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Weekly Worker 560 Thursday January 20 2005
Euro-nationalism from Attac
The fact that members of Attac France are putting up such opposition to any positive restructuring of the ESF should not surprise us. In particular their hostility to the creation of a working class and democratic movement from below is exactly in line with the history and stated aims of that organisation.
Attac came into being following the Seattle demonstrations in 1999. One of its initiators was its former president Bernard Cassen, who also took the lead in initiating the World Social Forum (along with the Workers Party of Brazil). He championed the Tobin Tax - a token tax on financial transactions. He sought the ear of parliamentarians and other ‘opinion formers’ - ie, not the masses.
Despite that, Attac did become a mass organisation - partly through the efforts of the Communist Party of France (PCF) and the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR), who both joined up enthusiastically. Not openly of course, because parties are officially not allowed to be part of Attac. However, somewhat similarly to the SWP’s tactics, the comrades have undoubtedly hoped to use Attac as a kind of transmission belt into their own organisations.
But while the left has done much of the legwork for Attac, it certainly has not shifted it to the left. Indeed it seems that they are the ones who have changed. We regularly hear members of the LCR and PCF articulating the views of Cassen and Susan George at ESF meetings. They seem to support the attempt to derail the possibility of building a mass organisation across Europe and it is often quite sad to see how almost every French delegation argues for Attac’s positions as the hegemonic force in the French social forum movement.
It is interesting to note the effect of the Socialist Party on Attac, in particular after the ejection of the Socialist Party from government in 2002. More SP members have since joined Attac, no doubt in order to lay the ground for a return of the SP to government - pulling Attac to the right in the process.
The refusal of the leadership of Attac to take a firm position against the occupation of Iraq is well known. At ESF meetings, the comrades called for the UN to oversee the occupation and have argued against the immediate withdrawal of troops. Bernard Cassen also supports the creation of a European army and backs the kind of criticisms of US policy coming from Jacques Chirac. Is it any wonder that this same organisation is attempting to stymie the creation of a Europe from below?
Recent articles from Susan George illustrate well the current thinking of the Attac leadership. In November - “having just returned from the US canvassing for Kerry” - she wrote that after the victory of Bush “Europeans have to lead. No one else can. No one else will … It is a slim chance - our own governments are bad enough - but it’s the only one we’ve got” (November 3 2004, www.tni.org/george/index.htm).
In other words she has, in line with the rest of Attac policy, a European chauvinist solution to the world’s ills. The working class of France, Britain and the rest of Europe must make a stand - together with their governments - against the evils of US imperialism. She wants a strong (capitalist) Europe to counter the excesses of Bush’s foreign policy. Attac, through the words of its leaders and its statement of aims, is condemned as an anti-working class organisation. Its anti-globalisation rhetoric is a thin veil for reformist, Euro-nationalist solutions.
All of which goes to show that a firm stance must be taken by those
who are committed to the success of our own forces. There can be no illusions
that by keeping quiet we will gain strength. Allowing Attac to hold us
back will swing the ESF to the right and may quite easily destroy any
potential within the project. Those who want to create a Europe from below
must stand together.
Anne Mc Shane
