A Mutiny Against the West’s Order

Peter Mertens

I don’t think protectionism is the answer, but what has happened over the last five years, and especially since Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine, is that Europe has become more and more economically dependent on the United States. In that sense, the US has been the biggest winner in Russia’s war so far.

What we need, what the European working class needs, is a vision for a Europe that is independent of Russia, but also of the US and China. Europe needs a bit of self-confidence as a continent — not an imperial continent, but a continent that follows its own path, because I think we will lose if we are caught up in a conflict between the United States and China.

We need a plan for social and ecological investments on a massive scale as part of a broader European industrial strategy.

We need a plan for social and ecological investments on a massive scale as part of a broader European industrial strategy. I mentioned Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act — Europe has an answer to that, the Green Deal, but it mostly consists of incentives and subsidies for the private sector. That’s not what we need to address the challenges we face.

I went to Berlin while doing research for the book, and as a Belgian, I naively expected that German trains would be on time. It was a catastrophe! But it’s not just Germany, it’s not just Belgium — everywhere in Europe, our transportation systems are underfunded, our schools are underfunded, our hospitals are underfunded. We need massive investments in public infrastructure across the board, which, incidentally, will also create a lot of jobs.

It’s not a revolutionary approach or a socialist approach; it’s basically a neo-Keynesian approach. But that’s the phase we are in right now, a phase of chaos, and we have to put forward tangible democratic, social, and ecological proposals to get…