[D66] The European Union’s Nobel Peace Prize

[Antid Oto]

The European Union’s Nobel Peace Prize
15 October 2012

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union is motivated 
by purely political considerations. It is aimed at providing support to 
all those who, in the name of defending the EU, are carrying out the 
most brutal attacks against working people since the 1930s.

The five-member Nobel committee of the Norwegian Parliament justified 
its selection by citing the “successful struggle of the EU for peace and 
reconciliation and for democracy and human rights.” The committee 
recalled “the terrible suffering in World War II”, as well as the three 
wars fought between Germany and France over a period of 70 years, and 
declared, “Today a war between France and Germany is unthinkable.”

This entire line of argumentation turns reality upside down. Since the 
Maastricht Treaty, twenty years ago, which laid the basis for the 
European Union, the EU or its leading powers have been involved in every 
major imperialist war and crime—including the first Iraq war, the 
bombing of Yugoslavia, the war in Afghanistan, the second Iraq war, and 
more recently the war against Libya and the preparation of wars against 
Syria and Iran.

As for the reference to “unthinkable” wars within Europe, the 
unrelenting austerity measures imposed by the EU reignite all the social 
and national tensions that transformed the continent from 1914 to 1945 
into the battlefield of two world wars and the site of the worst crimes 
committed in history.

Far from promoting “democracy and human rights,” the EU is the main 
driving force for mounting social inequality, national tensions and 
authoritarian forms of rule across the continent. It embodies the 
dictatorship of finance capital over all aspects of economic and social 
life, imposing social cuts against the will of the vast majority of the 
electorate and—as took place in Italy and Greece—installing technocrats 
to replace elected governments when the latter were no longer able to 
impose EU diktats over popular resistance. The EU’s ruthless persecution 
of refugees and immigrants has, moreover, strengthened extreme 
right-wing organizations.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU is an affront to 
millions of European workers seeking to defend their social and 
democratic rights against the diktats from Brussels. The threat bound up 
with the decision of the Nobel committee is clear: “If you oppose the 
policies laid down by the EU and jeopardize its future, Europe will once 
again be plunged into war and dictatorship.”

The very opposite is the truth. Europe can be united and its population 
enabled to live together in peace and prosperity only when the power of 
the financial markets is broken and social inequality overcome. This 
requires the unification and mobilization of the working class against 
the European Union and its replacement by the United Socialist States of 
Europe.

For countless European workers and young people, the European Union has 
become synonymous with unemployment, welfare cuts and bureaucratic 
arrogance. They react to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize with 
disgust and contempt.

All the more enthusiastic is the reaction of the media and the entire 
spectrum of official political parties. Rarely has such an outlandish 
decision been met with such unanimous—and hypocritical—praise.

Herman von Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso, the two leading figures of 
the EU, described the prize as the “highest recognition for the unique 
effort to overcome war and division, to jointly create a continent based 
on peace and prosperity.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the driving 
force of EU austerity measures, assessed the prize as confirmation that 
the euro is more “than just a currency, because, in the last resort, it 
is about the idea of Europe as a community of values and peace.”

The leaders of the Greens in the German parliament, Renate Künast and 
Jürgen Trittin, commented, “The most successful peace project in the 
history of the European continent has been awarded the Nobel Peace 
Prize.” Gabi Zimmer, chairperson of the European Left in the European 
Parliament, expressed joy over an award that “commemorates the positive 
values of the EU.”

This is not the first time the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded for 
clearly political purposes. In fact, it is difficult to find a case in 
the 111-year history of the award when this was not the case. Endowed by 
Alfred Nobel, the man who invented dynamite and multiplied the 
destructive power of bombs, mines and guns—making a fortune in the 
process—the prize has always been characterized by hypocrisy.

The recipients include political reactionaries such as Henry Kissinger 
(1973), Menachem Begin (1978) and FW de Klerk (1993), as well as four 
American presidents—Theodore Roosevelt (1906), Woodrow Wilson (1919), 
Jimmy Carter (2002) and Barack Obama (2009).

The awarding of the prize to Obama three years ago was particularly 
bizarre. He had been in office for just nine months and had seamlessly 
continued the war-mongering policies of his predecessor. Comments at the 
time described the prize as a “symbolic boost” and “encouragement” for 
Obama to depart from the course of George W. Bush. In reality, the 
committee presented Obama with a carte blanche. It signaled that the 
commander in chief of the most powerful military machine in the world 
had the support of liberal European public opinion to do what he liked.

This has since been confirmed. Obama has continued the policies of his 
predecessor. Guantanamo remains open. The president uses drones to 
assassinate opponents of US imperialism. He has intensified the war in 
Afghanistan, authored a new war against Libya, and is preparing military 
intervention in Syria and war against Iran—with the support of virtually 
all of those who criticised the war policies of the Bush administration.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU and the enthusiastic 
reaction of the media and erstwhile liberal and left layers of the 
middle class demonstrates the extent of the social and political 
polarization in Europe. As the economic crisis deepens and unemployment, 
poverty and social inequality continue to grow, these layers are lining 
up behind the EU and other bastions of reaction precisely as growing 
numbers of working people are coming into conflict with these 
institutions. This contradiction will inevitably explode in the form of 
massive class struggles.

Peter Schwarz

http://wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/pers-o15.shtml