What is Nationalism?

It's no secret that anarchists

don't like states.

In fact, we anarchists

are generally defined by our rejection of,

and opposition to state institutions,

such as governments, police, and prisons.

But while opposing these

physical manifestations of the state

is certainly an important part

of anarchist practice,

anarchist critiques of the state

go much further, and include

the underlying social relationships

and ideologies that have historically

been used to create states,

and to uphold their authority.

One of the most important

of these concepts is nationalism.

So what is it, exactly?

And what do anarchists have against it?

Well... basically

nationalism is a kind of social glue

that holds together people

of different ethnic, tribal, linguistic,

religious and cultural groupings

into a single defined population

linked to a specific geographic territory.

The problem with nationalism is not

necessarily that it it’s a glue -

there are plenty of examples

of organic nationalism, based on

shared culture, language and history,

and in fact, many anarchists have been

heavily influenced by,

and have even participated in

struggles motivated by nationalism,

such as the resistance waged

by Indigenous nations

against their colonial oppressors,

or the establishment, in 1929,

of the Shinmin Autonomous Zone

by Chinese, Korean and Japanese anarchists

fighting against Japanese imperialism.

The problem with nationalism lies in its

tendency to mask social contradictions

among a population,

thereby allowing for the reproduction

of hierarchies,

which in turn end up producing

a new state structure.

Which is another way of saying that

nationalism is a force

that groups people together in a way

that tends to maintain the division

of the human race into competing states.

In countries with strong

state institutions,

nationalism is more commonly referred to

as patriotism

and everyone is conditioned

from a young age to believe

that loving your country is one of the

most important, natural things you can do.

In school we are forced to stand

every morning for the national anthem

and taught a heavily sanitized version

of our nation's history.

We even celebrate its birthday every year.

...with fireworks, no less.

Because nationalism is so ingrained

into our lives, customs and beliefs,

many people would be surprised to learn

that it is a relatively new thing.

While some countries, such as China,

have existed as a more or less

unified territory for thousands of years,

others, such as Italy,

have been around for less than 150.

And lots of states are even younger

than that.

For most of human history

nation states simply did not exist.

Instead, the world was split up

into city-states, ruled by kingdoms

and empires, whose borders

were in a constant state of flux.

Back then, most people lived simple lives

as farmers, and had very little contact

with what we now understand as the state.

And because languages were mostly

passed on orally,

many different dialects flourished

and existed side by side.

Although nationalism emerged

in different parts of the world

at different times,

the development of the modern nation-state

is often associated with

the early development of capitalism

and European colonial expansion

beginning in the 16th century.

The race to plunder the world of its land

and resources kicked off

an intense competition between

kingdoms in Europe,

leading to the proliferation

and gradual consolidation of states

with clearly defined borders.

In the so-called “New World”, settlers

from a variety of European nations

forged new collective national identities

born of the shared experience

of racial domination over

Indigenous nations

and enslaved Africans.

During the mid-19th century

many states first began introducing

centralized education systems,

further facilitating nationalist

indoctrination, and helping to

eliminate remaining linguistic

and cultural differences.

In extreme cases

such as the Residential Schools system

in so-called Canada,

this practice amounted to

full fledged genocide.

Not content with their pillage

of the Americas,

European colonialists carved up Africa

and the former Ottoman Empire

into arbitrarily defined states,

which in turn produced

nationalist strong-men

who brutally massacred linguistic

and ethnic minorities, such as

the Armenians and the Kurds

in the Middle East.

Nationalism relies on grand, unifying

narratives to bind populations together

in pursuit of a common destiny.

Whether this assumes the form

of the individualistic pursuit

of the so-called American Dream,

or the Nazis' pursuit of the Third Reich;

whether the heavily militarized

ethno-religious protectionism of Israel,

or the totalitarian self-reliance

of North Korea's Juche,

nationalism provides

an ideological framework

for the manipulation and social control

of large groups of people.

It provides a sense of

collective belonging

and unity of purpose,

while simultaneously helping to justify

the massive application of state violence

towards perceived “others”.

Human history is awash in blood

justified in the name of nationalism,

from ethnic cleansing and genocide,

to aggressive wars

launched in defense of abstract,

emotion-laden concepts

such as freedom

or the glory of the fatherland.

Rather than limiting ourselves

to the narrow perspective of nationalism,

anarchists put forward

the competing concept of internationalism.

This flows from the realization that

borders and nations

are artificial constructs

meant to divide us

and that struggles for freedom and dignity

waged anywhere in the world

are deserving of our solidarity

and support.

That rather than fighting

and dying in wars for the sake

of the rich and powerful,

oppressed people should unite

to wage war against our common oppressors.

And finally, that for

humanity to reach its full potential

and come together to confront the problems

that we face as a species

...we require nothing less

than a global revolution.