Why anti-national

22Jun10

A London event 1 July:

7pm, Conway Hall (Club Room) 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL

Critique of nationalism is nothing unheard of on the Left and among Marxists and Anarchists. However, for many radical critics of the nation, it is merely a smoke screen that distracts the working class from its own interests. We argue that this theory does not capture the essence of nationalism and fails to explain why it is so appealing to so many people. On the contrary, we will argue that the process of people (as citizens) learning to appreciate the nation-state is based on their private interests (as bourgeois) – and therefore how the material basis of a capitalist society invites people to make the national cause their personal cause. All this does not diminish the fact that nationalism is an ideology of fundamental sacrifice and that the abolishment of capitalism must not be international but anti-national. The reality of the nation calls for its abolishment not its acceptance.

This, we would like to discuss. All welcome.

PDF-Ausgabe

Junge Link (“against capital and nation), and its UK affiliate, the Wine and Cheese Society of Greater London, now have an English-language website, an English-language journal, Kittens, and are organising this event next week. This is the key article in the journal, Why anti-national.

[Via Contested Terrain]

Filed under: Anti-Deutsche, anti-nationalism, critique and theory   |  Leave a Comment