Proletarian internationalism

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Proletarian internationalism is a Marxist social class theory whose concept is that members of the working class should act in solidarity towards working people in other countries on the basis of a common class interest, rather than following their respective national governments. Proletarian internationalism is summed up in the slogan, Workers of all countries, unite!, the last line of The Communist Manifesto. Early unionists learned that more members meant more power because by joining together the workers gained greater bargaining power. Thus, taken to an international level, it would further increase the power of the working class versus that of their bosses.

Proletarian internationalism also claims itself to be a deterrent against wars amongst nations, because people with a common interest are less likely to take up arms against one another, however they are more likely to do so against the ruling class that Marxists believe oppress workers. According to Marxist theory the antonym of proletarian internationalism is bourgeois nationalism.

In contrast, some have perceived social realities to be quite different from proletarian internationalism. For example, George Orwell believed that "in all countries the poor are more national than the rich." To this, Marxists might counter that while the rich may have historically had the awareness and education to recognize cross-national interest of class, the poor of those same nations likely have not had this advantage, and so have been fooled into "patriotism", failing to recognize that their own class interest exists and could be used to overthrow the ruling class order. ^[1] Marxists would also point out that in times of revolutionary struggle (the most evident being the revolutionary periods of 1848, 1871, 1916-1923, etc) internationalism within the proletariat can overtake petty nationalisms as the realities of similar (concentred) class struggles occur in multiple nations at the same time and the workers of those nations find they have more in common with other workers than with their own bourgeiosie.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] See also

• Marxism
• Communism
• Socialism in One Country
• Global Citizens Movement
• Socialist International

[edit] References and external links

• Internationalism and Nationalism by Liu Shaoqi
• Marxism and Nationalism by Tom Lewis
• The Importance of Ideas in Party Building Marry Scully discusses proletarian internationalism
• Without anti-capitalist theory and practice no anti-capitalist victory is possible Ernest Mandel discusses proletarian internationalism
• The Proletariat and War by the International Communist Current