Alternatives on the national question?

[pluckedflowers]

I am wondering if there have been any significant leftist positions on the question of national liberation other than what I take to be the predominant dichotomy between the Marxist-Leninist stance and that of Luxemburg and Left Communists. I have sympathies for both sides of the argument. Actually, I'd be happy if anyone could just point me to non-polemical works on the subject.

[Kiev Communard]

I am not too knowledgeable on this issue, but it seems that the Platformist position as presented by Wayne Price constitutes some kind of "third way" between the Leninist and Luxemburgist ones - http://www.anarkismo.net/article/1016

[pluckedflowers]

I am not too knowledgeable on this issue, but it seems that the Platformist position as presented by Wayne Price constitutes some kind of "third way" between the Leninist and Luxemburgist ones - http://www.anarkismo.net/article/1016

Thanks a lot, I will take a look.

[thefinalmarch]

There's really only one thing you need to do when it comes to analysing national liberation movements; ask yourself, "what are/were the class forces at play here?"

You'll find that there have historically been many progressive - even some pro-working class - national liberation movements, as well as downright reactionary ones. "National liberation" is a poorly defined concept itself, so any movement that bills itself as one of national liberation is just as pro-natlib as any other.

[pluckedflowers]

There's really only one thing you need to do when it comes to analysing national liberation movements; ask yourself, "what are/were the class forces at play here?"

You'll find that there have historically been many progressive - even some pro-working class - national liberation movements, as well as downright reactionary ones. "National liberation" is a poorly defined concept itself, so any movement that bills itself as one of national liberation is just as pro-natlib as any other.

This seems to be an entirely reasonable approach. But then what, if anything, are the debates on the "national question" about? Do you think they are simply asking the wrong sorts of questions?

[thefinalmarch]

This seems to be an entirely reasonable approach. But then what, if anything, are the debates on the "national question" about?
I'm not as knowledgeable on the national question as I'd like to be, so I won't answer that.


Do you think they are simply asking the wrong sorts of questions?
Revolution is a class thing, so I don't think revolutionaries should be adopting nationalist rhetoric into their methods of agitating the working class. If it happens, it happens - but then we need to analyse the class situation of the national liberation movement in question before anyone can give any principled "support" to that movement.