So, today i had my first “economy lesson” in school and dont get how people can study economics and admit that the system is shit to the point where they teach students like me the inequalities and gruesomeness of the system…and still go: “b-bud id is best we got!”. Anyways, that what i told my friend and we got into discussion where i tried to explain that capitalism sucks and that the only reason it “seems to work” in our country (we live in a succdem EU country) is that we benefit of the work of others in the global south, that instead of companies treating us like shit (to avoid a discontent mass) they exploit people in global south countries. I gave him few examples of companies using child labour in lithium mines and so on but my friend just replied “Nuh uh, the EU wouldnt let that happen” to basically everything i said which really rubbed me. Can you give me more accurate examples on how the EU reinforces Neo-colonialist relations and how countires benefit from it…more specifically, how the wealth generated by companies that exploit the south is linked to the countries wealth or ““well-being””? Thank you so much in advance
IIRC Marxist Paul and Second Thought did two companion videos last summer about just some of the EU’s current misdeeds.
The EU uses one sided contracts with north African nations to push the functional EU border south of the Mediterranean and keep migrants away. The countries are given some small amount of development aid, and in return they set up migrant detention centers and militarize their borders to prevent people from moving north. Most of the destabilization of Africa comes from the lasting effects of colonialism. Now France and Spain want to build pipelines to bring gas across the Mediterranean, taking yet more natural energy resources from people who largely live without electricity and clean water.
Of course a lot of cheap EU food and resources come from the global south. Frontex isn’t talked about much but it’s basically the EU’s version of the hyper militarized US border patrol.
The EU was started by and is even today run by people with Nazi connections. In terms of bringing imperialist class relations into Europe, the EU succeeded with the pen where the Nazis failed with the sword. The east and south of Europe are for cheap labour, the core is for the wealthy capitalists and the labour aristocracy. Due to freedom of movement (for capital most importantly) a German or French capitalist can exploit far more Polish or Greek workers than they could their own countryfolk.
The EU itself is a supranational body which can force member states to adopt laws they do not want. The premier EU institutions, the commission and court, are not elected bodies. There were some national referendums on big EU legislation where the people of the countries voted no, we don’t want this. The EU forced it through anyway.
thank you for the explanation
As a follow up here are two more videos with some more reasons why the EU is bad for the people.
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Just look what France is doing to Niger, they had a puppet there winning shady elections while France had a lot of business there. Now, when a militar junta refused the election of the puppet again, assumed the power and revoked the visa of France embassador, macron refused to remove his embassador and accuse the new government of violation of international law, just because HE does not accept the new government. Is just impossible for him to accept a Niger decision that does not pass the France approval. Im not here to say that the new government is good or bad, but Europe and US do this to the entire south after WW2.
I can do a lot of recent examples like Afghanistan, Venezuela, or older like all Latin America dictatorships in the last century. The german Volkswagen was one of the biggest partner of Brazilian dictatorship, stalking and helping prosecute organized workers.
The Norway state oil company own a lot of stuff on SA and recently was found they were deliberated pouring toxic material in a river here in Brazil, and the money they save intoxicating indigenous ppl is used to finance Norway public systems.
thank you for giving these examples, i will try to explain these to my friends
Even if the EU was against Child Labor, it still doesn’t address the Unequal Exchange between the EU and the poorer nations of the world.
EU wouldn’t let that happen in Europe.
true
