the profits of US monopolies and
to weaken the rival powers.
Without doubt the ultra-
nationalist and fiercely counter-
revolutionary politics of Trump
favour the spread of this poison in
other countries.
In Germany the party of the
extreme right, nationalist and
fascist, the AFD (Alternative For
Germany), is now the third largest
parliamentary party.
In Italy the nationalist beast,
which sees its most violent
expression in the fascist groups, is
again raising its head with
demagogic arguments against
immigrants and the “national
humiliation”.
In social-imperialist China too,
great-State chauvinism has
become so aggressive that the
revisionist CPC (which has always
revealed openly nationalist
positions internally) is having
difficulty controlling that trend, after
having favoured it for decades,
especially in school-programs, in
which millions of children daily
receive massive doses of patriotic
education in order to undo the
humiliation of foreign occupation
and to exalt the Han nationality.
Vladimir Putin is also a
nationalist; he is championing a
Russia characterized by a mix of
Slavic tradition and orthodox
Christianity.
The nature and aims of
bourgeois nationalism
Bourgeois nationalism is an
aggressive policy of the ruling
class in the sphere of the internal
relations of their national States
and towards other nations that has
its basis in the exploitation of the
working class, the rivalry between
capitalists and the subjugation of
oppressed countries.
The development of bourgeois
nationalism has many definite
manifestations and consequences
in the field of the home and foreign
policy of the imperialist and
capitalist countries.
April, May - 2019
First, it is a tool in the hands
of the exploiting and reactionary
classes to divide and corrupt the
working class, prevent its union to
demolish capitalism, undermine the
solidarity of the workers and the
peoples with lethal prejudices.
Second, it is a means for the
preservation and strengthening of
capitalism and the bourgeois
dictatorship, where a small handful
of profit-makers rules society and
uses the State machine to crush
the working people.
Third, bourgeois nationalism
creates a sharper international
situation and increases the danger
of new armed conflicts between
imperialist and capitalist powers. It
is one of the deadliest weapons in
the hands of the most reactionary,
chauvinist and warmongering
elements of financial capital, it
represents their interests, to
advance their policy of war against
the workers and peoples.
This political ideology, under
whatever mask it hides, from the
demagogy of national honour to
the respect of the “rights” of the
stronger nations, is always
connected to the robber’s war of
imperialism. It is a direct impulse to
militarism, to rearmament, to
neocolonialism, to annexations, to
the affirmation of the supremacy of
the stronger nations; therefore it is
a powerful motivator for oppression
and genocide against other
peoples. It is an integral part of the
preparation of the masses for a war
aiming at a new division of the
world and to prevent the develop-
ment of a large anti-imperialist
movement.
Today, just as yesterday,
bourgeois chauvinism is a
dangerous menace to the working
class and the oppressed peoples.
In a situation of worsening
inter-imperialist contradictions, the
bourgeoisie of the ruling powers
regards the “defence of the
national interests” as the pretext for
conducting a criminal policy of
oppression and exploitation of its
own peoples, and of despoliation
and enslavement of other peoples.
Therefore, the chauvinism of the
imperialist and capitalist countries,
the spur to organize the class
around national institutions and the
“fatherland” of the exploiters, will be
increasingly the fundamental
nucleus of any bourgeois policy.
Some characteristics of the
present bourgeois nationalism
Although bourgeois nationa-
lism is a phenomenon that has
different conditions and takes
specific forms in various countries,
reflecting the positions of the
reactionary classes, their interests,
the traditions and tactics in the
struggles against their enemies
inside and outside, etc., it is still
possible to point out, especially in
the imperialist and capitalist
countries governed by reactionary,
populist and militarist parties, some
common elements of this tendency.
• A
growing
economic
protectionism and commercial
obstructionism
(duties,
protective
rules,
state
intervention, etc.), to control
the means of production, help
the national enterprises and
prevent the penetration of
other States into the internal
market, in the conditions of a
constriction of world trade and
in the conditions of a merciless
competition
among
international monopolies and
imperialist countries.
• The recovery of the national
“greatness” and sovereignty
against the “globalization of
the markets”, the hostility
towards the supranational
institutions of financial capital
that limit or remove powers,
resources and spaces for the
dominant classes of various
countries.
• The tendency to ignore laws,
treaties and international
agreements
(political,
commercial, juridical, etc.),
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