Please read the short essay, or just click the answers to these simple questions. You may need to *enable popups.
Which of the groups below is probably not an oppressed national minority in America?
Which best defines a progressive attitude toward oppressed peoples?
a. They need to learn to subordinate their immediate problems for the unity of the working class
b. They distract from the working class
c. We support them against capitalism
How are nationally oppressed problems different from other oppressed groups?
b. They are useful tools for capitalists
c. Workers can be divided over them
*If popups don't work when you click on the answers, you will probably get a yellow line across the top of your screen. Click on it and choose "temporarily enable popups."
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The "National Question" and the Democratic Rights of Minorities |
The national subject has been debated throughout our history. Under Lenin, the Soviet Union went so far as to guarantee homelands for the many oppressed nationalities from Tsarist Russia. Many important Americans, including CPUSA at one time, have felt that the best solution to the persecution of African Americans was to carve out a separate nation, either in Africa or in the Southern United States. That argument continues to this day.
"Nationalism" is not the same thing as "National Oppression." Progressives oppose oppression in all forms. Nationalism, on the other hand, might be positive and it might be negative. A lot of Americans think of Malcolm X when we think of nationalists. Was Malcolm X being progressive when he stood up for the rights of African Americans? Certainly! Was he being progressive in his early years when he disdained the support of non-Black activists and deliberately alienated all "white devils?" Not so certainly.
Reverend Martin Luther King was never considered a nationalist, but did he do a great deal for African Americans? Certainly.
What's a nationality?
Groups of people with distinct culture, history, and language in common are usually referred to as nationalities. The definition of some nationalities, especially African Americans, has been clarified in America by super racism and oppression. Not all national groups are oppressed. Not all oppressed national groups are minorities (Apartheid South Africa, for example). Not all oppressed groups (women, LGBT, for example) are nationalities, but many of the problems and solutions are the same.
In general, American progressives stand for the democratic rights of oppressed peoples, including those with the special problems of national oppression.
Defense against oppression is deliberately mis-used and confused by our ruling class and its agents. For example, if a public figure mentions race in any context, as Supreme Court candidate Sonia Sotomayor once did, right wingers like to raise charges of racism. Backward people like to bring "reverse racism" cases to court. They particularly like shout the nonsensical claim that the American descendants of white Europeans are an oppressed minority!
Racism and national oppression are the ruling class' favorite tools for dividing the working class and its progressive allies. Such divisions have paid off handsomely for them in extremely lower wages and in destroying attempts to organize.
Nationalism, or extreme patriotism, which can often be an extremely negative influence, is not to be confused with the problem of national oppression. Like oppression, nationalism can be a very useful tool for the capitalists. (Who was it who said "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel?") Every case needs separate and careful consideration.
Progressives believe that a unified working class, working with its allies, is the way forward. Attaining that unity entails standing up for every sector oppressed by capitalism.
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