Marxism and Nationalism

1. Marxism and Nationalism • Issues of nationality and citizenship have been important and controversial to many Marxist theories. • There are several reasons why Marxism and nationalism are not easily combined. Two fundamental conflicts are that both Marxist internationalism and the assertion of the primacy of class contradictions are at loggerhead with nationalist conceptions of history. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

2. Marx and Engels • Some scholars argue that marx was contradictory in his views of nationalism. • As Nimni argues (Marxism and nationalism, Pluto 1991), Marx and Engels’ thinking was ambivalent but well developed. • For Marx, nationalism is epiphenomenal. State-building and an advanced economy require nation-building, which is therefore essential to the formation of a bourgeoisie. It is against this national bourgeoisie that the proletariat can then rebel. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

3. Nations without History • If the function of nationalist mobilisation is to form nation-states, national movements that are ineffective because too small or too weak come to be seen as regressive. • These are nations without history. • They hinder the progress of history towards a proletarian revolution. They distract the energy of the proletariat. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

4. Marxist intolerance of ethnic minorities • Whilst some national questions are well examined by Marx an Engels - such as the Irish question – for other minorities there is hostility. North-African Bedouins, Chinese, Scandinavians, Spaniards and Mexicans are seen with scorn. • Conversely, the Irish question is seen as important and in need of a solution because it engenders rivalry within the proletariat. • A separate Irish state would create a contradiction between proletariat and bourgeoisie, and therefore the premises of a revolution. • Thus there is no intrinsic contradiction in the Marxist position (Nimni 1991). Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

5. Marxist Reductionism • The reductionist approach of Marx and Engels was faithfully followed during the Second International. Various forms and justifications of reductionism appear in Kautsky, Luxemburg, Bernstein, Lenin and Stalin. • For Lenin there is no national culture, only an illusion of it, which is due to bourgeois mystification. Every nation has two cultures, a bourgeois one and a proletarian one. • Nationalist movements need to be encouraged only when and as long as they advance the forces of production. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

6. Gramsci • Gramsci is the first Marxist who clearly rejects economic and class reductionism. • Gramsci connects nationalism to internal colonialism, and proposes the concepts of hegemony, historical bloc, and organic intellectuals in relation to the concept of nation. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

7. The New Left and Nationalism • Gramscian Marxism was central to much of the new left thinking. • However, reductionist views still survived in the new left engendering controversial debates on the nature, scope and future of nationalism. • Part of the new left simply chose to ignore nationalism and abandoned it to the right. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

8. The new left as a social movement • As a social movement, in several countries, the new left defined itself in contraposition to the extreme right. Nationalism versus proletarian internationalism, or more generally multi-culturalism came to form the dividing line between movement and counter-movement. • Nationality and nationalism became therefore a contentious issue. National symbols, such as flags and anthems became central to action repertoires. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

9. “Frontiers=Repression” • As Katsiaficas (1987, p. 104)notes, the slogans and ethos of the new left was militantly anti-nationalist everywhere. • Nationalism was seen as an exclusionary doctrine that divided the working class. • Pro-immigrant sentiments were voiced, bilingual posters seek to integrate foreign workers in protest events. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

10. RM and the New Left • With its strong focus on organizational factors and resources, RM echoes the ideology of the new left. • Some analysts of the NSM school say that RM is in fact only applicable to the movements of the New Left • The New Left constituted a set of ideologically similar movements which diffused throughout the Western world and in some developing countries in the late sixties and seventies. It has been called a World-Historical Movement. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento