In Malta it has been given scant notice. But the decision it requires is a tough call. The government says there’s no problem – we stand for it.

However the matter is not so simple.

CETA – the agreement between the EU and Canada about “free” trade and investment – has arrived at the ratification stage on the part of the two sides. Controversies about the deal were numerous, especially when it was placed in the shadow of TTIP, the agreement that followed the same model but was vastly more important, which the EU was negotiating with the US when Barack Obama was President.  TTIP too gave rise to huge controversies but was dead in the water well before Trump’s arrival. Likewise, CETA too could have sunk.

But no, it survived. This week in the European Parliament we’re expected to vote on it. As have other political groups, the socialists and democrats have decided to vote in favour of CETA.

I find myself among those who feel uncomfortable with this. Practically all trade unions in the EU (as well as in Canada) have come out aganst CETA.

How can socialists vote for it?

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Corruption

In many, if not all, European countries, corruption has become a strong – indeed a burning – issue. And not just in Rumania, where demonstrators in their scores of thousands have protested against the way by which the government tried to cover and decriminalise corruption.

In Spain, corruption scandals leading back to past governments by the Popular Party keep erupting ever so often. In France, the problems faced by the right wing candidate for the French Presidency Francois Fillon as he got accused of having provided fictitious jobs for his wife and sons, have overturned his good prospects of becoming President.  The maladministration in Rome under the “fresh” and recent leadership of the Cinque Stelle movement has become an Italian soap opera.

Reports do not fail to come in from Austria, Holland, Germany, among others. In Malta we do get corruption reports, some of which merit serious investigation.

However in European politics, corruption is something you bring up when it concerns the other side. When it flits over to your side, you prefer not to notice.

Years ago, I proposed that we introduce a system by which an inquiring magistrate would have real powers of investigation in matters of corruption as well as his/her own police team. Nobody, starting with members of the judiciary and going down the line, would agree with this.

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Class struggle

In the past, it was a done thing to discuss political conflicts in terms of  a “class struggle”. Yes, it was a Marxist concept largely deployed by Communist parties.

Indeed the very idea, we would be told, served only to ignite social confrontation –  “hatred” was the preferred word – without showing how a society is formed and how it comes alive around structures of participation. Slowly, use of the expression died out.

Yet, the class struggle is still proceeding. About it nothing much is noted. But what is mostly said in the social media for instance, brings it back to life over a wide range of topics, from the consumption of pastizzi, to the manipulative discourse about what is correct and what should be condemned.