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| 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.
