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Title: National Liberation & Anarchism Author: Saint Andrew Date: May 19, 2021 Language: en Topics: national liberation, nationalism, black nationalism, kurds, Palestine, Breadtube Source: Retrieved on June 8, 2021 from https://youtu.be/v67_1czmyCI
The world today is rife with conflict, as a multiplicity of struggles
are waged in the broader fight for freedom. At this point, it’s pretty
blatantly clear that there are more wars than just the class war. Truth
is, there always have been, despite the dogmatic assertions of some
class reductionists. We must be intersectional, struggling also against
the patriarchy, white supremacy, ecological destruction, and much, much
more, as liberation cannot be fought in relation to the class war alone.
Today, I hope to clarify what I believe is the most reasonable position
on one such struggle against domination. I hope to answer the question
of national liberation and how we should navigate it as committed
internationalists in a world rife with national oppressions.
I’m using the term nation throughout this video to refer, not to a
nation state, country, or political constitution, but to an imagined
community of people formed on the basis of a common language, history,
ancestry, society, or culture, who are conscious of their autonomy. I’m
using it as a synonym for ethnic group, basically. Therefore a nation is
not geographically bound, like the popular Western conception of a
nation. Diasporas are, in fact, fairly common. Some nations are united
under a banner of nations, such as in the case of Pan-Africanism, which
seeks to unite the thousands of ethnic groups on the continent and in
the diaspora.
Nations are often the target of suppression, subjugation, and erasure.
African peoples were stolen from the continent and thoroughly stripped
of their languages, histories, and cultures, and continue to be
oppressed throughout the so-called new world. Indigenous nations across
the world also continue to be denied their autonomy as minorities within
a domineering state. Armenians were systematically murdered under the
Ottomans, the Kurds are divided and suppressed across four countries,
and Palestinians continue to be colonized by the Israeli state. Hawaii
and Puerto Rico remain occupied by the US empire, while Tibetans and
Uyghurs remain dominated by the Chinese state. I really could go on and
on. Across the world, struggles have been and are being fought by
nations for their liberation.
The national liberation struggle is a struggle against the relationship
of exploitation and domination inflicted upon a nation. It’s a struggle
against the domination of one people by another, often centered on
questions of language, culture, welfare, equality, and land. It’s not
something we can just stand by neutrally and ignore. Ignoring national
liberation struggles would mean siding with national oppression.
And don’t try to squeeze them all into one box. National liberation
struggles are diverse. Within them, there usually many tendencies at
play, from the most reactionary to the most revolutionary. Thus, within
the struggle for national liberation, there are other ongoing struggles,
including class struggle. While the oppressed classes cling to national
liberation struggle in an effort to defend against foreign subjugation
and exploitation, the capitalist class uses the struggle for national
liberation to consolidate power and monopolize the exploitation of the
working class.
Which brings me, inevitably, to nationalism.
Nationalism is one of the programs that has been proposed as the
solution to national liberation struggles. It hasn’t been the only
program, mind you, and it’s not synonymous with national liberation, but
it has been one of the most popular. Terminology can be easily muddled
here, as nationalism has referred to ideologies of both oppressor
nations and oppressed nations. There is a vast chasm between the violent
supremacy and colonialism of white nationalism or Zionism and the
self-determination movements of Black nationalism or Palestinian
nationalism. Let’s not get it twisted.
The program of nationalism, specifically among oppressed nations, has
generally seen the oppressed nation as a united bloc, ignoring class,
gender, religion, and other divisions, in favour of the development of
an independent state, which is usually some form of capitalist, either
state capitalist, welfare capitalist, or neoliberal capitalist.
Nationalism is often weaponized and promoted by the ruling class in
order to unite the oppressed classes with domestic oppressors, replacing
foreign capitalists with local capitalists, foreign generals with local
generals, and foreign government officials, with local officials. In a
word, to conceal the importance of class struggle.
Nationalism has repeatedly failed to solve poverty, oppression,
exploitation, and suffering. While many states have become formally
independent from their colonial masters thanks to nationalist movements,
neocolonialism perseveres. Yet the continuation of national oppression
often results in the revival of nationalism as opposed to an exploration
of other options. For example, the Middle East has been severely
subjugated by Western imperialists, even post-independence, but proposed
solutions have included reactionary, authoritarian Ba’athism and Salafi
jihadism, which aims for a global caliphate.
Hence why nationalism is usually criticized and opposed by anarchists.
Again, there’s a difference between nationalism and national liberation.
But in that criticism of nationalism, some anarchists, while recognizing
that there are class divisions within a nation, have ignored national
divisions within a class in favour of some ideal united working class.
The truth is that the oppressed classes of some nations have benefited
from the domination of the oppressed classes in other nations. Don’t do
the class reductionism thing nah.
Obviously nations that have had constant war waged against them for
centuries tend to turn to nationalism for their national liberation.
Forgive them for not thinking about the global working class when
they’re literally under assault for their national identity. When you’re
fighting colonial administrators and foreign armies, you not exactly
studying class war. Which is why, historically, national liberation
struggles, using nationalism, have ignored class divisions among the
oppressed nation. But not always. Let’s look at two examples, one flying
under the banner of nationalism and one rejecting it entirely:
revolutionary Black nationalism and the Kurdish national liberation
movement.
Black nationalism is a very diverse political movement, with several
currents and opposing perspectives within it, but a common thread
throughout: resistance to the domination of the white supremacist system
and the assertion of Black sovereignty. It’s a recognition that we have
to free ourselves, without waiting for permission. A recognition that we
have to protect ourselves from the continued assault of the empire. A
recognition that we can be proud of and love our bodies, our minds, and
our heritage. A rejection of eurocentrism. Some manifestations of Black
nationalism have been reactionary, capitalistic, homophobic, and
patriarchal. Others have stood in stark opposition to those currents. In
particular, revolutionary Black nationalism, which, unlike some forms of
Black nationalism, stands in opposition to all forms of oppression,
including imperialism, white supremacy, and capitalism. In my view, as
many Black anarchists have noted, revolutionary Black nationalism has a
place in the struggle, in conjunction with the struggle against
patriarchy, capitalism, and the state, as we aim to prefigure a world
free of all forms of domination.
The Kurdish national liberation struggle is a deeply fractured movement
with many groups and approaches, each proposing different solutions.
After hundreds of years of oppression under the Ottoman Empire, the
Kurds were divided into four states: Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. But
the existence of those independent states did not solve the Kurdish
national question: they have remained an oppressed minority. They are
commonly seen as the largest nation without a state.
In the 1990s, one of the Kurdish national liberation groups, the PKK,
broke with Marxism-Leninism and Kurdish nationalism in pursuit of
democratic confederalism, which developed out of communalism and
anarchism. The PKK now stands in opposition to capitalism, feudalism,
imperialism, and statism, favouring a “democratic system of a people
without a State,” that “takes its power from the people and adapts to
reach self-sufficiency in every field.” The PKK still maintains
independence as the ultimate goal, but through society-building rather
than state-building. They have established the Autonomous Administration
of North and East Syria, which was called Rojava up until 2016, when the
Kurdish word was dropped to promote multiethnic unity.
So, we have our critiques of how nationalism tends to manifest, and we
know it’s not the only way. We’ve seen how the PKK has fought for
Kurdish national liberation while opposing the state and capitalism and
we’ve seen how revolutionary Black nationalism, despite its name,
incorporates a fight against capitalism, and sometimes the state. We
recognize the importance of national liberation, but how do we support
such struggles while staying true to our principles?
While the nationalism of oppressed nations has often manifested with
close ties to capitalist and statist domination, national liberation
against domination is a stance that any true internationalist should
hold. A true internationalist is one who recognizes that human unity can
only be achieved through mutual respect, solidarity, and alliance among
all peoples. Part of the international revolution must involve
participation in national struggle for self determination and human
dignity against imperialist domination.
If we oppose male supremacy, which is the patriarchy, we must support
women’s fight against it. This doesn’t mean blindly supporting bourgeois
liberal girl boss feminism. It means listening, learning from, and
collaboratively developing the revolutionary anarcha-feminist project to
liberate all women from patriarchal domination. If workers decide to
form a union, in many cases the existing union is pro-capitalist and
hierarchical. Nevertheless, we stand with the workers against the
bosses, even as we try to convince them of the need for union democracy,
militancy, and opposition to bureaucracy, in order to liberate them from
class domination.
The price of solidarity could never be subservience. Solidarity is not a
reward for compliance. Solidarity is a discourse between peoples about
how we determine our own freedom. So while we may disagree with the
development of states, people are free to make mistakes and learn from
them. Of course, we can fairly critique statist elements within these
movements. After all, as we’ve seen again and again, independent states
remain dominated by global powers and corporations. Independent states
remain tools for local capitalists to exploit their own people. Please
remember, our aim is definitely not to stand in support with the
leaders. Just to make that clear, because the most common
anti-imperialism I’ve been seeing these days has been so vulgar.
Anti-imperialism is more than anti-Americanism and it definitely isn’t
supporting leaders and parties, who often have imperialist ambitions
themselves yet claim to be anti-imperialist. Anti-imperialism is not
about denying genocide, it is not about ignoring the internally
oppressed minorities within oppressed countries, and it definitely is
not about conflating the state with the people. You have to have
principles. You have to be able to engage in the complexity and
contradictions of national liberation struggles, offering critique where
needs be, and resisting reactionary, capitalist, patriarchal, and
statist elements where they manifest. Our aim is to support the
oppressed masses in their fight for autonomy while engaging in the
dialogue of solidarity.
Never treat the people you stand in solidarity with as a monolith and
don’t trust people who claim to speak for them as though they’re a hive
mind either. Majority approval doesn’t make something right. There is
always disagreement within national liberation movements, and you can
elevate those whose visions are close to your own. We can participate in
and support these struggles while helping our comrades within them to
shape them in a more revolutionary, libertarian, socialist direction.
There are always voices willing to stand against class oppression and
authoritarianism, even if they don’t call themselves anarchists.
So...how do we engage in national liberation struggles? Circumstances
vary. These struggles are often taking place in other parts of the
world, quite far from our reach. But reach out nonetheless. To
organizations and comrades on the ground, involved in the fight. Start a
dialogue with them, and find out how you can support them. Listen more
than you speak.
Peace.