Iraqi
Kurdistan and Catalonia. Self-determination on the agenda
There are
those who think that because of globalisation the national question is
redundant. These include many bourgeois commentators and the supposedly
Trotskyist Socialist Equality Party. However, events in Catalonia, Kurdistan,
West Papua and Cameroun’s show that the national question are well and truly
politically alive. We revolutionaries must take a stand supporting national
self-determination of those nations, which have been deprived of this right.
Within a week,
there were referendums in both Iraqi Kurdistan and Catalonia. Both national
groupings voted overwhelmingly to secede from Iraq and Spain respectively. Over
90% in favour!
In both cases the referendums were considered
“unconstitutional” by their governments. For their governments even asking the
people is illegal. Neither of the local governments have actually declared
independence.
In the case
of Catalonia the Spanish government metered out brutal repression. Innocent
voters waiting in line found themselves dragged by the hair, their arms broken
and other brutal injuries. Leaders of the Catalonian Assembly were arrested.
Neither the national government nor the monarchy accepts the result of the
election. They don’t even condemn police brutality. This has strengthened the
Catalan cause with many wavering voters realising how little respect Spain has
for them.
The Catalan
independence movement faces many obstacles. Banks have moved their headquarters
away from Barcelona. The EU opposes self-determination fearing a weakened
Spanish economy. Donald Trump opposes any break-up of Spain. It faces a Spanish
government who will fight independence tooth and nail.
The Kurdish
people also face serious opposition also. Syria, Iran and Turkey are all united
against it as they have the understandable fear that Kurds in those countries
will rise up also. The Kurds no doubt feel that because of their loyalty to the
US, for example in the war against the Islamic State, the US will allow their
independence. No! The US will not allow the Middle East to be destabilised. Of course,
they face opposition from the government of Iraq.
Neither
Catalonia nor Kurdistan has declared independence. The governments have declared
opposition to the people’s right to express their views. So much for democracy!
Elections for self-determination were also declared illegal in Donetsk, Luhansk
and Crimea.
For
revolutionary communists, Trotskyists, the creation of a class conscious
working class means not just narrow
class interest but elevating the working class to being the vanguard of
history. A true class criterion includes the national question. It is needed in
the fight against chauvinism in imperialist countries and in privileged
colonies such as Australia.
In colonies
including Catalonia and Kurdistan, we support their right of self-determination
to win over Kurds to the proletarian vanguard to show we respect their national
rights. Our aim is to overcome nationalism.
In the Soviet
Union, the national question was not consistently overcome and this has led to
uprisings such as in Chechnya. Lenin believed in a Soviet Union of national
equals. He opposed Great Russian chauvinism. The failure to overcome the
national question is a prime recipe for degeneration within a post capitalist
state. An example is the Uigar nationality who are Muslims in China who face
injustice and are uprising. They face repression from the Chinese state.
While the capitalists are using the growing army of unemployed to put pressure on the organised workers by lowering wages, the cowardly social democrats, the Independents and the official leaders of the trade unions distance themselves from the unemployed; they regard them as objects of state and trade-union charity and categorise them politically as lumpen-proletarian. The Communists must understand clearly that in the present circumstances the army of the unemployed represents a revolutionary factor of tremendous significance. They must assume the leadership of this army. By exerting pressure on the unions through the unemployed, the Communists can hasten the liberation of the trade unions from the influence of their scab leaders. By uniting the unemployed with the proletarian vanguard in the struggle for socialist revolution, the Communist Party can restrain the more revolutionary and impatient elements among the unemployed from engaging in individual acts of desperation. If conditions are favourable, the Party can organise the mass of unemployed in support of the action of one or another section of the proletariat and, by extending the struggle beyond the limits of the original conflict, can make it the start of a major offensive. In short, the unemployed can be transformed from the reserve army of labour into an active army of the revolution
.