EUROPE PULLS TOGETHER...EUROPE PULLS APART

EUROPE PULLS TOGETHER…

1.     THE EUROPEAN UNION…

FOUNDING FATHERS:

Konrad Adenauer: a pragmatic democrat and tireless unifier

Joseph Bech:  a small country can play a crucial role in European integration

Johan Willem Beyen: a plan for a common market

Winston Churchill: calling for a United States of Europe

Alcide De Gasperi: an inspired mediator for democracy and freedom in Europe

Jean Monnet: the unifying force behind the birth of the European Union

Paul-Henri Spaak: a European visionary and talented persuader

 

How did the EU happen?

Schuman Plan…1951

Member nations remove all duties…1968

1957…Coal and Steel Treaty and Treaty of Rome

1 January 1973

The six become nine when Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom formally enter the EU.

1 January 1981

 Member States: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

 New Member State: Greece.

1 January 1986

Spain and Portugal enter the EU, bringing membership to 12.

 Member States: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom and Greece.

 New Member States: Spain and Portugal

Erasmus Programme: 1987

Maastricht Treaty sign in 1992 

…single currency and single market rules/

…“European Union” named

1 January 1995

Austria, Finland and Sweden join the EU. The 15 members now cover almost the whole of western Europe. In October 1990, Germany was unified and therefore former East Germany became part of the EU.

2.     THE BEVERIDGE REPORT…

The main points of the Beveridge Report:

·       The appointment of a minister to control all the insurance schemes.

·       A standard weekly payment by people in work as a contribution to the insurance fund.

·       The right to payments for an indefinite period of time for the unemployed.

·       Old age pensions, maternity grants, funeral grants, pensions for widows and for people injured at work.

·       Payments at a standard rate, the same for all citizens whatever private means they had, paid without a means test.

·       The introduction of family allowances.

·       A new national health service to be established.

EUROPE PULLS APART…

1.     SOVIETS IN HUNGARY (1956)

2.     SOVIETS IN Czechoslovakia  (1968)

3.     SOVIETS AND U.S. IN ARMS RACE…

TWO DANGEROUS MOMENTS:

            Cuban Missle Crisis:

            1983 was a Dangerous Year:

A.    The Petrov Protocol

B.     Able Archer

ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN, ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH

ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN,

ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH

What was camp life like? What work did they do? What work did Shukov do?

What were the rules of the camp?

What was Shukov’s crime?

How often was food mentioned? Why?

How often was the weather mentioned? Why?

What kind of day was this, according to the author?

A good day? A bad day?

Why write a novel about a single day?

“A day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day.” (167)

What does that tell us?

Was there any resistance in the camp?

Was it only the body that the Gulag controlled or also the mind? Did prisoners own their thoughts?

PARALLELS WITH PRIMO LEVI, SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ

Primo Levi wrote the following: “I read Ivan Denisovich with a red and blue pencil in my hand, marking in red the things that had been the same for us and in blue the things that were different.” (Conversations with Primo Levi, page 46)

When Levi was finished reading, was there more blue or red pencil in his copy of this One Day…?

“There are many things in common. In the first place, the lack of solidarity. There the prisoner is called a zek. And who is the zek’s worst enemy? Another zek—and this completely corresponds to my experience. Then, Ivan Denisovich has been selected by Solzhenitsyn as one who’s already been through the mill; he’s the equivalent of what among us was called ‘a low number,’ someone who knows how to organisieren, which means to operate illegally.”

One of the key differences between these two systems is that one was engineered to maintain life at the margins while instructing a fallen citizen and one was engineered to extract as much labor from an illegal person while ushering him to his death.