Proletarian Internationalism

The ideological point of view of the united struggle of the proletariat of all countries for maintaining common interests, opposing common enemies and achieving common ends.

With the development of the capitalist production, the bourgeoisie has established a world market in search of sources of raw materials and expanded outlets for its products, and capital became an international force beyond the scope of one country, and the proletariat changed from being exploited by the bourgeoisie of its own country to being co-exploited by the bourgeoisie of various countries or even jointly encircled and suppressed. This determines that the laborers of all countries could only be liberated by uniting and supporting each other. Summing up the experience of the international workers’ movement, Marx and Engels have expounded the principles of united proletarian warfare and opposition to capitalism in their works such as The Holy Family, and established the theoretical basis for the idea of proletarian internationalism. In the Rules of the Communist League and The Communist Manifesto, the slogan “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” replaced the old slogan of the League of the Just “All men are brothers”, which has embodied the idea of proletarian internationalism. As capitalism entered the epoch of imperialism, national liberation movement of the oppressed nations of the East was in full swing. In 1920, the Communist International (Comintern) and Lenin, taking into account the new historical conditions, put forth the slogan “Proletarians and oppressed nations of all countries, unite!”, which enriched and developed proletarian internationalism. Lenin pointed out that proletarian internationalism demands, first, that the interests of the proletarian struggle in any one country should be subordinated to the interests of that struggle on a world-wide scale, and, second, that a nation which is achieving victory over the bourgeoisie should be able and willing to make the greatest national sacrifices for the overthrow of international capital. In the 1960s, the Communist Party of China, represented by Mao Zedong, also put forth the strategic slogan “Proletarians, oppressed nations and oppressed peoples of all countries, unite!”, which has further expanded the content of proletarian internationalism and guided all revolutionary forces around the world to oppose imperialism, colonialism and hegemonism. In his article In Memory of Norman Bethune, Mao Zedong highly praised the noble spirit of Dr. Norman Bethune, a member of the Communist Party of Canada, who dedicated himself to the cause of the Chinese revolution: “What kind of spirit is this that makes a foreigner selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese people’s liberation as his own? It is the spirit of internationalism, the spirit of communism.”

Proletarian internationalism shows, first of all, that the cause of proletarian emancipation is in form a national struggle, but its content is an international cause. The revolutionary cause of the proletariat of a country is part of the international proletarian revolutionary cause, and the proletariat, oppressed nations and oppressed peoples of all countries must support each other and unite in their struggle. Next, the principle of independence and autonomy, equality and mutual benefit, and respect for each other’s sovereignty and rights must be followed among the socialist countries, among the nations and among the proletarian parties. Then, the principle of the unity between internationalism and patriotism must be upheld. Patriotism is a historical category with different concrete contents under different historical conditions. To achieve its internationalist tasks, the proletariat and its parties must strive to combine the national tasks with the internationalist task and the fundamental interests of their own people with those of the people of all countries. Lastly, we must oppose bourgeois nationalism and great power chauvinism in the name of “internationalism”.

Proletarian internationalism is the guiding principle for dealing with relations among all nations, among proletarian parties of various countries as well as among socialist countries, and is the basic criterion that must be followed in the international communist movement, and the basic principle for the proletariat in dealing with international affairs.