"There is nothing more absurd and at the same time more harmful, more deadly, for the people than to uphold the fictitious principle of nationalism as the ideal of all the people's aspirations. Nationality is not a universal human principle; it is a historic, local fact. ... We should place human, universal justice above all national interests." Bakunin
Nationalism remains one of the main features of the capitalist societies. The capitalists have used the tool of division many times. Thinking men and women the world over are beginning to realise that nationalism is too narrow and limited a concept to meet the necessities of our time. Presently, people are divided into “nations” and “peoples.” Our goal is to make all people see that these separations distract them from uniting with each other. There is only one humankind. The love of one’s “own” nation—for any reason—is the exact opposite of the political solidarity amongst all people we want to achieve. Patriotism and international solidarity are mutually exclusive. Nationalists will, sooner or later, turn out to be our opponents as their goal is, in the end, not the liberation of all. For people without a passport of the country they live in, stateless asylum seekers, for instance, the concept of “nation” is all the more repressive,
Instead of promoting the unity of all working people against the entire capitalist class – English and Scottish alike – the SNP and their left-wing fellow-travellers play right into the hands of the native capitalists. Instead of working towards class unity, they pushed the collaboration of Scottish workers with “their” capitalists. The Socialist Party rebuts all manifestations of nationalist ideology and at the same time we expose the hypocrisy of the SNP and show fellow-workers that their real friends are their class brothers in England and Wales and around the world and not Scot's capitalists who are after more political power just to get richer off the backs of the working class. Through our work, we are showing working people of all nations that the only way to end oppression and exploitation is to unite in the fight for socialism. Only when the socialist and working class movements become fused into one indestructible whole, a world socialist party, can a conscious class struggle for the emancipation of the working class be waged. The central issue of politics in Scotland today is how to shackle the powerful organisations workers have built up to the priorities of Scottish capital by enlisting the leaders of workers’ organisations to the cause of the ‘national interest’. Did we not in the 2014 referendum witness Colin Fox, moderator of the SSP, collaborate with a hedge fund manager in a demonstration of class collaboration?
The Socialist Party offers up a vision of a future for a humanity free of national prejudice and chauvinism. All the talk in the world about “unity” is so much clap-trap, unless it is clearly stated what the workers are to unite for. Let all those who talk so glibly about “unity” take note that, as the fundamental problem confronting the workers is how to get rid of their exploitation and poverty, the basis for the organisation of the workers, must be the ending of capitalism and the establishment of socialism. The Socialist Party insists that the first step to unite the working class is to teach the workers that socialism is their only real hope. The Socialist Party believes in waging a class war — fighting for the working class against the wealthy classes who exploit their labour for profit, and ultimately fighting for a society where class does not exist. Most of the time, this is not a literal war and does not involve physical violence, but rather involves other forms of actions, a battle of ideas. We link our support to the emancipatory aims that we fight for with arguments. We don’t have anything in common with people whose critique of capitalism consists of making bankers personally responsible for all evils caused by it, nor with those who want to sustain an imaginary “purity of race,” or those who only dislike dominance when it is exercised by the wrong people for we have no problem with “foreign” domination, but with domination per se. Why confine our discussion within the borders we fight against when we feel a lot closer to a trade-unionist in Korea than to a religious bigot in Kilmarnock? Capitalism’s influence is a global one. The socialism we struggle for, which will finally have production follow needs, is unthinkable to establish in a single country. It would take little time any attempt at setting up conditions for a better life for all to be thwarted. And in a world economy based on the division of labour, one would have to support the policies of competition and exchange to gain access to things one could not produce or harvest in one’s own region.
The most common objection we hear to our position of being anti-nationalist is that, in the end, this is “our country” as well. Part of this is true: people as residents of a certain country do own the respective country’s passport or other official documents, making them “legal” residents. So when they don‘t manage to find a job, it is the authority of “their country” that harasses or even criminalises them. It is “their” country which offers a world full of competition, which provides education in schools either in an understanding way, or just by hammering it into you that to make it in this society you have to struggle. All because your “own state” must compete against other nations, and unfortunately, you are all dependent on its economic success on the world market. And when times are tight, like in the current crisis, you are called upon to sacrifice “for the good of the nation,” which has in fact never done you any good. And once “your country” decides another country be the “enemy,” you will be the one to shoot others or be shot. Thank you very much for the privilege of belonging to a country! We don’t need a nation. We think the logic that “our enemy’s enemy is our friend” is illogical.
Nationalism is a choice: You may either follow the national government blindly, or you may think for yourself. You may embrace the flag in times of war and peace when the army marches in defence of “national interests”. Or you may look behind the flag and see who is trying to pull your strings and manipulate your emotions. As to defence of “our” country, we should consider, before we side with the oil barons and arms dealers who helped shape the Middle East as it is today who ultimately are responsible whether our interests really lie with them, or whether they are just as much our enemy as the Islamic fanatics.
NO WAR BETWEEN NATIONS, NO PEACE BETWEEN CLASSES!
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