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In light of the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people fighting for national liberation against
the brutal settler-colonial state forces of Israel, it’s important to take a moment
to get our thoughts in order on the topic of nationalism.
Right off the bat, it should be clear to anyone that Palestinian nationalism can have a progressive,
left-wing and revolutionary role to play in the liberation of the oppressed masses, while
Israeli nationalism on the other hand doesn’t, and is inherently right-wing and reactionary.
Same thing with black nationalism versus white nationalism.
The former is potentially revolutionary and progressive.
While the latter is always reactionary.
But why?
Why is some nationalism inherently right-wing, and some left-wing?
Or, at least, has the potential to be left-wing and genuinely revolutionary?
To understand this, we need to understand specifically national oppression.
And here, as always, we’ll be using the Bolshevik definition of a nation as being
a “a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common
language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.”
Now, in the very same way that there are oppressor classes like the bourgeoisie, and oppressed
classes like the proletariat, there are oppressor nations and oppressed nations.
Black people in the US, or New Afrikans, are a nationally oppressed people.
We can look at the statistics of state violence in all of its manifestations enacted against
this nation for ample proof of this fact.
While there are indeed oppressive individual members within this nation, as with all others,
this in itself doesn’t change the principal aspect of the contradiction, that is principally
being an oppressed nation.
Yes, Barack Obama sat in the driving seat of the imperialist death machine.
But, no, that didn’t end national oppression and systemic racism.
Not by a long shot.
Likewise, the indigenous peoples all across the Americas are also oppressed nations.
The Palestinian people constitute an oppressed nation.
And yes, Ireland, too, is principally an oppressed nation, despite us of course having things
easier than the aforementioned groups.
Now, as you’ll remember from the recent Socialism 101 videos on Dialectical Materialism
and Contradiction, one divides into two.
Oppression is constituted by one aspect that is the oppressed, and another aspect that
is an oppressor.
These two forces exist in dialectical unity, struggling in opposition.
And so it is with national oppression; where there are oppressed nations, there must be
national oppressors.
That is, oppressor nations – wherein the principal aspect determining the nature of
these nations is that of being the national oppressor.
Examples of these national oppressors include the major capitalist-imperialist powers, such
as the USA, the UK, France, etc.
These are bourgeois capitalist-imperialist powers to their cores, the greatest national
oppressors in existence.
As such, waving the flags of these powers (both literally and metaphorically) - supporting
these bourgeois capitalist-imperialist states with nationalism rebranded as the friendlier-sounding
patriotism - can be nothing more than blatant national chauvinism that reinforces the subjugation
of the genuinely nationally oppressed peoples of the world.
Waving the Israeli flag inherently entails support for the subjugation of Palestine,
as the project of Israel is, by its very nature, a settler-colonial project that necessitates
the appropriation of Palestinian land, and the national oppression of the Palestinian
people.
Likewise, the United States of America has been a bourgeois settler-colonial national
oppressor from its very inception, being founded on the genocide and displacement of indigenous
peoples, and built on the backs of African slave labour.
From it’s very start, George Washington described it explicitly as a “nascent empire”.
So waving the American flag at its core means upholding empire - both in the sense of classical
imperialism, as well as modern capitalist-imperialism.
It means upholding white supremacist settler-colonialism and the subjugation of the oppressed nations
within the confines of its territory.
It means upholding the continued colonial occupation of places like Guam.
It means upholding dropping bombs on kids in the middle-east.
It means upholding the countless war crimes and atrocities that have been committed under
this flag – the atrocities of the most brutal and vicious imperialist death machine that’s
ever existed.
That is to say, there is no possibility for a left-wing or progressive nationalism of
any kind with national oppressors such as these.
Upholding this oppressor nation “patriotism” – this bourgeois nationalism in disguise
- fundamentally reinforces capitalist-imperialist rule which necessitates the continued and
expanding subjugation of the oppressed nations and oppressed classes of the world.
It is completely antithetical to the goals of communists and progressives of all stripes
the world over, and a fundamental betrayal of proletarian internationalism.
“But wait!”
I hear some Brits and Yankees say, “The people love our country!
The left must harness this love of country to help build socialism.
We must appeal to conservative impulses!”
(Yep, this is something that actual so-called communists in well-known parties are saying)
And this is, to speak as politely as possible, a load of shite.
Of course, there is an entire superstructure in place to intentionally mislead the masses
into supporting reactionary bourgeois interests, here manifesting in bourgeois nationalist
ideology.
And many of the people certainly are indoctrinated and hoodwinked into holding such positions.
But communists do not manipulatively just tell the people whatever they want to hear
in order to win their favour.
This is deceitful and opportunistic.
Communists are committed to honestly engaging in the “ruthless criticism of all that exists”
(Marx: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/letters/43_09.htm), tirelessly fighting alongside the masses,
correcting misapprehensions, and guiding the people forward towards socialism with genuine
revolutionary theory and revolutionary practice – NOT championing the most reactionary elements
of bourgeois ideology.
Upholding so-called “progressive patriotism” or “proletarian patriotism” (whatever
trendy term bourgeois nationalism is masquerading under) in the context of these capitalist-imperialist
oppressor nations, is blatant opportunism, sacrificing the long-term health of the communist
movement in favour of short-term transitory gains which do not help in any way to advance
us down the road to stateless, classless, moneyless society.
This is blatant revisionism, completely breaking with and revising the revolutionary developments
brought forward by the Bolshevik line on the National Question which supports national
liberation and nations’ right to self-determination (and are rendered impossible by upholding
the bourgeois oppressor nations).
The Bolsheviks didn’t mince words on this topic.
In fact, it’s explicitly stated in Marxism and the National Question that “the class-conscious
proletariat cannot rally under the “national” flag of the bourgeoisie”.
Lastly, upholding this so-called “progressive” or “proletarian” patriotism in the context
of oppressor nations is precisely the Tailism that Lenin warned us of in “What Is to Be
Done?”, as we see these bourgeois nationalist charlatans dragging like a tail behind the
masses, myopically supporting the people’s most reactionary, backward impulses which
have been foisted upon them by the ruling class, and thereby legitimising national chauvinism,
which – it need not even be said – is diametrically opposed to the interests of
the international proletariat and our global struggle for socialism.
Now, about a year ago, I made a video titled “Nationalism: Good or Bad?”, and I put
forward the case for revolutionary nationalism of the oppressed.
This was specifically referring to those who are nationally oppressed, primarily colonised
people.
With the colonised and nationally oppressed, there is the potential for a progressive,
revolutionary nationalism that can advance the movement further down the path to communism
via national liberation and the weakening of imperialism.
Though, admittedly, even with the nationalism of oppressed, there are limits to its usefulness
(particularly post-national liberation) which you can read more about in Frantz Fanon’s
Wretched of the Earth, and there’s still always the potential for right-wing reactionary
elements creeping in that must be actively combatted.
However, with oppressor nations – with coloniser nations, especially settler-coloniser nations
– there is absolutely no potential for even a remotely progressive, left-wing nationalism,
because such nationalism necessarily entails upholding and supporting the capitalist-imperialist
colonisers and their oppressive bourgeois states.
The purpose of left-wing nationalist - national liberation – movements is to end national
oppression.
If there is no oppression occurring specifically along national lines, then there is no basis
for a left-wing nationalism and national liberation.
In the absence of specifically national oppression, nationalism is inherently reactionary, chauvinistic,
revisionist, opportunist, tailist, and diametrically opposed to the goals of the international
struggle for proletarian emancipation.
In the cases of working people from bourgeois oppressor nations, settler-colonisers and
so on, who may be oppressed socially along class lines rather than national lines, and
who really want a flag to band together under, it’s worth reminding these people that “The
class-conscious proletariat has its own tried banner, and has no need to rally to the banner
of the bourgeoisie.”
So put down the American flag and put down the Union Jack.
Don’t be a fucking NazBol weirdo.
Stop supporting these brutal capitalist-imperialist powers which rely on the subjugation of the
oppressed masses of the world.
Fly the red flag high, support the global working-class, and do your part to help the
national liberation struggles of the colonised peoples of the world.
Oh, and before the cry-baby chauvinists start coming at me with “Wahhhh --- Sakaiist!!
Ultra-leftist!!
Wahhhh” – everything in this video and my previous video on Nationalism has been
straight up Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, with some important additional points
from Frantz Fanon and James Connolly.
This is now and has always been the communist position on the National Question in the Bolshevik
tradition.
Now cut the shit.
Log off Twitter.
And read some fucking theory.
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