3-19-05, 8:24 am

From Bulletin of the Communist Party of Turkey

Final Declaration of European Communist Youth Organizations' Meeting

March 10-11, 2005, Istanbul

The world is on the verge of an historical moment. In the past fifteen years, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, imperialism has launched reckless attacks, with the consideration of absence of a power to stop them. Today, we witness implementations of this attack with a multi-dimensional strategy.

The debates that were and are going on concerning the issue of European Union, help us understanding the circumstances the world is in today. A thorough evaluation of the point that imperialism has arrived and debates on European Union in this context gain their meaning for the struggle of the European revolutionaries and communists.

Needless to say, the debate has its parties.

The official opinion on EU depends on the idea that, with integration between the countries, EU will be a cradle of civilization and a guarantee of constant peace and that EU is a realistic project for people's welfare and prosperity. With even the simplest approach, however, it can be observed that the core of the union formed by imperialist countries applies an ideological distortion. Therefore, it seems compulsory to establish a realistic axis of debate on EU and, after all these debates, to put forward a more progressive option concerning people's future.

European Union, since the World War II, when the basis for the union was laid, is being led by great imperialist forces of EU, especially Germany and France and monopolies, capitals and bourgeois classes of member states.

The enlargement process of EU has been shaped in this respect. The enlargement of May 1st, 2004 primarily includes ex-socialist countries and the aim is to stabilize capitalism and to eliminate the gains of the socialist system in these countries some of which have already joined NATO and some of which will soon do.

The enlargement process of EU brings out the undermining of rights of sovereignty of the peoples in favour of monopolies and capitalists. European Union is controlling the member countries in many ways and by rendering the constitutional treaty of EU above all constitutions takes over the countries' sovereignty in order to enforce neo-liberal and imperialistic policies.

Another result of the process is the expansion of hegemony for great imperialist monopolies and opportunities of new markets and low-cost labour. During the last few years, in the current and to-be member countries, social destruction policies have been implemented with serious attack on labourers' rights; unemployment has been going up, social security systems have been eliminated and privatization has become widespread.

The military structures of EU are a complementary factor that fits the economical aspect of expansion strategy of the Union. European Security and Strategy Concept and its affiliate, the European Army indicates the prevalence of imperialistic tendencies in the union. The core of the union, who has the authority to intervene in the domestic issues of the member states via the constitutional treaty of Europe and provisions of membership, will employ this authority in every circumstance that constitutes a threat to themselves and to the imperialist system. Considering the fact that 'free market economy' is a must for membership, the ambiguous definition of the concept of 'threat' directly refers to egalitarian, libertarian systems and revolutionary uprises. Besides, 13 members of the union led by Great Britain have participated directly in the occupation of Iraq by sending troops, which aggravates the circumstance.

Concerning the relations between the EU and USA, the claim to balance the US dominancy in world politics does not reflect the truth. Reactions by EU to military attempts of USA do not stem from a desire of peace, but a necessity to get a bigger slice of the cake, as part of their inter-imperialistic contradictions.

The anti-democratic quality of the Union is once again revealed during the debates on the constitution for Europe and in the processes of discussion and approval; the constitution was kept safe from the people's participation.

The constitution will be presented to the public opinion only in a few of the member countries and the others will approve it in their parliaments.

It is doubtful whether present EU really has a democratic vision. EU democracy gives us astonishing examples: In Latvia, a member of EU, there still exists a prohibition on establishment of a communist party. For the refugees living in member countries, camps are established in North Africa. During the last decade, rate of syndication has gone down considerably.

Besides all these, racist and reactionary tendencies grow widespread. In Estonia and Latvia, people, from different ethnicities, primarily the Russian, but are born in these countries are deprived of citizenship. In Germany, the center of European Union, especially in the regions where dominantly migrants live, votes of the neo-Nazis have gone up incredibly.

Concerning educational issues, the process started by Bologna declaration means presenting the universities to the service of capitalists and the most striking issue is that in a number of countries, such as Greece and Portugal, education is gradually charged with tuitions. The diplomas become worthless, and the number of graduate redundant increases. The implementation of in the educational system, people are compelled to concentrate on certain fields and are brought up as creatures to be directly included in the labouring process. As a result of all these, educational policies of EU create a generation that is alienated to their own lives and to the society.

It can be said that an increase exists in the struggles against European Union policies day by day. In this context, in addition to the oppositions present in Scandinavian countries, there exists a huge number of people dissatisfied with the destructive measures on social security, education and health. Also, the reactions against the EU constitution had significant importance as they carried a tendency to be in opposition against the imperialist roles of EU.

In this respect;

A Europe of cooperation between sovereign nations equals in rights, which respect the interests and likes of the peoples, with the right of each country to choose its destiny. For a Europe with better conditions of life, with work with rights, equality, solidarity, and the development of all the countries. For a Europe of peace that promotes the demilitarization, against all tries of hegemony. For a Europe opens to the world as a factor of social progress, development and cooperation, solidarity with all the peoples. For a Europe that affirms the richness of the differences, identities and national cultures, promoting the cultural, technical and artistic exchange, the respect for all languages. For another way to Europe, with other policies, anti-monopolist and anti-imperialist. Establishment of a productive debate on EU, organization of the actions denouncing the realities of EU policies, in this context, gathering critical information on the consequences of the EU policies in EU member countries and sharing with the peoples of other countries would have critical importance. The militarist character of EU also has to be denounced by a powerful and massive anti-imperialist struggles in the countries. Covering all those concepts, establishment of a common action and struggle among youth is quite critical

By this way along with the struggles of the progressive and democratic forces especially the revolutionary and communist youth and parties' tougher fight and commitment on the construction of an anti-imperialist struggle front wider and wider by conjugating action for democratic, progressive and national liberation force, we can conclude that socialism is an actual alternative in both every countries and also in Europe.

Signatories:

TKP-Youth (Turkey) KSM (Czech Republic) KNE (Greece) EDON (Cyprus) JCP (Portugal) KPiD (Denmark) UJCE (Spain) YCL-Georgia (Georgia) BSYU (Bulgaria) WFDY (World Federation of Democratic Youth, guest) UJC (Cuba, guest)