Anti-Nationalism 3/5

“Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.” Arundhati Roy

Nationalism is anathema to socialists. The Socialist Party has always argued that the workers of all countries have more in common with each other than with those representing the interests of capital. We ask that workers set aside the reaction of nationalism, religious bigotry, ethnic hatred, racism and join together to root out the real problem itself—capitalism. We are all faced with the fundamental problem of capitalism which forces worker against worker not for their own interests, but for the interest of profit. Nationalism is sold to voters as a movement to liberate us all. And sadly many workers will back it. Unique amongst all political parties, both left and right, The Socialist Party has no national axe to grind. We side with no particular state, no government. We have no time for borders. Once again the socialist assertion that nationalism can never serve the interests of the working class is being attested to daily amidst the horrors of the war around the world. Workers are always the victims. They have to do the fighting and the dying, they are raped and "ethnically cleansed".  It is their lives and homes that become "collateral damage" regardless of whether or not they swallow the nationalist filth of their leaders. Yet they find themselves fighting and dying together for what will be a capitalist state that exploits them. These wars are not the results of ancient hatreds but are the result of capitalism and can, therefore, happen anywhere in the world, even here.

We, the people, the power to invent the technology to create abundance. We, the people, have the power to make this life full of joy and happiness. Let us use that power and unite to fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men and women have an opportunity for useful work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason and science. It is impossible to imagine how capitalism would function so smoothly without the poison of nationalism.

Working class unity enables us to combine our tactics for defending our class with the strategy of liberating our class. Socialists do not fall into the trap of nationalism which does not strengthen the campaign for socialism or create a united, class-conscious working class, but fragments and weakens it. Nationalism will not improve your condition one iota. Only the class struggle could do that and only with difficulty. Instead of tragically wasting time fostering nationalism, workers should be struggling for a socialist society without national borders. Most people do not get beyond the position of support for the country they are born in while some calling themselves ‘socialists’ progress no further than ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. Until the hold of nationalist and racist poison on the minds of the world's workers is destroyed, it will not be possible to live the full and satisfying life of socialism. Stand up for yourself as a human being and fight for the only worthwhile end — the achievement of a free humanity. The Socialist Party’s object speaks of the means of production being owned and controlled ‘by and in the interest of the whole community’. This means what it says: all the people of the Earth will own the land, factories, offices and so on in common. And we will form a true community, one with shared interests but not distinct from or in opposition to anyone else or any other group. The global community of world socialism will truly be a positive notion, offering support and opportunity for all those who are part of it. Nationalism only bequeaths to the working class a change of hand which holds the whip.