It’s simple. Generally, nationalism in colonized and imperialized countries is progressive, as it moves against imperialism and (often) ethnic repression and genocide. Nationalism in the imperialist countries is deeply reactionary, it maintains imperialism, and causes ethnic repression and genocide.
That’s why nationalist “socialist” groups in imperialist countries like MAGA “communists” are deeply founded in chauvanism and are closer to fascism than any flavor of socialism.
TBH, nationalism in colonized countries can easily and quickly become just as harmful as nationalisms of the imperialist core, so we should be vigilant about it and careful about relying on it.
I made sure to include generally before, I get what you mean. There’s no one recipe, oppose book worship and all that, but as a useful rule of thumb if a country that is being imperialized has a nationalist uprising against imperialism, it’s almost certainly a progressive movement contextually.
Nationalism is a key component of any liberation struggle, Ho Chi Minh himself said that it was nationalism what made him interested in communism and used the pseudonym “Nguyen the patriot” when he lived in France.
Nationalism is not mutually exclusive from internationalism, in fact in the character of a national liberation struggle, nationalism is internationalism because it promotes the view that the people of any determinate place are capable of running their nation in contrast with the nationalism of the imperial core which promotes the view that these are inferior beings uncapable of doing so.
The problem is that the nationalism of the oppressed can very easily morph into the nationalism of the oppressors. Look at Poland, where pre-1918 nationalism was liberatory and post-1918 it seamlessly switched to oppressing ethnic minorities.
It’s simple. Generally, nationalism in colonized and imperialized countries is progressive, as it moves against imperialism and (often) ethnic repression and genocide. Nationalism in the imperialist countries is deeply reactionary, it maintains imperialism, and causes ethnic repression and genocide.
That’s why nationalist “socialist” groups in imperialist countries like MAGA “communists” are deeply founded in chauvanism and are closer to fascism than any flavor of socialism.
TBH, nationalism in colonized countries can easily and quickly become just as harmful as nationalisms of the imperialist core, so we should be vigilant about it and careful about relying on it.
I made sure to include generally before, I get what you mean. There’s no one recipe, oppose book worship and all that, but as a useful rule of thumb if a country that is being imperialized has a nationalist uprising against imperialism, it’s almost certainly a progressive movement contextually.
Nationalism is a key component of any liberation struggle, Ho Chi Minh himself said that it was nationalism what made him interested in communism and used the pseudonym “Nguyen the patriot” when he lived in France.
Nationalism is not mutually exclusive from internationalism, in fact in the character of a national liberation struggle, nationalism is internationalism because it promotes the view that the people of any determinate place are capable of running their nation in contrast with the nationalism of the imperial core which promotes the view that these are inferior beings uncapable of doing so.
The problem is that the nationalism of the oppressed can very easily morph into the nationalism of the oppressors. Look at Poland, where pre-1918 nationalism was liberatory and post-1918 it seamlessly switched to oppressing ethnic minorities.