[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . ----- Original Message ----- From: Socialist Labor Party <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 2:09 AM Subject: De Leon on Internationalism (May 2001) De Leon on Internationalism (May 2001) THE PEOPLE MAY 2001 VOL. 111 NO. 2 A DE LEON EDITORIAL-- The Class Struggle Is Global Marx's call for the international solidarity of the workers is the answer to capitalism's worldwide exploitation. Internationality a Fact (Daily People, Jan. 26, 1911) The railroad strike of Portugal, together with the international sentiment evoked against the same at all the stock exchanges of the world--from Berlin to Chicago, from Paris and London to New York--is one of those "capitalist manifestations" that contribute solid chunks of guidance to the practical labor or socialist movement. The particular point in the practical socialist or labor movement, that the international sentiment expressed at the stock exchanges against the said strike throws light upon, is the question of immigration. The Marxian motto "proletarians of all countries, unite!" is frequently considered, even by people who favor socialism, as a purely sentimental utterance. These people consider the utterance pretty, but of no practical value; and, when the utterance is sought to be applied to the question of immigration the cry is raised of "impractical," and the motto, together with all that flows therefrom, is rejected. Fact is, there is no sentiment whatever in the Marxian motto, nor any in the matter of liberal immigration. The former, and its consequence, the latter, are supremely practical; and, as such, they are broad based on facts, leaving their opposites sentimentally in the air. Robust is the fact that capital is international; knows no "country," save the world; recognizes no god, save profits; bows to no flag, save that of the $. The necessities of capital betray the fact at every turn. Periodically announcements are made of stocks sold in England, Germany, France, and of loans raised there on American railroad, mining and other properties; of Japanese and Argentinean government bonds sold in Berlin and New York; of Russian railroad and oil securities placed in Chicago. It is now discovered that Portuguese railroads are likewise owned, not at home, but internationally, hence the difficulty in settling the strike. The first conclusion from all this cannot be escaped--it is not the capitalist class of any one country that rides the working class of that country: it is international capital that rides the international proletariat. The second conclusion makes mincemeat of all charges of "sentimentality" preferred against the socialist posture of liberal immigration. Indeed, the second conclusion turns the tables upon the anti-immigrationists and convicts them of the worst of sentimentality--the sentimentality of superstition. Nations today are like craft unions--compartments into which it is sought to keep the proletariat divided. The capitalist himself is above such superstitions. He needs a field as broad as the earth for his depredations; and, in the darkness which he creates, all capitalist cats are, to him, gray. Those who, though believing themselves Socialists, would distinguish between the proletariat of one country and of another, succumb to the capitalist sleight-of-hand of imagining differences where there are none; hence, of resisting the immigration of their fellow wage slaves. ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://igc.topica.com/u/?aVxh9J.aVG8yF Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose. http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01 ==^================================================================
