The increasing economic clashes between West European governments and the States have gained growing publicity in weeks. They were spotlighted by the United States' decision to place new restrictions on the import of Market produced into the US. More important still was ban on any foreign firm using US logy in the construction of the huge Soviet Union to Western natural gas pipeline. This unprecedented was denounced even by Thatcher, who threatened openly violate US law to British firms to finish the contract.
Behind the economic clashes is more fundamental.
attitude European working to NATO, the Alliance, and all aspects of the links of the European states to the States. ( JOHN looks at the issues involved.
In order to understand the real significance of what is now taking place between Western Europe and the United States it is best to start with a very broad time scale. This allows the really important features to stand out clearly and the secondary ones, which can obscure the fundamental trends, fall into their perspective.
We can take as a starting point the recent visit of Reagan to Europe. those who have entered politics in the last fifteen years it might seem obvious that there should be demonstrations against the visit of a president of the United States. Only the tremendous size of the protests in the different countries would seem striking. In reality however something much more fundamental is involved. The historical tradition in Europe is not of mass opposition to the leaders in Europe...
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The political changes To was the Vietnam Europe very itself as the 'democracy' 'totalitarian Yalta - the end of World War 2 when America enjoyed popular support of the United States but on the conpresident Woodrow Wilson came to Europe after the First World War he was greeted with some of the largest mass demonstrations of CVeI seen hysteria. Throughout the 1920s it remained the typical language of the Social Democratic parties in Europe to contrast the supposedly 'democratic' and 'peaceloving' United States to and 'reactionary' barons, Prussian army officers, British imperialists and so At the end of the Second World sentiments were widespread in many European coun- Salvador tries. The United States was acclaimed as the country which had entered Even as late as 1963 US president Kennedy enjoyed mass popular supHis 'Ich bin ein Berliner' ('I am a Berliner') speech of that year was hailed as symbolising United pean 'freedom' at allisi 'totalitarian communism' in Europe.
in November that year was authentically experienced by millions of people as a great traumatic the blue.
period the United States was acclaimed as the country which had entered World War 2 to win it for democracy It is when this historical perspective is seen that the real significance of the protests during Reagan's visit to understood. Europe million people in the streets in the against the visit of a ÚS president! That constitutes a major transformation from the the United States in Europe. Obvious ly such a major shift must have profound forces underlying it. Grasping important understanding the dynamic of world politics which is and will develop durPolitically there is no doubt that it into war that was the single most decisive event bringing about a change in the attitude of wide Laters of the po ulation ins Westere United States ruling class portrayed great defender of and 'peace' communism'. But Vietnam it was waging a war of unparalleled savagery which only too obviously had nothing to do with either of these supposed goals.
rrom that time widespread suspicion existed in Western Europe concerning the motives and policies of the United States administrations. Other events, such as the widespread publicity given to US involvement in the 1973 coup in Chile deepened the sentiment.
it was the Vietnam war that was the single most decisive event that changed attitudes in Western Europe This is why the US role in El for example regarded as a continuation of its Vietnam type policies. It is why tens of thousands of people demonstrated in many countries in Western Europe in Spring 1982 in solidarity struggles in Central America. enormous demonstrations in Britain, West Germany, and other West Eurothe NATO decision to deploy a new generation of US nuclear weapons in Europe, and the protests during Reagan's visit, therefore did not come out of They were a development, on a vastly greater scale, of a whole of increasing distrust hostility towards the United States and opposition to its policies. World Economy Underlying these political shifts however, and giving greater mass force, were even more profound changes on the economic The support historically joyed by the United States in Western was created "ideological' factors. The working class in Europe of course lost greatly from the existence of capitalism. Nevertheless within that framework West European economies throughout most of the twentieth century benefitted from the strength of US imperialism.
The simple figures show the process. The United States refinanced the European economies after the chaos and destruction of the First War. Two and a half billion dollars in the values of the 1920s, vastly greater today, went from the United Germany and Europe following 1923. Only this aid allowed a recovery of the European economies from the Maamatically selled in 1929 wen time collapse the crash of the American economy brought ruin in its trail throughout Europe and the world.
European capitalism could not have been rebuilt without US subsidies Exactly the same process of US aid, on a vastly greater scale, followed the Second World War. United States loans and grants to Western Europ from 1946-1958, starting Marshall Plan, were over 25 billion dollars. There were in addition enormous indirect benefits to European capitalism from the strength of the US economy. For example the driving down of world oil prices by the United States from the 1950s alone gave support probably as great as under the Marshall Plan. Once again European capitalism would have rebuilt without these US subsidies.
These policies were of course carried on by US imperialism entirely used its economic strength as one of its great levers to prevent the spread of 'communism', to isolate the Soviet Union, to launch the cold war, and to widely The and enby ! States bring about the capitalist division of the European continent. licies were totally against the inests of the European, and world, working classes. However as long as United States direct and indirect aid to the European capitalist economies then these realities could from most of the population.
The West European ruling classes, who benefitted greatly from this pro cess at that time, were naturally only too willing to go along. On this basis of US economic strength and aid the great Atlantic Alliance NATO — was constructed, and working class support for it gained. This the anance was men used as a uncanertal backbone of the world imperialist system, from which many of its most aggressive policies on an international scale were organised.
Vietnam It is in this historical framework that the full significance of the Vietbeen nam war in relations United States and can be understood. It was not only a political but a fundamental economic cult pout Under the strain of Vietnam the United States ruling class feared to create a still greater political opposition to the war by allowing its cost to All these West be concealed pay - including Wal West throughout Western Europe pean 1968-75.
pean and fall fully on the US working class. Instead the United States used control of the international monetary system to tax, in effect, the rest of the world for war mechanism was very simple. The dollar is the only currency accepted by every country as a means of paymen in international trade. To finance a large part of the costs of the Vietnam the US simply printed paper dollars and exchanged them for real goods produced by its allies.
This mechanism is in etfect an extremely efficient, and legal, form of robbery. It continues to be utilised by the United States until the present day. It was in particular used with great ruthlessness by the US against European "partners' the Vietnam war. The deepening of crisis in the West Eurocollullica which resulted helped feed the major rise of working class struggles in that continent from It was this situation which also signalled the start of the rising series of conflicts between the West. EuroUnited States capitalist