Ber Borochov

“ All propaganda and every moment, which is rooted in the character of the conditions of production of a given society, is either national or nationalistic. Whenever it attempts to blunt the class and civic consciousness of the members of that society, and whenever it ignores the class structure and the antagonism between the interests of the classes, it is nationalistic. If, however, it does not obscure the class structure of the society, it is national. ”

“ Those who berate nationalism in general as something obsolete and reactionary, as a traditional thing, are remarkably shallow and ignorant. Nationalism is a product of the bourgeois society — it was born simultaneously with it, its reign is as old as that of the bourgeois society, and it must be reckoned with as much as any other phenomenon of bourgeois society. Speaking from the proletarian standpoint, we must therefore say that the proletariat is directly concerned with nationalism, with the national wealth, and with the territory. ”

“ When these groups have attained a high degree of development, have freed themselves from the narrow framework of traditionalism, then their nationalism accordingly acquires a pure and genuine character. The process of liberation is essentially not nationalistic, but national. And among the progressive elements of an oppressed nation there develops a genuine nationalism. It does not dream of preserving its traditions; it does not exaggerate their importance; it is not deluded by the sham of national unity; it has a clear comprehension of the class-character of society ”

“ In order not to awaken any dissatisfaction in the subordinated populace, they ferret out everything that has any semblance of national value and go to all extremes to preserve it, thus pulling the wool over the eyes of the populace. That also is why the big land owners are so sensitive about the national honor, and are so exaggeratedly finicky in a nationalistic sense. They are, so to say, the permanent powder-barrel of nationalism, and are always ready to explode on the slightest provocation. ”

“ Thus a social group which developed under the same conditions of production is commonly called a "people." And the same social group, which is united also through the consciousness of the kinship between its members, is commonly called a "nation." Thus, a people become a nation only on a higher plane of its development. When did peoples acquire their national character? We shall discuss this question later. For now, we shall confine ourselves to an explanation of the concept, "nationalism." ”

“ Of importance to us is this, that the middle-class and petty-bourgeoisie, though directly concerned with the protection of their domestic market, indirectly support the chauvinistic domestic and foreign policies of the land owners. This wretched type of nationalism plays no independent role; and when it loses its strong ally, the land owning class, it will completely die out. The more rapidly this propertied class becomes declassed, and its members are distributed among the proletariat and the great bourgeoisie, the quicker will this type of nationalism become extinct. ”

“ There developed among each people a national consciousness and the members of the nation became imbued with the feeling of kinship arising from their common historic past, or — to employ the materialistic terminology — from the common conditions of their system of production. The various peoples, who now desired to develop their national wealth, realized that such wealth indeed did exist, but that it was necessary to wrest it from the toils of reigning feudalism. ”

“ Man does not as an individual struggle with nature for existence. History knows man only as a unit in a social group. Since men do live socially, it follows that between them certain relations are developed. These relations arise because of production. Indeed, Marx terms them: relations of production.
"The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society — the real foundation, on which rise legal and political superstructures and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness." ”

“ Unemployment is not a very pleasant thing for him. Even Marx recognized the fact that there exists a degree of competition among workers for the place of work when he said, "The great industry masses together in a single place a crowd of people unknown to each other. Competition divides their interests... Thus competition has always a double end, that of eliminating competition among themselves while enabling them to make a general competition against the capitalist," (The Poverty of Philosophy) . ”

“ We know that the class struggle arises because of conditions of the various classes in the system of production are different. The position of one class may be better or worse, more advantageous or less so, than the position of a second class. The striving of the various groups within a given society to gain for themselves an already achieved position, or to retain for themselves an already achieved position, results in the class struggle. ”

“ They cannot explain why, on the one hand, the capitalistic system appears as international in scope and destroys all boundaries between tribes and peoples and uproots all traditions, while, on the other hand, it is itself instrumental in the intensification of the international struggle and heightens national self-consciousness. ”

“ On the other hand, a person who thinks nationally -- even when he recognizes the existence of a common character created in the environment of common conditions of production -- realizes nevertheless, first of all, that it is rather difficult to define this national character and the national-culture type, for they are too intangible; and secondly, that within every nationality the separate characteristics of each class appear much more acutely and can be more readily discerned. ”

“ Why do we consider England as something different than France, although both these societies have an identical capitalistic system of production? We may speak, and do speak of a relative distinctness of social groups only because there is a relative distinctiveness in the conditions of production under which each group must develop its life. Sometimes such a group is called a socio-economic organism. ”

“ On the one hand, Marx considers as a class every social group which differs from other groups in the same society as regards its participation in production or in its relation to the means of production. It is in this sense that Marx and Engels stated that the history of humanity is the history of class struggles. ”

“ From out of the midst of feudal economy capitalism evolved. By reason of this development, there arose within the production-life a two-fold material socio-economic contradiction. On the one hand, the productive forces, by reason of their higher stage of development, ceased to be adapted to the antiquated feudal relations of production. On the other hand, the productive forces -- which were passing through the processes of capitalist development -- were no longer adapted to the antiquated system of conditions of production. ”

“ Apart from the fact that the separate interests of each particular class are adversely affected by this external pressure; apart from the fact that the bourgeoisie suffers from a lack of markets, and that the proletariat lacks the freedom to control completely his work-place, -- this pressure is also felt by all the individuals of the nation. All feel and all comprehend that the pressure is a national one ”

“ In domestic politics, they are liberal, frequently even radical, and they maintain the same position in international politics, they are liberal, frequently even radical, and they maintain the same position in international politics. And yet, they do love the "native" more than the "alien"; somehow, the traditions of their own culture are dearer to their hearts. They are not nationalistically "snobbish" but they feel that they must protect their national prestige.
The more intellectually developed and progressive elements do not even deny the class structure of society. ”

“ If we take into consideration the fact that humanity is divided into groups of production, then we will understand that the inherent striving of capital to expand must result in friction between these relatively distinct groups. One aspect of the above-mentioned contradiction is the cause, the other is the effect. This is one of the many contradictions with which modern society is burdened. ”

“ Naturally then, not all groups in the society are in a position of power. The State regime is intimately associated with some one class. As far as possible, however, the State strives to gain the confidence of the whole population, irrespective of class. In order to exert its influence the state pretends to steer a middle course between all classes. It is possible for it to maintain such a position, however, only when it can raise some issue which rises above all antagonisms within the social organism. This issue is nationalism. ”

“ The ideologists of this class employ the same phraseology as the land owners. Incidentally, they also have another similarity to the latter; they occupy the middle position between the two main classes of society; and they, too, pretend to stand above the class struggle.
In reality they fear every social upheaval, for it might signify their death warrant. They sanctify orderliness, and mortally fear revolution. They cling fast to whatever property is still in their possession, and tremble lest that too be wrested from them. ”

“ They assume the guise of cultural crusaders, crush the language of the nation which they desire to assimilate, and strangle its education. The middle-class is always the readiest partner of the land owners in this noble task, for the former presumes to be the devoted "knights" of the "cultural crusade." ”

“ The above is true as regards free nations which oppress no one and are not themselves oppressed, i.e., nations which live under normal conditions of production. With them the feeling and consciousness of kinship has become a tradition, an historic reminiscence. And life itself has helped to further this condition. The material conditions of life, which gave rise to class antagonisms, have pushed aside this tradition and prevented it from exerting any social influence. ”