Workers have a world to win, not a nation to fight for

Yet again Scottish separatists are on the march, this time through the Edinburgh. It is the latest in a series of similar marches through towns and cities all across Scotland, organised by All Under One Banner. One of the speakers featured is that Tartan Trotskyist and known liar, Tommy Sheridan.

Workers in Scotland need socialism, not independence. Nationalists do not want to abolish capitalist exploitation. A sovereign Scotland can only serve capitalism. To pretend that the Union is the cause of all the problems is to deliberately fool the people. Scottish nationalism is an attempt to rally the working class behind the cause of the local bosses seeking better profits or a more secure market. 

Nationalism does not oppose capitalism. Nationalists acts in the interests of an aspiring ruling class. There are no shortcuts to the socialist revolution, and those who followthe nationalist path set back the revolutionary movement by chasing fake enemies. Nationalism is predicated on the myth of a common identity uniting all the citizens of a given country. This has been cynically and opportunistically promoted by the Scottish nationalists.

The Socialist Party wants to abolish the private ownership of the means of production and expropriate the capitalists. Workers fight each other instead of attacking the system itself. Nationalism emasculates the workers. It is used to divide the workers among themselves so they can ignore their real enemy. Separatism would divide the workers of Scotland from their fellow-workers in England. National divisions are a hindrance to working-class unity, and national jealousies and differences are fostered by the capitalists for their own ends.

It is nationalism that divides the workers so that the workers of one nationality struggle against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose. If the working class divides its forces, this can only seriously hold back its victory. But if it remains unified, it will be able to triumph.

In the struggle to win the hearts and minds of the working class the Socialist Party has to contend with sacred beliefs and obstacles such as nationalism, the loyalty and patriotism felt by many for "their” country. Nationalism is at the top of the list of political illusions used to blind capitalism's victims. For the Socialist Party nationalist movements represent the interests of the capitalist class but politically they can take on a "right-wing" or a "left-wing" form.

The Scottish nationalists choose to present themselves as the latter. However, once the native ruling class has captured and consolidated its power, then nationalism becomes a conservative force. Workers should reject the nonsense idea of nationalism and should unite for their common good to abolish capitalism and work for socialism.

The Socialist Party opposes all nationalist movements recognising that the working class has no country. Feelings of loyalty to a nation-state are purely subjective, having no basis in reality. The working class in Scotland has more in common with the workers in other countries than it has with a land-owning laird. We resolutely oppose the politics of capitalism in which some people support the British version of nationalism against the Scottish brand of nationalism. Since we hold that workers own no country, why should we care which section of the class of thieves owns which national portion of the world? Workers own no country, so why should we care which section of the class of thieves owns which national portion of the world?

You don’t enhance the power of workers in their economic struggles against the capitalists by taking the same side as those sitting opposite you at the negotiating table and fraternally regarding them as your 'fellow citizens'. Yet depressingly large swathes of the Left have opted for a course of action that effectively submerges and obliterates working class identity in favour of national identity. We witnessed the Scottish Socialist Party convener, Colin Fox, sit alongside a hedge-fund manager in the 2014 referendum.

The obsession about Scottish independence is one which socialists meet all the time. We encounter it from Leftists who divide their time between paying lip service to the idea of workers of the world uniting and endorsing the nationalism of the SNP. Nationalists have always argued that Scottish workers would be better off in their own country, free from British rule. Socialists regard it as an irrelevance whether local capitalism is ruled by a Scottish capitalist state or by a British capitalist state or the multinational corporations. That modern nationalities are mere artificial devices for the commercial war that we seek to put an end to, and will disappear with it. Because of the economic interdependence of nations, the Socialist Party has always held that socialism must exist on a world scale. It has been an axiom with all socialists that the working class of one country should cooperate with the workers of all other countries. A class-conscious worker does not consider himself an American or British or Russian first, and a member of the working class second, but considers him or herself, first and always, a member of the working class interested in the struggles of the workers the world over.

For the worker in Scotland there is but one hope. It is to make common cause with the workers of other countries for the end of all forms of exploitation: saying to both English and Scottish capitalists: “A plague on both your houses."

For the true battle-cry of the working class is broader, more significant and more inspiring than mere nationalism, and that rallying cry is:

THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS!

WORKERS FOR THE WORLD!

No More Scotland - But the World

As the world economic crisis continues we can see the burden of the crisis being dumped on the shoulders of the working class. We can see government after government in the capitalist world enacting legislation with similar ends: to make the working class pay for the present crisis of capitalism. Throughout the world popular resistance is rising. The ruling class here and elsewhere are attempting to whip up chauvinism and nationalism. The working class is multi-national, composed of workers of many different nationalities. Their common identity is that they are all exploited by the capitalist class. All workers must strive to forge unity with their fellow workers of all nationalities in the common effort for full democracy and socialism. All sorts of “progressives” have been more and more resorting to the method of dividing the workers by advocating different doctrines designed to weaken the struggle of the working class. One such idea is nationalism, which advocates the division and splitting up of the working class on the specious pretext of protecting the interests of national culture or national independence.

Achieving “independence” under capitalism – private ownership, commodity production, the rule of the market, etc.– will not bring freedom and democracy for the working class. Instead, the working class will continue to be subjected to exploitation and wage slavery. That is why  nationalists of any stripe are charlatans, i.e., they are lying, when they claim that they are the champions of the democratic rights of the workers. They never have been and never will be because that is impossible. There cannot be a “Peoples Republic of Scotland”. Leftists who pick up the national flag has become accepted fare even in the Trotskyist ranks.

 The more wealth the predatory employing class amass, the greater becomes its greed and ambition to absorb and seize new wealth, and the more it intensifies its oppression of the people within its own country. Such domestic oppression will be all the more carried out under the cloak of nationalism. When it is to its own advantage does the ruling class use the slogan of nationalism to arouse the people. Nationalism means exclusiveness and isolation. Any nationalism finally implies that those people are better than all others. Is it not a deplorable mistake for the so-called revolutionary left to consider themselves allied in any way with the class that deceive workers for their own interests?

Class-conscious workers fight hard against every kind of nationalism. What class interest does nationalism serve? Would it aid the class struggle against capitalism or be a diversion from that struggle?  Class-conscious workers cannot rally under the national flag. Nationalism is always the tool of the bourgeoisie, historically. To speak of Scottish nationalism as a progressive force,  is to play the game of a section of the rich. No amount of secession can ever succeed in bringing freedom. The slogan of “independence then socialism” which claims to be progressive and revolutionary in no way constitutes a path towards socialism.

Socialists are internationalists and not nationalists. Even in the countries oppressed by foreign powers the goal of the struggle is not to try to repeat the process of the bourgeois-democratic revolution of nation-building but to develop the process of a socialist revolution.

The Socialist Party recognises these lies and this fakery. The solution cannot be a return to a romantic fictitious past. We must go forward to a really free, really classless society. Democracy can only be realised by a socialist revolution. Nationalism leads directly to a capitalist system  where the vast majority of the population still end up as exploited. The capitalist gangster clans will continue their class warfare over who will get to steal how much of Scotland’s resources. What’s needed is to organise class struggle against our rulers. If all workers joined in class struggle we could make short work of the bosses who accumulate billions off our labour, swearing devotion to the UK or to Scotland while stashing their wealth in off-shore banks and buying shares in foreign land-grabs, the modern equivalent of the Highland Clearances.

 The reality is that the enemy of the Scottish working class is capitalism. The friends of the Scottish workers are the English working class, who are exploited in common with them and live under the same economic system. It will be suicidal for the Scottish to fight in isolation. Hence it follows that it is the task of the Scottish workers is to stay united with their English counterparts

Unlike the deluded left nationalists, the Socialist Party will not tag along with, follow behind, or try to lead the nationalist movement. We will instead resolutely struggle against them by propagating socialism. We must constantly hammer home that the SNP and their ilk are nothing but tools of the ruling class. Deceived, as people will discover in the years to come, that they have been most cruelly misled and have been wasting their time fostering nationalist illusions.  Nationalism is divisive and destructive and ultimately only serves the bosses. Home rule does not eliminate class rule.

 A struggle for socialism is a struggle for democracy. Our struggle is to end exploitation – our own as well as everyone else’s. The destruction of capitalism is the collective workers struggle and the mobilising and uniting of the whole class, of workers of all lands, to take up the fight for the historic task of overthrowing capitalist rule and  building socialism is our mission. We cannot unite with those “socialists” who preach reformism and the accomplishment of their goals under capitalism. The Socialist Party position is a declaration of war for the end of the capitalist system and the establishment of the classless, communist society. A global cooperative community can only be built under the watchword, “Workers of the world unite!”

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.

The “nonsense” of nationalism

"The nationality of the toilers is neither French nor English nor German; it is toil, free slavery, sale of the self. His government is neither French nor English nor German; it is Capital. His native air is neither French nor German nor English; it is the air of the factory. The land which belongs to him is neither French nor English nor German; it is a few feet under the ground."-- Karl Marx  Notes on Friedrich List

Nationalists love the soil which makes their graves. The working class has often been, for Marx, beguiled by nationalism, organised religion, and other distractions. These ideological devices help to keep people from realising that it is they who produce wealth. Socialism is a theory that stands for a stateless society. On the other hand, nationalism stands for a state or nation. Nationalism means the development of a particular nation. For nationalists, state or nation is the primary importance. However, for communist, the whole class around the whole world is a single entity. It is the community that prevails over others in communism whereas in nationalism, it is the national spirit that prevails over other thoughts. In nationalism, there is a belief that one nation is superior to other nations. Moreover, the citizens of a country are more valued than the citizens of other countries. This belief does not hold in communism. For the communists, community stands above all. Unlike the nationalists, the communists think globally. Workers' real interests and loyalties lie in supporting the efforts of workers worldwide in the class struggle; in supporting all workers' efforts to resist their exploiters and defeat their exploiters through the establishment of socialism. It means rejecting nationalism and the efforts of ruling-class nation-states to pit workers against each other in economic competition or set them at each others' throats in war. It means holding up international working-class solidarity in opposition to ruling-class nationalism.

Those who create wealth are the working class and in socialism workers will collectively manage society for the benefit of society as a whole on a planned basis for human need and not for profit. Without the profit motive and without the capitalist class, there is no need for wages, racism, sexism and war. There is more than enough to provide everyone with a decent life, to restore the environment which is currently being destroyed by capitalism and use all the modern means of production to reduce the burden of labouring for surplus labour value for the benefit of the ruling class. Nationalism is a fraud whereby would-be rulers ‘self-determine’ to impose their vision of nationhood on an entire community. Nationalism is an ideology of separation, of hatred for the ‘other.’ It is a creed of violence and war and oppression. And it has absolutely nothing to offer the world’s oppressed. What is necessary is to develop human solidarity and mutual aid. Nationalism is today one of the most dangerous hindrances to social liberation.

There are some on the Left who believe that whatever the nature of the SNP a vote for ‘independence’ will somehow weaken the British state. This misunderstands the nature of power and where it lies. There is no reason to believe that in an independent Scotland striving for a socialist society will be any easier or that will see a resurgence in the class struggle. Would an independent Scotland be any different for workers who would still be economically and socially powerless?

James Connolly before he subordinated working class independence to Irish independence asked what would be the difference in practice if the unemployed were rounded up for the "to the tune of 'St. Patrick's Day'" and the bailiffs wore wear "green uniforms and the Harp without the Crown, and the warrant turning you out on the road will be stamped with the arms of the Irish Republic...Whoop it up for liberty! "?  ("Socialism Made Easy,")

The Nats on Tour

The pro-independence group All Under One Banner have  marched through the streets of Oban. Organisers claimed 7,000 people took part.

The growing strength and influence of nationalism has compelled the World Socialist Movement to address the issue. Nationalist struggles are placed above the class struggle and eliminate the role of the working class and the socialist revolution. Nationalist struggles, by no means, stands for the liberation of workers. Pro-nationalists are driven by their desire to find a special explanation for the oppression of minorities. The class struggle is not enough; there must be a “national struggle” as well. The ruling class struggles for its own selfish ends, using nationalism to mobilise all the people under the leadership of the local capitalist class. In other words, it wants a bigger slice of the profits from exploitation of Scottish workers. Sections of the local capitalists, wanting a larger slice of the cake, offer nationalism and separatism as the peoples’ salvation.

Left nationalists view an independent Scotland as the first step on the path to socialism. They believe that Scottish (also Welsh, Cornish and Irish) nationalism is a progressive force, and can therefore be used. They either do not understand, or opportunistically, refuse to accept the fundamental role of nationalism. They see this nationalism as the lesser of evils. That’s why it resorts to all sorts of demagogy to the effect that it will “liberate” the workers. Scots do not see secession as their way to liberation but as some palliative remedy for the economic social problems in Scotland. Socialists must on no account help spread this new diversion but must resolutely expose and attack it. The ruling class, using nationalism and nationalists, has side-tracked the class aspirations of the working people.

The Socialist Party constantly hammer home that the SNP and their like are nothing but tools of the ruling class. We must popularise socialism in order that the workers shall not be side-tracked. At present, Scottish Nationalism and the SNP have the appearance of a progressive movement to some sincere people who have almost no political understanding. Deceived by this, people will work in and around the nationalist movement only to discover, in some years’ time, that they have been mistaken and most cruelly misled, have been wasting their time and worse – have been advocating a diversionary movement. Workers must not fall into this trap; they must not be deceived by any so-called potentially progressive facade of nationalism. Instead of tragically wasting their time fostering nationalism (in whatever form), the Socialist Party campaigns to prepare a powerful and unified socialist movement. We know socialism is the solution. We must prove it to our fellow-workers.

The Socialist Party repudiates the romance of nationalism, an idea that divides mankind into separate distinct sovereign nation-states whose claim is that the freedom and fulfillment of mankind are to be worked out in terms of its national identity. 

Workers World Unity

The SNP's opened in Aberdeen

The Socialist Party has always claimed that at the bottom of all war there is an economic cause. Under capitalism politics and economics are often divided in workers’ minds. Declaring “spheres of influence” really means exclusive possession of foreign markets and trade privilege. Capitalists must find some means of enlisting people to fight their wars. That means is nationalism. Economic causes are, of course, the root of wars. But today it is easier than ever to obscure this fact. Nationalism is the cloak behind which the economic causes work. Nationalism is the best disguise for the intrigues and machinations of capitalists. As Herman Goering said in 1945: “Naturally, the common people don't want war...but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”

Nationalism is always dangerous and creates an opening to chauvinism and xenophobia.

Nationalism holds that members of a national group, regardless of class have a communal integrity that is stronger than the ties between workers of different nations. Nationalism always claims certain virtues as the peculiar, exclusive possession of certain nations. If individuals make such claims, they are laughed to scorn. Why — with what logic — may nations make such claims? Nationalism claims that the culture belonging to one nation is distinct from that belonging to any other. This was so in the past, but the natural evolution of mankind is making it less so. Increased means of communication — the mass media, the internet — have caused nations to exchange ideas until today there is no essential difference between any one of the countries of the world. Even language is tending to become universal with the prevalence of English as a second language. More people understand each other today than ever before. It is only by artificial that nationalism is kept alive. Nationalism is an unmitigated curse. It leads inevitably to chauvinism and to national aggression. It leads to a patriotism for the soil, for the particular bit of the earth’s surface on which a particular person has been born. Capitalism versus socialism is not a crucial issue to the nationalist.

Socialism adopts a policy of unrelenting antagonism toward nationalism. Socialism recognises and emphasises that the class struggle determines all our action – that the national ideology is a fetter upon the emancipation of the proletariat – and that the social revolution is international in scope and purpose. We value the international unity of the working class. So we must fight for the closest possible alliance of workers irrespective of any-reshaping of the frontiers of individual states. We do not, and cannot, favour a native-born employing class over the foreign version. A divided international working class, split by nationalism can never build its strength to challenge the capitalist system of exploitation.

Liberate minds, not nations

Class not nation

FOR WORLD SOCIALISM

Capitalism is constructed on national lines: nation states, national languages, national education systems and national laws. We have national parliaments and therefore national political parties, national industries and therefore national unions. We are taught about our shared “national” culture and encouraged to embrace “national identity”. We support “our” country, “our” military, “our” national sporting teams. National boundaries are the product of the rise of capitalism, with its need to develop national markets and industry. Each nation was unified with a capital city, a central government authority, a single currency, a single border, and a single army.The problem with nationalism, however, is that it has the corrosive effect of undermining class solidarity and helping to bind us more closely to our own ruling class. Marx and Engels recognised that the working class is “itself national”. But they urged that “working men have no country” and must settle their affairs with their own capitalists. Our fight must be with our own rulers; and to the extent that we wrap ourselves in the same flag as them, we can never be free. Workers have an interest in adopting this spirit, rather than succumbing to nationalist arguments. Nationalism has always been deeply reactionary, racist and imperialist, and there is nothing about it that we should seek to defend.

Capitalism is based on competition – between capitalists in pursuit of profits, between workers as we compete for jobs, university places and so on, and between the states seeking to extend the reach and power of the “national” capitalist class. Workers around the world today more than ever share similar conditions of life: tempos of work, patterns of consumption, forms of recreation and so on, increasingly cut across the old national barriers. Class struggles between workers and bosses in one country often propel and combine with struggles in other countries. if we want to overcome the real divisions between rich and poor, we also need to break down the invented divisions between peoples across the globe. We need to raise Marx and Engels’ call to arms: “Workers of all countries unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”

  Both Scottish and British forms of nationalism are reactionary but the overt anti-immigrant xenophobia stoked by UKIP makes the latter doubly so. With most people worse off than they were in terms of jobs, real wages, and access to health and education services, and yet still accepting a capitalist framework, they will understandably focus their anger on scapegoats and vulnerable targets. Asians and other migrants end up being blamed for health waiting lists, deteriorating education services, lack of housing and so on. Immigration controls are racist, anti-working class measures. They are designed to keep workers divided along national lines and to identify with their own capitalists against foreigners. Immigration controls, by discriminating over who can and cannot work and live in this country, legitimise discrimination against migrants once they are here. Marx used to argue that until British workers learned to solidarise with Irish republicans against the British ruling class, they would never develop the political consciousness necessary to take on that ruling class. British workers would remain tied to their own rulers’ apron-strings on the key political questions. For exactly the same reasons, open borders is a key demand to be fought for by people serious about social change. Workers and leftists who side with nationalism against people from other countries are basically lining up with their own exploiters; they will never be able to mount a serious challenge to the ruling class until they break with them on the question of nationalism and all the issues. In defending immigrants we can make no distinction between ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ immigrants. The ‘illegals’ are, indeed, the people in the worst position and most desperately in need of support. There should be no restrictions on entry and work in this country, and full rights should be accorded to all, whether born here or migrant. Defending migrants means declaring war on all immigration controls and on nationalism which has been as much a staple part of the diet of the left-wing as it has of the traditional right in this country. Workers across the world have many things in common. We need to organise together, to help each other .

Nationalism is a ruse to lure workers into supporting the rights of business to make profits at their expense. The ruling class is prepared to allow a certain level of democracy, such as the right to vote and some political freedoms, as long as their right to make profits is not restricted in any way. Universal suffrage has never been a threat to profit-making because big corporations control all the key sectors of the economy, including the media, and they fund the political parties so that they are conducive to policies that make ever larger profits. The increasing nationalism and the rise of right-wing racist groups play on people’s fears about the lack of jobs, affordable housing and diminishing access to public services. They also reflect peoples feelings of powerlessness and anger at the rising cost of living. Nationalism cannot resolve the root causes of the economic and social problems faced by working class people. The capitalist system operates to enrich a tiny, wealthy elite by exploiting ordinary people and creating divisions using nationalism and racism. The idea that native workers are being ‘dispossessed’ by greedy, queue-jumping, newcomers is false, but powerful. By creating an enemy out of tmigrants, and a hero out of the perpetrators - the bosses, people aim their fear and anger over diminishing standards of living at the wrong target.

 The growth of Scottish nationalism has seen more of the Left falling in behind it. The Socialist Party, however, exposes their reformist arguments that independence will better the lives of workers and takes an implacably hostile stance toward the SNP, using every opportunity to expose its cynical tactics to win workers’ votes. Scottish nationalism means its workers are turning away from class unity and joint struggle with their brothers and sisters south of the border, and strengthening reformist illusions that hope lies in a new constitution and a sovereign parliament, one with “their own” SNP politicians and “their own” bosses.

As socialists, we recognise that we have more common interest with the ordinary people of other countries than with our own ruling class. The alternative to nationalism is class solidarity. 

Oppose Nationalism

Socialists are internationalists. Whereas nationalists believe that the world is divided primarily into different nationalities, socialists consider social class to be the primary divide. For socialists, class struggle--not national identity--is the motor of history. And capitalism creates an international working class that must fight back against an international capitalist class. Capitalism is a world system and socialism can’t survive in one country, it has to be worldwide. For that reason the Socialist Party is implacably opposed to nationalism, which ties working people to our rulers and divides us from working people in other countries. The “national interest” propaganda binds workers hand and foot to their employers, blinding them to their true interest in working-class solidarity. Socialists argue that workers have no interest in the nationality of the factory owners or the land owners. We are working towards the working-class majority taking power and implementing common ownership. Once freed from market forces, the world’s resources will be used to meet human need.

Consistent international socialism as represented, for instance, by Rosa Luxemburg, opposed Bolshevik “national self-determination.” For her, the existence of independent national governments did not alter the fact of their control by the super-powers through the latter’s control of world economy. Capitalism could neither be fought nor weakened through the creation of new nations but only by opposing capitalist nationalism with proletarian internationalism. It is not the function of socialism to support nationalism. Contrary to earlier expectations, nationalism could not be utilized to further socialist aims, nor was it a successful strategy to hasten the demise of capitalism. On the contrary, nationalism emasculates socialism by using it for nationalist ends. It is not possible to support nationalism without also supporting national rivalries and war. No matter how utopian the quest for international solidarity may appear no other road seems open to escape fratricidal struggles and to attain a rational world society.

Although socialists’ sympathies are with the oppressed, they relate not to emerging nationalism but to the particular plight of twice-oppressed people who face both a native and foreign ruling class. Their national aspirations are in part “socialist” aspirations, as they include the illusory hope of impoverished populations that they can improve their conditions through national independence. Yet national self-determination has not emancipated the laboring classes.

Socialism will rise again as an international movement - or not at all. Those interested in the rebirth of socialism must stress its internationalism most of all. While it is impossible for a socialist to become a nationalist, the fight against colonialism does not imply adherence to the principle of national self-determination, but expresses the desire for a non-exploitative, world socialist society. While socialists cannot identify themselves with national struggles, they can as socialists oppose nationalism, colonialism and imperialism. It is not the function of socialists to fight for a nation’s independence but to strive for a socialist society. A struggle to this end would undoubtedly aid the liberation movements yet it would be a by-product of and not the reason for the socialist fight against neo-colonialism. The success of that struggle depends on achieving the greatest possible unity of the working class, it is utterly ridiculous to argue that the working class ought to divide itself into different countries in order to accomplish this unity. It is completely absurd to justify this with the false argument, disproven many times, that the battle for socialism would be easier if it were led by a more nationally “pure” and homogeneous working class.

Working class unity is a must right now if effective resistance is to be mounted to the crisis measures imposed by the capitalists. Unity is necessary to stand up against all the attacks on our democratic rights. Unity is the key in putting an end to the discrimination suffered by the oppressed. The working class faces a powerful and aggressive enemy which is solidly united despite the real contradictions within its ranks. The people are not going to win by dividing themselves. Those who dress up as socialists in order to push nationalism in the working class are the objective allies of the capitalists. The “left” nationalists would have us believe that the national demands of the people can only be met through independence. Thus, they claim, the task is to transform bourgeois independence into a socialist independence. In reality, they find themselves in the camp of those promoting division of the working class. The difference between nationalists and the other capitalist parties is not that they call for a different social system. What’s different is that they are looking for a new sharing of powers. The sharing will just be between groups of capitalists. Supporting nationalism in the name of the light for socialism is a monumental hoax. It flows from the same kind of logic that leads others to preach the nationalization as the cure for all our ills. It is up to the working class to show that it will not be duped by their political nonsense and deceitful rhetoric. Socialists have a responsibility to the working class to warn the workers as tactfully as possible of their mistaken course. At the present time, the capitalist class is launching a furious ideological counter-offensive against the ideas of socialism, it is our duty to stand firm in defence of the fundamental ideas and principles. We must reject the false road of shortcuts and panaceas, which leads to the quagmire of opportunism.

The Socialist Party cedes no concessions to the ideas nationalism and we continue to fight for the ideas of class unity and internationalism as the only way forward for the workers everywhere.

Nationalism divides workers

 The capitalist class flood the media with illusory phrases such as “national interest,” “national security,” and “national unity” in regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 

We live in the epoch of the possible proletarian revolution – the rise of world socialism and its challenge to world capitalism. There is only one class capable of overthrowing capitalism: the working class. There is no ideology above the class struggle; there is no longer an ideology such as nationalism that can serve the interests of both the bourgeoisie and the working class.

 

The World Socialist Parties are frequently accused of failing to distinguish between oppressed and oppressor nations, between the nationalism of the oppressor which is reactionary and the nationalism of the oppressed which is progressive. Nationalism preaches to the people that they have more in common with one another than they do with the people of other nations, regardless of class. Nationalism helps bind the working class to the bourgeoisie of its nation. Nationalism ties the working people to their own bourgeoisie while socialism unites the working people of the world against the capitalist class. Those in the World Socialist Movement argue that the destiny of working people must not be tied to the bourgeoisie, neither to its own existing national bourgeoisie nor to an aspiring ruling class. The working class must determine its own destiny and to the extent that the working class holds nationalist ideas, it is allowing its destiny to be determined by the capitalist class. Unity must be established between the exploited regardless of nationality.

 

 Socialism can not be accomplished under nationalist ideas engendered by capitalism. Socialism must be international or it cannot exist at all. The world is irresistibly being driven to internationalism and interdependence. Nation-states cannot resolve such global problems as climate change, depletion of energy and natural resources or deal with the effects of pollution of all kinds on land and ocean, the ecological disasters facing fauna and flora. In the end, it is nationalism and the nation-state will have to disappear, not socialism. The only race is the human race.

 

Almost every country is more powerful than another and tries to dominate it. Even the small countries harbour designs on parts of their neighbours' territory. The tendency of nations to dominate others leads to the view that they are all imperialist, which renders the term anti-imperialism meaningless. Nationalist slogans distract the workers from their own specific class aspirations. They divide the workers of different nations, they provoke the mutual hostility of the workers and thus destroy the necessary unity of the proletariat. They line up the workers and the ruling class shoulder to shoulder in one front, thus obscuring the workers' class consciousness and transforming the workers into the executors of plutocrats’ policy. National struggles prevent the assertion of social questions and proletarian interests in politics and condemn this important means of struggle of the proletariat to sterility. All of this is encouraged by ‘socialist’ propaganda when the left nationalists present nationalist slogans to the workers as valid, regardless of the very goal of their struggle, and when it utilises the language of nationalism in the description of our socialist goals. It is indispensable that class feeling and class struggle should be deeply rooted in the minds of the workers; then they will progressively become aware of the unreality and futility of nationalist slogans for their class.

 

Put your class first, not your country. The world is a “global village”. Each region may have its own particular and distinct customs, but they are part of a greater system of society that is worldwide. This system of society is capitalism and every region and nation operates within this system of society in one way or another. Borders are just artificial barriers that belong to a past and present that is best left behind.

Our emphasis is upon the class struggle, to awaken class feelings in order to turn attention away from national problems. Our anti-patriotism campaigns could appear to be useless against the power of nationalist ideology and it could seem that nationalism is making the most progress among the workers. But insofar as nationalist movements are in practice capable only of following in the wake of the ruling class and thus of arousing the feeling of the working class against them, they will progressively lose their power.  Capitalist conceptions will continue to dominate their minds as before. And when the decisive moment arrives when they must choose between national and class interests, the internal weakness of this workers' movement will become apparent, as is currently taking place in the separatist crisis. How can we rally the masses under our banner if we allow them to flock to the banner of nationalism? Our principle of class struggle can only prevail when the other principles that manipulate and divide men are rendered ineffective; but if our propaganda enhances the reputation of those other principles, we subvert our own cause.

 

Even though we do not get involved in the slogans and rhetoric of nationalism and continue to use the principles of socialism, this does not mean that we are pursuing a kind of ostrich policy in regard to national questions. These are, after all, real questions that are of concern to men and women and which they want to solve. We are trying to get the workers to become conscious of the fact that, for them, it is not these questions, but exploitation and the class struggle, which are the most vital and important questions which cast their shadows over everything. But this does not make the other questions disappear and we have to show that we are capable of resolving them.

To all the nationalist arguments, our response will be if they speak of the glory of the nation, we shall speak of the solidarity and unity of the workers of the world.

No to Nationalism

There is always a lot of myth and romanticism surrounding so-called nationalism offering a popular ‘solution’ of a sovereign state to workers. The working class would soon find out that this was no solution at all. For the Socialist Party which has no desire for yet more flags and frontiers and who anticipates that the setting-up of any new state will no more solve the problems of members of the  working class than has been the case with scores of other “successful” national struggles, the most promising line of action would seem to be to join with other workers to the early attainment of a class-free and border-free society. Such a socialist or communist society (they mean the same) will not only enable us to have free access to our material requirements but we shall democratically control the pace and nature of work that we freely choose to undertake. It would also be a way of life in which the language in which we express ourselves and the clothes we wear will be freely determined by each one of us. For the expropriated class of producers, nationalism has nothing intelligible to offer. We are but pawns in the game of life so long as that game is played by rival sections of the master class. Nationalism raises the national struggle above that of the class struggle.

The new era has begun to dawn. New and still bigger mega-fortunes are being made. The labour movement has to prepare itself for a further period of extremely bad weather and rough seas. Discontent and anger are characteristics of these times, animating waves of radical protest movements as well as the growing tide of nationalism. The current rise of nationalism and right-wing populism is a response to worries about immigration and national identity, coupled with genuine social injustices including economic hardship and unemployment, being exploited and manipulated so that in many countries they appear to be in the ascendency. Nationalism plays on notions of identity, encouraging allegiance to national and racial ideals rooted in the nation-state and in a world in which many people experience an alienated and fragmented feeling of loss, such nationalism appears comforting, offering a sense of belonging. But far from creating nationalism strengthens false notions of superiority, creating an atmosphere of distrust where a climate of fear can flourish. The ‘the other’, the ‘outsider, people from other nations, are seen as a threat, as rivals, and are viewed with suspicion, if not outright hostility. They are described in inflammatory terms in a process of dehumanization. Nationalism is tied to the ways of competition. it is a dangerous ideology which is being cynically used by politicians, who see widespread public discontent as an opportunity to gain power. It is detrimental to human development and has no place in our world.

We cannot unite with those “socialists” who preach reformism under the cloak of “anti-imperialism.” Although dressed up as very revolutionary its politics opposition to the working class, advocating constitutional change within the confines of the capitalist system rather than aiming towards revolution as the goal. The capitalists strive to possess the means of production and the market of their own country. And since their greed for profits knows no limits, they strive to expand beyond their own country, to seize foreign markets, sources of raw materials and areas for capital investment, thus subjugating other nations and exploiting them, squeezing out the rival capitalists of other countries. The exploitation of wage labour, competition, the squeezing out, suppressing and swallowing of rivals among the capitalists themselves, the resorting to war, the utilisation of all means to secure a monopoly position in its own country and throughout the world - such is the inherent character of the profit-seeking capitalist. This is the class basis of nationalism. 

Patriotism is a demonstrably one-way affair, which insists that the interests of the British capitalist class should be dominant but does not allow the same belief to patriots in, say, Russia and China about the interests of their capitalist class because they are obviously wrong minded. This prejudice extends into the field of economic rivalry. For example, people like lorry drivers and car workers should work very hard indeed because that is their lot under capitalism and, in any case, it is good for the country that they should do so. Workers who dare to strike are excoriated because strikes interrupt production. which is not good for the country, but it is quite acceptable for the capitalist to shut down factories which are unprofitable because this is the sort of interruption of production which is. mysteriously good for the country. We advocate the only solution that will enable people of different race to live in peace - socialism. And capitalism should be eradicated without further delay to enable us to enjoy all the beautiful things of the world without fear.

It is time of unease and insecurity certainly, but also times of great hope and opportunity for socialists. If humanity is to progress fundamental change in the way society is run is essential. Socialism encourages cooperation, tolerance and sharing and can serve as stepping stones to global responsibility; collective action in which the skills, gifts and abilities of the individual is used for the benefit and enrichment of all, and not just for the nation state. Socialism goes beyond racial and national identities. Humanity is one, albeit diverse, single unity.

Anti-Nationalism

 

All kinds of nationalism are pervasive in the world today. The conflict between national interest on the one side, as opposed to human interest on the other, can hardly fail to constitute one of the great issues of the world. Nationalism is an unmitigated curse. It leads inevitably to chauvinism and to national aggression. It leads to a patriotism for the soil, for the particular bit of the planet’s surface on which a particular person has been born. It leads to racism and bigotry, to petty rivalries.

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. Nationalism always claims certain virtues as the peculiar, exclusive possession of certain nations. If individuals make such claims, they are laughed to scorn. Why — with what logic — may nations make such claims? Nationalism claims that the culture belonging to one nation is distinct from that belonging to any other. This was so in the past, but the natural evolution of mankind is making it less so. Increased means of communication — the mass media, the internet and swift transport have caused no essential difference between any one of the countries of the world. Even language is tending to become universal with English becoming the lingua franca of commerce, science and the arts. More people understand each other today than ever before. Governments are coming to resemble each other. Global councils and organisations are becoming international. It is only by the most artificial kind of promotion that nationalism is kept alive.

 

A person who wants to see his or her country great and strong invariably wishes to see it so, if need be, at the expense of the welfare and interests of other countries. A nationalist says “My country right or wrong. The Socialist Party regards nationalism as the enemy of socialism. Let us cast off all sectionalism, all parochialism, and sit down as brothers and sisters together  against the common capitalist enemy. Mankind must become one family or destroy itself. The Socialist Party reaffirms its allegiance to the principle of working class solidarity the world over.

Once the nationalism is victorious we soon see the “national” police clubbing the “national” workers by order of the “national” state whose legality is maintained at all costs by the “national” judges: the “national” parents and their children go without basic necessities so that  the “national” industrialists maintain their profit level and the “national” finance companies do a great business. 

Our role in the  Socialist Party is to develop a class “patriotism,” refusing to murder one another for a sordid world capitalism.

National struggles are a diversion from the class struggle. There are no short-cuts to the socialist revolution, and those who take the nationalist path retard its coming. We hold emancipation of the worker requires the conversion of the means of production into the common property of society.

 

Socialists have always claimed that at the bottom of all war there is an economic cause. “Sphere of influence” is only an elegant euphemism that really means exclusive possession of a foreign market and trade privileges. But today, with nationalistic preaching playing right into the hands of the powers that be, it is easier than ever to obscure this fact. Nationalism is the cloak behind which the economic causes work. Nationalism is the best camouflage for the intrigues and machinations of capitalists. Socialism adopts a policy of unrelenting antagonism toward nationalism.

 There is only one real alternative to the present centralised and bureaucratic capitalist nation-states  and that is the world socialist cooperative commonwealth.

For a Workers’ World, For Worker’s Unity

The Socialist Party stands for world socialism and the overthrow of world capitalism. There is only one class capable of achieving a socialist world: the working class. Nationalism preaches to the people of a nation or national group that regardless of class they have more in common with one another than they do with the people of other nations. Nationalism helps bind the working class to the ruling class of its nation. Nationalism delivers working people into the hands of the exploiters of their own nationality. Since the time of Marx, class conscious workers have combated the capitalists’ patriotic appeals with calls for the international solidarity of the working class. They have fought the attempts to enlist the workers in nationalist strivings with appeals to join the class struggle of the workers of all countries against world capitalism.

Socialism unites the working people of the world against the capitalists. The Socialist Party says that working people’s destiny must not be tied to the capitalists. It says that the world’s working class must determine its own destiny. We are aimed at overcoming the nationalist and racist ideas that stand in the way of establishing socialism. We do not fan the flames of nationalism that fosters divisions among the working class. A socialist is an internationalist. It is nationalism that can divide the workers so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs. It is nationalism that pits worker against worker, while their mutual oppressors fill their pockets. Nationalism means exclusivity and isolation. Any nationalism finally implies that some people are better than others because of their place of birth. Nationalism teaches superiority and inferiority.

No matter how much the capitalists compete with one another, it’s always the working class that they attack first when their system of exploitation doesn’t produce the results it is supposed to. With the kind of difficulties that they face these days  around the world, they are getting steadily more aggressive with their austerity policies. Every time one group or sector of working people is attacked – whether it is immigrants or young people – the capitalists will try to weaken them by keeping them isolated. The working class must respond quickly, strongly and join their fight disunity caused by national divisions. The working class will be firmly on the road to revolution, if it starts now to reject all the appeals from the nationalists of various hues and stripes. The working class has one overriding responsibility, and that is to engage in the various struggles against the ruling class on all fronts. This includes adopting fully the internationalism of our class. That means denouncing patriotism.

Scottish nationalism is increasingly being identified for what it really is – the policy that wants to develop Scotland for the benefit of business interests. They give themselves a progressive image, but in fact it still leads to the same dead-end and the progressive rhetoric are quickly revealed. Nationalism’s  method is always the same – radical opportunism. We must treat like the plague those so-called revolutionaries who spend their time emphasising national particularities. Working people must refuse to play along with the independence fraud. Their interests do not lie in choosing “their exploiters”, nor in arbitrating the difference among various factions of the exploiting class. The only legitimate response towards Indyref2 will be to boycott the referendum by abstaining or, better, by spoiling one’s ballot.

The Socialist Party will agitate against every form and manifestation of national and racial prejudice; against every nationalism. We raise the red banner of raise again the historic battle-cry of the international revolutionary movement. “Workers of the world, unite!”

Don't vote for capitalism, Don't vote for nationalism