Kommunistisk Politik International Special, February 7, 2004. By Klaus Riis, Editor of Kommunistisk Politik.
Referendums on the treaties of the EU are one of the big spectres of Danish (parliamentary) politics, a matter of the greatest concern for both the pro-EU government and the pro-EU opposition.
In 1992, the "no" to the Maastricht Treaty put an end to the ten-year rule of the openly bourgeois government of Poul Schlüter. Eight years later, in 2000, the Danish "no" to the Euro signalled the end of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen’s Social Democratic government.
The following national elections resulted in the return of the openly conservative coalition led by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, with a comfortable parliamentary majority, but based on the votes of the Danish version of Jörg Haider’s party, Pia Kjaersgaard’s Danish People’s Party, which had been one of the vocal opponents of the Euro.
Due to the great popular, clearly working class biased opposition to the "United Europe of the Monopolies" ever since the first referendum on membership in 1972, a number of referendums on the different treaties have been held, resulting in two "no" at crucial moments in the development of the European project. This opposition has always had an organised mass character, with the People’s Movement against the EU as its core.
The specific importance of the two "no" at the above-mentioned referendums is that they were gained in spite of the pro-EU government, the pro-EU parliamentary opposition and an overwhelming parliamentary majority for the European project.
Troubled waters
This situation makes the prospects of a new referendum on the forthcoming EU constitution, which will formally turn the EU into the "United States of Europe", a kind of nightmare for both Fogh Rasmussen’s government and the opposition, led by the Social Democrats, who have replaced former Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen with the new leader of the Social Democrats, Mogens Lykketoft, who was Foreign Minister in Nyrup Rasmussen’s government, as their front runner.
Nyrup Rasmussen is now expected to be elected as Social Democratic candidate for the European Parliament in the elections that will be held in June this year.
Denmark is known as a "loyal, but leg-dragging" member of the EU, due in part to the popular opposition, and in part to the traditional alliance of the Danish bourgeoisie with the UK. In spite of its willingness, in principle, to take part in the construction of the European imperialist superpower, it prefers a moderate tempo, and not a head-on gallop. Following the "no" to the Maastricht Treaty, Denmark was accorded four opt-outs of which the non-participation in the military build-up, in the third phase of the European Monetary Union, and in judicial legislation, were the three most important.
Without success so far, the pro-EU parties have been trying to get rid of these opt-outs, which Fogh Rasmussen’s government planned to maintain in the context of the new EU constitution, according to a special agreement made during the Italian Presidency of the EU. The Swedish "no" to the Euro last year crushed Fogh Rasmussen’s hopes of turning a referendum on the constitution into a vote also abolishing the specific "Danish arrangement".
The break-down of the inter-governmental conference on the new EU constitution in Rome in December was not to the deep regret of the Danish pro-EU government or parties. It has delayed a referendum, which was expected to take place in the summer or autumn of 2004. Opinion polls show that there is a widespread scepticism and opposition to the constitution project in the Danish population, making the possibility of a third Danish "no" very real.
The campaign against the new EU constitution
The basic demand and the logo of the People’s Movement against the EU and its youth league, the Youth of the People’s Movement against the EU, are "Out of the EU!". This is definitely a perspective if the opposition to the new European superpower results in a third "no" at a referendum on its constitution.
The People’s Movement against the EU is a broadly based mass organisation, with individual membership and collective membership of parties, trade unions and organisations, which works to mobilise the broadest possible opposition to the EU on a non-racist basis. Presently, it has one seat in the European Parliament.
Together, the People’s Movement against the EU and the June Movement, a splinter organisation from the People’s Movement against the EU rejecting the perspective of Danish withdrawal from the EU, normally get between 20 and 25 percent of the votes in the elections to the European Parliament.
For a long time, the People’s Movement against the EU has been campaigning against the new EU constitution. Defending national sovereignty, its basic arguments centre on the construction of the European state. It argues that the world does not need a new European superpower with its own state apparatus, army, legislation, currency and finances. It points out that the new constitution will take precedence over the present Danish constitution.
The Youth of the People’s Movement against the EU puts the imperialist superpower character of the EU and its formation into a Fort Europe at the centre of its agitation.
If the working class says "no", Denmark says "no"
This was the slogan of the Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark (APK) at the referendum on the Euro in 2000. And it still holds true: If the majority of the working class rejects the imperialist "United States of Europe", getting convinced that this capitalist, neoliberal project is a tool in the hands of the monopolies to increase profits at the expense of the workers and the working people, a third "no" will be achieved and open the doors for getting Denmark out of the EU.
Numerous difficulties stand in the way, though. The Social Democrats and the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), led by the Social Democrats, are strongly campaigning for the "United Europe", which they depict as a positive and beneficial factor to the workers of the world, a moral and non-imperialist power that deserves more space on the global scale, and the peace-loving alternative to the US.
The leftist Social Democrats of the Socialist People’s Party (SF) have joined this chorus and abandoned its traditional criticism of the EU, preparing to agitate in favour of the constitution that will pave the way for unlimited European war participation on a global scale.
For the Danish Communists, there exists a special obligation to destroy this
false picture of the imperialist European superpower under construction and
to point out its direct negative effects on the living standards, working conditions
and rights of the workers that have become only too familiar not only to the
working people in Denmark, but to all working people inside and outside the
EU.