https://socialistaction.org/2017/07/17/washington-berlin-and-moscow/
Washington, Berlin and Moscow
/ 3 days ago
Aug. 2017 Merkle:TrumpBy BARRY SHEPPARD
In regard to the charges about Trump‘s collusion with Russia to throw
the election his way, and Russian meddling in the elections, we can
mention that the list of the elections in all the countries Washington
meddled in is far too long to for this post. In fact, the U.S. is the
world’s meddler in chief.
Even the list of countries where the U.S. overthrew elected governments
when such meddling didn’t go Washington’s way is lengthy.
Here I want to discuss one aspect that has come to light in this
brouhaha: scratch this current Russian connection and we find the
U.S.-Germany relation pops up.
The Senate recently adopted new sanctions against Russia supposedly as
punishment for its “meddling” in the election. The vote was 97 to 2,
indicating strong bipartisan support. A key aspect of the Senate bill
reveals its real intent, which has nothing to do with the U.S.
elections. It stipulates sanctions against a proposed new pipeline that
would deliver natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Germany is the target of this bill.
An article in the British magazine The Economist reported Germany’s
reaction: “‘Europe’s energy supply is Europe’s business, not that of the
United States of America’, thundered Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar
Gabriel, and Austria’s chancellor, Christian Kern, in a joint statement.
The pair were particularly incensed that the bill included a call to
increase American exports of liquefied natural gas, implying that
blocking Russian gas was partly an effort to help American energy
companies. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, let it be known that she
supported her minister.”
The pipeline is called Nord Stream 2. The Economist explained, “NS2,
which its backers hope will come online at the end of 2019, would supply
gas directly from Russia’s Baltic coast to the German port of
Greifswald, doubling the capacity of Nord Stream 1, an existing line.
Its defenders, including a consortium of five European firms that will
cover half its cost of [$10.6 billion], say that it will help plug a
projected gap between Europe’s stable demand for gas and declining
production in the Netherlands and North Sea.
“Germany’s government, especially the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the
junior coalition partner, shares this view. (Gerhard Schroeder, a former
SPD chancellor of Germany, chairs NS2’s board.)”
Currently, much of Russia’s gas export to Europe goes through pipelines
in Ukraine, which charges lucrative transit fees. The NS1 and 2
combination could bypass those pipelines, and deliver the gas more
cheaply. It would also be cheaper than liquefied natural gas produced in
the U.S., which has to be liquefied and shipped across the Atlantic.
The Economist adds, “Some Germans quietly hope that NS2 could transform
their country into a European energy hub” as a result. Washington seeks
to prevent that development.
The House has yet to take up the Senate bill. The White House has urged
House Republicans not to support a provision in the bill that would
prevent the President from modifying it, but made no mention of the
pipeline. Is the delay because of the strong German reaction?
Very few in the U.S. know about the proposed sanctions on NS2, or the
German reaction. I wouldn’t have become aware of it, except it was
covered in the British Financial Times, which I subscribe to. I have
seen no coverage in the major media on the pipeline sanctions or the
German reaction in the major media (perhaps I missed it because it was
buried.)
The Economist article began by noting, “Like vinyl records and popped
collars, rows between the United States and Europe over Russian energy
are making a comeback. In the early 1980s Ronald Reagan’s attempts to
thwart a Soviet pipeline that would bring Siberian gas to Europe
irritated the West Germans and drove the French to proclaim the end of
the transatlantic alliance. The cast of characters has shifted little
today, but many of the arguments are the same.”
Actually the issue goes back much further than Reagan. With the rise of
modern German imperialism in the late 19th century, German policy toward
Russia and Ukraine was summed up in the phrase “Drang nach Osten” –
Drive to the East, to link up German industry with cheap Russian and
Ukrainian raw materials and foodstuffs. The two World Wars that the U.S.
fought against Germany were in part waged to stop such a link up.
Since the Second World War, Germany has rebuilt. In fact it now exports
much more to the U.S. than the U.S. exports to Germany, especially
capital goods. The economic conflicts between the two countries that led
to those wars are reappearing, due to Germany’s increasing industrial
dynamism combined with the dramatic industrial decline in the U.S.
Germany’s competitive position was further strengthened by the
destruction of the nationalized, planned economy in East Germany a
quarter of a century ago.
The return to capitalism in eastern Germany created mass unemployment
there. The German ruling class was able to use this in the reunified
Germany to drive down wages in the whole country, increasing capitalist
Germany’s competitive position in the world and vis a vis the U.S.
Germany feels strong enough to once again “drive to the east,” and the
proposed pipeline is part of that.
How to deal with German competition has become a divisive point within
the ruling class, reflected in the different approaches of Trump and the
“establishment.”
Trump is saying that the continuation of economic competition with
Germany requires powerful countermeasures at the level of the state
against Germany. He is treating Germany as the main enemy in Europe, and
Russia as much less of a threat as far as industrial competition is
concerned since Russia is primarily exporting raw materials (oil and gas).
The “establishment” — which still dominates the media, the Pentagon, the
CIA, Congress, the Democratic and Republican parties — thinks that
economic “friction” with Germany can still be worked out within the
current “world order” dominated by the U.S. since the last world war.
But this “world order” has become increasingly shaky, as Foreign Affairs
(the organ of the Council on Foreign Affairs, the ruling class’s foreign
policy think tank) has emphasized in recent issues.
Trump and his economic nationalist advisors like Steve Bannon are acting
as if the old “world order” is collapsing and needs to be reordered
along “America First” lines.
The “establishment” wants to keep Germany tied to the U.S. and curtail
its economy by preventing its “drive to the east” by imposing sanctions
on both Russia and German firms seeking to build NS2, for example. Trump
wants to ease sanctions on Russia and fight Germany directly. Perhaps
the sanctions on the pipeline, a blow against Germany Trump supports,
conflicts with Trump’s position to decrease sanctions on Russia, and he
has yet to resolve the contradiction.
How all this will play out remains to be seen.
This article first appeared in the Australian on-line publication, Green
Left Weekly.
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July 17, 2017 in Europe, International, Trump / U.S. Government.
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