest is likely to be adversely affected.

In the case of agriculture, there is now virtually an agreement to disagree, and the problem posed for European capitalism by the large peasantry in western Europe remains unresolved.

Despite the taking off of tariffs, goods . do not in fact now move freely within the Not only did France have to be granted exemptions to deal with the situation following the May-June 1968 struggles, but there remain in existence all sorts of effective barriers to In fact, the measures towards economic integration after the completion of the customs union remained vague and permissive for the governments of the member countries.

It is obvious now that little progress along these lines can or will be made.

Effective economic integration can only take place on the basis of monetary unification.

The world monetary crisis has made this quite Utopian even on the scale of the Six.

The French francis NEI CONFLITTI DEL LAVORO The wave of class struggles sweeping Italy such as the strike (above) at the Pirelli works in Milan involving 20,000 workers makes ernment. I support its and was defending it.' Interviewed by Independent Television News on the Thursday, and asked whether she had made the remark about a 'Jewish lobby', Mrs McKay again made the point that she had not attacked the governIt was noticeable that when the interviewer used the phrase 'Jewish lobby', Mrs McKay repeated the same phrase in her reply—why did she make no attempt to correct the interviewer by making a distinction between 'Jewish' and 'Zionist'?

Criticism

It seems, in fact, that Mrs McKay's main concern was to cover herself against the charge that she had publicly criticized the government.

Might we ask how, if Mrs McKay is a friend of the Arab peoples can she refrain from criticizing the British governstruggling to avert a further devaluation; the Belgian franc is maintained at its present value with difficulty; the flight from the lira owing to the wave of class struggles sweeping Italy makes its devaluation only a matter of time.

In fact, monetary integration would bring the EEC under the control of the mark, a prelude to the realization of German hegemony over western Europe.

The Common Market countries are not agreed about Britain's entry, the consequences of which they estimate from their own national standpoint. nnint Excluding Holland, whose ties with British capital (Shell, Unilever, etc.) make her spokesmen echoes of London, and Belgium and Luxemburg, who cannot play an independent role, the significant question is whether Germany will support it and be able to counter remaining opposition from Paris.

Italy is in favour because she sees Britain as a counterweight to German and French power.

In any case terms will be laid down, especially in relation to sterling, the balance of payments and agricultural policy, which may be difficult for any British government to accept.

In addition, it is hinted, even in some public statements, that it must deal with the trade unions—i.e. integrate them more firmly into the state and impose an effective wages policy.

There is obviously an extremely protracted period of hard bargaining ahead before there is any chance of Britain's application being accepted.

De Gaulle's departure makes no difference to the basic issues.

Many idealistic people see the Common Market as the first step towards junking the national state and building some sort of international order.

They produce a variety of arguments, some economic, such as the advantages of a L ISL Coli UIL CISL ment, in view of its policies not only regarding Israel but in Aden and the Persian Gulf?

However, what is most noticeable is that, judging from the reports, Mrs Mckay does not seem to think it is objectionable that she should equate being Jewish with being a Zionist. Neither do the Zionists think it objectionable.

But it is objectionable to any genuine international socialist. We reject the lumping of all Jewish people together under one political label.

Zionism

There are Jewish workers and Jewish capitalists, Jewish socialists and Jewish reactionaries.

Zionism is a reactionary chauvinistic movement, financed and directed by wealthy Jewish capitalists, which tells the Jewish workers that they have a common identity and interest with Jewish bosses and not with their large market area, others polıtical, such as the ability of a united Europe to match up to the challenge from America or the Soviet Union.

The plans and proposals which follow are quite unrealistic because they assume that the different European ruling classes could be persuaded to abandon the national state form through which they have established themselves and that international economic integration is possible while the means of production remain in capitalist hands.

The evidence shows that economic integration cannot proceed except through political integration.

This the European bourgeoisie has been completely unable to advance even by a single step.

MAUL

THE CHINESE REVOLUTION 22s. 6d. (soft cover); 37s. 6d. (hard cover) devaluation inevitable. fellow workers.

In this way it tries to tie them to the imperialist system which has been responsible for modern anti-semitism.

In the Middle East the Zionists brought about the expulsion of one million Palestinian Arabs from their homes in 1948, and subsequently allied themselves with imperialism in the 1956 Suez aggression, going on in 1967 to a war of conquest which led to large areas coming under Israeli military occupation and colonization.

Support

In the pages of "The Newsletter', , we have consistently exposed the reactionary nature of Zionism. For this reason, we have also drawn attention to the support given to Zionist organizations by a number of Labour MPs.

Not all these MPs are Jewish; that is not our concern. We have attacked the policies they have advocated, or the All it has been able to do is to set up one shaky customs union (EEC) with protective tariffs against the outside world and one club for the mutual lowering of tariffs without a common tariff (EFTA) which are themselves in rivalry with each other.

This is the net result of a quarter of a century of 'integration' in western Europe.

It is thus quite plain that the bourgeoisie is unable to remove the barriers to the development of the productive forces which are constituted by the national state.

Its attempt, as it were, to substitute itself for the working class has proved a failure.

It is upon this class that the task of superseding the old state frontiers devolves.

It is only on the basis of nationalized property relations and a planned economy under the control of the working class that it will be possible, and necessary, to carry through a programme of international economic integration.

The answer to the Common Market and all proposals, whatever their intent, for European unity is that it is first necessary to carry through the socialist revolution on a national and European scale as the basis for the United Socialist States of Europe.

ANSION NOT PIRELLI SUPER organizations they have belonged to and not their origins.

No communist, no socialist, would single people out according to their origins.

We completely reject any talk about 'Jewish influence', and we reject the false equation that 'Jewish equals Zionist' , whether it is asserted by Polish Stalinist bureaucrats, Arab reactionaries or the Zionists themselves.

Welcome

It was Maurice Edelman, MP for Coventry North, who reportedly declared at the 63rd annual conference of 'Poale Zion' in April: 'To be a Jew is to be a Zionist. To be a Zionist is to be a Jew' The remark allegedly made by Mrs McKay could only be welcomed by Zionists.

It may also be utilized by racialists who revel in such phrases as "Jewish control, especially in connection with the labour movement.

The capitalist press is bound to have seen the usefulness of such a remark being publicised. The last people it can help are the Palestinian Arabs.

The Palestinian organizations such as Al Fatah or the Popular Liberation Front in particular, have been extremely careful in all their statements to stress the distinction they make between being 'Jewish' and being a 'Zionist'.