Claude Serfati: Some Reflections on the Basic Questions

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1. Thank you so much for the extremely helpful contribution. For the workshop the following quotations are especially otientating:
   „The overwhelming and devastating power of finance capital – that I define not only as financial institutions (that is the financial sector as it is included in National accounts), but also – and mainly – as the ability for any holder of financial assets to ‘make money with money’ (that is why in my view ‘non-financial TNCs are a modern component of contemporaneous finance capital) – remains untouched. A major reason is that governmental policies are fully devoted to the protection of finance capital and the rentier class.“
   „ A signifcant consequence of the ‘2008 moment’ is to put security and military issues at the top of the EU agenda. The EU has been led to increase its military involvement to cope with the chaos developing in its ‘neighborhood’, first in Africa, and now in Middle-East. As it does not exist anything like a common defence and because of a very unequal appetite for militarism among member-states, initiatives have been taken by the most military powerful member-states.“
   „ … the EU acts as a multiplier of accumulation of police and military capabilities
   by Member-States …
   … according to a report by influential EU policy-makers ‘military assets at the high end of the spectrum [will be] playing a catalytic role in an integral approach to conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict peacebuilding’“ (Solana 2015).
   „The way the EU and its member-states are addressing the refugees fleeing from Europe’s territorial neighbourhood and looking for asylums and shelters is telling
   on the EU treatment of the so-called ‘crisis management’. It also informs on the
   real substance of the ‘neighborhood’ policy.“
   „The ‘state form’ which is developing in the EU are a mix of community (that is supranational) and inter-governmental bodies, and it is through their concerted action that austerity policies are carried out.“
   „The centralization of powers in intergovernmental bodies and in the EU bureaucracy reinforces deep-rooted anti-democratic practices.“
   „Why the left and trade-unions were not in capacity to influence policy-makers
   in favor of a public control of banks …?“
   „While highly coordinated European governmental policies against workers have
   been (and still are) focused on addressing the ill-named ‘public debt crisis’ through austerity measures, the campaign against the illegitimacy of the debt falls short of massively mobilizing anti-neoliberal organisations at the Europe an level. A dramatic test case is Greece …“
   „The prolongation of the current situation would increase the social disaster in Europe, coupled with a dramatic rise in EU’s authoritarian measures, with boundaries between – internal and external – to Europe being increasingly blurred. At the international level, the EU would look for reinforcing its power. According to J. Solana, ‘action in the EU’s strategic neighborhood is likely to become more demanding’.“
   „ … the challenge for the left is to transform the growing rejection of mainstream political parties into a move forward to positive alternatives.“

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