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Chapter
XV
The National Question
Marxist Understanding Regarding Early Nationality Movements
Leninist Linking of the
National and Colonial Question
National Liberation Struggles
Marxist Understanding Regarding
Early Nationality Movements
The earliest
national movements arose in Western Europe. The bourgeoisie in their
fight against the old unstable feudal monarchies, set up modern
independent states which were in most cases single-nation states : that
is to say, each country was occupied by a single people speaking a
common language. Lenin explained the material basis of these movements:
"Throughout
the world, the period of the final victory of capitalism over feudalism
has been linked up with national movements. For the complete victory of
commodity production, the bourgeoisie must capture the home market, and
there must be politically united territories whose population speak a
single language, with all obstacles to the development of that language
and to its consolidation in literature eliminated. Therein is the
economic foundation of national movements. Language is the most
important means of human intercourse. Unity and unimpeded development of
language are the most important conditions for genuinely free and
extensive commerce on a scale commensurate with modern capitalism, for a
free and broad grouping of the population in all its various classes
and, lastly, for the establishment of a close connection between the
market and each and every proprietor, big or little, and between seller
and buyer.
"Therefore,
the tendency of every national movement is towards the formation of
national states, under which these conditions of modern capitalism are
best satisfied." 178
In the whole
of Western Europe, only on the British Isles, was there a national
minority large enough to give rise to a struggle for independence. The
English failed to consolidate their conquest of Ireland, and during the
eighteenth century there arose an Irish national movement. Marx and
Engels lived in this period, when the national movements of East Europe
were yet to emerge, and the upsurge of struggles against imperialism
were yet to become a reality. They thus did not devote much attention to
developing Marxist theory on the national question. Marx however
formulated the basic stand in relation to the Irish Question by calling
on the English proletariat to support the national struggle of the Irish
people and oppose its national oppression. Marx and Engels took the
position that, the liberation of Ireland was a condition for the victory
of the English working class. A resolution of the First International
drafted by Marx said "A people which enslaves others forges its own
chains" 179
The next
phases of nationality movements came in Eastern Europe, with the spread
of capitalism, and the weakening of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian
empires. It was during this period that Stalin, in 1913, made the first
systematic Marxist presentation on the national question. He defined a
nation as "a historically evolved, stable community of people, based
upon the common possession of four principal attributes, namely : a
common language, a common territory, a common economic life, and a
common psychological make-up manifesting itself in common specific
features of national culture." 180
Further he saw a nation as "not merely a historical category but a
historical category belonging to a definite epoch, the epoch of rising
capitalism." 181 Stalin
concentrated his analysis on the multinational states of Eastern Europe
which were then experiencing a growth of capitalist relations. Further
since Marxism had at that time not yet made a complete analysis of
imperialism, his analysis could not sufficiently explain the national
question of the colonies and semi-colonies. Colonies do not qualify as
nations under Stalin’s definition. Colonies and semi-colonies did not
really possess an integrated economy given their dependent economic
status. And equally inapplicable was the concept of ‘rising capitalism’
to the position of these societies.
Leninist Linking of the National and
Colonial Question
The
development of a theory which does apply to colonies and semi-colonies
was begun by Lenin only two years after the publication of Stalin’s
article. It was with the development of the theory of imperialism that
this came about. Thus, in the words of Stalin:
"Leninism
laid bare this crying incongruity, broke down the wall between whites
and blacks, between Europeans and Asians, between the ‘civilized’ and
‘uncivilized’ slaves of imperialism, and thus linked the national
question with the question of the colonies. The national question was
thereby transformed from a particular and internal state problem into a
general and international problem, into a world problem of the
liberation of the oppressed peoples in the dependent countries and
colonies from the yoke of imperialism." 182
Lenin
explained the situation regarding the self-determination of nations and
the tasks of the proletariat in the face of different situations in
different countries. He divided the countries of the world into "three
main types:
"First, the
advanced capitalist countries of Western Europe and the United States of
America. In these countries the bourgeois, progressive, national
movements came to an end long ago. Every one of these ‘great’ nations
oppresses other nations in the colonies and within its own country. The
tasks of the proletariat of these ruling nations are the same as those
of the proletariat in England in the nineteenth century in relation to
Ireland.
"Secondly,
Eastern Europe: Austria, the Balkans and particularly Russia. Here it
was the twentieth century that particularly developed the
bourgeois-democratic national movements and intensified the national
struggle. The tasks of the proletariat in these countries — in regard to
the consummation of their bourgeois-democratic reformation, as well as
in regard to assisting the socialist revolution in other countries —
cannot be achieved unless it champions the right of nations to
self-determination. In this connection the most difficult but most
important task is to merge the class struggle of the workers in the
oppressing nations with the class struggle of the workers in the
oppressed nations.
"Thirdly, the
semi-colonial countries, like China, Persia, Turkey, and all the
colonies, which have a combined population amounting to a billion. In
these countries the bourgeois-democratic movements have either hardly
begun, or are far from having been completed. Socialists must not only
demand the unconditional and immediate liberation of the colonies
without compensation — and this demand in its political expression
signifies nothing more nor less than the recognition of the right to
self-determination — but must render determined support to the more
revolutionary elements in the bourgeois-democratic movements for
national liberation in these countries and assist their rebellion-and if
need be, their revolutionary war against the imperialist powers that
oppress them." 183
This thesis
thus summarised the stand of the revolutionaries as unequivocal
advocation to the right of self-determination and total support to the
struggle for national liberation. To the criticism that the proletariat
is internationalist and favours the merger of nations, Lenin explained
the material basis and the proletariat’s standpoint.
Thus Lenin
pointed out, "Developing capitalism knows two historical tendencies in
the national question. The first is the awakening of national life and
national movements, the struggle against all national oppression, and
the creation of national states. The second is the development and
growing frequency of international intercourse in every form, the
break-down of national barriers, the creation of the international unity
of capital, of economic life in general, of politics, science, etc.
"Both
tendencies are a universal law of capitalism. The former predominates in
the beginning of its development, the latter characterises a mature
capitalism that is moving towards its transformation into socialist
society. The Marxists’ national programme takes both tendencies into
account, and advocates firstly, the equality of nations and languages
and the impermissibility of all privileges in this respect (and also the
right of nations to self-determination, ...); secondly, the principle of
internationalism and uncompromising struggle against contamination of
the proletariat with bourgeois nationalism, even of the most refined
kind." 184
Thus, Lenin
says, "The aim of socialism is not only to abolish the present division
of mankind into small states and all national isolation; not only to
bring the nations closer to each other, but also to merge them." 185
This merger of nations cannot however be achieved by the forced merger
of nations; it can only be achieved by them achieving full freedom and
merging in a voluntary union. Thus, "Just as mankind can achieve the
abolition of classes only by passing through the transition period of
the dictatorship of the oppressed class, so mankind can achieve the
inevitable merging of nations only by passing through the transition
period of complete liberation of all the oppressed nations, i.e., their
freedom to secede." 185
This applied
all the more to the proletarian state. That is why when Lenin presented
the Revision of the Party Programme in October 1917, he insisted, "We
want free unification; that is why we must recognise the right to
secede. Without freedom to secede, unification cannot be called free."
186
National Liberation Struggle
On the basis
of the Leninist understanding of the National Question, it is clear that
in the colonies and semi-colonies, it is imperialism that generates
nationalism. "In colonial and semi-colonial nations there is no epoch of
rising capitalism, i.e., no epoch dominated by a rising domestic
bourgeoisie. Domination is exercised by foreign monopolists and the big
bourgeoisie which is depending upon it, i.e., the bourgeoisie is
comprador in nature.
"Under these
circumstances, the nation is not the outcome of a struggle waged
primarily by a rising bourgeoisie against the fetters of feudalism. It
is the outcome mainly of an anti-imperialist struggle waged by all the
oppressed classes, primarily of the toiling masses. In order to achieve
victory in this struggle, the establishment of the hegemony of the
working class is a historical necessity.
"Thus
colonial nationalism and the national liberation struggle would lead not
to a form of ‘mature capitalism’ but to socialism. Therefore, it is not
a part of the old bourgeois democratic revolution, but of the new
democratic revolution, the essence of which is agrarian revolution."
187
These
national liberation struggles and democratic revolutions of the new type
have become the main trend in the period after Lenin. Drawing attention
to this trend Mao says, "A weak nation can defeat a strong, a small
nation can defeat a big. The people of a small country can certainly
defeat oppression by a big country, if only they dare to rise in
struggle, dare to take up arms, and grasp in their own hands the destiny
of their country. This is a law of history." 188
Another
aspect of this trend is the growing to life and the upsurge of the
national liberation struggles of the nations within the multi-national
states formed in the semi-colonies. "After Lenin, particularly from the
second world war period, two important things have taken place in the
colonial and semi-colonial countries. First is that the national
movement has become a thing of the present, the second is theat many of
the colonial countries, instead of becoming free democracies, were
changed into states wholly dependent upon the imperialists economically,
financially and militarily, under the guise of politically dependent
states. When we say that national movement has become a thing of the
present, we mean that national formation have taken place in backward
multinational colonies and semi-colonial countries. Since these colonial
countries were changed into semi-colonial countries, the newly emerged
nations are not only subjected to the domination of the ruling big
bourgeois national chauvinists of their own countries who control their
central governments. Therefore, the newly emerged oppressed nations of
the multinational semi-colonial countries are suffering under double
yoke. Hence, along with the task of liberating the country from
imperialists the task of fighting for the right to self-determination of
these oppressed nations of these countries also comes to the forefront."
187
How the
proletariat in these countries and nations grasps the national question,
according to Marxist principles, and how it implements this
understanding, is of crucial importance to the success of revolution not
only in these countries but also to the progress of world socialist
revolution. |
