7 October 2016

The Case for Left Nationalism

by Arctofire

It has often been thought that any kind of British nationalism is right wing and racist. Whilst people certainly have reason to think this through the likes of the BNP and Britain First, nationalism itself is not like that. Indeed any kind of western nationalism has been villified ever since the time of Hitler. What those parties and people represented and did are gross distortions of what true nationalism is.


We British people, like any other nation, have a culture. A person who lives in this country won’t act the same as somebody who lives in China, they will speak a different language, have different morals and ethics, eat different food, etc. That is not to say that people who live in China are bad or that I think that my culture is superior to theirs, I just want to be proud of my culture.


There are complete double standards when it comes to nationalism. Those nations considered ‘oppressed’ like Ireland and India are allowed to be nationalistic because it is considered to be a progressive force, but that any British nationalism is bad.


To look at why these nationalist movements have become known to be progressive, we have to look at their history, colonial rule. In this period, these countries and it’s people were exploited by rich British capitalists, so a rejection of them constantly milking their country was seen as a progressive force, it was when the native people said ‘this belongs to us.’ But the same thing is happening here in Britain. Subsequent Conservative governments have sold off public assets that we, the British people, have a right to. Today 40% of all our once nationalized infrastructure is owned by foreign governments, and more is being let out by the day.


It is not foreign workers who are the greatest threat to British sovereignty, it is the foreign capitalists, who have constantly been seeking ways to cut slices for our recourses for themselves.


The british capitalists and the british workers are two different things. Why should we, the British working people, not be able to celebrate our cultural traditions because of stuff that we played no part in? We were being oppressed and exploited by the same capitalists as they were, those that twisted the very image of this nation to benefit themselves.  The British Empire was not the British Empire, but the British Capitalist’s Empire. The ordinary British people had nothing to do with it, nothing to gain from it, and no say in it, but yet we are lumped in with the manipulative big bosses which committed mass atrocities in the name of this nation and it’s people.


Workers of the world should unite, but yet all workers of the world have distinct cultural identities. This is not beneficial to capitalism. It is much easier for cultural identities to be removed, because it means that more products can appeal to more people. We must protect our people and nation from the increasingly globalist form of capitalism, the highest form to ever exist on earth, surpassing that of imperialism, which Lenin himself said was the highest stage in his day. Ever since the Berlin Wall came down capitalism has sought to establish free trade with as many countries as possible, going beyond the idea of Empire, with free trade just between the colonies, this is free trade with as many countries as possible.

This exists the highest form possible, a form without nations, when all nations themselves are controlled by wealthy businessmen from abroad.


Just have a look at Rupert Murdoch, he isn’t even a British citizen, but yet he has so much influence over the politics over here by brainwashing the population. It is not us, the working people, who control our own country, it’s the wealthy corporations from abroad and the evil neoliberals who open up these floodgates


Socialist and nationalist revolution should be the same thing, for it is part of the same thing, for workers to assert national sovereignty against big foreign businesses, and for each nation to revolt against the globalist nature of capitalism which seeks to destroy the very heart, spirit, and culture of that nation.


You could say Brexit was a real show of nationalism and revolution, but it hasn’t been. Yes, a nationalist revolution has happened, but it is meaningless, we have simply switched one elite for another, a European elite for a British elite. This British elite is acting no differently, it is still adamant to get in on free trade agreements to benefit the international capitalist class. The national revolution can only happen if it accompanied by a socialist revolution, when the vast majority of Britons rule this country for themselves, not the tiny wealthiest few.


The nationalism I talk of will be a different form of nationalism. It will not be a nationalism controlled by capitalists from this country who wish to expand and exert dominance, this will be a nationalism controlled by the workers, who are bound together by a common culture. We are the people who make up this nation, and it’s culture, so we should not let it be defined by the top 1% who committed awful things.

It is only once we destroy capitalisms globalist nature, that we can destroy capitalism at all.

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