On January 1, 2002, 12 European countries introduced Euro notes and coins. Only three EU states - Sweden, Denmark and the UK - stood aside.
What should the left say? Does it matter to us?
The underlying process is this: Europe is being united, from above, in the interests of the European capitalists. The capitalists are merging the separate European economies for their mutual benefit.
Britian joined the European club late - in the 1970s - because the British capitalists had more links with US or Commonwealth capitalism, and less with mainland Europe. And that's why parties like the Tories are split on Europe. A section of the British capitalists - mainly that group with strong business ties to the US - plus smaller capitalists, are opposed to paying the price of joining the Euro; the majority of the capitalists want to join the Euro club because they think it makes good business sense.
The process of drawing Europe together is, in the abstract, positive and progressive. The internationalist left has no interest at all in defending "little England" against the "nasty" French of Germans, as papers like the 'Sun' and the Tory right would like.
Still less have we got any interest in defending the continued production of "our" pound with "our" queen's head on.
On the other hand, we have no interest in positively endorsing the introduction of the Euro. The Euro doesn't exist in isolation from capitalist economic policy - and that's bad news for European workers....cuts, privatisation, low wages.
So what do we want?
We want to see workers organised - through their unions and political organisations - across Europe. We want Europe-wide campaigns for free eductaion, a levelling-up on benefits and workers' rights, health care and pension provision.
And we are for a democratic Europe, with the countries tied together in a federation, with a democratically elected European parliament. Workers and youth have nothing to fear from closer links with European workers - quite the reverse - because the more the bosses organise Europe-wide, the more need there is for our class, the working class, to do so too.
