Revolutionary Nationalism

Revolutionary nationalism is a term that can refer to:

• Different ideologies and doctrines which differ strongly from traditional nationalism, in the sense that it is more involved in the social question, involved geopolitically whose political references are multiple and sometimes selective, strongly characterized by eclecticism. These are also sometimes labelled ''national-revolutionary'' movements.

• A political philosophy of many different nationalist political movements that wish to achieve their goals through revolution against the established order.

Terminology

The term revolutionary nationalism refers to nationalist movements using violence or other revolutionary tactics as a means in the name of national liberation and social justice in the face of the established order (against colonial powers, dominant foreigners with more privileges than locals, or a government considered puppet or illegitimate) to establish an independent nation-state.

Several nationalist movements in Ireland and India formed in reaction to British rule, and the local bourgeoisie who actively collaborated with the occupiers to establish their privileges in these two countries have been described as ''revolutionary nationalists''.

Ideology

As distinct ideologies, ''revolutionary nationalisms'' appear at different times and in different ways, are characterized by their common positions but paradoxically have no direct link between them.

The term revolutionary nationalism or ''national-revolutionary'' generally designates a form of populist and socialistic nationalism with an identitarianism linked to the idea of ​​localism, protectionism, self-sufficiency, anti-imperialism (pushed towards anti-Zionism, anti-Americanism and opposition to globalization), protection of traditions and customs and also emphasizes the idea of preserving the concept of the nation-state as an antidote to the globalist outpost, to guarantee in all countries maximum social well-being of the population and absolute respect for the integrity of the environment.

Supporters of ''national-revolutionary'' see in liberalism, materialism, the consumer society, mass immigration and globalization the main causes of the social decline of the nation and cultural identity, they reject capitalism, classical conservatism, social-liberalism, orthodox Marxism and more generally, the classic right-wing and left-wing in general.

''Revolutionary nationalist'' movements are characterized by their common positions and not by their positioning on the political spectrum; indeed, depending on the country, they are classified on the right or the left, but their doctrines are very close.

However, revolutionary nationalism is not a uniform movement if we note that revolutionary nationalisms all share in their ideological DNA anti-capitalism, identitarianism, social-nationalism as well as anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism and that they have common references, they may differ on other points, in particular, the form of socialism or solidarism to be adapted and the religious question. Although classified on the Far-right on the French political spectrum, most of these movements are historically unclassifiable because they are characterized by increased ideological syncretism. It is, therefore, not a uniform movement since it differs according to the countries and continents.

Common main ideas are:

• Social-nationalism with a populist variant.

• The defense of the nation-state

• Communitarianism, the nation is based on a shared destiny.

• The rejection of what can be perceived as societal excesses of modernity.

• Application of proper socialism in the homeland.

• Ethno-pluralism as a defence of ethnocultural identities on an ancestral land which would belong to them "by right". Differentialism is thus an idea that defends Opposition to immigration, anti-colonialism and anti-globalism.

• The protection of the country's culture, religion and traditions.

• The revolution as a social avant-garde Leitmotiv of its ideology.

• The defence of the unity of the regions as popular communities.

• Anti-globalism as a refusal to accept the world hegemony of external power and the rejection of ideologies aimed at extending and standardizing the world ( Americanism, Wahhabism, Communism etc...).

• Anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism based on the rejection of "American-Zionist" imperialism and the imposition of world hegemony, as well as by rejection of the values ​​advocated by the United States and support for nationalist movements in the Third World

• Anti-system, understood as a fight against current systems that they understand to be corrupt.

Sub-groups

The national-revolutionary movement is highly diversified and is also made up of several sub-groups:

• The Tercerists, national-populists and who oppose “totalitarian Marxism” and “international Capitalism”.

• Revolutionary-traditionalists, elitists who emphasize spirituality.

• The National-Communitarians, Pan-Europeans and Jacobins.Yannick Sauveur, ''Jean Thiriart et le national Communautarisme européen'', Mémoire présenté devant l'Institut d'études politiques de l'Université de Paris, 2^e édition, Ed. Machiavel, Charleroi, 1983.

• The “red-browns”, closer to Left-wing Nationalism but also traditionalists and ethno-differentialists.

The Tercerists

The Tercerists designate the national-revolutionaries in favour of a Third Way for transversal political positions committed to the development of a modern intermediate position between right and left. Supporter of nationalistic socialism or Solidarism. They oppose capitalism, liberalism and Marxism. The discourse of these movements includes the defence of workers, workers, craftsmen, and small traders, and a social tendency to concretely build an economic organism based on solidarity with members of the same nation. It appeared as a heterogeneous element, difficult to classify in the political field. But this was due both to its originality, to an extremely fluctuating political line.

The revolutionary-traditionalists

The revolutionary-traditionalists form a particular movement in that it differs from the classical national-revolutionaries in many respects; for example, the elitism and the aristocratic vision of the Revolutionary-traditionalists are contrary to the classical national-revolutionary movements. However, these movements come from a mixture of the theories of national-revolutionary and perennialism.

The national-communitarians

The national-communitarians formed a wing favourable to creating a unitary Europe from Iceland to Russia. The theorist of this ideology is Jean-François Thiriart, who campaigned for a European, unitary and Jacobin state favourable to the national-community appeal of Europe. This ideology combines pan-European nationalism and national-communism based on the welfare state. This movement is exclusive to Europe.

The "red-brown"

The "red-brown" or "national-bolsheviks" (terms not used by those concerned) are accompanied by an overall vision which accentuates realism and thus designs politics within the Eurasian "continent", which includes all of Europe, Russia and part of Asia. This idea first appeared in Germany in the 1920s. Programmatically national-revolutionary, traditionalist, anti-American and anti-capitalist, they reconciled materialist and revolutionary spiritual conceptions. Reference figures are borrowed from 20th-century political revolutionaries, socialist theorists, and many national-revolutionary theorists like Ernst Niekisch and Georges Sorel. The idealist references are inspired by Hegel and other philosophers. At the same time, economically they support a mixture of the economic reforms of communism and various syndicalist theories of a socializing character within the Third Way, but always emphasizing the spirituality of action.

Revolutionary nationalism by country

Germany

Revolutionary nationalism is one of the main currents of the German conservative Revolution, according to the typology given to it by Armin Mohler.

It was in Weimar Germany when the theories of the Konservative Revolution (a phrase popularized by Hugo von Hofmannsthal) came to notice. The conservative revolution had five currents. The third current was that of the "national-revolutionaries" (Nationalrevolutionäre) appears, this current whose main theoreticians are Ernst Niekisch, Ernst Jünger, Franz Schauwecker or Werner Beumelburg, Karl Otto Paetel whose one said they were the "left people of the right" (Linke Leute von rechts) There are other authors and theoreticians whom Armin Mohler considers close to the National Revolutionaries but who were not part of them, such as Friedrich Hielscher

Returning from the Baltikum, Ernst von Salomon declares: "We wanted to save the citizens, we saved the bourgeois". From now on, nationalism can only be revolutionary in the sense of a total upheaval of German society. This turn is radical. This is the reason why some will call them the "left people of the right" (Linke Leute von rechts)

For them, the "nation" is the Volk gathered and "set in motion" by war. The National Revolutionaries accept technical progress, not because they yield to "the dangerous temptation to admire it", but because they want "to dominate it, and nothing more". One of their leaders, Franz Schauwecker, says it is for them to “finish with linear time”. Living in the interregnum, they consider that the time for positive nihilism has come. Their revolutionary impetus and their Prussian training combine to support their desire to destroy the “bourgeois order”; their "soldier nationalism" became one with the "socialism of comrades." A sharp tragic sense of history and life forms the backdrop, dark and bright at the same time,

The representatives of the National-Revolutionary Movement were generally younger and strongly influenced by the experiences of the front of the First World War and the defeat of 1918. The "revolutionary will" is most pronounced among them. In contrast, the conservative element recedes to the background. Of all the groups, they were the most willing to accept progress and technology to achieve their goals, but not as goals in themselves. Franz Schauwecker wrote in 1931:

Because this time is only worth destroying. But to destroy them, you must first know them. ��You had to completely master the technique by shaping it down to the smallest detail. ��The admiration of the camera was a dangerous thing. He deserved no admiration; he just needed to be used

They are the only group with a strong affinity for social issues and socialism. They rejected a division in the usual "right and left" patterns. From their point of view, a non-capitalist order is desirable but can only be created based on the nation.

The teachings of Niekisch are fundamental to understanding the German national-revolutionary thought of the 1920s, whose movement considers that the conservative bourgeoisie has betrayed Germany and that statist German nationalism must be entrusted to the proletariat. For Niekisch, states behave like "living individuals" in the international sphere, "they act exactly like organic beings who pursue goals, deal with those around them, undergo a fate and desire to be recognized.", in which the only valid law is the "vital will" of each of them. He believed that "the fate of the state is the fate of the people".

Niekisch believed that the idea of ​​the state had been betrayed by both the conservative elites and the liberal bourgeoisie and entrusted the proletariat with building the real German state. In his book “The Political Space of the German Resistance”, he writes:

“The enslavement of Germany and the tributary plunder of her people. A German policy that wants to be just towards the vital needs of its people can only be anti-bourgeois, anti-capitalist and anti-Western; Otherwise, we will always remain in the hands of France."

He also believed in the need for a German-Soviet alliance against the "decadent West" and the Treaty of Versailles.

For Ernst Niekisch:

To be a Westernist means: starting from deceit with this hollow formula of 'freedom', carrying out crimes by professing humanity and bringing down peoples by calling for the reconciliation of peoples.

He will accept the use of "proletarian peoples". The nationalism of Niekisch and the German National-revolutionaries of the time was liberation nationalism and proposed the destruction of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.

In the geopolitical order, the revolutionary nationalism of Niekisch stands entirely in opposition to the West, then symbolized by the diktat of Versailles. Ernst Niekisch recalls the existence of a German-Russian community of destiny (Schicksalgemeinschaft). We know that orientation to the East (Ostorientierung) is a permanent feature of German history and a great theme of the conservative Revolution. It finds in Niekisch new dimensions, "The orientation towards the East and the disembourgeoisement of Germany are on the same level" affirms Niekisch: strong and hierarchical State, mobilization of the people, call for heroism, suppression of parasitic classes, boarding of the technique put at the service of the development of the community and not only of the calculating profitability, etc.)

The German National Revolutionaries, unlike other factions of German Nationalists, but like most Revolutionary-Conservatives, do not rejoice in the victory of the NSDAP in Germany but do not act directly, hoping that Hitler is overthrown within the party itself.

However, strong personal criticism of Hitler (“false revolutionary” according to Niekisch, “bourgeois agent” according to Paetel), will lead to repression Thus, the German national-revolutionary movement was suppressed and silenced under the Nazi regime during the rise of Adolf Hitler, a non-negligible part will joined the German anti-Nazi resistance (such as Ernst Niekisch, Karl Otto Paetel and Friedrich Hielscher) in response to persecution, Otto Strasser's Black Front was banned on Hitler's orders. The German national-revolutionaries, although in favour of a strong state and a nationalist regime, remained distant from Nazism.

Ernst Niekisch rejected the idea of ​​establishing fascism in Germany; according to him, copying fascism would lead to Germany's loss, so a distinct ideology was needed and not a copy of a regime that could be acceptable to Italy, but unacceptable in Germany, what might be acceptable in a Latin country could not be so in a Germanic country. Fascism was, therefore, according to Niekisch, the expression of Latinity; adapting it to Germany would be “the hara-kiri of the German man” In his book Hitler a German fatality, he warns of the consequences of Hitler's seizure of power and calls him "an agent of German and foreign capital"

The national-revolutionaries undergoing political persecution carried out by the Hitlerian authorities pushes them to join the interior Resistance to Nazism before being decimated by the Nazi regime, the German national-revolutionaries were persecuted and reduced to silence, pushing them , basically indifferent on the fascist question to become resistancialists.

Karl Otto Paetel's organization , the Group of Social-Revolutionary Nationalists tried to take an active part in the German resistance, without success.

For Ernst Niekisch :

Fascism is the state of exception, the martial law of a liberal bourgeois society.

Thus, after 1945, the German national-revolutionary movement was practically decimated, the few rare survivors being those who put an end to their political activities after Hitler's seizure of power and those who survived in the camps or in exile, however, the German national-revolutionaries do not benefit from the tribute in honour of the resistance fighters, because of their past nationalism and their extremely radical writings, they were thus controversial figures in post-war West German public opinion.

Thus, among the National Revolutionary victims by the authorities of the Third Reich, we find National Revolutionary figures such as Ernst Niekisch (interned), Ernst Jünger and Ernst von Salomon (free but actively guarded), Fritz Wolffheim and Harro Schulze-Boysen (murdered).

It is basically in the idea of ''resistance'' that the whole life and work of Niekisch are held in this appeal to the eternal “German protest” against occupations and colonizations. Resistance to Weimar Germany, which imprisoned him, to Nazi Germany, which deported him, to East Germany, which turned him back, as to West Germany, who hated it.

Africa

Several African independence movements in the 20th century have been characterized as revolutionary nationalist.

One African anti-colonial leader considered to have been a revolutionary nationalist was Amilcar Cabral, who led independence movements in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Cabral founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde in 1956. The party began an armed struggle against the Portuguese colonial authorities in 1963, and eventually, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde won their independence in 1974 and 1975, respectively. This colonial war also led to the rise of the Armed Forces Movement in Portugal, which overthrew the dictatorship in that country. Cabral's revolutionary nationalism was embodied in the concept of "unity and struggle," which aimed to unite the various ethnic and cultural communities of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde into a single national identity based on the struggle against colonial rule.

Another African movement whose ideology has been called revolutionary nationalism is the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) in Eritrea. The PFDJ's ideology emphasizes the legacy of the Eritrean struggle for independence. It seeks to "inculcate the values of The Struggle in Eritrean youth by loosely (and sometimes directly) simulating the experiences of the fighters in the war for liberation." In addition, the PFDJ promotes "an idea of a multicultural, multireligious, unified national whole."

Revolutionary nationalism has also been identified as a theme in Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

Asia

The term revolutionary nationalism has been used to describe elements of the Indian independence movement that opposed British rule in India. The Indian state of Jharkhand was host to revolutionary nationalist political groups starting in the period between 1902 and 1918, and especially from 1912 onward. The Dhaka Anushilan Samiti and other nationalist movements from Bengal extended their operations into Jharkhand during this period, and their aim was to inspire a sizeable violent uprising against British rule. They sought to obtain dynamite, gunpowder and other explosives from the mines of Jharkhand, but their activities were discovered and many revolutionary nationalists were arrested.

In Bihar, an Indian state located north of Jharkhand, there were also violent pro-independence organizations in the early 20th century that have been described as revolutionary nationalists or as terrorists. They had "faith in methods of violence for securing freedom", and they faced increasing government repression. When they were arrested, they received legal assistance from members of the Indian National Congress. However, Congress opposed the use of violence.

In India, revolutionary nationalism is also identified with the memory of Bhagat Singh, who was executed by the British in 1931 for his role in the Lahore Conspiracy Case.

In the history of Vietnam, the term revolutionary nationalism has been used to refer to the opposition to French colonial rule that began in the 1880s among patriotic Vietnamese court officials and provincial elites, who formed the Can Vuong movement. This movement sought to restore the Vietnamese emperor and preserve traditional society, but it was defeated by superior French firepower. It later inspired the second generation of anticolonial leadership in the 20th century.

In Iran, the rebellion of Colonel Mohammad Taqi Pessian in 1921 has been described as an experiment in revolutionary nationalism. Pessian led a military state based in Mashhad, which acted as a rival to the central government led by Reza Khan after the 1921 Persian coup d'etat.

Europe

In Europe, revolutionary nationalism has been applied to various nationalist political movements, stretching back to the French Revolution of the 18th century. French revolutionary nationalism was a form of civic nationalism, seeking to impose a shared national identity on the entire population of France, regardless of ethnic origin or regional cultures and languages. This nationalism was revolutionary in that it aimed at a "homogenization of mankind," not wishing to "exclude anyone who does not fit a particular ethnic profile but rather to include anyone willing to adopt a particular cultural identity."

Irish nationalism of the 19th century has also been characterized as revolutionary nationalism, in that it sought a revolutionary overthrow of British rule in Ireland. Following the defeat of the Young Ireland rebellion in 1848, many of the rebel leaders fled into exile to Paris, where they "found themselves at the intellectual centre of revolutionary nationalism." The Irish revolutionaries in exile made contacts with Polish nationalists who were also fighting for national independence and who advocated ideas of "'salutary' terrorism and mobilization of the peasantry for acts of violence," which inspired Irish revolutionary nationalism. The Irish revolutionary nationalists came to be called Fenians, and this movement included Irish organizations on both sides of the Atlantic, such as the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Fenian Brotherhood.

In the early 20th century in Italy, Benito Mussolini's political thought came to focus on a radical form of Italian nationalism, which has been called revolutionary nationalism. According to A. James Gregor, Mussolini had a fuzzy and imprecise approach to revolutionary nationalism by 1909. However, he acknowledged its historical role, which later provided the groundwork for his subsequent views. At this early stage, despite Mussolini's inclination towards nationalism, he was still opposed to traditional patriotism and conventional nationalist appeal which included his emphatic rejection of the type of nationalism that was championed by the privileged classes and traditional bourgeoisie, who simply used the slogans of nationalism "whenever a profit might be turned". A. James Gregor describes Mussolini's approach to his version of nationalism as follows:

Mussolini's revolutionary nationalism, while it distinguished itself from the traditional patriotism and nationalism of the bourgeoisie, displayed many of those features we today identify with the nationalism of underdeveloped peoples. It was an anticonservative nationalism that anticipated profound social changes; it was directed against both foreign and domestic oppressors; it conjured up an image of a renewed and regenerated nation that would perform a historical mission; it invoked a moral ideal of selfless sacrifice and commitment in the service of collective goals, and it recalled ancient glories and anticipated a shared and greater glory.

In 1914, Robert Michels, an early revolutionary syndicalist who would later affiliate with the National Fascist Party by 1924, called for a "revolutionary nationalism of the poor" to promote industrialization in Italy because he believed that "it is an industry that allows people to live and prosper in the modern world" and without a mature industrial base, a people finds itself the object of international disdain.

After World War II, in France, the term revolutionary nationalism was adopted in self-description by a Third Positionist movement that aimed to be politically syncretic and combined far-right nationalism and left-wing nationalism. Nicolas Lebourg
"Qu'est ce que le nationalisme-revolutionnaire?"
(1/2), Fragments sur les Temps Presents, 9 March 2009.

Americas

In Bolivia, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement is a political party that was formed in 1941, led the National Revolution of 1952, and ruled the country from 1952 to 1964. According to Winston Moore Casanovas, revolutionary nationalism "has become an anti-oligarchical ideology of the dominated sector, the official ideology of the Bolivian state after 1952, and stands at the heart of the rationale of the authoritarian military regimes in power from 1964 onwards."

In Peru, the military government of Juan Velasco Alvarado from 1968 to 1975 has been called a revolutionary nationalist period in the country's history.

The Nicaraguan revolutionary leader Augusto Cesar Sandino, who fought against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the late 1920s and early 1930s, has also been called a revolutionary nationalist.

Certain aspects of the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920 have been identified with revolutionary nationalism. For instance, according to Robert F. Alegre, Mexican railway workers "embraced revolutionary nationalism as an expression of their disapproval of foreign ownership of the railways, heightened no doubt by their contempt for foreign managers." Alegre also argues that "revolutionary nationalism drew on and reinforced rielero masculinity – workers' view of themselves as distinctively strong, brave, and independent. Their participation in armed conflict placed these qualities into sharp relief."

In the United States, some black nationalist groups have been regarded as representing a form of revolutionary nationalism. Especially in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, some African American leaders concluded that racial integration was impossible and that a "Black Revolution" was necessary to build an independent black nation. One such leader was Rudy Shields, who endorsed black separatism in 1969 because he "felt like if we were separated, we were better and we were stronger, because when you have white people teaching your children, then what they get is the white concept of life." This perspective declined over the following decades, but revolutionary nationalist themes have been identified as an element of jazz music as late as the 1980s, when they influenced Asian American musicians.David Ake, Charles Hiroshi Garrett, Daniel Goldmark, edit., ''Jazz/Not Jazz: The Music and Its Boundaries'', University of California Press, 2012, chapter: "The Sound of Struggle: Black Revolutionary Nationalism and Asian AmericanJazz," Loren Kajikawa, p. 190-214

See also

*Conservative Revolution
*Sansepolcrismo
*National syndicalism
*Third Position

References

{{Nationalism
Nationalism
Revolution
Fascism
National syndicalism