One People - One Home

Across Europe and elsewhere, we have witnessed an explosive mixture of economic collapse and a resurgent nationalism. The political virus of nationalism is spreading. This feeds on historical divisions and the need of the new ruling classes in alliance with the remnants of the old to legitimise their rule through appeals to xenophobia and racism. These ideologies gain their strength through the hard struggle for survival experienced by workers in everyday life under state capitalism, and these struggles are set to become even harsher.


Nationalist independence is a capitalist business. Feuding factions of the self-same class that win and control territories for profit, their politicians, media chiefs and paid hacks. Politically, nationalism is ambiguous, in that it can take on a "rightwing" or a "leftwing" form. The Socialist Party urges fellow-workers t\to forget the crumbs from the dishes of their masters’ feast, but instead organise to take the whole feast for themselves by replacing the capitalist logo: "One Nation—One State" with the socialist one: "One World—One People". The obstacle only lies in our minds—the "fear of freedom". Remove fear. Be free to be one to the Movement. Don’t feel you need to be led by the nose. When the workers understand socialism they will take the direct and simple steps necessary to give them control of the political machinery of society for the purpose of introducing socialism. Until that time, the only useful action possible is the act of speaking and writing about socialism. The strike is the workers’ only weapon under capitalism, a useful weapon but strictly limited when it meets the power of those who control the State. The emancipation of the working class will not come by industrial action but only by gaining control of the machinery of government, through the vote, for the purpose of abolishing capitalism and establishing socialism. We recognise that there is no reason for deluding the workers into the belief that nationalism is anything but a capitalist movement.  Those organisations in this country which support any nationalist movement are deceiving the workers if not themselves, and are demonstrating their unfitness to claim to speak in the name of socialism. Let Scottish and English capitalists quarrel about their profit-seeking interests. Let British workers set an example to their fellows in all lands by proclaiming that the interest of the working class is in internationalism.


It will be argued that Marx and Engels supported nationalist movements and that therefore Socialists should do so today. Such an assertion is based on a faulty understanding of the materialist conception of history. Marx and Engels were living in an era when the bourgeoisie was engaged in a struggle to assert itself against the old feudal regimes. The victory of this class was a historically progressive step at that time in that it brought about the re-organization of society on a capitalist basis, the essential precondition for the establishment of Socialism; and it created an urban proletariat, the only class which can bring about socialism. This was why Marx supported the rising capitalist class in their bid to capture political power. However, once capitalism reaches the point where Socialism is a practical proposition, there is no need for socialists to advocate the capitalist industrialization of every corner of the globe; they can concentrate fully on the task of establishing socialism. Hence we give no support to any nationalist group, and in place of the opportunism and hypocrisy of the myriad groupings in advocating "national self-determination".

Socialism is a global solution to a global problem. The problem is that the Earth and all its abundant resources belong to the minority, not to the human community as a whole. The minority abuse the planet Earth for the purpose of making profits. Socialism will end minority ownership and control, place the world in the hands of everyone and produce goods and services solely for need. This will require global organisation and not national fragmentation. Socialism will put an end to every border; nation-states will be abolished immediately.

The working class has no countries. The British do not own Britain any more than the Scots own Scotland. We, who produce the world’s wealth, must cast off the chains of nationalist illusion. We have a world to win.

The message of the Socialist Party is world-wide. It reaches across the artificial national boundaries erected by man. Despite its shameless perversion by a robber class the great impulse to human solidarity is by no means dead.  Even the hellish system of capitalist individualism, with its doctrine of every person for oneself and the devil take the hindmost, has been unable to kill the struggle for the the great principle of human solidarity.
The Socialist Party raises the rallying cry of Marx and Engels, "Workers of All Countries, Unite!" That is our hope and aspiration. For the present, however, we are surrounded by the horrors of exploitation, added to the horror of war and famine while subjected to the operation of open repression as well as to the arts of hypocrisy and fraud. With the weakening power of religion to keep the workers obedient, the false cult of nationality and patriotism is being exploited to the full. Like religion, patriotism has its vestments, its ceremonies, its sacred emblems, its sacred hymns and inspired music; all of which are called in aid of the class interests of our masters, and utilised desperately to lure millions to the shambles for their benefit and the furtherance of the damnable policy of the slave-holding class: to divide and rule.