Showing posts sorted by relevance for query nationalism. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query nationalism. Sort by date Show all posts

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Nationalism - the falsest of all false paths.

I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” - Thomas Paine,  The Rights of Man 

The Socialist Party is opposed to nationalism in all its forms. Instead of thinking in terms of nations – and hence in a necessarily “us and them” manner –  we would be better to embrace our global citizenship. From the “blue planet” view from outer space, we clearly are only an “us.” The poison that is extreme nationalism, often linked with overtones of racism, is indeed one of the major sources of much human discord, past and present, both locally and globally. Extreme nationalism’s tunnel-vision has also been a net negative force in world history. Nationalism encourages people to believe that their responsibilities towards their fellow man are restricted to their nation's borders. This is exacerbated by homilies which appear reasonable, but when thoughtfully considered, have a quite sinister message, such as "charity begins at home". Nationalism is a key means of obscuring class differences. As well dividing the working class internationally, it is also used within a nation state to turn working class people born in a specific nation against immigrants. By getting native-born workers to blame newcomers, the capitalist class weakens the resistance to their power. Nationalism makes xenophobes even of generally tolerant liberals. nationalism is used as a tool for controlling people. Nationalism creates xenophobes. It creates the idea that outsiders are different and of lesser importance.


Nationalism's function is to persuade people to be loyal to a state or to a government. Nationalism is the idea that makes people who live in a state think of themselves as citizens of that state. The function of British nationalism is to make people loyal to the British government. People who are loyal to a government do what the government tells them. Governments need nationalism to make people obey them. They use nationalism to make people think that they are not just obeying a particular group of men - the government. It tries to persuade them that they are doing something more important. This important thing is called the person's 'duty' to the nation. You must ask yourself, who is in charge of instilling national pride in a nation of people? It is, of course, the government. Consequently, the powerful tool of nationalism will be used to satisfy their agenda. The problem with nationalism is that it is used to manipulate the thoughts of the population. Nationalism was used as a tool by the government, to suppress rational thought, in order to meet a political agenda.



To win people's support the state uses all sorts of symbols and myths. These are called national symbols or national tradition. For instance, a state will have its own cloth design. This is called a national flag. Sometimes on such occasions, they will sing a special song which says how great and good their nation is. Whenever they hear this song people are supposed to stand up straight.


The reason that nationalism has become common since the start of capitalism is that the capitalist classes in different parts of the world wanted to protect their home market. To do this they needed to set up capitalist governments. These governments would then put up customs barriers that would protect them from foreign competition and pass various other laws to help the development of the industry. These governments would be made up of business men and other professional men such as lawyers. This is why the nationalist idea became necessary. People were to be taught that obedience to the government was their duty to the nation. By the use of fake history and symbolic rituals, the nation is made to seem some supernatural entity. You can just exchange the belief in a "God" for the belief in a "nation" . Nationalism is the biggest among new gods, the one who wears it shrouds humanity This is why from a socialist standpoint nationalism is - always - an illusion. There is no good and bad nationalism, it is as Daniel de Leon called it, the falsest of all false paths.

Nationalism is loyalty to real estate. To quote the comedian George Carlin: "I could never understand ethnic or national pride. Because to me, pride should be reserved for something you achieve or attain on your own, not something that happens by accident of birth. Being Irish isn't a skill, it's a fucking genetic accident. You wouldn't say "I'm proud to be 5"11". I'm proud to have a predisposition for colon cancer." So why would you be proud to be Irish, or proud to be Italian, or American or anything?"

Sunday, June 24, 2012

The Cliff-edge of Nationalism

Love of country, in the form of "patriotism," is a late creation. Under serfdom people were bound to the soil but they had no "country". Nor has capital any "country" even though capitalism is the precondition for building a "nation," and advocates "nationalism," and protects  "national market." The development of the capitalist and rise of nationalism has been symbiotic. However, as soon as it can, capital continues to expand and pursue the global market, using its own "nationalism" as a springboard. Simply put, nationalism is anything but natural; it is an ideology of capitalism, which serves to produce the conditions for capitalist accumulation and gives it a legitimacy. In other words, it is not some kind of natural human phenomena. It is a social, political and ideational construction. Once the nation state has been physically constructed as "political sovereign", nationalism provides the glue by which it rationalises and maintains itself, a political ideology,which takes on the role of a supposedly natural basis for social order. It is an ideology, which requires an identity with, and loyalty to, the nation, which, in turn, gives rise to the "national interest" and political duty. The highly statist and often authoritarian goals of these independence movements are seldom taken into consideration.

Many on the Left advance nationalism and the nation-state as a bulwark against imperialism. This is a dangerous fallacy. The role of nationalism has always been a source of conflict on the Left. For those on the Scottish Left the Socialist Party's consistent anti-nationalist position seems to support imperialism. But, imperialism functions quite independently of socialist attitudes toward nationalism and, furthermore, socialists are not required for the launching of struggles for national autonomy as the various independence movements have shown. Also contrary to some Leftist expectations, nationalism could not be utilised to further socialist aims, nor was it a successful strategy to weaken and hasten the demise of capitalism. On the contrary, nationalism frustrated socialism by using it for nationalist ends. It is not the function of socialism to support nationalism, even though the latter battles imperialism. To fight imperialism without simultaneously discouraging nationalism means to fight some imperialists and to support others. To support Palestinian nationalism is to oppose Jewish nationalism, and to support the latter is to fight the former.  It is not possible to support nationalism without also supporting national rivalries. With whom to side? With the Jews? With the Palestinians? With both? Where shall the Jews go to make room for the Palestinian people? What should the Palestinian refugees do to cease being a “threat” to the Jews? Such questions can be raised with reference to every part of the world, and will generally be answered by Jews siding with Jews, Arabs with Arabs, or  French with French, Poles with Poles and so forth. To be a good Indian nationalist is to disparage Pakistan; to be a true Pakistani is to despise India. And so it goes on.  The “liberation” of Cyprus from British rule only opened a new struggle for Cyprus between Greeks and Turks. There is no progressive nationalism. This is not about denying the right of a suppressed people to establish its independence; neither is it about dismissing the need to combat imperialist aggression and exploitation. Resisting one oppressor is not the same as supporting movements that seek to oppress its own people. To oppose an oppressor is not equivalent to calling for support for everything formerly colonized nation-states do. One cannot oppose a wrong when one country commits it, then support another country who commits the same wrong. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend is particularly applicable to oppressed people who may be manipulated by totalitarians and religious zealots. To oppose one evil with a lesser one must eventually lead to the support of the worst evil that emerges.

 Although socialists sympathies are with the oppressed, they relate not to emerging nationalism but to the particular plight of twice-oppressed people who face both a native and foreign ruling class. Their national aspirations are in part a sort of  “socialist” aspirations, as it includes an illusory hope of impoverished populations that they can improve their conditions through national independence. Yet national self-determination has not emancipated the labouring class in the advanced nations. It will not do so now in Asia and Africa. National revolutions promise little for the lower class. In a "free" Scotland social relations will not change and the conditions of the exploited class will not improve to any significant extent.

Cultural freedom and variety should not be confused with nationalism. That people should be free to fully develop their own culture is not merely a right but a desirable. Technological resources make it possible for people to choose their own lifestyles. The world will be a drab place indeed if the magnificent mosaic of different customs and traditions disappeared to be replaced by a homogenized world (which modern capitalism appears intent upon spreading with its MacDonaldisation). Similarly, a world completely divided and peoples at odds with one another, parochialising their seeming “cultural differences” to assert their ethinic or racial superiority would also be a backward step.

No matter how utopian the quest for world solidarity may appear in to-days world of conflicts, no other road seems open to escape fratricidal struggles and to attain a rational world society. Socialism will rise again as an global movement and on the basis of past experience, those interested in the rebirth of socialism must stress its internationalism most of all. While it is impossible for a socialists to become a nationalist, we are, nevertheless, anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist. However, the fight against colonialism does not imply adherence to the principle of national self-determination, but expresses our desire for a non-exploitative socialist society without borders. While socialists cannot identify themselves with national struggles, we can as socialists oppose both nationalism and imperialism. It is not the function of Scottish socialists to fight for independence from England but to make Scotland part of a socialist society. We seek to “de-nation” Scotland, "de-nation" England, and integrated them into a socialist one world. When capitalism is overthrown  the world will be on the way to the disappearance of all nation states. Nationalism, in its essence, is a poison. Nationalism has always been a disease that divided human from human. It produces artificial arbitary borders between human beings on trivial linguistic and cultural differences, and it conceals hierarchical and class- based conflicts. There is no “benevolent nationalism.” There is no place in a free society for nation-states. So let us create a truly libertarian form of collectivism. When free associations of producers and confederations of communities replace the nation-state, humanity will have rid itself of nationalism.

Wednesday, March 09, 2022

The world is a “global village”. 

 


“Let's not be English, French or German anymore. Let's be European. No not European, let's be men. Let's be Humanity. All we have to do is get rid of one last piece of egocentricity - patriotism." Victor Hugo

 

The Socialist Party is for a class-free society. We are opposed to all ideologies which divide the working class, such as religion, sexism and racism. And we are against nationalism and patriotism. Cultural freedom and diversity should not be confused with nationalism. That specific people should be free to fully develop their own cultural capacities is not merely a right but a requirement. The world would be a drab place without its magnificent mosaic of different customs, traditions and cultures.


The curse of nationalism is not new. There is always a load of myth and romanticism surrounding nationalism. Nationalism is an idea that varies in time and places which has as its central core the belief that a national population group is the most important political category, and political rights are primarily given to individuals as members of nations. Nationalism is a source of war and carnage; death, destruction and divisiveness, rather than international solidarity. The mythical image of nationalism as a movement of pioneering, progressive, pious, peace-loving nation-building has been more than exposed. Every form of nationalism is no less aggressive or bigoted than is ever the case under a system of society where the laws of the jungle are presented as being the rules of civilised conduct. Every nation's flag is dripping with the blood of its enemies; every ruling class pays for its power in other people's lives.


 Why love a country more than any another simply on the basis of the bit of soil you happen to have been born on? The only thing that matters is class, not nationality or any of the other diversions that stop the "have nots" from challenging the "haves". Whilst the "have nots" are busy feuding with each other on behalf of the "haves" they are missing the real battle.  It is the working classes who are sent to war to kill and be killed on behalf of the "haves". They are the true enemy, not the working classes of other nations. Nationalism is a politics of a frustrated local elite who seek to build support for their own class programme by arguing that class alliances and independence are the way to resolve the genuine grievances of the people. Yet the local ruling class is dependent for its economic and political survival on the maintenance of close ties with other capitalists. They accumulate wealth by relying on multi-national corporations, which joins in joint business ventures. We reject the idea that there is a common "national interest" between the different classes within a "nation". Their interests are in direct contradiction. The phrase "national interests" hides the interests of the ruling classes, which are against the interests of the people themselves. Nationalism is not a vehicle for the expression of the will of the majority of the people - the workers - but is instead a tool of the ruling class. It serves to distract the people from their daily misery with a romantic invention, appealing to their emotion over their intellect in order to create a myth of "national interest", in which all classes of a country have more in common than their respective foreign brethren. The realisation of an independent nation means the realisation of the right of the local capitalists to take power and exploit the proletariat. It is capital that will continue to dominate our political institutions in whatever form they take and capital has no country. Separatism offers precisely nothing to the working class.



Nationalists argue that people long to have their very own country. Nationalism, though it is a seemingly noble effort to realise social unity, is the twenty-first century's great plague. Nationalism continues to hypnotise us with unrealistic visions of heaven-on-earth. Nationalism divides human beings territorially, culturally, and economically. National identity is used by the state to legitimise its actions. Nationalism is regressive. There is no place in a free society for nation-states, either as nations or as states. The capitalist class use the old rule of divide and conquer, polished and updated for modern times. Nationalism as a crude control device. Racism and xenophobia and nationalism and patriotism and every other tactic of division have been promoted relentlessly by capitalism. Nationalism is used to propagandise and manipulate the masses of people against their better interests.


 Our unity is this system’s Achilles’ heel. Only a working class with a consciousness of itself and united across all racial and national boundaries is capable of emancipating themselves.


The Socialist Party case against nationalism is straightforward. We do not advocate re-drawing the border. No socialist will ever fight to defend any border — we want to do away with the divisiveness of countries and states. Nationalism can never be a solution to the problems of oppression. The problem is class, not national, racial, or religious origins. As a class, workers have no country.  Workers across the globe share a common exploitation at the hands of an increasingly global capitalist class. Nationalism means lining up with the same people who exploit them. Rather than submitting to the divide-and-rule  policy of the nation state, they should fight alongside other workers who, like them, exist to enrich the people at the top.


 Socialists say that a Ukrainian worker has more in common with a Russian worker than they do with their own boss. Nationalism has served as a convenient weapon of ruling elites to keep “the people” on-side. All sorts of unpleasant dictatorships have stirred up nationalist fervour to prop themselves up. We seek to do away with artificial boundaries and borders. The world will not be divided into countries by lines drawn on a map by capitalists to mark out their property.


 Our vision for a free society is that of a working class revolution which can finally uproot and defeat capitalism which brings not only exploitation but alienation too. Our goal is the humanisation of the economic system. We condemn the capitalist system where it must always be "You or I" and rarely "You and I".

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Defeat nationalism 

 


We live in an age of possible social revolution – the rise of world socialism and the overthrow of world capitalism. There is no middle way between the capitalist system and socialism.


Nationalism is an outlook that preaches to the people of a nation or national group that regardless of class they have more in common with one another than they do with the people of other nations. Nationalism helps bind the working class to the bourgeoisie of its nation.  World socialism unites the working people of the world against their masters. That is why capitalists promote nationalism and oppose socialist internationalism. Working people’s destiny must not be tied to the capitalists, nor to the aspiring national bourgeoisie of an oppressed nation. The working class must have its own ideology and rid itself of the ideology of its class enemy. To the extent that the working class holds nationalist ideas, it is allowing its destiny to be determined by its rulers. Marxists do not differentiate between oppressed and oppressor nations in order to proclaim that the nationalism of the oppressor is reactionary while that of the oppressed is progressive. Marxists do not fan the flames of nationalism that further divisions within the working class.


A national ruling class fosters the national liberation struggle for its own narrow class interests. It raises its banner of nationalism – “Palestine for the Palestinians,” for example. The nationalist banner appears to have anti-imperialist content. It enlists the working class in the national liberation struggle. It even directs fire at the imperialists. But the key question is: What are its class aims? The ruling class aims not at destroying capitalism, but at getting a bigger slice of the exploitation pie. Nationalism serves the bourgeoisie in the sense that they are seeking a market for their goods, and their national market is always primary as capitalism develops. And nationalism serves to help the bourgeoisie secure its national market. That is why it always ends up selling out to the imperialists or substituting one imperialist for another. The working class has no interest in choosing one imperialist for another; nor do workers seek to have their own bourgeoisie exploit them. They cannot put aside the socialist aims of the revolution for the sake of unity with the national bourgeoisie.  Nationalists will betray the people at every turn.


Marxists are internationalists. And even if they are Marxists of an oppressed nationality, they seek to join with workers of other nationalities in smashing their oppression and all oppression and exploitation even with workers of the oppressor country. National oppression cannot be ended until the elimination of class exploitation and their own national oppression is just one particular aspect of the outrages of capitalism. It is nationalism that divides the workers so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose! It is nationalism that can pit groups of workers against each other with the most hideous rage, while their mutual oppressors skip off with both their purses for a little fun in the sun.  Any nationalism ultimately implies that those people are better than all others. Zionism should teach us at this moment more forcibly than anything else, how even the most “justifiable” nationalism, taken to its logical conclusion, can end up justifying the oppression of the Palestinians.


Tolstoy explained, “Nationalism is the site of execution. What it practices is the art of killing; what it discusses is the ways of killing. It has nothing to do with the real life of the masses.”


 It is the essence of “nationalism.”


Except for cold-blooded psychopaths and sadistic politicians, all human beings hate war. The origin of war is often found in the “love for one’s nation.” As nationalism” emerged, whose cause and purpose were all about selfishness and greed, for example, when one state wants to expand its territory, it will sacrifice its people to invade other nations. If it wins, only the rulers can enjoy the fruit of success. If it is defeated, working people suffer. Does it benefit the masses?


 The interests of the capitalist and the worker are irreconcilable, just as the international interests of the working class are irreconcilable with defence of the national interests of its country. The workingmen have no country’ means:

(a) his/her economic position is not national but international;

(b) his/her class enemy is international;

(c) the conditions of his/her emancipation also;

(d) the international unity of the workers is more important than the national.


Against nationalism, socialists have always countered with the slogan: the enemy is here at home. Workers should oppose their own rulers who oppressed other nations. Class war is our battlecry, and the international solidarity of labour is our goal. We protest against every form of nationalism. The fight for Marxism is a fight against nationalism of any kind whatsoever.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Against Nationalism


Socialists are internationalists. They understand that national oppression is just one particular aspect of the outrages of capitalism and that national oppression cannot be ended until the elimination of class exploitation. It is nationalism that can divide the workers so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose. It is nationalism that can pit groups of workers against each other, while their mutual oppressors make off with both their purses for sun and fun. Nationalism means exclusiveness and implies that ones own people are better than all others. Nationalism is part of the capitalist ideology which developed with the emergence of nations and the rise and development of capitalism. The concept of nationalism is a historical category. It grew up in the epoch of the rise of capitalism and the overthrow of feudalism. The ascending capitalists were then the revolutionary class, and bourgeois ideology, including nationalism, was progressive. This ideology played a progressive role essentially in the 16th, 17th and 18th century, i.e., in the classical period of bourgeois-democratic revolution of the pre-industrial era. It was a powerful ideological and political weapon against reactionary feudal forces, the native or foreign absolute monarchs and their retainers, who resisted their emergence.

Nationalism preaches to the people of a nation or national group that regardless of class they have more in common with one another than they do with the people of other nations Nationalism helps bind the working class to the employing class of its nation. Nationalism serves the capitalist in the sense that they are seeking a market for their goods, and their national market is always primary. And nationalism serves to secure to the native business-man his domestic market. “National interest” is called upon to stifle class struggle. The universal idea of independent organisation of the working class, of the autonomous class goals followed by workers in the class struggle, of international class solidarity of the workers of all countries and all nationalities, is opposed to the idea of national solidarity. Nationalism is a thoroughly deceptive and mystifying ideology to prevent or retard independent class organisation and class struggle by the workers.

Ironically nationalism ultimately does not serve the real interests of the mass of that nationality or serve the nation. Experience has repeatedly shown that the national bourgeoisie will betray the people every time. This is true and has been proven correct over  and over again. Nationalism delivers the people into the hands of the exploiters of their own nationality.

The growth of Scottish nationalism has been born out of frustration. The programme of the SNP is blaming the problems of the Scottish people on "the English".  The fact that it has certain "radical" policies is neither here nor there. The idea that Scotland would be able to enjoy a genuine independence under conditions of international capitalism is false, so much so that the SNP have long talked of "Independence in Europe". All national states, no matter how big and powerful, are subordinate to the world market.

Since when is the working class worried by the trade problems of its own native employers? Since when do socialists counterpose solidarity with the business interests of their own employers to international solidarity of the workers of all competing capitalist countries, against all capitalist competitors?  Is the “independent” capital accumulation by Scottish employers a “lesser evil” as against English or European or American owners appropriation of workers surplus value?

The role of socialists is to defend and promote the interests of  the working class. The destruction of capitalism is the workers struggle and its victory is a new world not a new nation. While supporting the aspirations of people for greater control over their lives, the task of socialists is to combat the divisive nature of nationalism. Socialists must tell the workers the truth. And the truth is that nationalism (no matter how it is dressed up in "socialist" garb) represents no way forward for the working people. Our opposition to independence is based on a class opposition. An independent capitalist Scotland would not solve a single problem facing the working class. The problems of the Scottish workers flow not from being linked to England, as the nationalists argue, but because of the crises of capitalism which weighs just as heavily on the workers and their families across all borders. The exploitation of working people is a product of capitalist society and can only be removed by the socialist transformation of society. This, in turn, requires the unity of all workers, irrespective of nation, colour, creed, sex or language. It is essential to struggle against any attempt to divide the workers' movement along national, religious or sectarian lines. One cannot fight nationalism by pandering to nationalist and separatist prejudices. It is the task of socialists to sweep away the national barriers, not erect new ones.

We oppose all the agents of the ruling class and all the policies that are designed to help the ruling class. Left nationalists capitulate to nationalism and say “revolutionary parties” should represent only a section of the working class and be organised along national lines, and not united class lines. The Left nationalists deal with the question of Scottish nationalism exclusively from the point of view of political forces as they are – or more correctly: as they appear to be – to-day. But in the coming years, there will be many shifts and upheavals in Scotland’s and Britain’s political life, some of momentous character, as the class struggle sharpens and the crises of capitalism deepen. The main purposes of the Socialist Party’s education is to raise the level of class consciousness of the working class, not to fix the Party’s position by the present level of workers’ consciousness. Our Party case must reflect our socialist aspiration not the current backwardness of the working class.

In The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels insisted that ‘the working men have no country’. They argued that the nation state was alien to the interests of the proletariat and that in order to advance their interests workers must ‘settle matters’ with the bourgeoisie of each state, that workers must challenge the power of their ‘own’ capitalist class directly.  This opened the possibility of internationalism – assertion of ‘the common interests of the whole proletariat, independently of all nationality’. Internationalism implied uncompromising opposition to the local state and its dealings with the rulers of other capitalisms – other members of the ‘band of warring brothers’ that constituted the bourgeoisie at a world level. It also implied practical activity by workers to organise in mutual solidarity across national borders and in solidarity with those subordinated by colonial powers. This was not a merely a matter of abstract identification with the oppressed. Marx maintained that workers must free themselves of patriotism and national superiority in their own interests, for without discarding these aspects of ruling class ideas they would never themselves be free. Marx and Engels maintained this approach throughout their political activities.  It was also the position taken by others who made a major contribution to Marxist theory such as Rosa Luxemburg.

Nationalism ties the working people to their own ruling class; world socialism unites the working people of the world against their rulers. Class unity must be established between the oppressed and exploited regardless of nationality and race. Marx said “labour in the white skin can not be free as long as labour in the black skin is branded.” And in referring to the need to overcome the hostile attitude of the English worker towards the Irish workers, Marx wrote: “He...turns himself into a tool of the aristocrats and capitalists against Ireland, thus strengthening their domination over himself.”

Socialists do not fan the flames of nationalism that further divisions between the working class. The Socialist Party promotes working class internationalism to unite the workers of the world.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Saltire or the Red Flag?

  You Can’t Beat The Enemy While Raising Its Banner

Groups seeking to seize and hold power use words their own way in order to place their efforts in the best light. Take, for example, the term “nation.” The rulers of every government wish to present themselves not as a tiny clique which has taken power by force or by fraud, but as representatives a whole "nation"and authorised to speak for it. Historically, for a “nation” to arise there had to come first the development of private property, of social classes, rulers and ruled, masters and servants. First arose the state, the chief general system of control used by the ruling class against the subject classes, and the chief instrument of war and conquest. The state must have definite territorial boundaries. If there is no private property and war, there can be no state; if there is no state, there can be no “nation.” The state is not the product of the “nation,” the “nation” is the product of the state.

National states did not exist before or under feudalism, for feudal conditions were not conducive to the development of large national communities. The feudal states were united by virtue of who ruled them, regardless of “national” considerations. The power was vested in the king, not in the nation. For example, in the Hundred Years’ War, the French vassals of the King of England naturally fought against the King of France. The feudal States were run by a given clan or kindred of a tribe that had become differentiated into masters and serfs bound to the land owned by the ruling family. Feudal states, in their backward economic relations, were unable to be national states and could evolve so only when capitalism, with its markets, commerce, money and corresponding development of the circulation and production of commodities, could unify the country.

Monday, October 12, 2020

Progress to the Past?

 


A poll for pro-independence campaign group Progress Scotland found 53% support leaving the union compared with 47% against. Almost a third of Scots who voted against independence in 2014 have changed their mind and are either unsure or would vote Yes, according to a new poll.


The nationalism of the SNP has the outward appearance of a progressive movement to some sincere people but who have almost no political understanding. Deceived by the slogans and soundbites, working people will discover that they have been most cruelly misled, have been wasting their time advocating an idea which they will then have to oppose. Our fellow-workers must not fall into this trap; they must not be deceived by the progressive facade of nationalism. They must unite to expose it instead of  wasting their time and energy fostering nationalism (in whatever form), as an answer to their misery and hardships. Nationalism merely provides a camouflage for policies of reformism. Nationalism divides workers so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose. Nationalism pits workers against each other , while their mutual exploiters and oppressors enjoy the Caribbean sun and fun on the ski-runs.


 Any nationalism implies that some people are better than others. It teaches superiority and inferiority. Left nationalists insist that their nationalism has nothing in common with the nationalism of the right and that instead their nationalism is progressive. Nationalism binds the working people to their own exploiters and ruling class. The Socialist Party says that working people’s destiny must not be tied to any capitalist grouping. The working class must  rid itself its class enemy. Class unity must be established between the oppressed and exploited regardless of nationality and race.


 The aspiration for national independence awakens chauvinistic nationalisms, intolerances, xenophobias; the awakening of old national quarrels, of hatred against the “hereditary enemy;” and racism. Foreign scapegoats of the past are again being selected as responsible for all the evils that befalls a nation.


The Socialist Party repudiates nationalism, the ideology that would divide mankind into separate distinct nations, have those nations constituted into sovereign States, whose claim is that the freedom and fulfillment of mankind are to be worked out in terms of ones national identity.  Nationalism is pervasive in the world today, especially in countries that have nothing to offer their people but romantic patriotic platitudes.


Nationalism turns worker against worker but just where does this twisted logic stop?


Should someone from Dundee be allowed to apply for a job in Dunstable if someone living in Dunstable is prepared to do it? If people from start to migrate Northwards for the cheaper housing, should they be driven back to south of Hadrians Wall telling them to go and fight for cheaper housing in the South? When British factories compete with each other to win contracts does this not usually involve bringing down wages and reducing conditions? It is the system of capitalist production that produces unemployment, homelessness, destitution and crumbling facilities and infrastructure in local communities, not workers, be they native or foreign born, indigenous or newcomers.


Nationalists always claims certain characteristics as exclusive to certain peoples.  With what logic may nations make such claims? Nationalism claims that the culture belonging to one nation is distinct from that belonging to any other. This may have been so in the past when even the nation was an abstract concept for the village dweller or towns folk, but the social evolution of mankind is making it less so. Increased means of communication and ease of travel have resulted in no essential difference between any one of the countries of the world. Even language is tending to become universal with English as the lingua franca that Latin once was. More people understand each other today than ever before. Codes of behaviour and ethics have grown to be international. It is only by the most artificial kind of propaganda that nationalism is kept alive.Nationalism is an unmitigated curse. It leads inevitably to chauvinism and to national aggression. It leads to a patriotism and the worship for the particular patch of dirt where a particular individual was born. It leads to racism and bigotry, to national jealousy and petty rivalries. Nationalism cloaks the intrigues and machinations of governments and capitalists.


Working people have everything to gain and nothing to lose by rejecting nationalism. 

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Socialism Not Separatism

The ruling class of Scotland have long been merged with that of England and the working-class of Scotland, Wales and England has long been one homogenous working class. We cannot tag along with, follow behind, or try to lead these nationalist movements or parties – we must resolutely struggle against them while propagating socialism. “Self-determination” is a slogan that can be used to justify any project, no matter how reactionary. It was the call for self-determination for the national minorities of Yugoslavia in the 1990s that laid the basis for the bloody civil war. It is the call for self-determination in eastern Ukraine that is creating the conditions of civil war there today. “Self-determination” in reality means granting the ruling elite free rein to set its own economic and political agenda to meet their own needs, skilfully masked by socialist phrases.

Nationalism is always the tool of the capitalist class. There was a brief period in history where there existed an identity of interest between the national bourgeoisie and the working class against aristocratic feudalism, and hence even Marx recognized nationalism had a progressive role to play. However, now that the progressive role of the capitalists is long finished, so too is the progressive role of nationalism. In essence, supporting nationalism nowadays amounts to a switch from socialist which hold that the working class is the sole agency for the liberation of humanity, to nationalism, which effectively is a movement in support of the local “national” capitalist class.

 From being a tiny inconsequential entity with a few members the Scottish National Party became suddenly the dominant party in Scotland. How did this startling transformation come about? Disappointments, defeats and disillusion have been the left’s constant companions for many a year. The SNP increasingly began to seem like an attractive and viable alternative to many people given the background of growing disillusionment with Labour. The SNP was tailor-made for the job of providing the reformism traditionally offered by the Labour Party. This trajectory is essentially a product of despair following successive defeats of the working class and the destruction of large sections of the organised working class. The SNP has successfully tapped into widespread anger and a sense of injustice. Nationalism is being fomented now in Scotland in order to provide an alternative to austerity.  A series of Labour governments have now convinced even some Trotskyists that the Labour is nothing but a pro-capitalist party, and they are now deserting the Labour Party like rats from a sinking ship and rushing to fill the life-boat of left-nationalism. They are blind to the fact that they are jumping from the frying pan into the fire. They still do not understand or opportunistically refuse the anti-socialist role of nationalism. The Trotskyist movement naively simply switched their opportunistic slogan “vote Labour without illusions” to vote “Independence without illusions.”

 Let us also be very clear and state the patently obvious. Scottish nationalism has no intention of challenging capitalism.

At present Scottish nationalism and the SNP have the appearance of a progressive left-wing movement to some honest people who read the promises of their election policies. Deceived by manifesto pledges, sincere people will work in and around the nationalist movement only to discover, in some years’ time, that they have been most cruelly misled, have been wasting their time and worse – have been advocating ideas which they will then have to destroy to establish socialist principles. Instead of tragically wasting their time fostering nationalism those seeking a socialist society must stand firm to socialism. We must do work to popularise socialism alone in order that people shall not be side-tracked. Socialism and nationalism are mutually exclusive. Nationalism abandons notions of workers solidarity and seeks an outcome that necessitates the dividing of workers, denying any role for English or Welsh trade union activists. The history of the British labour movement is the history of the intertwined fates of the Scottish, English, and Welsh working class, for example, the legendary Keir Hardie was an MP for a London and then for a Welsh constituency. The links between Scottish, English and Welsh working people have forged through common struggles and shared experiences a potentially powerful political force. Rising support for nationalism means Scottish workers are turning their back on class unity and joint struggle with their brothers and sisters south of the border, and strengthening reformist illusions that hope lies in a new constitution and a sovereign Edinburgh parliament.

The left nationalists urge Scottish workers to reject this historic solidarity with their English and Welsh fellow-workers, on the grounds that it is impossible to achieve progress at a British level; only in Scotland. But they are wrong if they think that a more radical, more socialistic agenda will emerge in an independent Scotland. The new Scottish state would find its policies constrained exactly the same sort of undemocratic, technocratic, neo-liberal rules of globalization that left nationalists stringently oppose. As with the formation of the Irish Republic, the political landscape will be dominated not by a consciousness of class but of “national interest”. Working people will be spun the line that sacrifice for the good of the nation is the symbol of patriotism despite the pain and privation. A new Scottish state would have an overwhelming incentive, like Ireland, to cut business taxation to gain a competitive advantage over its larger neighbour and would actively discourage collective co-ordinated action by workers across all of the nations of the United Kingdom. Scottish English and Welsh workers do not respond to an abstract appeal for “international solidarity”, they don’t need one, they act out of their already existing unity. The fact is that we live in a single state with a single economy and trade unions have created an organic unity with identical interests and a common consciousness. Independence will tear the fabric of unity apart. In Britain a division of the working class along national lines would be a huge step backwards for the workers movement, even from the weakened state it is currently in.  For though class struggle is at a very low level, those struggles that have taken place, including in Scotland, have arisen out of nationwide disputes.  The creation of an independent Scotland would break that unity and make the task of advancing the workers movement more difficult.

The left nationalists must ask themselves if the possibility of a few seats in a Scottish Parliament is a worthwhile exchange for an abandonment of basic socialist principles. Draping themselves in the Saltire rather than the Red Flag, left- nationalists act as a recruiting sergeants for the pro-business SNP. During the referendum vote many on the left tried to disguise the unpalatable policies that the SNP was preparing to implement by claiming that a Yes vote did not mean support for the SNP and that a move to independence would not necessarily mean an SNP government. Clearly this was deceitful as there was no other political party capable of forming a government if the Yes campaign had succeeded and the SNP’s economic policies and corporate-friendly pledges would have entailed a race to the bottom for tax rates on capital and for workers’ living standards in Europe. The Left-nationalists could merely counter with an idealist social democratic utopia in a very small state vulnerable to the economic blackmail of the bankers as we witness in Greece today.

There is an alternative to nationalism and spreading false hope amongst workers in Scotland. It’s called class politics and it comes with internationalism and working class unity and being honest with the working class, even if it’s not what some want to hear, rather than peddle cynical opportunistic shortcuts up deluded blind alleys to gain some supposed influence amongst workers. In reality the short-cut to socialism turned out to be a short cut to nationalism. The Socialist Party reject the idea that Scottish nationalism (or any nationalism, for that matter) represents a way of advancing the interests of the working class.  There is no basis for socialists to be advocates of Scottish independence.  All the arguments for independence are in essence nationalist and pro capitalist whatever the left-wing gloss than is placed on them. Our opposition to independence is not support for the status quo but for the unity of the working class. The workers movement would be weakened by a process where regional capitalist classes try to corner local resources and endeavor win the workers over to defend them. The task for socialists in all countries, whether that be Scotland, Britain or Ireland, is indeed independence - not of nations or of regions - but of the working class. This class independence, in terms of politics and organisation, is the very foundation of the struggle for socialism.  It is because Scottish nationalism and the call for independence throw up yet more barriers to this unity that we urge workers in Scotland to reject the siren song of separatism

"merchants have no country. the mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." Thomas Jefferson

Saturday, September 06, 2014

The Mythtake of Nationalism


Arundathi Roy
All nationalism is based on mythical history and nations have to create their ideologies from whatever come to hand and Scotland is perhaps luckier than most with its many fairy-tales of a romantic. Nationalism is an enemy of working people. Nationalism is the belief that the members of a nation share common interests that are different from the interests of other nations and different from the interests of the human race as a whole. Any nationalism ultimately implies that those people are better than all others.

Scottish nationalism proclaims that the Scottish exploited have more in common with their Scottish exploiter than with their fellow workers. Nationalism is a heaven-sent way of diverting the  workers from pursuit of their class interests and provides the sugar-coating on an economic system based on wage-slavery. In a capitalist country, it is capitalists who own most of the wealth, who hold the power and who are accepted as spokespeople of the national interest. So when the specifics of any claimed national interest are looked at, it turns out that those specifics are the interests either of particular capitalists or of the capitalist class as a whole.  Nationalist employers will remain true to their class interests and abandon the workers with the lie that “It is in the country’s best interest if workers’  accept lower wages so that the products from our nation can undercut those from other nations.”

In The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels insisted that “the working men have no country”. They argued that the nation state was alien to the interests of the working  class and that in order to advance their interests workers must “settle matters” with the capitalist class of each state, that workers must challenge the power of their “own” capitalist class directly. Marx maintained that workers must free themselves of patriotism and national superiority in their own interests, for without discarding these aspects of ruling class ideology they would never themselves be free. Independence does not constitute a departure from the status quo but rather stands for its continuation albeit under a different flag. Constitutional struggle is no substitute for class struggle.

As the Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, says
"It's disturbing to see how neatly nationalism dovetails into fascism. While we must not allow the fascists to define what the nation is, or who it belongs to, it's worth keeping in mind that nationalism, in all its many avatars—socialist, capitalist and fascist—has been at the root of almost all the genocides of the twentieth century. On the issue of nationalism, it's wise to proceed with caution."

The political position of the Socialist Party is the policy of uniting people on the basis of class rather than separating them on the basis of any other factor - whether it is gender, sexuality, religion, colour or nationality. The Socialist Party encourages workers to put their political loyalties in their class, rather than their nation. Nationalism turns people into rivals vying for the same jobs as both economies are forced to compete for investment, thus triggering a race to the bottom.

 Will Socialists find their work easier in an independent Scotland than now? Will the Left nationalists be the dangerous rebels then as they pretend to be now?  No matter how you clip and trim a poodle it always stays a poodle and regardless of how much you re-shape and re-fashion capitalism, it remains capitalism. Scots aspiring to enrich local culture, even if they have to wait for it, should be part of the world’s workers movement. To the Scottish nationalist, as to all other peoples, the Socialist Party says, “Your  struggles will be abortive or lead to mere disappointment unless you accept as your watchword, WAGE-WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES UNITE!”

" To oppose imperialism demanded, then a total rejection of all forms of nationalism, even that of the victims of imperialist aggression. Nationalism and imperialism were inseparable and had to fought with equal fervor. " - Paul Mattick on Rosa Luxemburg