Against Nationalism and Militarism
Against Nationalism: class struggle! Against Imperialist war: class war! The Left have lost sight of this, but anarchist communists mustn’t! The Anarchist Communist Group hosts an on-line meeting: Thursday. February 15th. 7pm — 9pm.
The struggle against Imperialism can only be a struggle against global capitalism in favour of global social revolution. This struggle is the class struggle.
We don’t believe that it is necessary for revolutionaries to support one Imperialist power or alliance over another, the task is to abolish capitalism and therefore, imperialism. We are not in the business of supporting one proto-state against the established state.
But we ARE required to analyse the shifting alliances, to try understand the rationale of the Imperialist powers and to oppose them through the only method that can ultimately stop them: the direct action of the working class.
The problem is that the tendency to see the world in national rather than class terms is deeply ingrained in the psychology of the left, as much as it is in wider society. Though leftists may be capable of criticising nationalism in their own back yard, they are incapable of doing it when faced with certain foreign movements.
This reflects the powerlessness of the left. When faced with brutal war and the slaughter of populations in distant parts of the world, a proxy is sought in response to their own lack of agency. Supporting the underdog side — the ‘resistance’ — forms a substitute.
But it is the power of the working class that holds the key. It is the working class that produces and exports the weapons that, for example, pound Gaza. We facilitate that and we can stop it. Unless we find a way to build working class power then we remain at the mercy of imperialist powers, hoping that the interests of one or more of those powers might mean that another war on Gaza, another invasion of a former Soviet country, another escalation doesn’t have to happen.
To register:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/against-nationalism-and-war-tickets-806317225527?aff=oddtdtcreator