Which side to Support?

For so long the left has preached its support of national liberation struggles that the very issue seems to have become unquestionable. It is taken for granted that whever some nation is ‘fighting for its freedom’ various leftists will be supporting it. In fact in many conflicts one can find different leftists supporting different sides.

To question the whole idea of support for ‘oppressed nations’ has become nearly unthinkable on the left. Even the smallest criticisms cause various leftists to start screaming ‘fascist’, or imperialist puppet. To us this seems quite ironic as it is quite clear that the real imperialist puppets today are the ones shouting loudest about national liberation.

Taking a look at Kosovo for example (also see article in this issue), it becomes clear that the whole notion of national independence is a farce. The amount of US flags being waved on the ‘independence’ day celebrations are a clear demonstration of the nature of the new Kosovan state. It is a state which can aspire to nothing more that to being a puppet of American or European interests. Similarly, the appeals come from Serbia for Putin to defend them shows how independent that country is.

So which side are the left going to pick on this one? Will it be the brave little Kosovans fighting for their freedom? Or will it be the courageous Serbs defying the Americans? One think that we can be sure of is whatever they are calling for it won’t have anything to do with the working class.

With the end of the cold war and the deepening of the crisis the left is becoming increasingly confused about which nationalists to support. This was very clear in the Northern Iraq crisis in November. The İsçi Partısi having decided that Turkey is an oppressed nation has dived straight into social chauvinism, open co-operation with the MHP, and support of the state. The TKP, with its slogan of ‘Don’t let the Americans divide our country’ seems to be going in the same direction. All this talk of ‘our country’ is hardly surprising from those who have organised a ‘Patriotic Front’. Let us be very clear on this question. This is not ‘our country’. Workers do not own this country. The bourgeoisie do. Workers have no material interest at all in joining fronts to protect the property of the rich.

And what of the rest of the left? From the majority of them, the recent invasion of Iraq brought forth mainly liberal whining. They talked about democracy, and letting the Kurds have their rights while afraid to condemn the state. It is as if they were begging the Turkish state, red in blood and claw, dripping with the blood of national minorities from its birth in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide to its most recent invasion of Northern Iraq, to be nice to people. It is beneath contempt.

And finally of course there are the ‘extremists’. Those who reject support of the Turkish state and advocate support of the PKK. The ones who tells us that the cause of socialism is best served by having young Kurdish boys and young Turkish boys kill each other in the mountains. For us there is no difference between these ‘left’ nationalists, and the ‘left’ nationalists who support the Turkish state. Neither of them have anything to offer the working class. Both of them try to pull the working class into giving up its own interests to fight for the interests of the nation. In the process of this they both work as an active force in creating divisions within the working class. They both mobilise workers to die for the nation, one on behalf of the Turkish state, and the other on behalf of an idea of ‘Kurdistan’, but in reality of the foreign states backing them. In the past Syria, but today it seems more, and more that it is that great friend of the working class, the USA.

The communists bring a different perspective to this. For us, the workers have no country. It is not about choosing which nationalist gangsters to support but about trying to rebuild, however slowly, an independent movement. A movement that ultimately will be able to resist the Turkish states drive towards war.

EKS