pms cries for help

Jim heartfield jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk
Fri Nov 27 01:22:13 PST 1998


In message <3.0.1.32.19981126155856.0071ddc0 at pop.mindspring.com>, pms <laflame at mindspring.com> writes
>Please some questions to clarify my thoughts.
>
>1) Do you think that one of the early forces driving the formation of EU
>was a serious discussion of the possibility of the current economic
>situatiion coming to pass.

If you mean the European Union, it began life as a scheme of cooperation in mining and steel just after the war. Churchill was a prime mover, seeking to re-build France principally, as part of a European bulwark against America. But the Americans, rather than react against that supported the early union as a vehcile for restoring capitalism in Europe (and American markets) - conflict with the US came later. Being generally oriented towards the market it was wholly a pro-capitalist policy in Britain, and the left was intransigently opposed to it right up until about 1992. There was an underlying theme in the discussion that co-operation between the former 'Great Powers' of Europe was vital to avoid the conflicts of 1914 and 1939.

-- Jim heartfield



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