EUROPE IN THE WORLD ORDER AFTER 1945

 

Xi Jiping and Putin, drinking Vodka (4 February 2022)

 

After having seen how European Nation-States committed suicide in the two World Wars of the first half of the 20th century, in 1945 Europe was generally a continent in ruins, at the mercy of both World Power: the US and the USSR.  European Nation-States that in 1914 were controlling the world in three decades had become ruined countries with no influence in the Planet. Only when they realized their critical situation European States governments understood that the only way of being relevant again was getting together. First they tried the federal way (how we will see in Teaching guide 9) and the failure of this attempt led to the Communitarian Integration (Teaching guides 10, 11 and 12). But before getting there we should remember what has been the position of Europe from 1945 to the present in the World Order, especially after the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the disappearance of the USSR in 1991. Until the beginning of the Ukrainian War started by Putin in February 2022. This is what we are going to study in Teaching Guide 7. 

But first let's remember how the European Nation States sank from 1918 to 1945. First during the Interbellum period that lasted until 1939 and led to World War II. 

The distress of Europe in 1918

The European Nation-States were destroyed in 1918. Economies in the Entente Allies and in the Central Powers sunk. The growth of national indebtedness, both internal and external, of the Entente Allies and the Central Powers rose from 27.883.000.000 USD in 1914 to 224,174,000,000 in the period 1918-1919. US economic output doubled in 4 years and became the leading economy of the world after the war. Before World War 1 European Nation-States had 55% of the World GDP, and in 1918 the US hold 45%. In 1914 the US imported more than exported to Europe. In 1918 it was the other way round. Since 1918 the US became the leading World Power. It would remain so until 1945, and then will share world supremacy with the USSR. Until 1991. 

US President Woodrow Wilson in Versailles Treaty Discussions (1919)

From Liberal democracies to Totalitarian States

World War I provoked the crisis of the Laissez faire regimes, the Liberal Democracies, where the State had a minimum intervention. The Liberal model was replaced since the October 1917 Soviet Revolution by totalitarianism. Of course in Soviet Russia, but also, as a reaction (as the Establishment of European States were afraid that what it had happened in Russia could happen everywhere) by the raise of Mussolini’s Fascist regime in Italy (1922) and the triumph of Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany (from 1933). The consequence was that Europe was torn as a result of the growing tensions between the Communist and the Fascist-Nazi models of Dictatorship. Why? Because on the one hand Lenin had founded in 1919 the Kommintern for expanding communist revolution worldwide, which finally would result in a relaunch of Russian imperialism, and on the other side Mussolini wanted to create an Italian Empire in Africa with its colonial expeditions in Libya, Abyssinia and Ethiopia, and finally Hitler decided that Germany hat to expand Eastwards  (Lebensraum), to consolidate the might of the Third Reich

Europe in 1939

From the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) to World War II

Tensions exploded for the first time in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in which Stalin supported one side and Hitler and Mussolini the other one, while European and American democracies followed the non intervention principle. 

The Spanish carnage, however, was only the prologue of a much greater global confrontation: World War 2, that started with a surprising alliance between Stalin and Hitler, that agreed in invading and splitting Poland, a fresh new State created as a result of the Versailles Peace of 1919. 

Cartoon on the Hitler-Stalin Alliance (8 September 1939)

World War 2 started because Hitler and Stalin agreed on an alliance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of September 8, 1939. Three weeks before the Wehrmacht attack on Poland that launched World War 2. 

The Wehrmacht in Danzig On September 1, 1939

Two weeks later Stalin occupied its part of Poland and ordered Katyn’s massacre from March to May 1940.

Hitler commits the same mistake as Napoleon: invade Russia

Hitler would have won the war if he had not ordered the invasion of the USSR on 22 June 1941. Because after a year of a quick invasion, the Wehrmacht was stopped at Stalingrad (actual Volvograd) in the fiercest battle of the whole war that lasted 6 months (From August 23, 1942 to February 2, 1943).

 It was Stalin's moment. The Russian dictator understood that this battle was decisive and sente everything he had, first to stop the German advance, and then to surround German Army.  This was a major blow on Hitler's prestige, as for the first time Europeans understood that Germany could lose the war. 

Stalin wins World War II and share the World with Roosevelt. 

 The problem was that the Russian Army and the Stalinist dreadful dictatorship would become decisive for imposing the final defeat of Germany two years and three months after Stalingrad’s battle. Along with the US, Russians won World War II. This is why in the Tehran Conference of 1943, and then in Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam (July-August 1945) the World was divided between Russians and Americans. Despite that Churchill was present, European Governments had nothing to say in the New World Order. 

Yalta (Crimea) Conference 

The key of it was Stalin’s position. After having started the war as Hitler’s ally, Soviet Russia ended the war in the side of allies. This paradox explains why Soviet Dictatorship was accepted by intellectuals in the Western world, and the Communist Parties depending on Moscow spread in Western European democracies. 

If you want to understand the fascination that Stalin exerted over European Public Opinion you should not miss the film Mr Jones (2019)  directed by Polish Agnieska Holland. The film is based on the true story of Gareth Jones, an ambitious ambitious young journalist who had gained some renown for his interview with Hitler. Thanks to his connections with the former British Prime Minister Lloyd George (both Welsh)  he is granted official permission in 1933 to travel to the Soviet Union to interview Stalin and find out more about Russian apparently economic success of the five year development plan. Jones cannot leave Moscow but he escapes, jumps in a train and travels unofficially to Ukraine to discover evidence of the big Famine (Holomodor), the enforced collection of grain, empty villages, with starving people that are reduced to cannibalism. But on his efforts to denounce the real Stalin on his return to Britain, he struggles to get his story taken seriously. The film ends by recording that Jones died while reporting in Inner Mongolia with a guide who was secretly connected the Soviet Secret Service the State Political Directorate (GPU). 

 The GPU is the symbol of Stalin's brutal repression that has remained one of the main features of the Russian succesive regimes since then. The GPU was replaced in 1934 by the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) that will send the Spaniard NKVD agent Ramon Mercader to assassinate Trosky  in Mexico on 21 August 1940, by order of Stalin.  

                                             Trosky killed by NKVD Agent Ramon Mercader (Mexico, 21 August 1940)

 The NKVD became in 1954 by the dreadful KGB (Committee for State Security) . After the disappearance of the Soviet Union in  1991 the KGB was replaced by the FSB (Federal Service of Security), which has become an essential instrument of repression in Putin's neozarist regime. Bear in mind that Putin started his career as a member of the dreadful "Stasi" the secret police of East Germany. 

The Cold War (1948-1989)

 Stalin's alliance with the US did not last long. The Marshall Plan (1947) will be the detonator of the Cold War (1948-1989) as Stalin would not accept American aid for developing market economy in Eastern Europe. It all started with the Berlin Blockade (24  June 1948 to 12 May 1949), that ended as a result of the creation of NATO on April 4, 1949. 

The result was the Iron curtain (Churchill) and it's symbol: the Berlin Wall (1961-1989). 

But the Iron Curtain did not only affect Europe. Between 1948 and 1989 the whole World would be divided between the countries that followed Capitalist Democracy and Communist Model. There was not an open war but the USSR and the US were struggling in all continents, until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

 The defeat of the Communist model as a result of the Cold War was possible because Western democracies adapted to the Social Question through the development of the Welfare State Model, that paradoxically started in the US in the 1930’s with the New Deal policy of FDR. From 1945 Social Security, and Public Welfare aids were supported all over Western Europe by tax payers. Something that was initially possible thanks to the extraordinary Economic growth of the Thirty Glorious years. 

 This is why as a reaction to USSR intervention during the Dubcek’s Prague’s Spring (January-August 1968).the European Communists parties started rebelling against Moscow. That was the the advent of Euro communism, with leaders as Italian Enrico Berlinguer, 

The end of Communism?

 The fall of the Berlin Wall and the extinction of the Soviet Union brought market economy to ancient communists regimes. Russia has become since 1991 a system dominated by powerful multimillionaire oligarchs protected by Putin as far as they back his regime. Because otherwise they end like Boris Berezovski whao after having rebelled against Putin was found dead in his London home in March 2013. 

Boris Berezovski (1946-2013) 

And China after Den Xiaoping (1978-1992) has entered in the Era of Market Socialism that has transformed China in a leading World Power in the 21st century. A very powerful Dictatorial state that surprisingly is playing full the Market rules. An amazing contradiction. 

Den Xiao Ping: the hero of Modern China

The “socialization” of Western capitalism and the “capitalization” of Eastern Communism has led in  very efficient way to the globalization of the World. The consequence of globalization from the International Relations perspective is may be the beginning of a global constitutional history.

This global approach to World tensions started with the creation of the League of Nations (1920-1946), that was substituted by the United Nations since 1945). The rule since then is that International Organizations (WTO, GATT, IMF, World Bank) created by Treaties, seek to rule the world through negotiation and governance instead of through authority and military intervention. 

The Post Cold War World (1991-2022)

But the disappearance of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the Communists regimes did not led to the End of history (because apparently the American capitalist model had won the Cold War). We do not assist today to a unique American leadership as we are facing a multi-polar world where China, India and the Russian federation are challenging US supremacy. 

 On top of that we are facing a global World in which economic and social differences are increasing. It all started with the 1975 Oil crisis that stopped the expansionist cycle of Western economy. And suddenly wealthy Western States could not afford the Welfare State System. Which brought the anti-regulation movement of the 1980’s spearheaded by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and bringing back Laissez faire in a neo-liberal wave.                                      

 Capitalism after the 1980’s neoliberal way has produced a substantial rising of economic and social inequalities, that is leading to a new oligarchic model of the State controlled by the Establishment, despite the interesting theories of  the Legal and Political American thinker John Rawls who developed a very peculiar way of making compatible the Laissez faire principle and the protection of equality. Have you heard about the Universal income? He was the guy who brought the idea into our contemporary world. 

John Rawls (1921-2002)

After the collapsing of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the only two real communist countries are Cuba and North Korea. But Russia and China are trying to impose their authoritarian model to the globalized world, as an alternative to the Western Democratic System. The Ukraine’s invasion by Putin troops has made it clear, especially after the sudden alliance between Xi Jiping and Putin (4 February 2022). 

Democracy is in crisis, with the rise of populisms, even in the US with the Trump Administration that brought the shameful episode of the storming of the United States Capitol by the mob of Trump supporters on January 6, 2021. What is crazy is that despite this ominous episode Trump is running for Presidency again in 2024. Which is a clear symptom of the weakness of the democratic model. 

Washington D.C. 6 of January 2021

Is the European Union the last champion of the Free World?

 Looking at what is happening to the US, a country that after 1945 was supposed to be the champion of the Free world, we have to admit that the European Union is from this perspective doing much better. Simply because the Rule of Law is one of the pillars of European integration, along with a respect of the Welfare State principle.

 The problem is that after the Ukraine’s invasion European States have discovered that they cannot entirely count on the US military protection and that European States have to reinforce their military policy independently from NATO. Because economical union is not enough and if we Europeans want to maintain our democracies we will have to fight for them. Unfortunately it is not sure at all that Member States of the EU have understood the lesson of the Ukraine War, as today it seems that Putin's Russia is doing much better and actually could win the War. Which would be disastrous for Europe and for the Free World.   

Versailles's Summit on Ukraine's War (10-11 March 2022)

The problem is how Europe is facing the 21st century as a huge market (first GDP in the world) but with no leadership, as lacking of a strong Executive.  The problem for Europe is that our old Nation States are doing very poorly at the global level. We are irrelevant compared to China, Russia, India or even the Petro Monarchies as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or the United Arab Emirates. And most of this countries –with may be with the exception of India- are not real democracies. Of course we are not used to it because the world had been in peace from 1991 to 2022. But things will never be the same, independently of the issue of the Ukraine’s war. 

The most important idea you have to retain of Teaching Guide 7 is how after 1945 Europe was left far behind World leadership, despite our considerable economic expansion Nevertheless prosperity has not helped European nation states to join the league of the leading protagonists of the World contemporary history.  Ukraine’s War may change this situation after almost 8 decades, but it is not sure that European States are willing or capable of resisting Putin and Xi Jiping. Mainly because money still makes the world go round after all.  

The main problem that Europe is facing to get back as a protagonist in World history is that we have not found an effective way of getting together to defend our interests and our political, legal, social and economical model. Why? This is what we are going to find out in the next Teaching Guides.     

INSTRUCTIONS: First read the text included in your Materials (pages 163 to 181), before proceeding to answer the Concrete Questions, the Concepts and the General Questions. 

Concerning the Basic Chronology (pages 182-186) the crucial dates are the following: 

1946 (Appearance of the Italian Republic), 

1947 (Marshall Plan)

1948, June (beginning of the Berlin Blockade), 

1949 (Creation of NATO, Appearance of German Federal Republic and Mao’s triumph in China), 

1953 (Death of Stalin), 

1958 (DE Gaulle’s in power), 

1959 (Castro’s victory in Cuba), 

1961 (beginning of the Berlin Wall), 

1963 (JFK’s assassination), 

1964 (beginning of the Vietnam War), 

1966 (beginning of China’s Cultural Revolution), 

1968 January-August (Prague Spring), 

1973 (military coup in Chile against Allende), 

1974 (Nixon’s resignation Watergate scandal), 

1975 (end of Vietnam War and death of Franco), 

1976 (Death of Mao), 

1978 (Den Xiao Ping in Power and beginning of Market Socialism in China), 

1979 (Founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran), 

1985 (Gorbatchev in power in the USSR), 

1989, November 9 (Fall of the Berlin Wall), 

1990 (German reunification), 

1991 (Extinction of the USSR), 

2001, September 11 (Islamic Terrorism hits the US), 

2004, March 11 (Terrorist attack in Madrid), 

2005 (Angela Merkel becomes German chancellor), 

2008 (Obama becomes US President), 

2014 (Juan Carlos I resigns on his son Philip VI as king of Spain, and Scottish referendum of independence), 

2015 (Bataclan terrorist attack in Paris), 

2016 (Brexit referendum and Donald Trump election), 

2017 October 1st (Catalan independence illegal referendum), 

2020, January 31 (The UK leaves the EU).

2020, March (Expansion of COVID 19’s Pandemic all over the world), 

2021 (January 6: assault on US Capitol by Trump supporters; 

January 20: Joe Biden takes office as the 46 US President

8 December: Olaf Scholz German Chancelor. 

 And of course you have to add:  

1999, the 31st December when Putin gets to Power after Boris Yeltsin resignation,

2022, the 24th of January, date of the beginning of the Ukraine’s invasion.   

TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS: Why Europeans despite being developed economies we do not have a decisive influence in today’s world? 

Please consider the following aspects: 

1. Remember the History of Europe in 1919-1939, and from 1945. Especially during the Cold War period. Try to think of the most influential European leaders during this period. 

2. Think why a country like the Russian Federation where the average population is facing serious economic problems is far more influential than European nation-States today. 

3. Do the US, China, Russia, India have a powerful national narrative? If so explain why and which one. And compare with the European reality. 

4. Is the Welfare State a problem in terms of Economic growth? Read the pages about John Rawls theory (176) before answering. Is social justice (reducing inequalities) a problem for becoming a powerful country worldwide? Think about Boris Johnson following statement: "The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed, my friends." (24 March 2021)

5. Is democracy a problem for having a powerful State? Think of how Russia has been trying to destabilize Western democracies, taking advantage of local domestic conflicts (as US Presidential Elections, Catalan Conflict, Brexit).  And also how a dictatorial regime as China is becoming a leading power. Also consider the case of Petro Monarchies. 

6. Does the money really makes the world go round? Is it material comfort all that matters. 

   

WILL EUROPE PERISH? AN HOMMAGE TO ALEKSÉI NAVALNY (1976-2024)

 

Alekséi Navalny (1976-2024)

Friday March 1st, 2024, Mother of God Quench My Sorrows Church

Navalny's Grave at Borisov Cemetery

 

A brave Man and a cowardly Europe

When we are entering Teaching Guide 6 ("The Suicide of Europe") we are facing an unending War in Ukraine. Two years have passed since on Thursday 24 of February 2022 Vladimir Putin ordered  the invasion. 

On 16 February 2024 died in a Russian Jail at the age of 48 the figure that is certainly the simbol of Russian opposition to Vladimir Putin's dictatorship: Alekséi Navalny. This is why we start this entry with an homage to his courage and bravery. 

Officially he died from illness, but it is quite likely that it was an execution ordered by Putin. In fact the Russian President already tried to poison Navalny on the 20 of August of 2020. Alekséi survived, but instead of staying in the West he decided to get back to Russia where he was immediately arrested. Four years later he was found dead in his cell. 

 The worst part of this mournful episode is the general indifference of European and Western Governments on the latest act of villany of one of the most ruthless and corrupt dictators of our time: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The crux of the matter is why we Europeans tolerate such ominous acts.  And part of the answer is that European Governments do not want to get involved in a War after the most traumatic experiences of World War I and II. The other part is that Europeans and Westerners in general have become cowards and spoiled people. And Putin is very much aware of it. 

 Two years ago Putin thought the invasion of Ukraine was going to be a very short war. A Blitzkrieg. A Walkover. Two years later the war goes on with an uncertain issue. The only thing we know is that Putin has brought back war to Europe. A complete strange notion for all those born after 1945. 

The origins of the Ukrainian Conflict

 77 years later we realize that what initially looked like a conflict between two states, appears now more like a wider conflict between the West and the East. As the problem for Putin is that Ukraine want to go West. To join the EU and even NATO. And Putin considers Ukraine part of Russia. Why? Because Kiev was the first Russian Capital. It was the head of the “Kievan Rus”, the first East Slavic State. 

The Kievan Rus in the 11th century

Giving back Russians their pride 

The real problem is that Western Governments did not realize that after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the extinctions of the USSR in 1991, they have been humiliating Russians, as President Clinton openly did when he publically laughed about an inhebriated Boris Yeltsin. And Putin have never forgiven us for this and he has done everything since 2000 for giving back Russia its pride. 

In fact Putin woukld like to get back to the USSR times, under Stalin, when Russia was almighty and Ukraine was part of the Soviet Federation. But today the majority of Ukranians not only do not feel Russians, but consider themselves Europeans and want join the EU. 

Between freedom and dictatorship

 In fact the Ukranian War is a conflict about a model of society and civilization. Between liberal democracies and democratic dictatorships called “democraturs”, like the one that exists in Russia, where Vladimir Putin has been in power since 2000 and since then he has developed an illiberal democracy where power has no limits, information is controlled by the state and dissidents are poisoned, like Alexander Litvinenko, or put in jail like Alexei Navalny, the three young women integrating the Pussy Riot punk-rock group, Vladimir Kara-Murza or Maria Ponomarenko. For denouncing the war. Or the Special operation as Putin named it. 

Aleksandr Litvinenko, a dissident writter in his death bed (2006)

                                      The Pussy Riot, a punk-rock  Group imprisoned in 2021

Alexei Navalny, arrested in 2018

Navalny poisoned in August 2020

Vladimir Kara-Mourza. After being poisoned twice he is in since 2022 in prison for 20 years

The Journalist Mariya Ponomarenko. Six years of imprisonment for protesting against Ukrainian War

Putin has a very poor opinion of us Europeans

 Let's recognize that until February of 2022 Putin had done a great job. After reaching power in 2000 after the disastrous government of Yeltsine, his priority was is to give back the Russians their pride, after one decade of humiliation. Knowing that we Europeans we are mostly concerned about how to keep our comfortable lives, he was sure that he could control us through gas and oil production, and that we could be bought by the new Russian oligarchs, that have already transformed London in Londongrad. This is why he was so confident about Ukraine invasion. He thought we would not give a damn about Ukranians as our priority is to live well.  

An unexpected European reaction

 But surprisingly European Governments reacted sending excellent weapons to Ukraine, spending more money in our armies and adopting economic sanctions against Putin’s regime and his bunch of oligarchs, disregard the fact that they affect severely our economies. How so? Because, simply put, Putin has helped us to realize that our whole liberal democratic way of life is in danger. 

And what about Ukranians. In 2014 they had accepted the annexation of Crimea, and were more or less willing to accept that territories were the Russian population is a majority would end up having the same fate. But suddenly they are willing to defend their country to the last soldier. That national narrative that Putin thought was inexistent is jeopardizing a war that he thought was not going to last long because he was convinced that most of Ukrainian population would welcome Russian soldiers as their saviors from a corrupt and “nazi” regime. The problem is that he was misinformed. After 23 years in power Putin only hear what he wants to hear. 

 

Unfortunately for him he has in front the Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelenski a Jew, that studied law, speaks fluent Russian and is a great communicator as he has worked like a comedian from 1997 to 2018, before entering politics and becoming Ukraine’s Prime Minister on the 20 of Mai 2019. Putin did not consider Zelenski as a problem, but the latter, instead of fleeing became the head of the fierce Ukranian resistance, and has become a National hero for more than 90% of Ukrainians. T

It is clear that after two years Western Governments are tired of the War and they hesitate to keep on sending weapons and money to Zelenski. Would that mean that Putin will end up winning the war? We honestly do not know. It will depend greatly on if Donald Trump would be or not reelected. 

 Two things are however clear: 1) as a result of Putin’s invasion Ukraine may lost territory, but the country would never be Russian again. And 2) Europe,  is  not willing to engage in a full scale war. Not in Ukraine anyhow.  And why is Europe so reluctant in getting involved in a war? Well this is what we are going to see in Teaching Guide 6 dedicated to how the mighty European States destroyed themselves in what could be considered the worst war in Human history: World War I. 

 

We do not want war at any cost

 War is shocking especially because for 77 years we honestly thought we were done with war. And looking at the horror of the images of this war, suddenly we remember with panic the tragic holocausts of the two World Wars of the first half of the 20th century that destroyed Europe. The Ukraine situation is bringing us back to some of the darkest moments of our history. It is therefore time to reopen our history books and try to understand how was it possible that in thirty years, from 1914 to 1945, the mighty European Nation-States collapsed and disappeared from the World Front Stage?

How could the insignificant States of the 15th century that in four centuries got to control the world, returned to insignificancy in such a short period? This is what we are going to analyze today from a very concrete perspective: the insufficiencies of the Nation-State model. 

We will start with the apocalyptic conflict that was World War I. May be to this day the worst war in Human history, mainly because it was the first “total war”, meaning that every nation-state involved dedicated all resources, material and human, to exterminate the adversary. In World War I all Europeans were more than happy to go to a war towards a hatred enemy thinking that it was going to be a very short war in the name of nationalism. But War lasted 4 and half long years, with millions of dead and more of crippled. 

Corpses of French soldiers abandoned in a trench

Jean Jaures the Traitor

A holocaust that was sustained by a deeply rooted xenophobic narrative nationally promoted that led in France, for instance, to the assassination of the Socialist leader Jean Jaurès (1859-31 July 1914) simply because he was a pacifist.     The worst part of it was that his assassin was acquitted in 1919 and released, and Jaures widow had to pay the expenses of procedure. Because Jaures attitude was considered antipatriotic and therefore high treason to the French Nation.  No comments!!!

A European suicide

 In fact history has proven that Jaurès was absolutely right, but he could not prevent the disasters that militarism brought to Europe. Because the suicide of the Great War of 1914-1918 led to the abrupt end of Liberalism and the return of authoritarian regimes, starting with Bolshevik Russia, and continuing with Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany. Dreadful dictatorships brought by the aftermaths of the massive and absurd massacre that led the world to war again in 1939, leaving Europe in ruins.  

The "Brandenburg Tor" in May 1945                                                   

This s why the great Belgian singer Jacques Brel (1929-1978) asked himself in a beautiful and moving song “Why they killed Jaurès” (Pour quoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?), released in 1977, in what was his last album, simply called “BREL”, before dying from cancer a few months later.  

    

Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?

 Ils étaient usés à quinze ans

Ils finissaient en débutant

Les douze mois s'appelaient décembre

Quelle vie ont eu nos grand-parents

Entre l'absinthe et les grand-messes

Ils étaient vieux avant que d'être

Quinze heures par jour le corps en laisse

Laissent au visage un teint de cendres

Oui notre Monsieur, oui notre bon Maître

… Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?

Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?

… On ne peut pas dire qu'ils furent esclaves

De là à dire qu'ils ont vécu

Lorsque l'on part aussi vaincu

C'est dur de sortir de l'enclave

Et pourtant l'espoir fleurissait

Dans les rêves qui montaient aux yeux

Des quelques ceux qui refusaient

De ramper jusqu'à la vieillesse

… Oui notre bon Maître, oui notre Monsieur

Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?

… Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?

… Si par malheur ils survivaient

C'était pour partir à la guerre

C'était pour finir à la guerre

Aux ordres de quelques sabreurs

Qui exigeaient du bout des lèvres

Qu'ils aillent ouvrir au champ d'horreur

Leurs vingt ans qui n'avaient pu naître

Et ils mouraient à pleine peur

Tout miséreux oui notre bon Maître

Couverts de prêles oui notre Monsieur

… Demandez-vous belle jeunesse

Le temps de l'ombre d'un souvenir

Le temps du souffle d'un soupir

Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?

Pourquoi ont-ils tué Jaurès?

ENGLISH TRANSLATION of “JAURÈS” 

They were worn up at fifteen years old

They were finishing while beginning

The twelve months were named December

What kind of life did our grandparents have?

Between the absinth and the high masses

They were old before being

Fifteen hours a day, the body on a leash

Leaves to the face an ash like complexion

Yes our Sir, yes our kind Master

Why did they kill Jaurès?

Why did they kill Jaurès?

One cannot say they were slaves

But to say that hey have lived

When you start defeated like that

It’s hard to come ou of the enclave

And though hope was flourishing

In the dreams which were going up to the eyes

Of the few who were refusing

To crawl until the old age

Yes our kind Master, yes our Sir 

Why did they kill Jaurès?

Why did they kill Jaurès?

If by misfortune they survived

It was to go to war

It was to end at war

Under the orders of some swordsman

Who was demanding half-heartedly 

That they go open in the field of horror

Their twenties which didn’t have the chance to be born

And they died in full fear

All miserable, yes our kind Master

Covered with field horsetails, yes our Sir

Ask yourself pretty youth

The time of the shadow of a memory

The time of the blow of a sigh

Why did they kill Jaurès?

Why did they kill Jaurès?

For understanding the horror of World War I, besides the Brel’s song, I give you some recommendations. From the victors side: the Movies “A Very Long Engagement” (Un long dimanche de fiançailles)  of Jean Pierre Jeunet, released in 2004 and  “Merry Christmas” (Joyeux Noël) of Christian Carion Released in 2005, and based on true events. Also the spectacular movie 1917, a Sam Mendes film released in 2019. 

 

And finally, as I guess you are developing a taste for reading, I would recommend you to read Pierre Lemaitre’s Novel “The Great Swindle” (Au revoir là haut) that enabled the author to receive in 2013 the most prestigious French Litterary price, the “Prix Goncourt.”

From the German perspective I will recommend you the great pacifist novel of Erich von Remarque (1898-1970) All Quiet in the Western Front (1929). You can read it or see one of its movie versions: 1930, 1979 y 2022.  

The cost of protecting the socially weak

 As, by the way, it is impossible to understand the Russian Revolution, the Dictatorships of Mussolini and Hitler or the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) if you do not grasp the social consequences of the expansion of big capitalism and the rising of “the Social question”,  a large part of the text of Teaching Guide 6 (pages 127-139) is dedicated  to this crucial aspect, including the “democratic solution” to the problem unexpectedly  invented by US President F.D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.

By the way the New Deal would lead to the Welfare State Model, consolidated in the UK in 1942 by William Beveridge.  

William Beveridge: the Founder of Social Security 

Something especially important considering the actual resurgence of inequalities worldwide, as a result of the Neoliberal policies started by the Western States in the 1980’s decade. This huge effort to help the poorer classes of our opulent societies has been one of the main causes why we have not had a war in Europe for 77 years. 

In our today’s topic for discussion we will analyze if we are assisting today to a resurgence of the fear of War (with Russia, with China) because of the reappearance of the social question as a result of the overwhelming growing of inequalities all over the Planet.    

How nationalism has brought back war to Europe          

Though the most important idea you have to retain from Teaching Guide 6 is how the Nation-State model brought to the destruction of Europe in only three decades. And how in 1945 when half of Europe was at the mercy of Stalin troops that had occupied Eastern Europe we asked the United States to give us military assistance in case of Russian invasion. And NATO was created the 4 of April 1949. 

In a globalized world and a Europe that sticks together because of economic interest many we were wondering if NATO still made any sense. But suddenly since the 24 of February we have realized that it does. In fact Putin has used the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO as a pretext to start his war. 

Are we are facing a resurgence of a New Cold war in which Western countries are increasingly facing Russia where Vladimir Putin is considering a rebuilt of the Soviet Union dissolved by the Belavezha Accords on the 8 December 1991, the moment in which Ukraine became an independent State? 

We do not want to be free at any cost

 Are we going towards World War Three? Of course that would depend a lot on the attitude of China. So far Putin has tried to get President Xi Jiping on his side. But as the Putin’s Blitzkrieg did not work, China is extremely cautious, as he is aware that the conflict would create a major economic crisis that would bring huge instability to his dictatorial regime. Remember that so far Chinese society accepts dictatorship because it has brought great prosperity. An economical crisis would bring social unrest and would jeopardize the political regime. This is why China is trying very badly to find a way to end this war. Wait and see.

 For 77 years pacifism has been the rule in Europe. But now there is growing fear that war is going to be again on our tables. Because everybody is afraid of war with the exception of ex colonel of the KGB Vladimir Putin, that spend 20% of the budget of the Russian economy in weapons. Bear in mind that for one of the largest countries in the World with 146 million inhabitants, Russian economy is smaller than German Economy (4.036 billions v. 4.597 billions) with only 80 million. 

 The real question is if after Ukraine’s Invasion we Europeans are willing to consider that everything has to be done to prevent Putin of imposing his iron fist in the Old Continent. Getting back to the old proverb: Si vis pacem para bellum? Or simply we would stay in our quiet and confortable material lives considering that Ukraine is not our problem. Even if it costs us our liberty  

But who wants to be free?

 

 INSTRUCTIONS: First read the text included in your Materials (pages 124 to 161), before proceeding to answer the Concrete Questions, the Concepts and the General Questions. 

Concerning the Basic Chronology (pages 158-159) all 21 dates included are crucial.  

TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS: Are we in the eve of Third World War? 

Please consider the following aspects: 

1. Think about what were the causes of the Two European World Wars of the first half of the 20th century.

2. Is Putin imitating the Lebensraum policy of Hitler? Think of the parallelisms of the Austrian Anschluss, The Sudeten Crisis and the Munich Conference of 1938 with the actual policy of Putin in Belarus, Crimea, Donbass and Lugansk and what has been so far the attitude of Western Democracies.  

3. Is it possible to rebuild a Soviet Union in the 21st century? Give arguments in both directions. 

4. Are economic interests in a globalized world so determinant that would make unthinkable a Major War at the World level?

5. Think about the history of NATO and how it has been expanding since 1991. 

6. Review the Cuban Missiles Crisis of 1962 and see if you could establish a parallelism with the Eastern expansion of NATO since 1991.  

7. Think about China’s role in this crisis.

8. Think about the attitude of the US in this crisis. Do you think the approach to the Venezuelan dictatorship of Maduro by the Biden’s Administration makes sense? Is it bearable for Democrats?