1945, the Mar shall Aid Plan represented the same economic suppor to West Europe by the USA as after World War I — this time on a bigger scale. West Europe's economies panded again in the 1950s Das. of cheap oil. They collapsed in the mid-70s when the uSA forced the price of oil up But if the United States calls the shots in a West Europe that has no internal Certainl something : unpleasant! — to say about any Euro pean policy OI detente towards the Soviet Union.
The argument that the choice for workers in coun tries like Britain is to line up behind the United States ot erest Europe creates a West Europe creates a false and dangerous debate. It is one pursued in this country 15. Eurocommunists such as Jon Bloom field, figures SUCH Frances Morrell and by sec tions of the leadership of the soft left in the Labour Party, as well as by the right wing:
Stability It is not possible for capital in Western Europe to stabilise itself against the United States or embark on any real policy of agreement with the Soviet Union. The 'European' capitalist :Oly solution is a right wing one The INF treaty fore sets up clearly the two basic political dynamics in One is to respond to the INF deal, dollar devaluation, by step Piestern Europe itself. The militarism second is towards exactly the 'decoupling of Europe from the United States' and the "denuclearisation Western Europe' which The Times so much feared policy means West European socialists in creasingly linking up with those fighting for freedom in the third world and those supporting socialist in Eastern precisely because it canno LULUUC That latter path be undertaken by capital opens socialist solution in Wester the Europe The first of these two paths already is the follow-up of European capital to the INF treaty. The second must be the path of Euro pean labour.