Editing Left-wing politics (section)

=== Nationalism, anti-imperialism and anti-nationalism ===
{{see also|Anarchism and nationalism|Anti-imperialism|Internationalism (politics)|Left-wing nationalism|Proletarian internationalism|Anti-Stalinist left}}
The question of [[nationality]], [[imperialism]] and [[nationalism]] has been a central feature of political debates on the Left. During the French Revolution, nationalism was a key policy of the Republican Left.<ref>{{cite book|author-last1=Doyle |author-first1=William |title=The Oxford History of the French Revolution |date=2002 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-925298-5 |edition=2nd |quote="An exuberant, uncompromising nationalism lay behind France's revolutionary expansion in the 1790s...", "The message of the French Revolution was that the people are sovereign; and in the two centuries since it was first proclaimed, it has conquered the world." |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistoryoff00doyl}}</ref> The Republican Left advocated for [[civic nationalism]]<ref name="Knapp" /> and argued that the nation is a "daily plebiscite" formed by the subjective "will to live together". Related to [[revanchism]], the belligerent will to take revenge against Germany and retake control of [[Alsace-Lorraine]], nationalism was sometimes opposed to [[imperialism]]. In the 1880s, there was a debate between leftists such as the [[Radical Party (France)|Radical]] [[Georges Clemenceau]], the [[French Section of the Workers' International|Socialist]] [[Jean Jaurès]] and the nationalist [[Maurice Barrès]], who argued that colonialism diverted France from liberating the "blue line of the [[Vosges]]", in reference to Alsace-Lorraine; and the "[[French colonial empire|colonial lobby]]" such as [[Jules Ferry]] of the [[Moderate Republicans (France, 1871–1901)|Moderate Republicans]], [[Léon Gambetta]] of the [[Republican Union (France)|Republicans]] and [[Eugène Etienne]], the president of the Parliamentary Colonial Group. After the [[antisemitic]] [[Dreyfus Affair]] in which officer [[Alfred Dreyfus]] was falsely convicted of sedition and exiled to a penal colony in 1894 before being exonerated in 1906, nationalism in the form of [[Boulangism]] increasingly became associated with the far-right.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Winock |author-first=Michel |author-link=Michel Winock |title=Histoire de l'extrême droite en France |language=fr |trans-title=History of the extreme right in France |date=1993}}</ref>

The [[Marxist]] [[social class]] theory of [[proletarian internationalism]] asserts that members of the [[working class]] should act in solidarity with working people in other countries in pursuit of a common [[class interest]], rather than only focusing on their own countries. Proletarian internationalism is summed up in the slogan: "[[Workers of the world, unite!]]", the last line of ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]''. Union members had learned that more members meant more bargaining power. Taken to an international level, leftists argued that workers should act in solidarity with the international proletariat in order to further increase the power of the working class. Proletarian internationalism saw itself as a deterrent against war and international conflicts, because people with a common interest are less likely to take up arms against one another, instead focusing on fighting the [[bourgeoisie]] as the [[ruling class]]. According to Marxist theory, the [[antonym]] of proletarian internationalism is [[bourgeois nationalism]]. Some Marxists, together with others on the left, view [[nationalism]],<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Szporluk |author-first=Roman |title=Communism and Nationalism |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1991}}</ref> [[racism]]<ref>{{cite journal |author-first1=John |author-last1=Solomos |author-first2=Les |author-last2=Back |title=Marxism, Racism, and Ethnicity |journal=American Behavioral Scientist |year=1995 |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=407–420 |doi=10.1177/0002764295038003004 |url=http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/pub/eres/SOC217_PIMENTEL/solomos.pdf |citeseerx=10.1.1.602.5843 |s2cid=39984567 |access-date=25 October 2017 |archive-date=10 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810135237/http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/pub/eres/SOC217_PIMENTEL/solomos.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> (including antisemitism)<ref>{{cite web |author-last=Lenin |author-first=Vladimir |author-link=Vladimir Lenin |title=Anti-Jewish Pogroms |work=Speeches On Gramophone Records |year=1919 |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/mar/x10.htm |access-date=29 April 2009 |archive-date=19 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200319172258/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/mar/x10.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[religion]] as [[Divide and rule|divide and conquer]] tactics used by the ruling classes to prevent the [[working class]] from uniting against them in solidarity with one another. Left-wing movements have often taken up anti-imperialist positions. Anarchism has developed a critique of nationalism that focuses on nationalism's role in justifying and consolidating state power and domination. Through its unifying goal, nationalism strives for [[centralisation]] (both in specific territories and in a ruling elite of individuals) while it prepares a population for capitalist exploitation. Within anarchism, this subject has been extensively discussed by [[Rudolf Rocker]] in his book titled ''[[Nationalism and Culture]]'' and by the works of [[Fredy Perlman]] such as ''[[Against His-Story, Against Leviathan]]'' and ''The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism''.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism|first=Fredy|last=Perlman|location=Detroit|publisher=Black & Red|year=1985|isbn=978-0317295580}}</ref>

The failure of revolutions in [[German Revolution|Germany]] and [[Hungarian Soviet Republic|Hungary]] in the 1918–1920 years ended [[Bolshevik]] hopes for an imminent [[world revolution]] and led to the promotion of the doctrine of [[socialism in one country]] by [[Joseph Stalin]]. In the first edition of his book titled ''Osnovy Leninizma'' (''Foundations of Leninism'', 1924), Stalin argued that revolution in one country is insufficient. By the end of that year in the second edition of the book, he argued that the "[[proletariat]] can and must build the socialist society in one country". In April 1925, [[Nikolai Bukharin]] elaborated on the issue in his brochure titled ''Can We Build Socialism in One Country in the Absence of the Victory of the West-European Proletariat?'', whose position was adopted as state policy after Stalin's January 1926 article titled ''On the Issues of Leninism'' (К вопросам ленинизма) was published. This idea was opposed by [[Leon Trotsky]] and his supporters, who declared the need for an international "[[permanent revolution]]" and condemned Stalin for betraying the goals and ideals of the socialist revolution. Various [[Fourth International]]ist groups around the world who describe themselves as [[Trotskyist]] see themselves as standing in this tradition while [[Maoist China]] formally supported the theory of socialism in one country.

European social democrats strongly support [[Europeanism]] and [[Supranational union|supranational]] integration within the [[European Union]], although there is a minority of nationalists and [[Eurosceptics]] on the left. Several scholars have linked this form of left-wing nationalism to the pressure generated by economic integration with other countries, often encouraged by [[neoliberal]] [[free trade]] agreements. This view is sometimes used to justify hostility towards supranational organizations. Left-wing nationalism can also refer to any form of nationalism which emphasizes a leftist working-class [[populism|populist]] agenda that seeks to overcome exploitation or oppression by other nations. Many Third World [[Decolonization|anti-colonialist movements]] have adopted leftist and socialist ideas. [[Third-Worldism]] is a tendency within leftist thought that regards the division between [[First World]] and [[Second World]] [[developed country|developed countries]] and [[Third World]] [[developing countries]] as being of high political importance. This tendency supports [[decolonization]] and [[national liberation movements]] against imperialism by capitalists. Third-Worldism is closely connected with [[African socialism]], [[Latin American socialism]], [[Maoism]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://anti-imperialism.org/2012/11/02/what-is-maoism-third-worldism/ |title=What is Maioism-Third Worldism? |publisher=Anti-Imperialism.org |date=2 November 2011 |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=16 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016070235/https://anti-imperialism.org/2012/11/02/what-is-maoism-third-worldism/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{third-party-inline|date=November 2012}} [[pan-Africanism]] and [[pan-Arabism]]. Several left-wing groups in the developing world such as the [[Zapatista Army of National Liberation]] in Mexico, the [[Abahlali baseMjondolo]] in [[South Africa]] and the [[Naxalites]] in India have argued that the First World and the Second World Left takes a racist and paternalistic attitude towards liberation movements in the Third World.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}}