To Rearm or Not to Rearm

I believe in European integration. I also understand the need for collective security and defence. I support arming Ukraine in its war against Russia.

But that does not mean I am enthusiastic about increased military spending—especially if it is done to salvage the broken relationship with Trump’s US.

Why should we align our defences with what is effectively a far-right regime, incompatible with so-called European values and openly speaking of annexing Greenland?

The only justification for increased spending would be to break away from the US—not to become further entangled in NATO.
Even in this regard, the priority should be rationalising and pooling resources to ensure that the EU is capable of enforcing its mutual defence clause and to continue supporting Ukraine.

Moreover, we cannot afford to divert funds from social and environmental priorities to fund rearmament.
This will only make Europe more vulnerable—to both external and internal enemies, and to existential threats like climate change.

In this sense, a rearmament agenda that diverts money from social spending and the well-being of citizens would be the final nail in the coffin for the European project we need now more than ever.
People will protest in the streets if further austerity is imposed to finance rearmament.

We should resist the false choice between a militarised continent bound together by hysteria, and a motley crew of weak nation-states increasingly vulnerable to internal and external threats.

Moreover, we need to ask: which values shape our Europe?
How can we say “never again” while condoning and abetting genocide in Palestine?
We also owe it to Jewish communities, whose identity should not be defined by the actions of the Israeli far right.

The greatest tragedy of our times is that Europe is shifting to the right at the very moment when necessity demands a greater unity of purpose.

Of course, we cannot be naïve. Putin poses a serious threat that should be constantly assessed—but not overplayed. 
This is not a time for hysteria, but for a balanced and effective approach.
Eliminating private profits in the defence sector through nationalisation could also help reduce costs.

In a time of monsters, the last thing we need are European leaders posing as warmongers.
There is something comical, clownish and unrealistic when EU officials project themselves as military hawks.
European power, by its nature, is a soft, transformative and insidious power—based on seductive appeal.
That is the power that threatens Putin: the possibility of a future in which Russia itself can be part of our community of values.

What we need are principled European leaders—those who set a vision, who stand up for values, and who invest in our collective well-being.  
That includes keeping us safe from external threats, but let’s not forget the many insecurities people face in daily life.

There is too much at stake.  The cost of failure has never been so high.  

Back to the Corn Laws: Trump’s Tariff Delusions and Class War

Apart from the optics of a US President presiding over a shit show in the Rose Garden—using auto workers as props and holding up a board based on a lie that conflates tariffs with trade deficits (including those of penguin-inhabited islands)—there was another disturbing aspect to Trump’s speech.

In addition to distorting American history by presenting the age of tariffs (and murderous robber barons) as a golden era, Trump hinted that ‘income tax’—a fiscal instrument designed to redistribute wealth—was somehow linked to the reduction of tariffs.

“In 1913, for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens, rather than foreign countries, would start paying the money necessary to run our government,” Trump said.

The suggestion was that reintroducing tariffs could pave the way for income tax cuts, which by their very nature would favour the wealthiest Americans. In this way, tariffs that impoverish the poor—both in the US where consumers will take the brunt and in poor countries crippled by the tariffs—would end up funding tax breaks for the rich. It’s like turning back the clock to pre-Corn Law repeal Britain in the 19th century, when tariffs protected the landed gentry while workers paid more for their daily bread. 

Of course, such an outrageous suggestion isn’t based on solid economic reasoning. For tariffs to achieve their stated purpose, they should not be revenue-generating tools. Their goal is to reduce imports in order to prop up domestic industries and safeguard jobs—even if it's hard to see how this works in a world where supply chains are so deeply interconnected. Tariffs may still serve a purpose in developing economies where the state actively drives industrialisation. But that is not the case in the US, where the state is being systematically dismantled.

Trump, however, is a demagogue who lives in a universe of his own truth. So it's no surprise that he defies economic logic, framing his policies as a populist insurrection against shadowy global forces.  This is like Liz Truss harakiri budget multiplied by a hundred.

Some might ask: isn’t what Trump is doing a sign of the end of the neoliberal order, long dominated by the dogmas of unshackled markets? The problem is that instead of advancing toward a new form of international trade governance grounded in social and environmental regulation including labour protections, we are regressing into the age of  hubris—where the poor (both in the US because of inflation and even in the poorest countries crippled by these tariffs)  end up paying more to bankroll the ideological fantasies of Trump and company.  The risk is that by defying economic rationality Trump may well end having no other option but to embark on on pillage and plunder to finance his delusions.   Trade wars may well just be the prelude for conquest.

Gaza: War Crimes, Complicity, and Paralysis

The bodies of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, killed by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave nine days ago in Gaza, were found with their hands or legs tied and gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to eyewitnesses. The United Nations has called for an investigation into a crime reminiscent of past pogroms, war crimes, and genocides. Yet, there has been little indignation—not just in the United States, which shares direct responsibility after consenting to Netanyahu’s decision to resume the war, but also in Europe. The most shocking reality is that the war in Gaza has become business as usual. There is no discussion of sanctioning Israel, despite mounting evidence of war crimes, including domicide, forced displacement, and the use of starvation as a weapon.

Nothing can justify this level of complicity with Israeli war crimes. This is not a matter of proportionality. What we are witnessing is a far-right regime using Hamas’ war crime as a pretext for the elimination of an entire community—one that was already being oppressed long before October 7, 2023. EU leaders fail to call a spade a spade when they describe Israel’s response as merely disproportionate.  Because genocidal intent can never be seen as being proportional to anything else.  It is a crime.

However, it would be a disservice to the Palestinian cause not to acknowledge the other elephant in the room: the absence of a national leadership capable of standing up to Israel while negotiating on behalf of the Palestinian people. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been entirely absent, unwilling to stand up for his people. Meanwhile, Hamas’ cult of death and martyrdom does a disservice to their cause. Last week’s protests in Gaza against both Israel and Hamas were significant—not just in their scale, but in the reactions (and silence) they provoked.

“We demonstrated today to declare that we do not want to die. Eventually, it is Israel that attacks and bombs, but Hamas also bears direct responsibility, as do all who define themselves as Arab and Palestinian leaders,” one protester said. Tragically, one of the protest leaders was reportedly kidnapped and murdered.

That said, the paralysis of Palestinian politics is the result of Israel’s long-standing ‘divide and rule’ strategy, including its covert co-option of Hamas to weaken Fatah and its left-wing partners. Meanwhile, militant secular Palestinian leaders like Marwan Barghouti—who could take the liberation struggle to the next stage—languish in Israeli prisons. The stark reality is that Israel prefers fighting a band of criminal fanatics, whose actions serve as a pretext for its aggression, rather than confronting a rational and determined Palestinian leadership—one that is willing to take up arms against oppression but does so judiciously, with the welfare of the population in mind.  

---