French President Emmanuel Macron’s three-day visit to Washington has exposed the bitter economic and geopolitical rivalries that are tearing NATO apart during its war against Russia in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Macron publicly attacked the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed this year by the US Congress. Some $370 billion of IRA funds will subsidize the production of green technologies in the US or North America – but not Europe – that will help companies switch to electric cars, produce more advanced electronics and reduce greenhouse gas emissions . Macron has warned that such a protectionist policy, which threatens to exclude European products from US markets, could “split” NATO.
However, in a friendly press conference with Biden on Thursday, Macron called on the United States to fight alongside France in Ukraine as “brothers in arms.” He said nothing about the implications of the war, which could trigger a catastrophic energy crisis in Europe this winter, and signed a joint statement backing France’s aggressive stance against Russia and China.
Macron’s appearance must be understood as a warning of the deadly political and economic crisis of world capitalism. The deep economic conflicts that led to two world wars between the USA and Germany in the 20th century and which are now exacerbated by climate change and the corona pandemic are openly evident in political life. Moreover, the NATO powers find no other way to mask their differences than to escalate military threats against the major nuclear-armed powers.
Upon his arrival in Washington, Macron made it clear that his visit is part of the struggle between American and European capitalists for global markets. At a US congressional luncheon Wednesday, he slammed the Anti-Inflation Act (IRA) on climate and biodiversity issues, saying, “This is super aggressive for our companies.”
Macron added: ‘I don’t want to become America’s commodity market because I have the same products as you. I have a middle class who need to work and people who need to find work. And the effect of the IRA is that you solve your problems and worse mine in the process.Sorry to be so direct.
Later Wednesday, at the French embassy in Washington, Macron reiterated his views on the anti-inflation law: “The decisions that have been made … are decisions that will divide the West.”
Macron explained that the growing US war threats against China, especially on Taiwan, are also directed against European interests: “Let’s not fool ourselves, there is a risk here: the United States takes care of itself first – it is normal, us too – and then for their rivalry with China. And in doing so, Europe, and with it France, are treated in a certain sense as a variable with which to adjust their policies”.
Despite the growing conflicts between Berlin and Paris, Macron has also spoken out for influential factions of the ruling class in Germany, the European Union’s hegemonic power. The news magazine spiegel addresses some of these issues in an article titled “Why a US-EU Trade War Looms.”
The mirror writes that the IRA is building on former US President Donald Trump’s threats of massive US punitive tariffs on German cars and “also prescribes that [subventionierte] Products must come from North American manufacturing and is suspiciously reminiscent of the “America First” strategy. European politicians are therefore looking across the Atlantic with horror. … Even the chancellor is annoyed. During his recent trip to Asia, Olaf Scholz consistently campaigned for “more free trade” and “great progress” in globalization. Neither the direction nor the timing of the US initiative fit his fine words ».
The mirror highlights the likelihood of automobile, battery and high-tech manufacturing plants migrating from Europe to America: ‘Europe is no longer only in systemic competition with China, but also to some extent with the United States , says Joe Kaeser, longtime Siemens Chief… When you see how the US government is encouraging investment in America with the Inflation Reduction Act, it should come as no surprise that there is “a flight from localities and capital outside the Europe and towards the dollar”.
The exodus of manufacturing plants from Europe is being accelerated by the growing energy crisis following the US war against Russia in Ukraine. Washington has called on the EU to stop imports of natural gas from Russia and Biden, visiting Washington, warned Scholz that the US government knows how to “end” EU imports of Russian gas through the North pipelines Stream in the Baltic Sea prepared”. In September, two massive explosions promptly occurred on the two Nord Stream gas pipelines. Those responsible have not yet been identified, but the incident has turned out to be very profitable for US imperialism.
Energy costs in Europe have skyrocketed as US companies charge exorbitant prices for LPG to replace Russian gas. This summer, US exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe increased 15-fold year on year and increased again after the Nord Stream bombing.
But NATO’s war in Ukraine not only threatens to bankrupt energy-intensive European companies. Together with the global rise in the prices of food, energy and other essentials, it is unleashing another catastrophic social crisis for the European working class.
When Macron arrived in Washington, he reported The world on instructions from his government to police all over France to prepare for power outages. The plan calls for continuous blackouts affecting six million people (nine per cent of the French population) simultaneously, mainly from 8am to 1pm and 6pm to 8pm. Subways and trams would be closed and schools, lacking heat and light, would be closed. Mobile phone networks and emergency numbers for fire, police and rescue services could also collapse.
The world he added that the Macron government is also preparing for a “blackout scenario”, i.e. a prolonged collapse of the electricity grid, “but does not believe it”.
Under these circumstances, Macron’s promise that the French people will serve as Biden’s “brothers in arms” in wars around the world is politically criminal. Macron no doubt hopes that in this way the European financial aristocrats get a share of the loot from NATO’s plunder of Russia, China and the entire world. The criminality of this calculation is compounded by Macron’s open indifference to the impact on the health and livelihoods of workers in France and throughout Europe.
The only way to resist this policy is to build an international movement among youth and workers that combines strikes against inflation in America, Europe and the world with struggles against imperialist war and the capitalist system.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union by the Stalinist bureaucracy in 1991 not only allowed NATO to wage bloody wars in resource-rich states such as Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. It also opened up Eurasia to US and European corporations and sharpened geopolitical rivalries within world capitalism. Washington is using these wars not only to plunder the weakest and poorest countries, but also to cut off supplies to its imperialist rivals in Europe.
Workers cannot resist the imperialist war drive nationwide by supporting US imperialist rivals. Macron’s decision to stall and become Washington’s junior partner, at least for the moment, only demonstrates that the course of war, austerity and rearmament of the European powers is not fundamentally different from that of Washington from the point of view of the working class.
Workers and youth who want to wage a truly revolutionary struggle against the war are invited to participate in the international webinar of youth and students for social equality against the war in Ukraine on December 10th.
