European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

EUROPE: MEANING AND MOTIVE 57reality. Let us not beat about the bush: in this day and age the fact ofthe matter is that a combination of capital and certain reactionarymovements, ill-informed grey- or black-shirted populism and Johnnycome-latelyfundamentalism has put a check on freedom. At stake isthe freedom of our existence, and therefore that of all human beings,and on trial is our political will as citizens, and that of our youth, toconstruct Europe as the only possible response to such threats.In an attempt to face up to current challenges, I shall speak first ofall about the aims of constructing Europe institutionally, and themotives for doing so.Europe as a projected political union to promote freedomFreedom is under siege: from private economic power on the onehand, and on the other hand, from the catalogue of evils that I havejust described.The classic relationship between a social, democratic and constitutionalState and market economics —whereby companies respected thesocial rights of workers— came to an end in the 1970s. In sharpcontrast to what Hobsbawm described as the golden age (1945-1975),the internationalisation of economic relationships has freed capital fromthe ties imposed by State control, but currently there exists no politicalpower to intervene in order to counter-balance the international economic“dis-order”. The fact that it is so difficult for our States to protect socialrights and act as guarantors of freedom is just one consequence of thisnew state of affairs. Hegel (1799-1815) and Hermann Heller (1927)foresaw the subversion of constitutional States, to be replaced by ahandful of private rights, and feudal capitalism as we have know it inEurope since the 1980s; however, not even this foresight was able topredict the extremes that such a threat to our freedom would reach, asthose embodied today by private economic power and rampantglobalization.On the other hand, freedom is currently going through a criticalphase at the hands of highwaymen such as the gang who held up theWhite House —ENRON, Halliburton, Arthur-Andersen, Merrill Lynchand WorldCom—, Palazzo Chigi and his band of men, the Jihad orSharon’s warmongering Zionism, and the racism of governments andemerging groups in Europe. All of the aforementioned have stretchedthe rule of law to breaking point and have struck fear into the heart ofevery honest citizen. The 11th of September and growing levels of fearin our towns and cities have been talked about ad nauseam. However,