The solution to the ongoing insanity of wars, we insist, remains the same. There is one world and we exist as one people in need of each other and with the same basic needs. There is far more that unites us than can ever divide us along cultural, or nationalistic lines. Together we can create a civilisation worth living in, but before that happens we need the conscious cooperation of ordinary people across the world, united in one common cause – to create a world in which each person has free access to the benefits of civilisation, a world without borders. The message of socialism is worldwide. It reaches across the artificial national frontiers erected by humankind and is as much for the ears of every worker.
This "internationalism" of the Socialist Party is in direct antagonism to that national sentiment that is fostered under the name of "patriotism." As class-conscious workers, its members view any "nationalism" as a snare in the path towards emancipation. Not only does it serve to cloud the class issue within the nation, but it also hinders the workers of the world from recognising and acting up to their unity of interest. What significance has “pride” in one's nation for the wage-slave? The Socialist Party vehemently denies any connection between the interests of the capitalist and working people. Internationalism will only have a sure foundation to the extent to which such illusions are ruthlessly cut.
We are interested in the resources of the whole world and we want them to be used for the benefit of all mankind without distinction of nationality.
The real division in the world is not between people of supposedly different “nationalities” but between two social classes both of which are international: a class of capitalists who own and control all that is in and on the Earth and a class of people who, excluded from such ownership and control, are obliged to work for an employer (private or state) in order to live. Wage-earners everywhere, whatever their language, nationality, colour, have a common interest. The truth is that the very essence of socialism is internationalism. Socialism knows no frontier. It matters little that one country may be peopled by any other nationality. That would make no difference to the movement of the working class towards the world-embracing cooperative commonwealth. National independence and patriotism, are now, from the worker's point of view, just so many ruling-class devices useful for the purpose, among others, of stirring up hatred when and where they may want it.
The obsession and fixation with nationalism is one that socialists confront all the time. We confront it from leftists who divide their time between paying lip service to the idea of workers of the world uniting and supporting all manner of nationalisms. We face it from many fellow-workers whose sense of frustration about the poverty and indignity of working-class life often leads them to a sense of misplaced patriotism about a cause which would do them no more good than it did other workers who won the battle and gained the right to be exploited by local capitalists instead of foreign ones. We confront it whenever workers are constantly abused and threatened by an occupying or repressive armed presence and regard counter-violence as the only alternative to the violence. In short, socialists can understand why workers become obsessed with the national question. However, what we are asking them to understand is why they should take a world, and never a national, view of society.
Nationalists argued that workers would be better off in their own country, free from foreign rule. The Socialist Party regard it as an irrelevance. It is our duty to warn our fellow-workers of the futility of nationalist “cures.” Nationalism is a "disease" (Einstein).
National divisions are a hindrance to working-class unity, and national jealousies and differences are fostered by the capitalists for their own ends. There is no answer for the oppressed in changing a foreign robber for a native-born one. The person of the robber does not matter — it is the fact of the robbery that spells misery. Let the robbers fight their own battles. National sentiment and traditional cultures are being exploited by the so-called leaders in the interests of capitalism, and the workers are being used to fight the battles of their oppressors. Nationalism arises from a desire to see a united community. The aspiration to have a nation that belongs to you is in reality a desire to have a society that is yours — which you can feel a part of because it belongs to you. These are not really movements by workers wanting capitalists to dominate them — although that would be the effect — but of alienated exploited workers who want neighbourhoods, communities and a society which they can call their home. People are right to want a society which we can call their own, a planet that belongs to humanity and a place which we can take pride in. Let us unite as one and share everything in common and allow many cultures to develop and flourish.
There is but one hope and is to join with the Socialist Party to make common cause with the fellow-workers of all lands for the end of all forms of exploitation: saying to the capitalists: “A plague on all of you."
The Socialist Party stands opposed to the system of exploitation and class rule which is upheld and strengthened by nationalism and patriotism. Nationalism is at the top of the list of political illusions used to blinker with working people. We do not own very much of a country, so why should we care which section of the class of thieves owns which national portion of the world? Workers have a world to win, not nations to struggle and sacrifice for. Our aim is to create a world free from all national divisions. We want to abolish borders, not establish new ones. Workers have no country - no nation to defend but a world to gain.
No comments:
Post a Comment