Letter: National cultures within socialism (1987)

Letter to the Editors from the November 1987 issue of the Socialist Standard

National cultures within socialism

Dear Editors.

How pleasing it was to read Steve Coleman’s support for national cultures (though it’s true he refers to ’’local areas", a term which nationalists with whom I am in contact would not quarrel with). He would be pleased to know that there are very many on the ’’fringe" of Plaid Cymru who hold Steve Coleman's view that some nationalists do not indeed want to be dominated by capitalists, and that their nationalism arises from a desire to be masters of their own destiny, on their own patch of ground and at the same time aware of their rights and duty to society in general throughout the world. This must include a natural pride in their own contribution which can only be made by nurturing its own distinctive culture including its indigenous language. Regarding the latter, the Socialist Standard itself paid a compliment by printing an article in the Welsh language - something which did not go unnoticed by the Marxist-thinking element on the edge of Plaid Cymru. (I refer to the SS of July 1969.) Such understanding of the nature of Welsh and Scottish nationalism is to be expected of a party like the SPGB who speak of the international nature of socialism inasmuch as internationalism has no meaning without its constituent parts, ie nations.

Speaking of the Marxist influence among present Welsh nationalists. I quote Gareth Miles, a member of the Marxist "fringe" movement within Plaid Cymru, as follows: "A nation's language is part of its cultural heritage and its continuation, growth or decay depends on the social conditions prevailing”. He continues: "There is already in existence a philosophy which, if adopted, could solve the ideological problems of its nationalists — its name is socialism". This is in line with Steve’s statement about a society, local area or what you will wherein people can control their own lives or. as he puts it, "one that they can call their own".

Gareth Miles exposes the fallacious thinking within the nationalist party: "Some of the leaders of Plaid Cymru claim it to be a socialist party — that is not true. It does not look to the creation of a socialist Wales. Its aim is to fashion for Wales a more effective capitalist system than exists at present. Its policies are not different from Labour's". The Editor of Welsh Socialism emphasises this theme: "it is vital that we recognise that we are merely another part of the international capitalist economy . . . I believe that the answer. . . lies in international socialism with the establishment of a world socialist order". (The writer is an active member of the Welsh Republicans, a body which is antagonistic to what is described as loony anarchism or Stalinism.) Miles, in the pamphlet A Free Wales, points out to the Nationalists in no uncertain manner: "A government which would try to operate capitalism in a Welsh way would be a servile one to outside capitalist corporations . . . in such a crude materialistic climate every language other than a commercial language is a valueless anachronism. Profit not culture is the ideal"

While we see a measure of unanimity between Steve Coleman and spokesmen on the fringe of the Welsh nationalist party, it would be interesting to remind ourselves of other thinkers and writers of the past. One such a person was Rudolph Rocker whose manuscript Nationalism and Culture was published in English in 1937. This scholarly work explains how. in terms which pre-date Steve’s statement on the nature of nationalism, pride in one's homeland is not patriotism or love of the state but a natural love of familiar surroundings. one's friends and of a culture that has grown out of the soil. Rocker insists that the alchemy which exploits this natural feeling into a love of the state is: "One of the most grotesque phenomena of all time". (How many readers today remember Lord Baden Powell's book Scouting for Boys wherein is found a classic example of this: ”. . . be prepared to die for your country if need be. so that when the moment arrives you may charge home not caring whether you are to be killed or not".

Many present-day members of Plaid Cymru are aware that that party has equated its so-called socialism with that of the Labour Party and there is much to be grateful for that they are no longer hoodwinked. The pamphlet. Welsh Socialism. asks the question "Who will formulate a revolutionary policy for us?” and answers it by saying "Who but you and me?". In other words the thinking is that of Clause 5 of the SPGB. ie "The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself. There is. it seems to me. much hope inasmuch as the republican/Marxism element of Plaid Cymru can state openly: ". . . the answer lies in international socialism and the establishment of a world socialist order”. It seems to me that workers holding such a view can no longer afford to fight the class struggle in isolated political boxes.

Steve Coleman invites all workers by saying: ". . . let us unite as a class". A great idea! Would he agree that a class is but an economic concept and as such the skeleton of production for use must be clothed with the rich and diverse cultures of the world s ethnic/national/regional groups, if life is to be lived to the full?

In the present worldwide uniformity of the capitalist "blanket" we have reached the position where the only cultural forms which are "pushed" are those which are tied to profit-making. "Big is beautiful ”, is the philosophy and small organisations (and indeed nations) must fare as best they can. Welsh people know this to their cost and one would suppose that the SPGB in its day-to-day struggle against the overwhelming propaganda of the capitalist machine also knows it.

"Gyfaill"

Cwmdeall, Trecynnon 

Reply:

Socialists are opposed to all nationalism: the workers of the world have no country. As our correspondent recognises, there is a difference between political nationalism and the desire of people to retain or revive their own cultural traditions and identities.

Our correspondent is mistaken in suggesting that the difference between national cultures and regional cultures is of merely pedantic significance. While socialists support fully the aims of our fellow workers who wish to live in particular localities in cultural conditions which are not imposed upon them from without, we are opposed totally to those who seek to establish "national cultures ”. To take Wales as an example, we have little doubt that within a socialist society many Welsh people will choose to use their own, native language and to maintain Welsh traditions of living. Those who decide to develop their cultural Welshness will not be discriminated against for so doing or denied free access to the common store of social goods and services, even if they constitute a very small minority. But they will not be living their culture within a nation called Wales, for, like all other nations, that country will not exist. In a world socialist society there will be no national frontiers, there will be no presiding states. Rather than there being a single Wales, embodying its own national culture, which is what nationalists aim to achieve, a socialist society will respect the various local cultures which exist within the administrative territory which is now lumped together as Wales. Socialists are aware of the danger which nationalism poses of creating new states which then impose their own national cultures, often at the expense of local cultures which are then discriminated against. For example, would a new Scottish state, so desired by the SNP, impose the cultural norms of urban industrial Scottish capitalists upon rural highlanders? Would a united Palestine under the PLO be tolerant towards ethnic minorities within a new Palestinian state? Under capitalism, with its national powers, we have every reason to believe that the gain of the right to a national culture for some will mean cultural oppression for others who lack economic power. The case of the Eskimo minority in Greenland is instructive. The Eskimo language is called by three different names, depending upon whether you live in Canada (where it is called Inukitut). Alaska (Inupit) or Greenland (Kalaalisut). In Greenland, where books in Eskimo language are published with government funding, the Eskimos’ main complaint is the destruction of their linguistic culture by Danish and English. But in Canada and Alaska the Eskimos have an additional grievance: most books published in Greenland are inaccessible to them because they are written in Kalaalisut. This shows how absurd it would be for capitalism to attempt to create some kind of "right” for a single Eskimo culture to exist. In a socialist society the world's 100.000 Eskimos will not only be able to live their own cultures if they so choose, but will be free to do so in accordance with local variations.

The Socialist Party does not stand for international socialism, but world socialism. In a socialist society there will be no nations to unite.

We are pleased to be alerted to the existence of people on the fringes of Welsh nationalism who recognise the capitalist outcome of a Welsh nation, the anti-socialist nature of the Labour Party and the need for workers to emancipate themselves without leaders We look forward to talking with such people, but under no circumstances would we compromise our hostility to all nationalist movements. and nor can we see any possible future for such people within a party which is fighting a losing battle to create yet another rotten capitalist state. 

The Editors.

Esperanto celebrates its centenary (1987)

From the Winter 1987-88 issue of the World Socialist 

This year world Esperantists are celebrating the centenary of what is generally regarded as the most successful of the international auxiliary languages, Esperanto.

The origin of the idea of a universal language goes a long way back in history. Indeed, one of the first suggestions made in this sphere came from old Homer himself who was, apparently, intrigued by the idea when he wrote that "Humans speak many tongues but the gods speak only one". Whether this thought was inspired by the biblical myth of the Tower of Babel, we do not know but apparently he assumed that if the Gods could divide and rule mankind by introducing a multiplicity of languages, then humans could reverse the process by introducing a single universal language.

Before Dr Zamenhof in Poland (in the part then under Russian domination) devised Esperanto in 1887 there had been a number of other advocates of introducing an artificial language, among whom had been St. Hildegarde, an 11th century abbess, the French philosopher Rene Descartes, Bishop Wilkins, brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell, the German philosopher Leibnitz, Proudhon and the German Catholic priest, Monsignor Johann Schleyer, who had devised Volapukin 1880.

It was not long after the introduction of Esperanto that it displaced its competitors in the bid for acceptance as the universal world auxiliary language; it is now spoken even if only by small numbers in practically every part of the world.

Generally speaking, the main objective in the minds of the seekers for a universal tongue was to remove what, for them, were the underlying causes of conflict within the society in which they lived. The main stumbling blocks in the way of unanimity of thought and action were considered to be national antagonisms, religious differences and misunderstanding arising from the use of different languages.

Nationality is no fixed characteristic of human beings. Over the centuries nationalities have come and gone; they are no inborn attribute of human anatomy. A human-inspired nomenclature, "nations" have changed according to the particular "nation" which owned and governed a particular part of the globe. The natives of almost every part of the Earth have been swept aside by the marauding and plundering forces of other self-designated "nations". What were once nations have today been swept into the dustbin of history by the conquering hordes who wiped out their languages, customs and cultures.

Covington Hall summed up the position in his poem The Ways of Kings—Crowned and Uncrowned as follows:

If ye doubt it pause and listen, lift aside the veil of time, 

Where is Rome in her splendour, where is Athens the sublime? 

Where are all the Persian millions, where the proud Egyptian host? 

Tell me, doth Imperial Carthage still adorn the Afric Coast? 

Where the Empire of the Incas, where is Montezuma's throne? 

What is Spain and Spanish glory in a world once called her own? 

Where are India's mightly princes, where the Babylonian kings?

To which we might add, Where the mighty British Empire, the gigantic USA, the Russian Czarist thrones? Where are the former "nations" who people the many satellite countries of Russia and China and the former members of the now decadent British Empire which at no time had any lasting affection for most of the languages imposed upon them?

Today it matters not what color a person's skin is nor what "nation" they belong to as long as their ideas and actions fit into their master's interest exploiters have no such considerations as far as their slaves are concerned. The profit motive does not differentiate between black and white and, all other things being equal as far as the results are concerned, it matters not what language the wage slave speaks. Notwithstanding prejudice, ignorance and bigotry we find men and women of all colors and languages working side by side in the interests of the exploiters.

Religious differences have, over the centuries, been used to ruthlessly suppress people regardless of nationality. Artificial devices such as the rack, the thumbscrew and the fiery stake were used in accordance with the Christian ethic "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". But there was nothing to do with language here where both the victims and the torturers spoke the same language.

Irrespective of language, ideas reflect the ethics of the particular rulers at any particular period. Furthermore, the ideas change as the interests of the rulers change; this applies particularly to the economic and national requirements. Even scientific ideas have been opposed when they did not fit in with the interests of the rulers.

As far as Esperanto goes socialists have no particular axe to grind against the language per se. Indeed, there are many socialists (including the present writer) who use Esperanto. It is not the language in itself that we disagree with. Where we differ is over the fantastic claims which the majority of Esperantists make for the language.

The facility of Esperanto makes it an ideal medium for propagating ideas. As far as we know, there is no trace of Zamenhof having suggested that it could be used as the medium for socialism. On the other hand, at the time he devised it very few people thought that it could or would be used to oppose socialist ideology. Yet almost since its inception the activities of the majority of Esperantists have been entirely inconsistent with socialism and in fact often hostile even to reformist movements.

Once the language began to make headway it did not take long for the various economic, political, semi-political, religious and other capitalist interests to muscle in. The scout movement has been using Esperanto for more than 80 years, instilling religion and jingoism into its young duped followers. It is used by police organisations, Rotary Clubs and various other anti-socialist outfits, with their in-built anti-working class ideologies. Even those professing to have what they call socialist tendencies like SAT (Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda - World Non-Nationality Association) and others fell for the anti-socialist bunk peddled by Lenin and Trotsky.

In Czarist Russia there were a fair number of enthusiastic Esperantists, some of whom were very active in the revolutionary movement. But almost as soon as the Bolsheviks seized power the official Esperantist section of the Communist Party began to weed out anyone who was not behind the government. It became so bad (many were liquidated) that, in their yearbooks from 1923 on, SAT instead of publishing its members' names used a cross. A number of my correspondents in Russia and later in Germany under Hitler began to break off. Even so many members of SAT supported the Russian dictatorship, although today there has been a bit of a change of attitude.

After Mao took over in China the Esperanto papers later followed the Russian example. The distortions of Marxism by the Bolsheviks was avidly swallowed by the Chinese Communist Party and thousands of Chairman Mao's Little Red Books were sold by all their pseudo-communist parties and fellow-travellers throughout the world. Since Mao's demise the Little Red Book of distorted Marxism has been relegated to the scrapheap by the new gang of distortionists who now rule the roost in so-called Red China. But we still have copies in Esperanto on the back shelves of the pro-China propaganda bookshops.

The acceptance of the ideas of these falsifiers of Marxism is a true indication of the fact that using an auxiliary language is no criterion of the views people hold. It is just as easy to gull people in any language if they do not understand the real meaning of the ideology which the words express.

As long as the majority of the working class do not understand in what direction their emancipation lies, they can be fooled and misled by their opportunist leaders who regard their blind followers as voting cattle. It is futile to say that these misleaders are sincere: sincerity is not the test of truth. The records of the Labor Parties, the avowed capitalist parties and even the lunatic asylums show that just because people "sincerely" believe in what they say or do is no indication that what they say or do is correct.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" says the saw, but intention without intelligence leads to reliance on false promises and wrong premises. If the majority of the members of the working class remain followers of those who do the thinking for them, they can become dupes in the struggle for emancipation. If people require "leaders" there is no guarantee against betrayal.

What is necessary is an understanding that the social system in which we live can only continue by the exploitation of the working class by whose labour alone the entire wealth of the system is produced, coupled with a clear understanding that we can get rid of this only by the socialist alternative, i.e., the abolition of capitalism.

The key to socialism is not, then, a universally-spoken language. Notwithstanding the variety of languages in existence today, it is not the lack of a universal language that keeps people apart; it is the lack of understanding of the cause and cure of their divisions. Even along Esperantists there is but a minority of socialists. As pointed out above, the overwhelming majority of Esperantists accept capitalism.

Does this mean that socialists should not accept Esperanto as a medium of propaganda? Of course not. We can use it as much as other people, just as we use English, German and many other languages in the struggle against capitalism. In fact there are quite a few Esperantists in the World Socialist Movement and leaflets setting out our point of view are available in Esperanto. We recommend to Esperantists that they write for copies.

Bill Clarke (Australia)

The case for socialism in esperanto

The following article first appeared in 1983 as an editorial in Socialisme Mondial, a French-language journal of the world socialist movement. It was then translated into Esperanto and published in the MayI/ June 1984 issue of Laute, an esperantist journal brought out in Laroque Timbaut, France. Entitled "Utopia or Chaos?", it sets out the basic case for the establishment of a world community based on common ownership and democratic control, to replace both private capitalism in the West and state capitalism in the East, as the only framework for the solution of the major problems currently facing humanity, and in particular that of war, war preparations and the threat of war.

Cu utopio au haoso?

Por aboli la militon, la militminacon kaj ciuspecajn armilarojn, endas, ke cio troviganta sur kaj en la Tero farigu komuna heredajo de la tuta homaro. Tiam la produktado okazos por la nura kontentigo de la homaj bezonoj, sed ne plu por la vendado kaj la profito, kaj tiam ekaplikigos la principo "de ciu lau siaj kapabloj, al ciu lau ties bezonoj". Alivorte, oni ne plu mezuros la kontribuon alportitan de ciu individuo al la produktado (kio cetere jam nunternpe ne eblas, tial ke la produktada laboro estas jam socialigita, t.e. kolektiva procezo), sed ciu plejeble kontribuos, kiel sili povos au volos, kaj povos libere disponi pri cio necesa por vivi, neniel pagante. Tiu ideo ne estis elpensajo nia, sed male revo tiel malnova kiel la homaro mem, ekde kiam malaperisla "prirnitiva komunismo".

La abolo de mono, nemerkata socio, jen kio estas komunismo, au socialismo, se oni volas, ne gravas la nomo, kvankam tiuj terminoj estis tiom fusuzitaj, ke foje oni emus ilin forlasi. Senmona socio (ne nur sen mono, kompreneble, sed ankau sen varoj, sen salajroj, sen profitoj, sen bankoj) estas logikajo, tial ke oni jam havas produktadon kolektivan kaj kapablan liveri abundecon por ciuj. Tia socio estus vere homa socio, en kiu la rilatoj starigus inter homoj, kaj ne inter vendistoj kaj acetantoj, dungistoj kaj salajruloj, registoj kaj regatoj, gvidistoj kaj gvidatoj.

Tian socion oni foje taksas utopio. Sed kial timi tiun terminon? Estas neniu solvo al la hodiauaj sociaj problemoj en la kadro de kapitalismo kaj endas do imagi diferencan socion, vere anstatauan solvon. Nedubeble, la alternativo estas: utopio au Raoso.

Estas vere, ke longtempe la socialismo estis nur bona ideo, ideala socio priskribita de verkistoj kiel Tomaso MORE, sen rilato kun la tiuepoka socia realeco. Tamen, de post la industria revolucio, la socialismo farigis reala eblajo, kaj tial, car la reala bazo de socialismo estas industrio kapabla liveri sufice da varoj kaj servoj kaj elimini la malricecon kaj mizeron cie en la mondo. Tiun punkton oni atingis komence de nia jarcento kun la tutmondigo de la produktado (kio tradukigis, sub kapitalismo, per imperiismo) kaj kun la elektrizado de la industrio. La tuta sekvanta progreso teknologia nur pli kaj pli ebligis la starigon de socialismo sur la materiala kampo.

Sed socialismo estas vere ne nur afero pri teknologio. Teknologio estas gia bazo, sed socialismo dependas ankau de la homa volo kaj ankau sur tiu kampo la kapitalismo kreis kondicojn favorajn al la starigo de socialismo, kreante tutan klason el homoj, kies intereso estas rearangi la socion en socialisman socion. Tiu klaso estas la salajrularo, la laborantaro, ciuj, kiuj hodiau estas devigataj vendi sian laborforton por vivi, t.e. pli ol 90% el la logantaro de la industriigintaj landoj. Iuj uzas la vortojn "laborista klaso", sed tiuj vortoj povas konfuzigi, fiar "laboristo" pensigas pri "manlaboristo", dum la manlaboristoj estas nur uriu parto el la salajrata klaso. La socialismo, komunismo, estas la intereso de ciu salajrulo, oficisto, instruisto, funkciulo ktp. . . Tial ni preferas la vortojn "salajrularo" au "laboranta klaso", kiuj perfekte klarigas la sencon de la socialisma rnesago: gi celas la grandan plimulton el la popolanaro kaj liveras al gi la nuran solvon al la diversaj problemoj, kiujn gi devas nun alfronti.

Sed tiun solvon la plimulto mem devas malkovri, kompreni, voli. Malnova principo asertas: "La emancipado de la laboristaro estos la faro de la laboristaro mem", kaj fakte la starigo de socialismo povos esti nur la konscia verko de konscia plimulto. Tio estas logika, pro la naturo mem de la socialisma socio, kiu estos sen altrudo, sen §tato, kaj do bazita sur memvola kunlaborado. Por starigi kaj funkciigi gin, endos do voli gin kaj kompreni ciujn giajn implicojn. Jen do la dua antaukondico: socialista plimulto, kiu volas socialismon kaj komprenas ciujn giajn implicojn.

El tiuj du kondicoj, sufice disvolvita produktada sistemo kaj socialista plimulto, jam de longe estas realigita la unua, dum la dua tute ne. Estas fakto, ke hodiau la plimulto ne volas socialismon, sed male akceptas kapitalismon (inkluzive de gia statkapitalisma formo rusia, cinia, ktp. . .). Kiel do atingi, ke plimulto deziru socialismon kaj tiel faru gin tuj atingebla?

Estontece, preskau certas, ke tiu ekkonsciigo okazos, car la geviroj estante raciaj estajoj pli-malpli frue ekkonscios, ke la nuna sistemo ne funkcias por ilia intereso kaj ke socialismo estas la nura solvo al la hodiauaj sociaj problemoj. Sed "estontece" estas tre malpreciza vorto kaj ec se ni estas profunde konvinkitaj, ke en pli-malpli malproksima estonteco la homaro vivos en socialisma socio, ni tamen devas demandi al ni kion ni povas hodiau fari por akceli procezon. Ne multon, vi diros, kaj tio estas vera. Sed oni povas almenau ne prokrasti gin, se oni ne lasas sin gluti per tiu au tiu a kapitalisma reformo, per tiu au tiu ci politika kverelo, sed male, se oni dedicas sin al ununura aktivado: la disvastigo de la socialisma ideo. (Same, ankau la sindikata aktivado restas utila, ne por konduki al sango, sed simple por rezisti kontrau la premoj de 1' kapitalo kaj defendi la vivnivelon de l'salajrularo). Dissemante la socialisman ideon, ni helpas al la ekkonsciigo, kiu pli-malpli frue okazos, kaj por tion fari ni organizigas en etaj organizoj nomitaj "partio", "grupo", "ligo", "asocio", ktp . . . lau la landoj.

Frontartikolo de "Socialisme Mondial 24" (n-ro 2 de nov. 83). 

Adreso: BP 26, B 6700 ARLON

Elfrancigis Kribo

Nationalism and capitalism (2025)

From the October 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

Pedants like to distinguish between ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’. The former signifies love for one´s country; the latter, while meaning that too, also means not being particularly tolerant of other countries (or cultures). In practice, though, ‘patriots’ can very easily become ‘nationalists’ even without knowing it. These are just two points along the same spectrum.

What that spectrum is based upon is an emotional attachment to the rather fuzzy concept of ‘national identity’. This is supposed to provide a kind of social glue that holds together large-scale, culturally diverse societies and allows them to function reasonably well.

National states

Benedict Anderson´s seminal work, Imagined Communities (1983), discusses the way ‘print capitalism’ and the growth of literacy aided the spread of national consciousness. Other factors, like improvements in transport and increased mobility, also helped to widen the social horizons of what were once relatively isolated communities that characterised a feudal society.

Before the rise of capitalism, nation-states did not really exist. Though there are strong grounds for saying that capitalism originated in England (specifically, in the English countryside, where the practice of wage labour became universalised), the first prominent individual to put nationalism on the map was, arguably, a Frenchman – Napoleon. Napoleon explicitly appealed to the idea of the nation as the basis of legitimate political power, where his predecessors had relied instead on such arcane notions as the ‘divine right of kings’ to govern.

However, we should not infer from this that nationalism is the indispensable precondition for a large-scale society to exist. Long before the nation-state existed, large multi-ethnic empires with extremely porous borders existed in the ancient world.

In Europe in 1500, there were approximately 500 more or less autonomous political units – an intricate patchwork ranging from Italian city states (many of which subsequently fell victim to conquest) to numerous principalities (often themselves the product of dynastic quarrels within aristocratic families) and a scattering of relatively consolidated kingdoms. Some of these were nominally part of one or other, much larger, ramshackle, sprawling entities, such as the Holy Roman Empire, which, as Voltaire once scornfully remarked, was ‘neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire’.

By 1900, however, the political landscape looked very different indeed. The number of self-governing units involved had been drastically whittled down to a mere twenty-odd nation-states having jurisdiction over the entire European landmass. Napoleon´s armies, which conquered much of Europe in the early nineteenth century, contributed to this development in the sense that they helped to create circumstances that eventually led to the rise of nationalist movements later on in that century.

Pseudo-traditions

Then there is the thorny question of nationalism and cultural diversity. Though it is claimed that nationalism enabled the emergence of large-scale culturally diverse societies, the fact of the matter is that cultural or ethnic differentiation has often presented a serious challenge to the nationalist project. If anything, the rise of nationalism has brought about the erosion of local cultures and languages and, in general, has had a flattening effect on the cultural landscape.

What is called the ‘national culture’ is not always what it seems. In The Invention of Tradition (1983), edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, the claim that certain national traditions or institutions have their origins in some mist-enveloped remote past (something that is supposed to invest a tradition with more authenticity) was critically scrutinised and found to be often false. Many of these traditions are pseudo-traditions only recently invented for the express purpose of trying to fashion a national identity – in more concrete terms to facilitate nationalist sentiment.

In short, the basic thrust of nationalist ideology tends towards cultural homogenisation. The more culturally homogenised a population is, the easier it is for the state to manipulate it and elicit its support. Standardisation also enables more effective bureaucratisation.

Taken to an extreme, this homogenising thrust can manifest itself in the form of genocide. As Ernest Gellner points out, where ethnic pluralism exists, ‘a territorial political unit can only become ethnically homogeneous… if it either kills, or expels, or assimilates all non-nationals’ (Nations and Nationalism, 2009).

However, one should note that this is only a tendency within nationalist ideology; in the real world, most nationalisms have had to opt for some kind of pragmatic or more inclusive compromise in the form of ‘multiculturalism’.

Globalisation

Factors curbing nationalism´s tendency towards cultural homogenisation within the confines of a given nation-state include not only the resilience of ethnic subcultures and the inward migration of ‘foreigners’, bringing with them their own cultural beliefs and practices, but also the impact of what might be called ‘global culture’:

Back in 1848, the Communist Manifesto had something to say about that:

‘In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature’.

Big business is, today, a major purveyor of this global culture. One thinks of the role of big tech companies in providing social media platforms or the impact of global chains like McDonald’s in shaping our culinary tastes. Wherever you go in the world, cities are getting more and more alike with the same monotonously predictable selection of High Street stores.

There is a certain irony in all this. Capitalism, which gave birth to the ideology of nationalism, has also unleashed powerful forces that tend towards the erosion of national distinctiveness.

Backlash

In some ways, this contradiction has brought us to the fraught times we are living in today. The unravelling of the Neoliberal project that has been the dominant paradigm since the 1970s has prompted a backlash against globalisation and the resurgence of virulent nationalism. Far-right movements are on the rise in many parts of the world. Their animus is mainly directed at that most emblematic aspect of globalisation – the movement of migrants across those imaginary borders that define the capitalist nation state.

Such migrations are often fuelled by wars and the devastation inflicted by military action undertaken by the very countries which now have some citizens bitterly complaining about the ensuing blowback in the form of desperately impoverished boat people arriving on their shores.

It’s not just war that is to blame; there is also the economic devastation wrought on people´s lives and livelihoods. For instance, the traditional Senegalese fishing industry has been virtually decimated by overfishing and the use of destructive methods, like bottom trawling, by industrial fleets from Europe and China. This has been a major factor in the increase in Senegalese migrants risking their lives to reach the Canary Islands in the hope of being relocated to mainland Spain.

Robin Cox

Letter: 'Do you maintain . . . ' (2003)

Letter to the Editors from the June 2003 issue of the Socialist Standard

'Do you maintain . . . '

Dear Editors,

Of course you are correct: ultimately workers have no state. However, until that reality is widely appreciated, it is surely necessary to rely upon workers’ identification with their (familiar) place of nurture, and “natural” abhorrence to the occupation of “their” land by an invading force – e.g. as in WWII, when many were happy, and proud, to enlist under the Union Jack.

There is, surely, every distinction to be drawn between patriotism and bigotry; the first can incorporate pride in, e.g., Shakespeare, whilst the second may involve the idea that no other nation or country could have “produced” Shakespeare or his equivalent.

Your principles include that “the party seeking working class emancipation must be hostile to every other party”. Yet you must surely acknowledge that organised workers (trade unions) formed the Labour Party (including Clause 4) precisely because the Liberal MPs vacillated in the degree to which their policies fostered the welfare of the working class/es?

Do you maintain that Labour’s occasional landslide votes had nothing to do with the perception that political support should not be squandered on dilettante, fair-weather or eclectic “supporters” of ordinary people’s interest?

Do you maintain that the election of Labour governments did not directly result in better conditions, social welfare, trade union legality, a minimum wage, the NHS, compulsory free primary and secondary education?

D. Shepherd, 

London NW4

Reply: 

1. We can see why the ruling class in the various different capitalist states into which the world is divided find it necessary to rely on “workers’ identification with their (familiar) place of nurture and ‘natural’ abhorrence to the occupation of ‘their’ land by invading forces” – it helps them build up popular support for their rule and their foreign policy aimed at protecting their interests abroad. But we can’t see why Socialists need to. On the contrary, political nationalism is something we need to combat as it is an obstacle to the understanding that the problems faced by workers all over the world cannot be solved within a national framework but only on a world scale, on the basis of a world without frontiers where the resources of the whole planet have become the common heritage of all humanity.

We can see why, too, ruling classes prefer moderate nationalism to bigotry – yesterday’s enemy can become today’s ally. Thus, the “Huns” and “Japs” of yesterday are now our rulers’ allies and workers who continue to believe what they were told when these countries were our rulers’ enemies are an embarrassment.

Socialist opposition to political nationalism does not challenge cultural diversity. English speakers can appreciate Shakespeare, Dickens, etc without thereby ceasing to be socialists. Again, people living on the big island off the north-west coast of the Eurasian land mass can like warm beer, and fish and chips, pork pies and roast beef, without being nationalists. Maybe they’ll still like these things in Socialism.

2. Yes, we do acknowledge that the Labour Party was originally set up by the trade unions as a parliamentary pressure group to try to get a better deal within capitalism for trade unionists and workers generally. In other words, its aim was not to seek working class emancipation from capitalist exploitation but merely to lessen that exploitation a little. While not of course being opposed to exploitation being lessened, we regarded this as a mistaken political (as opposed to trade-union) aim and so opposed the Labour Party and this reformist tactic from the start. It is true that in 1918 the Labour Party did adopt Clause 4 (nationalisation) as its policy, but this was still not socialism, merely state-run capitalism.

The experience of the last century has confirmed the soundness of the position we took then. Far from gradually changing capitalism, the experience of governing capitalism changed the Labour Party into a party that merely seeks to administer capitalism, into in fact the modern equivalent of the old Liberal Party that used to alternate with the Tories in governing capitalism and which the unions set up Labour to replace.

In fact, we are not sure whether your description “dilettante, fair-weather or eclectic ‘supporters’ of ordinary people’s interest” is meant to apply to the modern Labour Party or the old Liberal Party since it would seem to apply to both.

Nationalisation has been and gone without making much difference to the workers affected.

Some measures, such as trade union legality and free education and health care, can benefit workers under capitalism even if they were introduced for other reasons (such as ensuring capitalist employers with a trained and healthy workforce). And, yes, some such measures were introduced under some Labour governments (though others were introduced under Liberal or Tory ones). However, these governments by no means governed in the interest of the workers. They were governments of capitalism and had to run capitalism in the only way it can be – at a profit – making system in the interests of those who live off profits rather than those who work for wages. So the 1929 Labour government reduced civil servants’ wages and fell over a proposal to reduce unemployment pay. The 1945 Attlee government kept the wartime ban on strikes and used troops to break them. The Wilson and Callaghan governments of the 60s and 70s also imposed wage restraint and clashed with strikers. And we all know about the Blair government elected in 1997—Editors

The Sinn Fein Policy. (1907)

From the September 1907 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Policy Foreshadowed.

“I had come to the conclusion that the whole system ought to be met with resistance at every point; and the means for this would be extremely simple: a combination amongst the people to obstruct and render impossible the transport and shipment of Irish provisions; to refuse all aid in its removal; to destroy the highways; to prevent everyone, by intimidation, from daring to bid for grain or cattle if brought to auction under distress (a method of obstruction that had put an end to church tithes before); in short, to offer a passive resistance universally, but occasionally, when opportunity served, to try the steel.”

The above lines were written by John Mitchel in 1847 when the Irish Confederation refused to endorse his policy of immediate resistance to the collection of rents, rates, and taxes. The portion relating to the transport and shipment of Irish goods referred to the exportation of Irish produce in a time when the country was devastated by famine and thousands were dying of starvation.

Parnell’s proposition to the Nationalist members, “to withdraw from the British House of Commons and organise the people in Ireland to resist English rule at every point” was defeated on a vote of the party. The idea of carrying on a campaign of passive resistance to British rule in Ireland is therefore not by any means new, but the Sinn Fein Party is the first party that has attempted to organise the people for this object. It has already succeeded in winning over the youngest and most ardent of the Irish race; it has converted four of the official Nationalist members of Parliament including one of their whips, Sir T. G. Esmonde. At a meeting of the Nationalist Party in the House of Commons it was proposed and seconded that the Party adopt the Sinn Fein policy and withdraw from Westminster. In North Leitrim the member, Mr. Dolan, having embraced the new doctrine, is about to contest the seat against the official Nationalist candidate.

The Movement Realised.

The Sinn Fein Party claim to have a majority in favour of their policy in the County and District Councils in the country, and Mr. Sweetman, chairman of the Meath County Council, at the meeting of councillors from various counties proposed and caused to be discussed at length a resolution to this effect: “that we refuse to collect any more rates or taxes”. Thus we see that the Sinn Fein policy will probably in the future be the method adopted throughout Ireland to resist and if possible destroy the domination of “the thrice accursed British Empire”.

What is the nature and origin of the Sinn Fein movement? The words Sinn Fein mean “ourselves alone”, and those who are acquainted with Ireland know that within the last ten years a movement was set on foot for the restoration of the Irish language, customs, industries, music and art; started and organised  by the Gaelic League it was at first strictly non-political and non-sectarian, its ultimate object was an Irish Ireland, everything in language, clothing, manner and sport which was not originally Irish was banned and ridiculed, and the offenders were termed “Shoneens”, “Flunkeys”, and “West Britons”. The Gaelic League was a decided success and it did not exist long before it had a political party formed independent of all others and having for its object “Ireland a Nation”, not in the sense of a British colony, but independent of all external authority. This party was formed on the same basis as Wolfe Tone a century ago formed the “United Irishmen”, and like Tone it wanted “to unite Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter under the common name of Irishman”. “Our independence must be had at all hazards; if the men of property will not support us they must fall; we can support ourselves by the aid of that numerous and respectable class of the community, the men of no property”. Thus we see the Sinn Fein Party is the child of the Irish education movement, and is alluded to by the Parliamentarians as the “crowd of intellectuals”, “armchair agitators”, etc.

It sees the Futility of Compromise…

The Sinn Fein Party is now possessed of several weekly journals that voice its views. It has also published a large number of pamphlets that have aided considerably in bringing the Party to its present position. In their weekly journals the Sinn Feiners riddle the arguments of the Parliamentarians, they point to the fact that in 1847 the population of Ireland was 9 millions, while today it is about 4 millions after over half a century of labour on the “flure of the House”. That the Land Acts were fraudulent and did not even touch the question of the poverty problem, that a Liberal Government is now in office but not officially pledged to Home Rule; in short, that the Nationalist Party is ineffective as a weapon against British misrule in Ireland.

The Sinn Fein Party propose the immediate withdrawal from Westminster of the 82 Irish members and that the £30,000 now annually spent in maintaining this useless weapon be spent in sending consuls to foreign countries to open up markets for Irish goods. That all monies invested in the banks of Ireland at the present time be withdrawn and a People’s Bank be formed to lend money and transact all business at interest to cover only the cost of management. That a National Stock Exchange be formed in Dublin. That the people refuse to pay rent, rates, or taxes, and that the County Councils and other such bodies responsible refuse to collect same. That, if possible, no articles from which the British Government derives a revenue be consumed by the people. That the money saved in rent, rates, and administration be used in fixing machinery and starting the disused mills and factories, to revive dying industries and introduce new ones. That, in short, by common consent, by means of duly elected members or a general council of the County and District Councils the people of Ireland will refuse to recognise English law, authorities, or customs, and that henceforth Ireland shall be ruled only by the will of the people of Ireland.

Some of the chief spokesmen of this movement are large land owners and capitalists. Mr. John Sweetman owns a large tract of land in C. Meath, is a county councillor, railway director, etc. Edward Martyn is a landowner of County Galway, a J. P. and the exact reflex of the English capitalist. Sir T. G. Esmonde, Bart, M.P., is a bank director, railway director, and landlord. These and many other connected with the Sinn Fein movement give as their principal reason for supporting it the insecurity of their stock, the railways are not making any profit worth speaking of, the canals are idle, and so on.

… But is itself Futile.

From this it is quite evident that if the Sinn Fein movement succeeds profits are intended to rise at the expense of the Irish worker. The Irish capitalist class is still to remain the proud possessor of the land, factories, mills, railways, etc., and readers of this journal know what that means for the poor wretches employed.

The proud boast of the Sinn Fein Party is that Hungary was placed in much the same position as under Austria as Ireland is under England, and that when Hungary established her independence in exactly the same manner as the Sinn Fein movement proposes Ireland should, her trade increased by leaps and bounds, her population increased and new industries were developed, yet we know that today the Magyar is as much a slave as ever, and that there are in Hungary workhouses, prisons, asylums, unemployed, and all the other characteristics of the capitalist system. We know that the trade of Great Britain was greater last year than ever before, and that last year was nevertheless for the workers a year of great unemployment, poverty and privation. Even regarding the present success of the Sinn Fein movement it may be pointed out that the prospect differs vitally from that of Hungary in the important fact that Hungary was almost the equal in population and strength of Austria, and so was able to command political success. Hungary was also helped by the important tactical position it occupied as a barrier against Russian and Turkish advance. But as far as the condition of the people is concerned the Hungarian worker is not one whit better off than the Irish worker, whilst emigrants from Hungary may be counted by the hundred thousand, by whom, it is evident, the foreign exploiters are found at least no worse than the Hungarian masters from whom they flee.

For only Socialism can help the Workers.

In view of these facts it is our duty to warn our fellow-workers in Ireland of the futility of the Sinn Fein policy as far as they are concerned. There can be no relief for the oppressed Irishman in changing an English robber for an Irish one. The person of the robber does not matter—it is the fact of the robbery that spells misery. National divisions are a hindrance to working-class unity and action, and national jealousies and differences are fostered by the capitalists for their own ends.

The crowd of hungry “intellectuals” clamouring for jobs both within and without the Irish parliamentary party do not represent the interests of the working class in Ireland. They do not, indeed, profess to favour other than capitalist interests, provided that the landlord or capitalist be Irish, but the Irish capitalist is in no wise more merciful than the English exploiter. The national sentiment and perennial enthusiasm of the Irishmen are being exploited by the so-called leaders in the interests of Irish capitalism, and the workers are being used to fight the battles of their oppressors. The Irish capitalist rebels against the English capitalist only because the latter stands in the way of a more thorough exploitation of the Irish workers by Irish capital. Let the thieves fight their own battles! For the worker in Ireland there is but one hope. It is to join the Irish wing of the international Socialist working class and to make common cause with the Socialist workers of all countries for the end of all forms of exploitation; saying to both English and Irish capitalists: “A plague on both your houses”. For the true battle-cry of the working class in broader, more significant and more inspiring than mere nationalism, and that rally cry is: THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS!

J. McManus

Nationalism and Communism by Hugh Seton-Watson (1964)

Book Review from the November 1964 issue of the Socialist Standard

Nationalism and Communism, by Hugh Seton-Watson, Methuen, 36s. 

One of the minor effects of the many years of political tension between the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union, that has become known as the Cold War, is a widespread ignorance of those European countries that are within the Russian bloc. Occupied by Russian troops at the end of the second world war, and kept in military and economic subjection ever since, they tend to be dismissed as of no importance.

People with extensive knowledge of West European or American politics and their economic problems, know nothing of the affairs of Eastern Europe. Only when, as in 1956 in Hungary, the scene erupts into violence, do they receive much attention. Yet a hundred million people live here in an area of nearly half a million square miles. We buy food and manufactured articles, gramophone records and books from them in ever increasing numbers, but most of us have a very scanty knowledge of the countries themselves.

Nationalism and Communism is a collection of essays written between 1946 and 1963, and first published in a wide variety of newspapers and periodicals. It contains interesting and detailed reports from the Eastern European States, of the ruthless and cynical methods used by the Communist parties of those countries to gain and hold power.

The book contains also an excellent potted history of the rise of Nationalism. The conceptions of “nation” and “race” that have played so large, and so destructive, a part in recent history, are modern.

The idea of the “nation” was largely unknown before the 18th century, and it first became a major political issue in the French Revolution. As late as 1815 Metternich and Alexander 1 of Russia regarded nationalism as a subversive idea. It was in the 19th century that nationalistic theories spread throughout the world. Not only the major powers, but economic groups seeking independence from domination by a greater power, began to build up theories about their origins to prove that they were a race apart.

Les Dale

The Origin and Growth of Nazism pt.1 (1943)

From the August 1943 issue of the Socialist Standard

The phenomenal growth of the Nazi movement posed new problems. Hitherto the autocratic state had been associated with backward countries, and the establishment of dictatorships in Russia and Italy had not weakened this theory to any serious extent. But Germany, a highly industrialised country, also leading the world in many fields of scientific endeavour and cultural achievement, could not be included in this rather simplified category. Here was a precedent in the world of politics demanding a new approach.

Two main viewpoints emerged as deserving of some consideration. The first, produced by the Communists and since abandoned by its sponsors, held that German Fascism — and Fascism in any other country — represented the last stage of capitalism. The workers, it was claimed, were on the point of storming the citadel of capitalist society and the ruling class had erected this barrier as a means of holding the revolution at bay. (This view, incidentally, suited these leaders of totalitarianism, and supported their claims to be “world saviours from Bolshevism”.)

This idea has led the Communists into strange political twists. Their enmity was concentrated on the Labour Parties, whom they dubbed “Social-Fascists” rather than the Fascists, whom they hoped to succeed in power. Their slogan: “After the Fascists come we!” was based on the mistaken assumption that a Nazi regime would give rise to civil war, from which the Communists would emerge as victors.

The second theory is still extant in some quarters and has been argued at length, though with little basis, by Mr. James Burnham in his book The Managerial Revolution. This claims that the Totalitarian State is not capitalism at all, but a new kind of social arrangement in which the power of the capitalist class has been broken and the control of society passed into the hands of “the managerial class,” managers, supervisors, highly paid technicians, etc. This view owes its origin to an American doctrine known as “Technocracy.” It is a superficial generalisation which has avoided specific inquiry into the economic anatomy of the totalitarian states. Franz Neumann, in what is probably the most penetrating analysis of the Nazi State, has conclusively answered the “managerial school.” (Behemoth. Left Book Club edition.)

The fundamental error common to both these schools of thought was to assume that capitalism in every country must have identical features, political and economic, forgetting that in each case exists a different historical background which is bound to give varying trends and twists to each country’s evolution. The development of capitalism in Germany was held back at first owing to her geographical position (e.g. inadequate coastline). When capitalism did appear in the middle of the last century, it limited itself to districts around the Rhine, the river facilitating the transport of coal and iron from the nearby Ruhr. This late beginning put German capitalism at a disadvantage with the already well established manufacturing centre of Britain, which by then had a firm grip on the only market open to Germany, the European continent. This commercial rivalry was to play an important part in shaping the history of the world and has already helped to scourge mankind with two world wars.

The lack of raw materials such as oil, rubber, nitrate, etc., further increased the difficulties of German capitalists and made them more dependant than any of their other competitors on the world market. (It also encouraged the research for substitutes, “Ersatz,” and gave a spur to German chemical industries.) Under the economic laws of world capitalism the import of goods from abroad must be met and balanced by payment in cash (gold) or the export of home — manufactured wares. This is merely an extension of home grown capitalist economy and demonstrates the validity of Marx’s analysis of capitalist economics, yet the capitalist economic rivalry which is the root — cause of modern wars is obscured to many by propaganda about “ideals” of “justice,” “freedom,” etc.

The late national unity of German capitalism (achieved in 1871) also was a factor restricting the growth of the economic and political power of the German capitalist class. This class, therefore, did not feel strong enough to govern Germany and leaned upon another, more ancient, ruling class, the group of Junkers, the Prussian landowners. This social element, strictly belonging to Feudalism, was consequently extending its reign into capitalism. Its main hold upon modern Germany was in the role of organising and officering the German Army, a vital necessity for a capitalist land – power which by its very nature was predestined to play a military aggressive role in world politics.

The defeat of Germany in 1918 drove the figurehead, the Kaiser, into exile, but left the ruling class groups of capitalists and generals still in a dominating position. German Social Democracy (the equivalent, more or less, of the British Labour Party) took on the powers of government, not with the idea of interfering with the property — rights of the German capitalists, but merely to give Germany the political constitution of a capitalist democratic republic after the style of France or the United States. 

But for this moderate project they encountered immense difficulties. The economic distress of the workers could not be remedied by capitalist reforms and large masses of workers, guided by the Bolshevik Revolution on the one hand and encouraged by temporary capitalist impotence on the other, threatened the Government’s overthrow. Here German Social Democracy was faced with a dilemma, a dilemma of its own choosing. Their self–appointed task of saving German capitalism brought them into inevitable conflict with the working class interests which they had promised to safeguard. They solved the dilemma by calling the reactionary junker class of generals and officers to their rescue and so paved the way for the eventual downfall of the German republic.    

The South of Germany, especially Bavaria, being still in the main an agricultural area, soon led the swing back to reaction. Already in 1920, barely two years after the armistice, an openly pro-monarchist, anti-democratic regime was established, carrying on anti-republican propaganda. Numerous groups of officers, not legally employed by the German central government but permitted to exist in order to evade the restriction on military forces imposed by the Allied victors, participated in political intrigues. In addition, numberless political parties, open enemies of the democratic republic, existed under various guises. Among these was a small group calling itself “The German Workers’ Party,” which had been founded in Munich, capital of Bavaria. This party based its policy on ideas derived from the mediaeval guilds with their handicraft labour, a form of labour that still existed in Bavaria.  Adolf Hitler, who at that time was living in Munich, a soldier not yet demobilised, joined the “Inner Council” of this organisation.

The most authoritative work on the growth of the Nazi Party is  the History of the National Socialism,  by Konrad Heyden. In it the author alleged that Hitler joined the group as an agent of a number of German officers. It is certain that Hitler owed his rapid domination over this party to his control of funds which he was handed by his officer friends, who included Captain Roehm. (The latter he had murdered in the “Blood Purge” of June, 1934.)

Besides his control of funds, Hitler also quickly showed his ability as a mob-orator as well as certain talents for political intrigue. At his suggestion the party changed its name to the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party,” a title worthy of a group whose policy was not National but Racist and Imperialist, not Socialist but Capitalist; which did not represent the workers and whose leader was not even German. The new title was matched by a programme of “Twenty-Five points,” most of which consisted of the usual reformist eyewash which the Nazi leaders have long since forgotten.

Two distinct features have of the new Nazi programme deserve to be mentioned. One was opposition to “unearned income.” This point was designed to appeal to workers, but its real meaning was quite different. At that time German industry was being financed by capitalists in France, Britain and the United States, who were thus drawing the rake-off from the proceeds from the proceeds of German industry. The German industrialists, like their brothers everywhere, objected to having to part with some of the surplus value they wrung from the workers: they wanted to keep the lot. So the cry “unearned incomes” was a cry from the heart of the German capitalist exploiters.

The other point was the hostility to the Jews. To be understood, anti-semitism must be placed in its proper historical setting. Under Feudalism the Jew was a social outcast. The land as a means of livelihood was closed to him. Trading and the money-transactions it involved formed an infinitesimal part of an economy that largely restricted itself to production for local consumption. Money-lending itself was forbidden by the Church. Thus the Jew found himself willy-nilly burdened with an economic role that stamped him as an outsider to feudal society. And though under capitalism trading and finance have long ceased to be the prerogative of any religious sect, anti-semitism persists as a tradition. It is in fact a hangover from Feudalism, particularly vicious in countries where feudal customs and ideas still exert a strong influence. This tradition is of course continuously nourished by the prejudices, national  and religious, which only a classless society can fully eliminate.

The Nazis found a fruitful field for their Jew baiting propaganda in backward Bavaria. But the real significance of their “Racist philosophy” appeared later, when the intention to avenge the defeat of 1918 became obvious. The buffer states of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland contained strong German-born and German-speaking elements. These countries formed the first stepping stones to the mastery of Europe. The Nazi doctrine proclaiming the “Unity and Purity of the German Race,” was nonsense indeed from the scientist’s point of view, but as propaganda it prepared the way for conquest.

Sid Rubin

(Part 2 follows in September’s issue)

National nonsense (2000)

From the March 2000 issue of the Socialist Standard 

Nationalism is utterly opposed to socialism. Socialists therefore oppose nationalism in all its forms.

It might be supposed that people who profess an interest in the doings of human beings—such as, say, journalists—might well consider a solid and determined strike by nurses over pay to be a worthwhile subject for their notice. This should be especially so when such a strike is going on within but a few hundred miles of their offices, as happened when in October the nurses of Ireland voted by an overwhelming majority (90 percent for) to go on indefinite strike over their shoddy pay. Devoted consumers of the British media, however, would have found nary a whisper on the subject. Clearly, a story of dedicated health care professionals—usually referred to as “angels” by our sharp-eyed reporters—feeling so ill-used and battered by the system that they decided to take action for themselves, is not of interest to human beings on the other side of a small stretch of water. Instead we were treated to facile dissertations upon the constitutional significance of Prince Charles skipping dinner with the Chinese president.

The story is ever the same. Events that occur outside of Britain’s boundaries are of no concern to our intrepid observers of humanity, unless they somehow have a “British interest”. We are not meant to be interested in the affairs of humans generally, but instead to be concerned with “the British” first and foremost. Indeed, when BBC journalist Kate Adie reported on the Dunblane massacre, using exactly the same style and technique as she would have reported a massacre in some far-flung war-torn region, she was execrated for her insensitivity. The deaths of British children are clearly more important than children dead in war.

Tool of rising capitalist class

Historically, nationalism and national feeling have been the tool of the capitalist class for both winning and retaining power. England, for example, can be seen as having developed through the growth of the economic power and influence of London. As London grew, and began to dictate the economic priorities of the surrounding regions, so to it began to need to control them politically, and socially, in order to protect its own interests. Up until the reign of Henry VIII the feudal barons had lived in almost total autonomy, specifically the far-flung magnates like the Percies of Northumbria. Most regions, villages even, maintained a distinctive identity, set of values and traditions. As their influence grew, it became incumbent upon the London capitalists to try and tailor these values and traditions to win over more support for themselves, or at least to ensure an absence of conflict.

In order to achieve this they adapted the traditions they found among the subjected communities, or even made them up when none suitable existed. A classic example was the myth of the Norman Yoke—that Saxon England had been a bastion of Freedom and Democracy, but that William the Conqueror had imported the tyrannical monarchy and feudalism with him. The historical record shows that the Saxons had extensive feudal structures of their own. Of course, that was irrelevant to the myth-makers. They had a tradition to invent, specifically, one which would unite people behind them against their feudal opponents.

The aristocracy itself maintained a preference of looking towards the complex familial power structures across Europe, rather than to a feeling of community with people of their own domain. Title, land and religion were the factors that mattered to them, not nation. They were more concerned with status among their peers. It didn’t matter what language the people who lived on their lands spoke. Further, avowal of the doctrine of the nation was seen as placing an ideological category above the monarch; where before the monarch was the state, now the monarch was to be subordinated to the state.

Making (up) a nation

As the power of the proponents of these ideas grew, so pronouncing an adherence to their ideas became a swift and secure way to win preferment. Hence the power of their ideas grew too, to become the dominant, ruling ideas. There was a further practical impetus for cultural standardisation: the extension of state and bureaucratic power further into life, in order to more efficiently control the economy and delineate property. Coupled with the increased capacity and need for rapid communication, this meant that standardised linguistic practices were needed. Language became a factor in establishing state power, and thus it became a factor in determining a “nation”. It’s no coincidence that the rise of the nation-state coincides with the invention of the dictionary and the encyclopaedia. It’s no coincidence that nationalism is accompanied by a mania for classifying, delineating and defining people into categories. These practical considerations were made explicit by the Polish nationalist Pilsudski, who observed that “It is the state that makes the nation, not the nation the state.”

Nations have taken a great deal of building. There is almost no nation-state that has not had its boundaries drawn in blood, its foundations dug out of human flesh. England was nationalised by Cromwell with the deaths of the Cornish and the Irish. France was nationalised by bloody wars between the monarchy and local lords and interests (not to mention the interminable wars with the Germanic states to set the exact boundary between the two “nations”). America was built on the bodies of the native population. It is a process that continues today in the form nation-building, which has taken in Yugoslavia and Central Africa.

The effort, though, has to be ongoing. States have required the use of an education system, to standardise learning, spread a national history and a sense of shared culture. An example of this can be seen in the Thatcher government’s enforcement of the intellectually bankrupt notion of a Literary Canon in the National Curriculum: a gallery of literary luminaries, led by Shakespeare, that bored, uninterested children are told are great and something for them to be proud of. On the continent, it was the task of “turning peasants into Frenchmen” that the Republic set itself. Nations are made, not born.

In order to enforce the new system of property over the whole range of its influence, the capitalist class needed the state, and its legitimising idea of nationalism and the nation. Culture resides in sets of ideas, values and practises that set out a sense of precedent, self and future possibility. By imposing the idea of the nation upon a culture, complete with its inherent notions of territorial ownership and property, the ruling class impose their notions of property on the very self-image of the people within that culture.

All possibilities and plans are circumscribed by, or at least must be made in relation to, this logic. So long as people think in terms of the “common good” of the “national economy”, in terms of the overall performance of one unit in the world-wide division of peoples, they are, whether consciously or not, serving the interests of the capitalist class. All evaluations, priorities and hierarchies of value within a “national culture” are made from the point of view, from the self-interest, and, indeed, the apprehended self-hood, of the members of the capitalist class. When the economy is “doing well” it is doing so for the capitalists, when the economy is ailing, it is ailing for the capitalists. Their interest and feeling is the condition for action and evaluation of a national culture.

The idea of “the nation”, then, functions as a supreme good, beyond the physical and mechanical functionings of the state, to which any cause may appeal. Thus, both Blair and Hague are claiming that their position on the Euro is the true “patriotic cause”. Put another way, it is a fantasy, a dream, which can be used to cover up for problems and contradictions in the practice of the state’s daily life. Its function is to legitimise both the state and class rule, and sustain a large quantity of support, through workers who identify with the ideals of nationhood and believe themselves to be the same as, and have the same interests as, their masters.

No common interest 

Workers, of course, do not share a common interest with their masters. It does not follow that if the “national wealth” increases, or if trade increases, or even if profit increases, that higher wages will be gained by workers. In fact capitalists can only make a profit by appropriating the wealth produced by the workers to themselves; but in the topsy-turvy world of ideology, it seems that workers will only have good pay and wealth when the capitalists are doing well. So it appears that workers and capitalists share a common interest. In fact, the interest of workers is conditioned by the interest of the capitalist, in exactly the same manner as hostages held by a kidnapper: unless the kidnapper-capitalists’s demands are met, they will not allow the hostage-workers to have what they need to live.

There is a well-documented effect of hostage situations, called “The Stockholm Syndrome” in which hostages under duress began to identify with their kidnappers, and believe in their cause. Nationalism works in much the same way. It is the Stockholm Syndrome on a grand scale. The working class who are dependent (under the current system) on the capitalists, to whom they are bonded by state-boundaries across which they are not permitted to escape, begin to believe that they share an identity with them. Hence the ridiculous comments we’ve all heard from people flipping burgers in McDonalds, insisting blindly that they don’t like socialism because they’re capitalists. Hence further, the ridiculous spectacle of people wittering on about the Union Flag being on British Airways’ planes, as if BA were anything more than a vehicle for enriching share-holders.

Workers have no country

The only way to define such national identity is to define it in terms of what (who) it is not, i.e. negatively. Thus nationalism sets itself as being against other countries, striving to define a uniqueness of national culture so as to once and for all set its country apart from others, to know itself by what is un-like it. At one extreme this can include myths about race and blood, trying to attach the national abstraction to some trait of genetics or similar such nonsense. Since people have a strong desire to retain their own perceived identity, and to have a good opinion of themselves, often the creeds based on such identities function in a highly irrational, and ultimately, defensive way. Thus it is usually a sign of desperation and of an incapacity to formulate a coherent argument when our masters resort to playing the nationalist card.

It is clear, then, that socialists must oppose nationalism in all its forms: not just refusing to espouse their creed, but defying the rituals, the anthem signing, flag saluting and other expressions of craven loyalty to the nation-state, that help enforce the idea of nation in our minds. There is no national interest for workers, and any attempt to reform capitalism must be based on a national interest and thus be opposed to socialism. Self-determination for “nations” just equates with freedom and self-determination for a ruling class. It must be opposed in favour of self determination for people, concretely and actually in their own lives. It must be opposed with socialism.

Pik Smeet

Nationalism (1999)

Book Review from the May 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard

Imagining Nations, Geoffrey Cubitt ed., Manchester University Press.

Fatherland or Mother Earth? Essays on the National Question by Michael Lõwy, Pluto Press.

Two very different books on nationalism. The Cubitt volume is much more “academic”, looking at a number of different issues within the area of nationalism. The best thing that can be said about it is that most of the contributors are aware that nations are not in any way natural entities but are products of history. There are a couple of interesting papers, one on the origins of the Ordnance Survey and one on the way that banknotes are used to display patriotic messages, but most of the contents are too dry to repay the reader’s time.

Lõwy’s book, which examines the writings of Marx and others on nationalism, is more worthwhile, though it contains a number of contradictions. Lõwy is aware that Socialism means a classless, stateless society, but when it comes to the question of whether nations could have any role in Socialism, he wants to have it both ways. At one point he endorses the view that Socialism will be a world without frontiers, with no political delimitation of peoples. Yet a few pages later he seems to accept that Socialism would involve the abolition of national antagonisms but could retain nations with cultural differences. In fact, a true understanding of the implications of Socialism will reveal that the very idea of nations, a political concept, can have no part to play, though there will of course still be cultural differences among people (e.g. language).

While he pays lip service to opposing nationalism, Lõwy also advocates the “right of self-determination” of the Kurds and the Albanians of Kosovo, among others. This is largely based on the Leninist-inspired distinction between the nationalism of the oppressors (always bad) and the nationalism of the oppressed (allegedly worth supporting, even if critically). This even though he is aware that oppressed nations, once “free”, can easily become oppressors in turn. Oppression, however, has to be seen in class, not national terms. Both so-called oppressor and oppressed nations consist of oppressor and oppressed classes, and “national liberation” enables an oppressor class to consolidate and expand its power, rather than freeing all the people of a formerly oppressed nation.

It contains some interesting observations, but on the whole Lõwy’s book swallows too much leftist nonsense to be recommended.

Paul Bennett

Black nationalism in Africa (1965)

From the June 1965 issue of the Socialist Standard

Nationalism as a political theory originated in Germany around the beginning of the 19th century, when the German nationalists put forward the theory that those who speak the same language form a natural community which ought to govern itself.

This was to develop into racialism and to give rise to talk of the “Anglo-Saxon race ” and the “German race".

Despite the fact that nationalism has no scientific basis for its claims, it has been a powerful force in the world. Of course, it was not something which suddenly appeared out of the blue; its roots are to be found in the beginnings of capitalist development in Britain and France and the effect this had on intellectual life in Germany. This put Germany in a peculiar historical position.

Germans who had absorbed ideas developed in Britain and France turned to nationalism—the unity of all German speaking people—as part of the drive to modernise their country. Similar nationalist movements and theories appeared in Poland, Italy and Hungry, though only in Italy was the movement to have success in the nineteenth century. Here the achievement of national unity and independence was the equivalent of France’s revolution of 1789; it created the political conditions in which the evolution of capitalist society could continue.

In short in many of those countries which underwent capitalist development after Britain and France, the overthrow of the old order was represented as a form of national revolution—in some cases as a move for national unity, in others for national independence and in others for national regeneration. To refer to nationalism as a weapon of the social revolution from feudal society to capitalism is not to say that the nationalist movements were composed of traders and small factory owners. In fact the relationship is not as simple as this.

Capitalism created the social conditions for the spread of nationalism by alienating sections of the population from the old order. It is among this section—students, past and present, modern army officers and wage workers — that nationalists were to be found. These set about agitating among those they considered their fellow nationals in order to awaken their national consciousness.

From Europe, nationalism spread out during the twentieth century to the Middle East and Asia. Today it is spreading through Africa—Macmillan’s wind of change. The outward form of this nationalism varies from country to country depending on historical circumstances, but its essential remains the same; it is an instrument of the capitalist social revolution in relatively backward countries

In Europe the nationalist theories were based on language. In Africa they are based on colour and “race”. For this reason African nationalism is sometimes referred to as “racist ”. This use is permissible in so far as African nationalism does claim to champion the interests of the black people or “race”. Perhaps a better term would be Black Nationalism; this however should not obscure the fact that there are groups working among Africans which do preach race hatred and race domination. These can be called Black Racialist groups.

The intellectual roots of African nationalism go back to the Negro nationalist movements which appeared in America and the West Indies in the first part of this century. These ranged from openly black racialist organisations such as that of Marcus Garvey — the forerunner of the present day Black Muslims in America and the Rastafarians in Jamaica — to the cultural nationalism, so-called negritude, of the poet Aimé Césaire.

From this developed the doctrine of Pan-Africanism, which proclaimed the unity of interest of all Africans and those of African descent. Educated Africans and African students abroad joined in this movement. On returning to Africa, the students set about agitating for national independence. They would have had no success had not social conditions been ripe for the spread of their ideas.

As in Europe and Asia, nationalism in Africa spread only to the degree that the old order was breaking up. The colonial powers, in training Africans as soldiers and priests and civil servants, in employing them in the mines and on the plantations, undermined their own position. For these detribalised Africans formed the social base of the anti-colonialist struggle. Since the war the further break-up of the old order has proceeded apace. So has nationalism. It is only nine years since the first black African state, Ghana, became independent from colonial rule. Now, with the important exceptions of parts of central and southern Africa, most of black Africa has achieved independence.

The regimes that have taken over from the colonial governments have been various. Some have consisted of a motley collection of tribal leaders and opportunist and corrupt politicians. Others have an iron handed industrialising clique. Ghana provides the model of this last type; there the administrative techniques of Russia have been combined with the doctrine of Pan-Africanism to get what Nkrumah calls "African socialism ”.

Other nations which are modelled on Ghana — Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania — are one party states in which a vanguard party is used to mobilise the population for carrying through the capitalist social revolution. Because of the role of the state —and the influence of Russia—it was perhaps inevitable that these regimes would label themselves socialist. In fact they are totalitarian state capitalist regimes in which an élite uses the state power to try to extend capitalism rapidly throughout the area under their political control.

The situation in central and southern Africa is complicated by the presence of a not inconsiderable minority of persons of European descent. These—the whites—once enjoyed certain political and economic privileges at the expense of the Africans. It is in these circumstances that ugly black-white clashes have occurred and will almost certainly occur again. Among both white people and black there are groups preaching race hatred and intolerance. Many of the white workers are under the impression that they can preserve their security through discriminatory legislation. The African workers, on the other hand, see the solution to their miseries in African nationalism. The murders of Mau Mau in Kenya, and those of the Congo rebels, are examples of nationalism in action, just as the terrorist tactics employed by European nationalists in the past were. In Africa, however, they are now complicated as a clash between black and white.

African nationalism and the one party regimes it tends to set up are respectively the theory and practice of the capitalist social revolution in Africa. The spread of African nationalism together with the attempt by the Whites to maintain their privileges, is almost .certain to lead to further inter-racial violence and terror. Nationalism, with its talk of equality, may not at first sight appear as repugnant as racialism pure and simple. It often however, has the same results: bloodshed in which members of the working class are killed—not for their own interests but for those of their masters present and future.

Adam Buick