Scotland held a referendum on independence from the UK in 2014.
The 2020s and the Reemergence of the National Question Danny Byrne , ISA International Executive
W
orld capitalism is entering an epoch of crisis, which in many respects is unique in history. With an economic depression triggered by a capitalist-driven global pandemic amid an unfolding climate catastrophe there has perhaps never been a crisis which is deeper, more global, or more multi-faceted. However, this crisis is also a very classical one, rooted in the same contradictions — primarily the inability to develop the world economy further on the basis of private property and the nation state — which have plagued capitalism for over a century. One feature of all such crises is the interaction between the modern-day problems of capitalism and the age-old intractable problems which have been built into the system during its historical development. One such complication is what Marxists call the “national question,” essentially unresolved issues and disputes over the rights, borders, and status of national peoples. Hundreds of such unresolved problems exist around the world, in both “advanced” capitalist countries and in the so-called “developing” world. “National questions” have been the source of countless political conflicts, wars, and mass movements throughout the last century. Capitalist crises almost inevitably sharpen and bring to the
surface previously dormant national questions. This was the case following the 2007/8 financial crisis, which, among other examples, gave birth to a new mass movement for national independence in Catalonia in 2017 and the historic independence referendum in Scotland in 2014. Already in 2021, we could see that this crisis is no different. Socialists around the world need to pay renewed attention to this crucial issue and reaffirm the fundamentals of a principled Marxist approach, which is essential to the success of the struggle for socialism. Lenin, the foremost leader of the Russian socialist revolution in 1917 and the Bolshevik Party which led it, explained on more than one occasion that without a correct policy on this complex question, the working class would never have triumphed in the “prison-house of nations” that was the Russian Tsarist empire. Today, a correct approach to the national question remains essential to the building of the necessary unity of the working class and all oppressed in the fight for our collective liberation, while at the same time standing steadfastly for the democratic rights of all peoples. Indeed, much more recently in Britain and the Spanish state with Corbynism and Podemos, we have seen how a mistaken position on the national question in Scotland and Catalonia respectively did decisive damage to new projects