Anarchism, Reformism, and Struggles of National Liberation
Recently, a review of
Barricada in Green Anarchy (Barricada #3 in the Spring 2001 issue), while
generally positive, accused of falling "into the usual leftism trap of
rightly opposing nationalism, then in the next breathe supporting it."
While we of course do not agree, we do admit that our stance on nationalism and
struggles of national liberation has not been made clear and, as one person put
it, could be defined as "yes, but no, so maybe." This, combined with
our support of the struggles of the Basque and Catalan revolutionary separatist
movements have left many confused as to where the Barricada Collective stands
on this issue.
First of all, we would
like to make it perfectly clear that, as anti-statists, we are necessarily
opposed to all forms of nationalism and our objective is, quite simply, the
creation of a classless, stateless society. We are however, not only
anti-statists, but also, anti-imperialists. As such, we believe it the duty of
every anarchist to show solidarity with people struggling against imperialism
and the destruction of their culture by imperialist aggression and
expansionism. Therefore, we support, critically, struggles of national
liberation provided that they also maintain a revolutionary perspective. This
essentially means movements that wish not to replace a foreign set of rulers
and oppressors with a local one, but to rid themselves of all oppression and
exploitation, putting in their place a system based on equality and
co-operation, as is the case with the Basque and Catalan socialist movements
towards independence.
We believe that the
anarchist movement has long held a rather hypocritical stance towards movements
of national liberation. On one hand, we are willing to go out of our way to
build alliances and create a positive image among mild reformers who are
usually from relatively well-off backgrounds and are likely to abandon us and
return to their respectable comfort as soon as their particular reforms are achieved,
and who after all do not have all that much in common with. All this in the
hopes of radicalizing a few of them and pulling them over to anarchism.
However, when it comes to revolutionary movements of national liberation, which
are usually composed of firmer working class elements, are staunchly
anti-capitalist, have shown themselves to be uncompromising in their resistance
to oppression, and essentially have the same eventual goal in mind as
ourselves, anarchists tend to be wholly critical and unsupportive.
We believe this to be
unjustifiable as, while we should remain critical and urge revolutionary
separatists to reject nationalism all together and develop a more
internationalist outlook, we have a duty as anti-imperialists to support all
people struggling against oppression, both foreign and local, and to defend
their culture and identity, as nationalism is one thing, but culture and
identity are something wholly different.
Not only do we feel that
it is important to act in accordance with our anti-imperialist beliefs, but we
are also after all trying to build a larger movement. And, if we seek to build,
not only a larger movement, but a successful and militant larger movement that
refuses to allow itself to be watered down and pacified by reformism, then we
need to pick our allies carefully. This is not to imply that we should reject
working with reformists, as we shouldn’t, but by the same token, we should also
open ourselves to working with revolutionary movements of national liberation.
They are, after all, firmly entrenched on the same side of the barricade as we
are, used to uncompromising resistance, and likely to fight to the end. Can we
say the same about our reformist friends!?
- The Barricada Collective