Capitalism and Mental Health

When discussing depression and Capitalism, we often turn to the Wall Street Crash of the 1920s, or perhaps the recession of 2008. Depressions, in the economic sense as Lenin said are inevitable and frequent, such is the nature of the Capitalist system. However, there is an even greater link between mental health and the plutocratic regimes which we find ourselves prisoners in.


Our minds suffer, perhaps more than anything else, living, and especially working in a capitalist environment. We are, as slaves, restricted as to what we say, what we do, how we do things, and so forth. This does not appear to those who as Engels liked to put it were 'unconscious beings in another reality'. Therefore workers are reduced to mere vegetables in both their mental and physical capacities.


Marx's most in depth analysis of the repercussions of capitalistic employment come in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, where he famously introduces the concept of Alienation, an idea which still shapes Marxist thinking today.  Alienation is the process by which workers become estranged from the world in which they are living, an inevitability under Capitalism. To Marx, alienation caused great damage to one's mental health because it removed the characteristics of what it takes to truly be a human. Nobody enjoys working in a capitalist environment, not because every kind of work is mundane and tiresome, but because in Capitalism, you cannot feel and experience love, passion, desire and so forth. When confronted with an alien world, the Capitalist work environment erodes you in four ways, alienating you from the process of labour, from the product of labour, from one's Gattungswesen (species essence) and from your fellow worker. Through this quartet, men, women, and children are exposed and exploited so that they can no longer feel joy and passion in the world, their drive is destroyed along with other attributes which define a human being. Marx claimed that this left us as nothing but prehistoric chimps who relied on only food and water, and that Capitalism had halted centuries and centuries of evolution.


Suicide and poverty go hand in hand. And poverty can be seen no greater than the capitalist heartlands of Western Europe and the US. An independent study, between 2000 and 2011 found that of the hundreds of thousands who took their lives in this period, over 45,000 done so because of unemployment and the poverty they had been plunged into. With Capitalist workforces now reliant on machinery and technology more than ever, and furthermore with no emotional compassion (as Marx said we are robbed of this), the bosses choose to prioritise profit over their fellow humans, and thus unemployment soars. The Lancet calculated from data obtained from 2009 that there had been a spike of nearly five thousand suicides directly linked to the financial crash of 2008. Corporatism is a killer in more ways than one, and with private companies only being given more and more leeway by Western governments, these tragedies shall only increase.
In the USSR, with industries nationalised and state controlled, unemployment was non existent alongside poverty, and thus suicides linked to these causes were unheard of.


Furthermore, during the peak of the Black Civil rights movement, the numbers for Black Americans taking their lives was almost four times more than their White counterparts. As Malcolm X famously remarked, "You can't have capitalism without racism". Racial bullying in schools and the workplace are rising, with hate crimes against Muslims quadrupling in Britain in the last year alone. Racism is in many cases is the catalyst behind a deterioration in mental health, something I know all too well.


The stigma of depression and other illnesses in the west is often criticised, but rarely do media outlets seek to amend their crimes.

n Cuba, a Marxist haven as strong as ever, more money is invested into mental health than any other medical department. The Cuban Constitution states that health care is a right of every citizen and the responsibility of the government. Upon the successful Communist revolution, the Castro regime ordered that mental health patients should not be experimented on any longer (a practice which lasted in Western Europe until the 1980s) and instead a therapeutic approach was adopted, the first programme of its kind in the world. Despite the US embargo in 1961, this tiny country has emerged as the world's leading medical researcher, and a heartland for breakthroughs. Cuba has the greatest mental health professional- patient ratio in the world, and the country's doctor's are only increasing in both quality and quantity.

Fidel and his Comrades broke barriers in 1960s Cuba that are still in place in Britain and America today.

The British Labour Party

There has been no movement so treacherous, so hypocritical, and more fraudulent than the British Labour Party. It has NEVER been Socialist, and it has NEVER been a party of the proletariat. Instead it has led the British working class into a trap of false consciousness, and with its imperialist agenda, it has caused untold pain and misery to millions, still suffering today. In this piece, I will explain why the British Labour Party must be abandoned, and abolished, for the workers of Britain, and for the genuine Comrades amongst us to set about the aims of a Socialist Republic.

To many, the Labour Party of 'Great' Britain is regarded as one of iconic left wing movements in the nation's history. Do not let the name fool you. It was a crime to label this group of bourgeoisie liberals 'Socialists' It is insulting to the genuine men and women who are. Indian Communist M.N Roy described the party as Western Mensheviks. A title very apt given what I am about to tell you.



Domestic policies

As I will discuss later,  the imperialist drive with Labour did not only see atrocities and mass deaths, but it saw them abandon the most oppressed in society for corporate greed- time, and time again. Here I am going to cite just some examples of the fraudulent nature of the party.

"But the main reason for Labour’s decline, according to these sad-eyed scalpel-wielders currently poised over Labour’s corpse, is that the party ‘left behind’ its old voters, ignoring them in favour of cosying up to businesspeople in the Blair years and being too nerdish to connect with them in the Miliband years."

Though I know that Labour has never represented the working class, I also know that throughout general election history, the working class have on many occasions went in their numbers to tick Labour at the ballot box. Why? The working class are not class conscious to see past the misdemeanours of the movement.

Yet despite the war crimes and corporatism of the 20th century, it is only now that the working class are distancing themselves from Labour. Again we have to ask why? There are multiple reasons, and I will begin with domestic policies.

Time and time again, Labour have found themselves in bed with the Tories. A socialist party must never compromise with the enemy, even if it loses electorate success. This is a glaring error, and one which must be highlighted to acknowledge the wrongs of Labour. Labour has, despite being behind it, privatised the NHS. Labour has cracked down on migrants- why would a left wing party want to stop migrants coming from countries which Britain has bombed?




Imperialism.

Labour have always oppressed locals, whether those locals hail from Manchester or Mumbai, but it is the colonialist aspect of its dark and demonic history which is ignored by so many of the party's following.

Let commence with Ireland. No country has suffered at the hands of the British Empire more than the Irish people. Yet, there is not a more courageous and revolutionary group of people than the Irish. With the centenary of the Easter Rising just a few months past, let me begin with this.

Again turning to M.N Roy;

"Such an event as the 1916 Easter Revolution in Ireland could not make the British Labour Party define its attitude regarding this thorny question. As a member of the War Cabinet, Henderson did not raise a finger to save James Connolly, not to speak of others whose genuine fervour for national independence cannot be blackened by the insinuation of underground German intrigues. The British Labour Party did not find it necessary out of loyalty to the working class at least to withdraw from the Coalition which has killed the champion of the Irish proletariat."

Labour leader, Arthur Henderson was a member of the British Government, and actively supported the bombing campaign of the natives, and the execution of the great James Connolly? How very Socialist indeed.

Even the ILP, regarded by scholars as much more radical than their counterparts in Labour disregarded the rebellion, equating the Citizen Army with terrorists.  ""We do not approve of the Sinn Fein rebellion," announced the ILP's Socialist Review in September 1916. "We do not approve of armed rebellion or any other form of militarism and war".

The First World War was the zenith of Western Imperialism was. And of course, was supported and sustained by the Labour Party. This conflict was built upon greed, wealth and colonialism, three vital components of Capitalism. Lions led by donkeys, brave young men dying for nothing but to line the pockets of the rich who wouldn't dare set foot in a trench.

Despite being heralded as a party of the working class the Labour Party wasted no time in denouncing the Russian Revolution and supporting the far right counter revolutionary White movement which sought to restore the Russian proletariat to a life of misery and despair under Capitalist rule.

The First (1924), and Second Labour Governments (1929-31) intensified the savagery of the Empire, despite increased uprisings from natives. It was no longer just the neighbouring Irish whom Labour sought to terrorise, now as the dominant party, they exerted their influence to massacre civilians in the Middle East- a now what common feature of Labour foreign policy. In 1929, the uprising known as the Palestine Riots invest heavily in Zionist occupation, taking the lives of well over 150 Arab civilians.  No Socialist should recognise the apartheid state of Israel given the Holocaust they have committed on the indigenous Arab people- yet Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, seen as the most left wing in the party's history recently admitted "I really admire Israel". What do you admire Mr Corbyn? The illegal settlements? The rape of women? Or the massacre of children?

Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq fell into the hands of Britain. Labour pushed heavily for air strikes to minimise the rebel threat, with thousands of Iraqis dying. Old habits die hard. Labour's motives for Middle Eastern intervention then were for imperialist and corporate greed- this has not changed.

And then there was India. Asides from the Irish, it can be argued nobody suffered more at the hands of Britain's, and Labour's imperialism than the Indians. Any uprising, any hint of an uprising from the Indians was dealt with excessive force. Labour sought to quell the Nationalist movement by the same vulgar tactics they deployed in Ireland, Iraq, Palestine and many other nations which fell foul to history's cruellest Empires. It comes as no surprise that Bhagat Singh, the iconic Communist revolutionary was executed under a Labour Government. Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald would stop at nothing to clean the streets of the 'sub human' type Labour viewed the oppressed natives as.

Nigeria is one of the many countries still to recover from the impact of British brutality. Labour's arrogance that they had the right to the African land was present in one of the many xenophobia ridden propaganda pieces we have seen throughout history. A 1943 discussion of post war strategies for African colonies included the line  "For a considerable time to come these peoples will not be ready for self-government, and European peoples and States must be responsible for the administration of their territories"

Following the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany, Clement Atlee came to power. Widely hailed as the father of the NHS, we cannot bypass his role in imperialism and global terror- particularly with Korea. During this period, Labour strengthened its ties with the US even more, allowing for joint imperialist interventions, decades on. The first real conflict of the Cold War,  highlighted just how far Labour would go to preserve its imperialist ideology. Whilst the Welfare State got off to a rocky start. the party prioritised supporting its American allies puppet government in the South rather than providing greater healthcare and more housing for those who needed it so much. Labour's attempts to whitewash history, to preach of Atlee as a hero cannot be respected in the same way that his crimes in Korea cannot be ignored.

With a fear of Communism common knowledge, Labour worked with the Conservative Government to remove Cheddi Jagan, the Marxist Leninist leader as Prime Minister of French Guyana, succeeding in dismantling the revolutionary threat. Coups are a common theme of Labour's imperialist history.

In 1969, old flames were ignited, with British troops deployed in Ireland to 'maintain peace' following nationwide riots. The British Army were however simply an ally of loyalist militias, provoking sectarian rivalries, whilst committing atrocities on the working class of Ireland that left them so depleted, they are still trying to recover today. This is the real Labour Party. The disgustingly bigoted police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), composed mainly of Protestant and Loyalist personnel who took it upon themselves to kill as many Catholic civilians as possible were even given extensive funding by Labour.   Though the 1970 election was lost, Labour remained opposition only by title, working alongside war monger Edward Heath in the occupation of Ireland, and thus supporting the racial state it had become, with Irish Catholics lucky to fall into the '2nd class citizen' category. Labour's intervention in 1969 can without doubt be highlighted as the reason for the thousands of civilian deaths which took place up until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, yet sectarianism still thrives because of Labour's barbaric behaviour upon the natives.

The 1990s saw yet another genocide which Britain, and Labour allowed to happen. The Balkans had always been an area of imperialist interest, with Labour. Though John Major reigned for the first half
of  what is now known as the Yugoslav Wars, Labour turned a blind eye to the horrendous war crimes committed by Milosovic, going as far as funding far right Serbian nationalists to slaughter Bosnian Muslims in their tens of thousands. The massacre of Sbrenica was the worst mass murder in Europe since the Holocaust, with 8,000 Bosnian men and boys losing their lives at the hands of Serb nationalists, with Britain, and Labour neglecting to protect the endangered Bosnian population. With Blairism succeeding in the 1997 Election, the Kosovo War was beginning. The climax arrived in 1999, where NATO, true to its nature began a heavy bombing campaign of Kosovo at the demand of the West.

The annexation of Afghanistan and Iraq should have saw Tony Blair tried in the Hague for war crimes, or hung in London city centre. Instead, and with over one million civilian deaths later, he still has an influence on the party.

Lenin was firmly against the structured format of Labour. Mass party politics allows for infiltration of counter revolutionaries. The greatest example is the rise of Blairites in mainstream politics. The workers should reject the status quo of Capitalist elections, and instead educate and organise. The lack of class consciousness is the reason Labour has thrived. Once the potential of the working class is realised, then we can organise. Not into mass mainstream parties, but into a vanguard. Into movements which are composed of both intellects, and of workers with little political knowledge, and who will learn this from their Comrades. Boycott the ballot. Because no revolution has ever, and will ever come at the hands of the Western parliamentary system, only counter revolutions.  Do not remain in a party who supports the apartheid state of Israel, do not align yourself with Blairites, Zionists, and war criminals. Take a stand against imperialism. Understand what it means to be a Socialist. Read Marx, Lenin and Mao.  Say no to Labour Imperialism, and yes to British Socialism!




When I hear of Labour supporters calling for a return to the party's origins, I laugh. Because the Party has always been an Imperialist group of elites. This has never changed. Never.  Labour have  always been something. Not a workers union. Not a communist clique. And most certainly not a revolutionary resistance. From Hardie and Henderson, to Brown and Blair, Labour have always and always will remain a bigoted colonialist party, loyal to the establishment, and loyal to the rich.


The following resources were used for this essay:
Liberalism and the British Labour Party, MN Roy
British Labour and the Easter Rising, Irish Democrat
British lost the working class vote a long time ago, Brendan O'Neill

A Critique of Western Leftism

As I discussed in my essay ‘Scotland and the National Question’, it is the far right who have emerged triumphant in much of the western world. Over the course of this document, I will:

        I.       

    I.                     I   Describe the reasons for, and cite examples of far right growth

     II.                II. Answer why it is the right, and not the left thriving

   III.     III.  Evaluate what the Western left has to do, in order to smash the right, and to smash capitalism

I.                    The rise of the right

The far right occupy a prominent role in almost every western state. Whether it is an individual or a party, their movement has enjoyed credible success in recent years. From Donald Trump, the xenophobic oligarch, and President of the United States or Jobbik, the Christian nationalist extremist party in Hungary, there has been an unprecedented success- both within and outwith parliamentary politics. It is not mere luck that the likes of Hungary and Poland are headed by ultra-right regimes, but simply testament to the efficiency of their movement as a whole.

The science of Marxism-Leninism has told us that Capitalism is always a few years away from a crisis, social or economic. One look at history tells us that these crises end with a change in political dominance.

Russia 1917- Royalist autocracy to Communist republic (liberation of the masses)

Germany 1920s/30s- Economic decline of the Capitalist regime led to the Nazis success, and the deaths of tens of millions

Bankers’ recession 2008 onwards- The right took advantage and manipulated social problems to portray immigrants as the catalyst= rise of the far right over the Western hemisphere

In simpler terms, depression breeds opportunity. And in recent years, the only ones to seize the opportunity are the fascists and conservatives engulfing the political scene of much of the world. We cannot look at Trump’s success, or Jobbik’s rise without accepting history is repeating itself. As Marx said “History repeats itself. First as a tragedy, second as a farce”. The left are simply too weak, divided and uneducated to mount any threat to the right. To say that the right have only flourished because of their swiftness at ‘seizing the moment’ in the immediate aftermath of crisis is naïve. After they have done this, they, just as the Nazis did in 1930s Germany, sought to defect blame from the capitalist class, and find a scapegoat. In the modern day, but in many generations past, that scapegoat is the immigrant.

Though they have made numerous attempts to defect away from the mantra of the status quo, the fear generated by the right regarding the so called refugee crisis is simply a way of maintain bourgeois regimes. The economic and social costs of investing so heavily into illegal wars in Iraq, and coup attempts in Syria has resulted in intensified austerity for the proletarian of the Western world. As with any crisis, the establishment seek to find a solution, and the solution here is scapegoating the innocent immigrants, who are easy targets when the far right's propaganda machine is in full flow. In the next section, I will assess why the left's inability to organise led to the success of the right in greater depth. 

The far right on a global scale are willing to die for their cause. They are willing to arm themselves, to educate themselves, and to organise. At protests, whilst the Western  left draft up vacillating posters in the comfort of their white petit bourgeois lifestyle, the right are training in self defence, and are not afraid to use it to achieve their goals.

II Western leftists

The student left in Europe is at its weakest. Composed of revisionists, Trotskyists and Social Democrats, the terms Socialist and Marxist have lost any meaning in the student circles, and are instead buzzwords for pseudo socialists who are uneducated and in many cases living petit bourgeois lifestyles. 

The only thing which can turn proceedings, is a mass education programme, similar to the circumstances in China pre revolution. 

"Our educational policy must enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture."

Mao, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (February 27, 1959), 1st pocket ed., p. 44.

Such is the importance of education as the catalyst for a revival in the militant left I have sub divided it into three important sections.

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 

The first is that for the Western left, particularly the students to achieve even the smallest of aims, class consciousness must be encouraged, promoted, and unearthed. The pseudo socialists are inept to the movement because they lack the drive and will to enrol on a programme of self education. They do not understand the science of Marxism-Leninism, and crucially do not treat it as a science. They fail to accept that without education, any revolutionary ideal is futile. Class consciousness is fundamental to any individual who wishes to partake in revolutionary movements. An estimate of the British student left who are fully class conscious would be below 10%. Why? Because the class struggle has been ditched in favour of identity politics. The most important aspect of our every day fight is the class struggle. To remove this, in favour of identity politics is counter revolutionary and the most ridiculous move. Sadly, most of the Western Student left has been engulfed by this phenomenon.To these impostors who hide under the red flag, to these traitors who halt our movement I urge you to remove yourself from the network. To the genuine Marxists amongst us I urge you to remove them. No individual or movement can degrade the class struggle and put identity politics before the liberation of the proletariat and claim to be Socialist. Unless you fight for women, for minorities, for the LGBT community under the red flag, your fight will never be a victorious one. A basic knowledge of Marxist literature reveals this, yet the lack of understanding of our great science's dialectics prove very worrying in both the short and long term future of the western left. 

TROTSKYISM

Trotskyism, the ideology which most pseudo socialists in Western student circles align with is the most counter revolutionary ideal to enter the fray. It was the Jewish journalist,and lifelong Comrade of the USSR, Moissaye J. Olgin who labelled the theory as "counter revolution in disguise". Anybody with a basic grasp of Marxism-Leninism would see through the lies of those who preach this traitor's values. Yet here lies the problem, Trotskyism is a fashionable disguise, and those lacking class consciousness and understanding of Communism fall prey to it. Unfortunately it is growing from strength to strength in student society. To them Stalin was the enemy, the USSR was a dictatorship, and Fidel Castro a tyrant. They scream this from the safety of their middle class household in London or Paris without having to ever truly worry that poverty will take their life.

HISTORY

There is only one way to defeat fascism and imperialism. Through armed resistance, led on a Marxist Leninist platform. This is a given, as history tells us. Whether it be the FLN in Algeria, PFLP in Palestine, or the heroics of the Red Army in Stalingrad, force is the only way to defeat these ideas. But as with so many crucial elements, the western left ignores history, They ignore the cries of the Auschwitz families describing the only way to defeat the Nazis is to smash them- literally. 

Instead of taking the fight to the Nazis by sharpening the knifes and polishing the knuckle dusters, western students opt for pacifism, something which as Che mentioned, is the Capitalist establishment's greatest ally. 

Instead of rejecting establishment politics, they join Blairites in the imperialist Labour Party.

Instead of taking inspiration  from past guerilla movements based on class struggle, they take inspiration from Sanders and Corbyn, who as history tells us, are sell out social democrats in parties steeped in colonial blood. 

Instead of holding up guns to the rich, they hold up posters to themselves.

This is the western left. Accepting whitewashed history to go hand in hand with their liberal agenda. 

III. What is to be done?

A revolution will not come through parliament. It will come through the masses. That said, a Bolshevik esque group is required. Again, anybody with sufficient historical knowledge would be aware. In many ways, Lenin's What is to be done? echo the current climate in the Western world. 

Huge parties, fraudulents such as the Labour Party (GB)

A small guerilla movement must be assembled, but first:

I. Class consciousness must be unearthed.

II. Education, of history, of Marxism Leninism must be the focal point of any group and its members. 

The Western democratic process should be ignored and as many should abstain from participating as possible.

Violence should be used as a tactic. Fight the fascist scum with how they fight us.

Compromising with the enemy must be avoided. Do not endorse one candidate over the other on the basis of a lesser evil. Demand both be tried for war crimes. Reject both parties. 

Scotland and the National Question

In present day Scotland, Nationalism has emerged as the dominant force within the political sphere, but also out with it. Nationalism is not an ideology which can be restrained to the four walls of a debating room, or a parliament, but something which has economic, social and political consequences. It is the Scottish National Party who currently reside over the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, whilst they also hold 57 out of the available 59 Scottish seats present in Westminster. This rise is remarkable, and something I see to analyse briefly, before delivering a critique of the fraudulent Nationalists and their policies.

Capitalism is as Marx said, never far from crisis, and it is in these many crises, which nationalism creeps into the agenda. Take some historical examples, like Nazi Germany. Economic recession allowed for Hitler to fool the German people, whilst the same can be said of America. It was not just economic recession which allowed Scottish Nationalists to grow from a mere name on a ballot, to the dominant Parliamentary Party. The SNP grew out of the weakness of the Labour Party, something we once again see all too frequently when evaluating the rise of nationalism throughout history. Capitalist parties do have an expiry date, before another, of the same model (in the sense they are imperialist and led by the bourgeois) replace them and continue to enslave the proletariat. Capitalism and Nationalism are crucial to one another. There would be no need for nationalism in Socialist societies, because the internationalist unity of proletarian is itself a liberating act, whilst there can be no form of liberation, whether that be gay rights, gender balance and so forth under a Capitalist state. Capitalism can only thrive when there is division. And there can be no greater division than nationalist ideas, designed to crush workers internationally and mask the evils of the capitalist class.

The Scottish National Party are pseudo Socialist, liberals, and diluted conservatives who thrive so greatly, because they have deployed nationalism to fool the working class of Scotland. A Bolshevik slogan upon the outbreak of the imperialistic First World War was, ‘the enemy of every people was its own people’. There are only 2 categories of people, the proletariat, and the bourgeois. Nationalism seeks to create more splinter groups, of Scots, Arabs, Slavs, to weaken the workers movement and to increase the ruling class’ control. The SNP have only enjoyed success because of their endorsement of their alleged nemesis, Margaret Thatcher. They supported her government over a Labour one, and thus Thatcherism was born, and still wreaks havoc today.

An argument often used by the party is that Independence would lead to Socialism, how laughable! The SNP are a capitalist party, and just some of these policies testify that.

1)    The privatisation of transport, particularly in rural Scottish areas.

2)    The oppression of the working class under the Offensive Behaviour & Communications Act

3)    The refusal to raise tax, something which was even advocated by fellow sell out capitalists in the Labour Party

4)    The defence and continued support of Apartheid Israel. Though it does seem many in the SNP are pro Palestine, it has not stopped the Party developing an inner Zionist circle which has oppressed student movements in universities and funded several Israeli initiatives.

5)    Continued trade deals with Saudi Arabia, a country second only to Israel and Western states in those responsible for the irrevocable damage inflicted upon the Middle East

6)    The unwillingness to openly call for a Republic. The policy of absenteeism is a pro Monarch policy in its own right.

7)    The support of xenophobic rebels in the Ukraine and Syrian conflicts.

8)    Their unwavering support of the fascist sympathising, pro-Israeli, pro American, pro Ukrainian and anti-Assad and chief oppressor of the third world European Union was sickening. 

If Scotland chooses to go Independent, she will not be Socialist. Capitalism will reign more than ever; the only difference being power will lie more directly with the Scottish Capitalist class. The enemy of the Scottish proletariat is not our Comrades in council estates in Manchester and Cardiff, but those who pay us the minimum wage, who exploit us, who plunge our children into poverty, who’s only shared feature (if that) with us is the nationalists’ most potent weapon, the mere flag! There are only us, then workers of the world, and our enemies in the Capitalist class. And England has not oppressed Scotland, the bourgeoisie of Scotland and many other nations have. The working class of England, Wales and Scotland need to unite against the only enemy we have, the elitists who have oppressed us for centuries.  What does independence do but create more wealth for more of the capitalist class? It would be an irreversible blow to the working class should Scotland desert our Comrades on these isles. Do not tell me a middle class Glaswegian and a working class Glaswegian share anything in common, the SNP may try to use this in their propaganda, but it is not the case. Class is the only thing which unites us, and unite us it shall!

Comrade Lenin highlighted the errors of Nationalism in The Working Class and Nationalism.

“The capitalists and landowners want, at all costs, to keep the workers of different nations apart while the powers that be live splendidly together as shareholders in profitable concerns involving millions (such as the Lena Gold fields); Orthodox Christians and Jews, Russians and Germans, Poles and Ukrainians, everyone who possesses capital, exploit the workers of all nations in company.”

The SNP claim their battle is on a par with the Irish and Palestinian liberation struggles, which would be comical if the party didn’t oppress both grassroots movements! Scottish land was stolen by the Scottish bourgeois, Scottish children were starved by the Scottish bourgeois, and so forth. Not by an alien occupier like Israel or the British Army.

Rosa Luxembourg agreed with Lenin, adding that

“Under Capitalism, the slogan of national independence has no value”.

There is only one ideology which can liberate the proletariat from the shackles of Capitalism; Marxism Leninism. Nationalism will only liberate corporate elite’s trade deals, and plunge workers further into poverty and destitution.

Though the struggles are not even comparable, James Connolly full understood the need for a Socialist Republic, a united Socialist Republic of Ireland, and that if Capitalism reigned supreme, all his efforts and the efforts of future Socialist martyrs like Patsy O’Hara of INLA, would be in vain. Of course this unfortunately turned out the case.

 “England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.”

No borders, no nations. One proletariat!