Nationalism
Posted on June 16, 2015 by imarxman
https://imarxman.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/nationalism/
With the recent electoral success of the SNP and the forthcoming referendum on EU membership, nationalism has become an vital topic. There are those who regard nationalism as being irredeemably reactionary and contrary to socialism.
This is a misrepresentation based on a presumption that nationalism has but a single manifestation. Indeed, the nationalism of parties such as the SNP is certainly reactionary, being a political trend representing the interests of capital against those of the working class.
Such nationalist parties may espouse a social democratic rhetoric, such as the “anti- austerity” posturing of the SNP. In power, however, they prove themselves no different to the other parliamentary parties, pursuing policies, such as the sale of Scottish Rail, in line with avowedly capitalist parties, such as the Tories they claim to despise.
There is, of course, the right wing version of nationalism, represented by UKIP, and in more vehement forms by the English Defence League and the BNP. Ultra-left parties expend a lot of energy opposing what they style fascist parties that are really hard line nationalists, not necessarily the same thing.
Fascism is the ideological name given to the corporate state, a state which organised to serve capitalism, its corporations, through the neutering or outright abolishing of even a pretence of democracy, actively suppressing any working class movement. Today, fascism is more likely to arrive wearing a well-tailored suit in the guise of an EU official.
The EU is a clear expression of corporate state nationalism being constructed to strip sovereignty from member states in favour of its own supremacy. This is where another, progressive nationalism arises in response.
Karl Marx was certainly an internationalist, opposing any notion of nationalism as a final outcome of the class struggle. However, he did support the concept of working class nationalism as a stage in that class struggle.
The determining factor is whether or not a nationalist stance serves the interests of a national working class in given circumstances: does it serve, or distract from, the interests of the working class?
In “The Communist Manifesto” it is stated, “Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself the nation, it is so far, itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word.”
This does not contradict the more often quoted, “The working men have no country”, as it recognises a necessary stage in realising that goal. Working class nationalism is the nationalism in inter-nationalism.
The crucial element is that for the working class, nationalism must not be “…in the bourgeois sense of the word”. This why the working class must come to reject the faux radicalism of such as the SNP or the belligerence of their rightist counterparts such as UKIP or the BNP. After all, the nationalism of the SNP is to advocate Scotland’s absorption by the EU corporate state.
The working class must preserve its identity, its unity, as the British working class, by opposing those who are actively attempting to divide Britain, whether that’s the SNP or parliamentary parties pursuing policies of regionalism.
It also means recognising that withdrawal from the European Union is vital. The sovereignty of Britain is the starting point for the sovereignty of the British working class. Only when that has been secured can steps begin to be taken towards a society that has transcended capitalism and, in so doing, transcended its borders.
That though is a longer term project and remains a mere aspiration until the first part is achieved, the unity of Britain, the unity of the British working class. That is workers’ nationalism.