By Harsh Thakor*
On the 26th of February at least 900 farmers assembled in the European Quarter of Brussels, where many EU institutions are stationed, to protest against the increasing production costs, cheap imports from outside of EU and EU rules on agriculture made under the pretence of achieving “climate-neutrality”.
The protesters clashed with police, spraying liquid manure on them, throwing eggs and bottles at them, and building intensive barricades out of tires and bales of hay. Intensity of unrest or turbulence scaled at a pitch ,reminiscent of a storm. The police used tear gas and water cannons to crush the protesters.
It coincided with agricultural ministers of the EU countries formulating superficial “improvements” within the framework of the existing rules. The protesters were furious with their income becoming more and more inadequate and at the ministers who failed to understand the plight of the farmers.
The clashes comprised a tide of protests which has engulfed Europe. Despite the demands of the protesters are often targeted towards reforms in the EU rules or for more State subsidies, what is expressed in severe problems of imperialism in crisis.
The action in Brussels, is mainly targeted against the EU, whose measures promote the monopolies, especially German imperialism to consolidate it’s hold in the EU.
Amid the rising prices, the costs are imposed on the “consumers” and the farmers, who do not anticipate the escalating prices of food in the scope of their income, while the monopolies amass huge profits.
Protests erupted also on the Polish-German border, where the highway was blocked from both sides by the peasants and farmers of the two countries, and in Madrid in front of EU offices in the Spanish State. In Brussels, farmers from Portugal, the Spanish State and Italy joined the farmers of Belgium.
In the meeting of the agricultural ministers in Brussels, there was only empty talk and promises of “change” to nullify the protests. The ministers firmly relented to withdraw the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy). What is clearly denoted is that the EU is a weapon to pit the farmers and peasants against each other to patronise the German monopolies.
The protest in Brussels was a concrete example of challenging the bourgeois legality to illustrate the explosiveness of the situation.
Shivers were sent down the spine of leaders before European elections that would boost prospects for far right parties.
In the meeting of the agricultural ministers in Brussels, very little concrete measures were introduced, only talk and promises of “change” to attempt to pacify the protests. The ministers were clear that they would not abandon the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), only make “adjustments”. What is seen clearly is that the EU is an instrument to put the farmers and peasants against each other to benefit especially the German monopolies.
The protest in Brussels is one of the examples of the struggle of the farmers overcoming the bourgeois legality and displaying the explosiveness of the situation. At the same time it can be seen that all over Europe, the peasants and farmers share demands despite some national particularities, and are developing international solidarity between protests, which are increasingly targeted against the EU.
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*Freelance journalist
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