Communists and the National Question
In
this third and last articles we want to examine the most crucial testing time
for the revolutionary movement: the historic events between the seizure of
power by the Russian workers in 1917 and the Second Congress of the Communist
International in 1920; from the first optimistic step towards the destruction
of capitalism to the first signs of defeat of the workers’ struggles and the
degeneration of the movement in Russia. 29-Dec-2005 In the first article in this series in International
Review 34, we examined the attitude of communists to the national question
on the eve of capitalism’s decadent epoch, and in particular the debate between
Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg on whether the working class should support ‘the right
of nations to self determination’. We concluded that even when some national
liberation struggles could still be considered progressive vis a vis the
interests of the working class, such a slogan had to be rejected. 29-Dec-2005 “Workers of countries, unite.” This call at the
end of the Communist Manifesto written by Marx and Engels in 1848 was not just
an exuberant exhortation; it expressed one of the most vital conditions for the
victory of the working class. From its very birth the movement of the working
class proclaimed its international class character against the national
boundaries which marked the development of the domination of the capitalist
class over the proletariat. 29-Dec-2005
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