The typical liberal seeks to give the rights of self-determination to all the various nationalities. The Socialist Party denies the necessity of the existence of nations; it wants to abolish all countries and states. However, we do understand the attachment to hearth and home, to one's community and neighbourhood, to familiar traditions and customs. As a socialist, we love our land. But we also love other people’s lands, too, when we visit them.
The liberation aimed at by the Socialist Party is freedom of development for the individual as for society. This liberty the Socialist Party sees to be impossible under a regime of private property-holding in the means of production. All the existing limitations on freedom, alike for the individual and for society, the Socialist Party finds traceable to the system of private ownership in these means of production. Starting from the fundamental basis of socialism, that the common ownership of the means of production is essential to human liberty, it is right to assume the collectivist basis of socialism, is, indeed, only a means whereby such liberty can be realised. The policy of the Socialist Party is subservient to this goal.
It is capitalism that attacks and destroys all the things close to the human heart. Capitalism ruthlessly discards people’s heritage and ideas opposed to its progress It exploits and corrupts those customs and practices once held sacred. This country is not "our" country.
Nationalism involves the doctrine of “My country right or wrong” which the Socialist Party contends is utterly incompatible with world socialism. Socialist principles and socialist interests take precedence over all national interests whatsoever. Socialists cannot recognise any duty, of whatever nature, that is at variance with these principles. Patriotism is an objectionable sentiment since it means the placing of one’s own country, its interests and well-being, above those of the rest of humanity. Patriotism is ridiculous for propertyless proletarians. We all know what patriotism means nowadays. A gang of thieves who by fraud or otherwise lay hold of the power of the State, and with that power in their hands proceed to start a quarrel with another people, whom they consider sufficiently weak and defenceless to be a safe prey, in order to enrich themselves and the class they represent by the plunder and enslavement of the people. A citizen must on no account condemn their actions or reveals oneself lacking in “patriotism” and like a true “patriot,” must cheer them on. Patriots see in their “country’s enemies” any unfortunate people whom its governing and parasitic classes wish to plunder. A patriot nowadays is either an empty-headed knave or an unthinking fool.
Nationalism first appeared during the rise of capitalism, in the struggle of the nascent capitalist class to establish the nation-state as a framework for the expansion of private property, freedom of enterprise and trade. The nation did not come into being because of mystical or cultural impulses; it was the product of a definite process of economic and class development. Nationalism is based on mythical history. While race and language have been convenient expressions of the nation, the nation has itself created “race” and “language,” and often suppressed or amalgamated them in the fulfilment of its historic mission.
It is undeniable that the attitude of the Socialist Party’s internationalism joins hands with that of anti-patriotism, with that of anti-nationalism. The consistent socialist certainly does relegate nationality to a place secondary to that of Humanity. All socialists have an abhorrence of the cant of the patriot and the lying humbug of the Jingoism which would attempt to whitewash every crime committed in the name of their country.
The national struggle is a diversion from the class struggle. It is proper to look forward to the day when nationalism and patriotism shall be swallowed up in worldwide brotherhood and when supposed differences shall vanish in human solidarity.
No person is duty-bound to fight or sacrifice oneself in defending from attack his or her country. The political independence of a nation is not worth the degradation. Let us cast off all sectionalism, all parochialism, and sit down as brothers and sisters together in an earnest effort to find a common cause against the capitalist enemy. The class struggle is the supreme issue for the Socialist Party. No socialist would suggest for a single moment that a mere change from a foreign to a native-born capitalist would help the workers. Socialists adopt a policy of unrelenting antagonism toward nationalism. We find nothing inspirational in the thought that we are wage slaves of one government than another rival one. Hasten the day when the working people of the world will finally abandon the national flags of their masters, and muster themselves under the red flag of socialism for human brotherhood. The Socialist Party regrets that all the dedication and devotion to the service of the modern nation-state is not forthcoming when it is a question of a new society, for the Socialist Cooperative Commonwealth.
No comments:
Post a Comment