Herman Gorter and Socialism (Part 2)

Part 2 of a 3-part adaptation of the writings of Herman Gorter, a Dutch socialist and activist revolutionary of the early 20^th century 

Against nationalism and for socialism.

The worker is nationalist in a passive way, just as he passively receives his wages. But the workers, in their overwhelming majority, nevertheless make their living from national capital. National capital is indeed their enemy, but it is an enemy which feeds them. Thus, even though the worker is only passively nationalist, as long as he is not really a socialist, he is and must necessarily be . . . nationalist. Because the nation, national capital, is the foundation of his existence. And therefore, as long as he or she is not a socialist, he or she must believe that the interest of national capital is in his or her interest and that he or she must defend it against its enemies, since capital’s well-being is his or her own well-being as well. The worker’s nationalism consists of a tangle of numerous feelings and instincts, for the most part of the lower sort, which are related to and structured around the instinct of self-preservation. It is composed, above all, of the instinct of preserving life by means of work and wages. And the feelings of homeland, of the hearth and home, of family, of tradition, of customs, of comradeship, of relationships, of people, of class, and of party are joined to this sense of self-preservation and are fused with it. In addition, these feelings refer directly to the ego and are strictly connected, therefore, to the instinct of self-preservation. In everyday life these instincts exist in a latent state and are more or less dormant, but manifest themselves with great force when danger threatens or seems to threaten—precisely as a result of this intimate connection with the instinct of self-preservation. These instincts explode in a firestorm of passion and hatred for the enemy, of fanatical love for one’s own country, when the drive for self-preservation is joined with the social instincts of community with one’s compatriots, the class comrades of the same nationality. A high level of consciousness is required so that, at any given moment, and in fact at every moment, this instinct and these feelings can be continuously overcome and so that the class struggle is not set aside in favor of war on behalf of the nation. The worker must become aware of the fact that nationalism, under the rule of capitalism, is doing him much more harm than good. He must become aware of the harmful phenomena and the benefits involved, and he must place them on the scale. And this awareness and this knowledge must be of such a nature, and must have penetrated into his consciousness so completely, that he is capable of not merely overcoming, but also replacing nationalist instincts. This is an extraordinarily difficult task and requires much effort. For the achievement of such a goal, it is indispensable for the working class and for each worker to have a high degree of understanding and knowledge of globalisation. Capitalism confronts the worker in his factory, in the office and in the State. It is, therefore, a national phenomenon. Globalisation confronts the worker in the State’s foreign policy, in high finance, in the transnational corporations, in the global arms race and world politics.

Revolution has become only theory, but reform has become practice. Despite the finest and most sincere propaganda, despite the fine words, the workers movement now aspire only to improve living conditions and only want to do so on a national scale. Governments and capitalists made a certain number of concessions. Improvement in the standard of living became the goal. The revolutionary dimension forgotten. Instead the call was workers of the nation, unite for reforms! The reform, the movement, is everything. And unite with the bourgeoisie, too, or with part of it, and you will attain even more reforms. This doctrine took root. A class which has been hearing for years that the bourgeoisie must be trusted, can no longer fight the bourgeoisie. Revolutionary ideas quickly faded away in the minds of these workers and they no longer thought about anything but reforms. Along with the reforms arrived the middle-men to achieve them.  Philanthropists, moral philosophers, ambitious bourgeoisie, men unburdened by any conscience, con-men rising out of the masses. Many of them were weak and well-intentioned at the same time, and knew nothing of socialism or its theory. People who deceived themselves, career politicians who turned socialism into a business, a profitable industry and a way to make a living. For all of them, the revolution is evil or impossible, or too distant. For them, reform is possible, within reach, good and advantageous. The socialist old guard are on the verge of disappearing. The struggle for reforms was made the norm and daily routine, revolution transformed into a purely sentimental question referring to a very distant future. The pragmatic reformists no longer paid any attention to the counsels of the socialists, who were unable to bring about the revolution. The people, completely enthralled by the desire for immediate improvements and not by a desire for revolution, were encouraged to persist in this condition by their leaders. The masses abandoned everything into the hands of their leaders and became complacent and indolent. And as the masses became less active and less conscious of their goals, their leaders saw themselves as the real bearers of the movement. And these leaders began to believe that the proletarian action of the workers consisted primarily of tactics and compromises skillfully conducted by leaders, and that the workers must be satisfied with voting correctly, paying their dues to the trade union local, and now and then participating in a trade union struggle or a demonstration. These leaders became more and more convinced that the masses comprised a passive mass which had to be led and that they were themselves the active force. As always, the slaves have not noticed the increasing power of their masters. As always, they have not developed their own power to oppose the power of their masters.

But now with the recessions with all available money required for capital expansion, minor reforms themselves become impossible.  The more reforms were promised by the reformists, the more demoralized the masses become by the failure to deliver them. For nothing is more demoralizing and destructive than making false promises to the masses while nothing is achieved and the masses continue to credulously expect results. The working class are being tamed by a few ambitious, ignorant or weak-minded leaders with noble words telling them to form alliances with their rulers, fooling them into doing the bidding of their rulers. Reformism that is responsible for the fact that the workers, who are already undoubtedly too concerned with minor issues, are becoming even more focused on trivial pursuit of minor reforms, that caused the workers, already so nationalistic, to become even more nationalistic. They went for reforms alone, and it was precisely because they no longer sought revolution that they brought weakness, downfall and division upon themselves. They concerned themselves only with national issues, and it was precisely because of this that they became nationalists. They concerned themselves only with reform within the nation. The workers turned their gaze towards their leaders, towards parliament, and remained totally passive themselves. Salvation would now only come from leaders and legislation. Workers of every country were kept busy with the beautiful projects which the reformists had set so alluringly before their eyes. They were busy with workers welfare benefit schemes, with the proposals for tax reform and electoral laws.

Despite all the promises and all the pacts made with the bourgeoisie, despite all the tricks played on the workers and all the efforts of the permanent trade union officials and party deputies to monopolize all activity from the top down, as the effects of the Great Recession bites deeper the people are realizing they can indeed fight back. Now the people are beginning to act for themselves, their time has come. The masses are finally awakening. This means that they are beginning to act without leaders, or at least without their leaders playing a significant role as in the Occupy Movement. Action has come from the people themselves. This means that we are taking a step forward to our goal. Since the victory of socialism is a process composed of a long series of battles, no single struggle can completely and instantly defeat capitalism. No single struggle can instantly destroy it. Every struggle is nothing but an attempt to destroy capitalism and a contribution to bringing about the victory of socialism. Every victory won over capitalism  will be a victory of socialism. And in these struggles the working class will rise to the highest form of organization, the highest degree of class consciousness and the greatest self confidence. The struggle does not have to overthrow capitalism all at once, that is not possible. But it must weaken capitalism in such a way that it will one day it can be defeated. If one does not want to defeat capitalism then one absolutely renounces victory and lacks the will to win. What our time calls for, for the working class, is that they become conscious of their own power. It is a matter of becoming socialist, it is time to really act in a socialist manner. The people must cease to be ignorant, cowardly, indifferent or passive. They must no longer be craven. Now is the time for the people to display a more powerful character than ever before.

The capitalists of every country have hurled themselves upon the world’s peoples. The left nationalists counsels the working class not to unite across national borders for collective action, and counsels each national proletariat to allow itself to be separately emasculated for the benefit of their nations’ capitalists. Against the international capital which is fighting to spread itself over the face of the earth, we want to oppose the united international working class. We want the international unity for an International of action and struggle. This is the only way the proletariat can win. Capital is assuming forms which were to some extent foreseen but not actually experienced by Marx. This is the era of the corporation and of globalisation, and high finance rules the world economy. The abundance and concentration of capital lead every State, in one single act of world conquest, to fight against the world proletariat. Workers must take the stage, both nationally and internationally; only the masses can stand in the way of the enormous new powers of the trusts and world capital. We must advance from the passive struggle to the active struggle, from the undemanding struggle through representatives to the leaderless struggle, or a struggle whose leaders are in the background. Working people must be in the front ranks as they represented the future of the movement. It must take a large step towards decisive action against the most powerful capitalism, against the most powerful social force which has ever existed: world capital. From the struggle on a national scale waged by its representatives, the proletariat must advance, alone and trusting only in its own powers, to the great international struggle.

Within capitalism, there are two movements which are fused into one. One is the movement of expansion of ever more powerful forms of production throughout the world. This movement is highly advanced and is constantly growing at an ever faster pace. The other movement is the spread of national capital and the fusion of national capitals in international capital. The tendency of these two combined movements led capitalism to become world capitalism. National capital is merging into a single capital and the entire earth subjected to international world capital. It is true that international trusts have been formed by national corporations, but these national capitals frequently continue to act like enemies and competitors towards each other, each desiring the lion’s share for itself. It is true that gigantic trusts composed of national capitals have also gone on to form international bodies; they are fighting, however, against the gigantic trusts of the other countries. It is true that, even in the weakest and smallest States, a great deal of foreign capital has penetrated; but in all these States there is a strong aspiration to found their own industries, and foreign capital represents a small minority interest.