[lbo-talk] Re: Vive La France!

Etienne tim_boetie at fastmail.fm
Wed Jun 1 07:47:11 PDT 2005


On Tue, 31 May 2005 23:51:23 -0700 (PDT), "Dennis Redmond" <dredmond at efn.org> said:
> How sovereign can any nation be these days, given the complexity of the
> multinational economy? While I have my problems with Hardt and Negri,
> they
> get one thing right: we shouldn't be nostalgic for the nation-state.
> Rather, we should be creating multinational forms of solidarity.

And in fact Negri supported the EU constitution precisely on these grounds. See http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=296227 (in French). "Yes, to get rid of this shitty nation state" is (roughly) the title of the article.


> I sense that much of the anti-EU feeling these days has the same
> ambiguities as anti-globalization sentiment -- driven more about
> nostalgia
> for an imagined past, rather than the excitement of creating a better
> future. The Eurostate isn't just the executive committee of the

I think there's some truth to that, and I think it's a real problem with the European left. Nostalgia for social democracy in its nation-state form just strengthens those who argue for 'moderate' reforms to maintain what is 'reasonable' in the welfare state. This leads to means-testing, workfare, and the rest of the administrative apparatus of the society of control. Nostalgia for the old welfare state also blocks attempts to fight for a _new_ form of social welfare, whichh isn't quite so hospitable to the demands of capitalism.

That being said, some elements of the 'anti-globalisation' movements in Europe are rejecting the nation state and fighting for precisely this 'new new deal', in the demands for a social wage and 'flexicurity' (flexibility/security), to shift the balance of power in flexible or 'precarious' employment in favour of workers rather than employers.


> Eurobourgeoisie; it performs lots of admirable functions -- setting
> health
> codes, investing in renewable energy, creating open source standards,
> cleaning up the environment, etc.

The problem with the constitution, though, is that it would make the EU much _more_ the administrative committee of the bourgeoisie. See http://deadmenleft.blogspot.com/2005/05/ringtones-liberal-xenophobia-and-eu.html for examples from the text.

Although a 'positive' no vote is, as you say, ultimately reactive, the defeat of the constitution _does_ open up space for further debate about European social solidarity, which is a good thing. To be fair to them, the French trotskisyt group that was probably most active in the hard-left 'no' campaign, the LCR, have described the referendum result as 'only a beginning'. --

"The bourgeois want art voluptuous and life ascetic; the

reverse would be better."

-- Adorno Tim http://www.huh.34sp.com/



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