Marxism, Zionism and the National Question
Constraints On The Creation of Nation States (4/5)
So, the abstract right of nations to self-determination, and the creation of an independent nation state is not at all the same thing as the inevitable creation of any such nation state, nor of Marxists support for any such endeavour. The only thing that Marxists are committed to, as part of seeking to achieve the greatest unity of workers, is the assertion of this abstract right, on behalf of oppressed nations, and the right of any nation that does seek to assert that right to do so unhindered by any other state. In particular, in a situation where one nation is in the position of oppressor of some other nation, it is the responsibility of socialists in the oppressor nation to assert that right for the workers in the oppressed nation.
“The Social-Democrats will always combat every attempt to influence national self-determination from without by violence or by any injustice. However, our unreserved recognition of the struggle for freedom of self-determination does not in any way commit us to supporting every demand for national self-determination.”
“People who have not gone into the question thoroughly think that it is “contradictory” for the Social-Democrats of oppressor nations to insist on the “freedom to secede”, while Social-Democrats of oppressed nations insist on the “freedom to integrate”. However, a little reflection will show that there is not, and cannot be, any other road to internationalism and the amalgamation of nations, any other road from the given situation to this goal.”
In fact, Lenin was so concerned that the demand for self-determination was being misunderstood, and misused by social chauvinists for whom it was code for “defence of the fatherland”, or of their existing borders, that, later, he proposed a different formulation that of “the right to free secession” which more accurately reflects its use as a demand aimed at the peoples of oppressed nations, by the socialists in oppressor nations.
“Instead of the word self-determination, which has given rise to numerous misinterpretations, I propose the perfectly precise concept: "the right to free secession"...
On the other hand, we do not at all favour secession. We want as vast a state, as close an alliance of the greatest possible number of nations who are neighbours of the Great Russians; we desire this in the interests of democracy and socialism, to attract into the struggle of the proletariat the greatest possible number of the working people of different nations. We desire proletarian revolutionary unity, unification, and not secession. We desire revolutionary unification...
But we want unification, and this must be stated; it is so important to state it in the programme of a party of a heterogeneous state that it is necessary to abandon custom and to incorporate a declaration. We want the republic of the Russian (I am even inclined to say Great-Russian, for this is more correct) people to attract other nations to it. But how? Not by violence, but solely by voluntary agreement. Otherwise the unity and the brotherly ties of the workers of all countries are broken. Unlike the bourgeois democrats, we call for the brotherhood of workers of all nationalities, and not the brotherhood of nations, for we do not trust the bourgeoisie of any country, we regard them as our enemies.”
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