Good evening Brussels! We once had a dream. It was a dream of what Europe could have been. A Europe of shared prosperity, dignity, freedom – a Europe of Peace and Hope. That dream is now dead, lost, gone, kaput. Why? What the hell happened to Europe?
We know what happened to Europe!
We know why politicians from all over are descending on Brussels today like manic drones intent on bombarding to smithereens what is left of Europe as a Peace Project – determined to turn the flailing European Union into a War Union.
We know what happened to Europe because we foretold it. When DiEM25 was inaugurated nine years ago at the Volksbühne Theatre in Berlin, we had said it loud and clear: “Europe will be democratised. Or it will disintegrate!” Well, Europe did not democratise and so it is disintegrating – it is degenerating into a Totalitarian War Union.
Austerity for the many and money printing for the few begat stagnation mixed with mind-numbing inequality.
Every time capitalism stagnates and inequality surges, while the official Left joins the centre in a futile attempt to prop up a Bankrupt Liberal establishment, fascism and war are never too far. Just like in the 1930s, two varieties of totalitarianism began to tussle for power.
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On the one side, the Radicalised Neofascist Right promises to make us great again not through ending austerity or exploitation but through a moral reckoning – a cultural cleansing that targets the impure foreign bodies within the pure body of the Nation or of an Ethno-White-Christian-Patriarchal Europe: foreigners, trans, lesbians, Muslims and Jews, especially those who oppose the cleansing benefits of genocide are the enemy within.
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On the other side, the Radicalised Totalitarian Centrists succeeded in retaining their relevance as the only bulwark against the fascists, deepening the crisis that fuels fascism and thus their claim to be our last defence against the fascism that they reinforce – a Perfect Vicious Cycle turbocharging totalitarianism.
Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Radicalised Totalitarian Centrists clash with the Radicalised NeoFascist Right, sucking the air out of democratic politics, making totalitarianism great again. Lest we forget:
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We did not have to wait for the fascists to win government before our magnificent July 2015 referendum in Greece was overturned.
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We did not have to wait for the fascists to win government before they fired Melanie Schweizer from her civil service job in Germany for not supporting genocide.
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We did not have to wait for the fascists to win government before they banned me from entering Germany even via Zoom!
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We did not have to wait for the fascists to win government before the Romanian presidential elections were banned because the Radicalised Totalitarian Centrists did not like the result.
The only substantive difference of our times and the 1930s is that Tweedledum (the Radicalised Totalitarian Centrists) and Tweedledee (the Radicalised NeoFascist Right) have traded places when it comes to war: Today, somewhat confusingly, it is Tweedledum (the Radicalised Totalitarian Centrists) who are weaponising Military Keynesianism and demand more war and it is Tweedledee (the Radicalised NeoFascist Right) who proclaim Peace – a chilling, totalitarian Peace.
Why did we, DiEM25, fail?
Yes, we had foretold all this back in 2015. But that did not stop us from failing to stop it, a cruel reminder that being right is not enough. Why did we fail? Why did we miss the popular wave that favoured our side in 2015, allowing the fascists to exploit the revived thirst for radicalism?
Yes, yes, it is true, we were ruthlessly squeezed between Tweedledum (the Radicalised Totalitarian Centrists) and Tweedledee (the Radicalised NeoFascist Right). BUT, we also made some unforced errors:
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We invested too much in Green Keynesianism, forgetting the timeless lesson that, even when it adopts Keynesianism as a last resort, the ruling class will always ditch it once their bottom line recovers – well before the many taste its fruits. Our Green New Deal was never even adopted, except partially in name. Is it any wonder that, In the mind of the struggling many, ‘green’ became synonymous with even lower living standards?
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We also proved unable to liberate people from exploitation, giving them only the freedom to choose their pronouns on our web site – which of course would be fine had it not been so pathetically inadequate in the larger scheme of things. Instead of organising the precariat and auto-workers we ended up organising signifiers, appearing as a self-styled intellectual vanguard enjoying the subversive thrill of an imagined revolution with all the comforts and trappings of a ruling class soiree.
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And last but not least: We thought we could mobilise existing Left and Green parties across Europe, only to discover they were not interested.
What must we now do?
And now? What must we now do? Let’s begin by acknowledging that we are at the end of a forty-year long vicious austerity-driven class war and at the beginning of a new cycle of military Keynesianism, weaponised xenophobia, totalitarianism within and technofeudalism all around.
So: It’s time to be bold. Time to be clear on seven crucial issues:
On Peace with Security, and how to end the carnage on the killing fields of Ukraine were lives are devoured with a ruthless, mechanical precision, let us:
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Reject outright Trump’s predatory seizure of Ukraine’s natural resources.
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Campaign to get the whole of Europe out of NATO, immediately!
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Plot a course to a non-aligned, but never neutral, Europe.
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Offering to relax sanctions and return Russia’s $300 billion in frozen assets, commence negotiations with the Kremlin and Beijing on a comprehensive strategic arrangement within which Ukraine becomes what Austria was during the Cold War: sovereign, neutral, and as integrated with Europe as its citizens desire.
