Proletarian internationalism

:"International Socialism redirects here. For the journal of the same name see International Socialism (journal)"Proletarian internationalism is a Marxist social class theory whose concept is that members of the working class should act in solidarity towards working people in other countries on the basis of a common class interest, rather than following their respective national governments. Proletarian internationalism is summed up in the slogan, "Workers of all countries, unite!", the last line of The Communist Manifesto. Early unionists learned that more members meant more power because by joining together the workers gained greater bargaining power. Thus, taken to an international level, it would further increase the power of the working class versus that of their bosses.

Proletarian internationalism also claims itself to be a deterrent against wars amongst nations, because people with a common interest are less likely to take up arms against one another, however they are more likely to do so against the ruling class that Marxists believe oppress workers. According to Marxist theory the antonym of proletarian internationalism is bourgeois nationalism.

In contrast, some, like George Orwell, an ex-Marxist, have perceived social realities to be quite different from proletarian internationalism, in that "in all countries the poor are more national than the rich." To this, Marxists might counter that while the rich may have historically had the awareness and education to recognize cross-national interest of class, the poor of those same nations likely have not had this advantage, and so have been fooled into "patriotism," failing to recognize that their own class interest exists and could be used to overthrow the ruling class order.

[cite web
url=http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/essays/lionunicorn.html
title=Work : Essays : The Lion and the Unicorn // George Orwell // www.k-1.com/Orwell
publisher=www.k-1.com
accessdate=2008-02-28
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Footnotes

ee also

*Marxism
*Communism
*Socialism in One Country
*Global Citizens Movement
*Socialist International

References and external links

* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/liu-shaoqi/1952/internationalism_nationalism/ch05.htm Internationalism and Nationalism] by Liu Shaoqi
* [http://www.isreview.org/issues/13/marxism_nationalism_part1.shtml Marxism and Nationalism] by Tom Lewis
* [http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fit/scully01.htm The Importance of Ideas in Party Building] Marry Scully discusses proletarian internationalism
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1980s/fi/ch05.htm Without anti-capitalist theory and practice no anti-capitalist victory is possible] Ernest Mandel discusses proletarian internationalism
* [http://en.internationalism.org/wr/265_ir65_prolandwar.htm The Proletariat and War] by the [http://en.internationalism.org International Communist Current]