'Australian values'
"We're all Aussies, aren't we?" It might seem obvious. But when some of the people who ask the question use it to justify bashing people who thought they were Aussies too, maybe it's a good idea to take a closer look at what it means to be an Aussie — or a German or a Chinese or a Bolivian.
Everyone who has thought about it recognises that nations as we know them today have not always existed. For most of human existence, people grouped themselves in other formations: clans, tribes, city-states, etc. Still, most people don't realise how very recent a phenomenon nation-states are.
To give an idea: just over two centuries ago, at the time of the French Revolution, France was not yet a nation. Only a small minority of its population spoke French. People carrying goods from one part of France to another would be taxed as they passed through different parts of the country. People from different areas of France would even go to war with each other on the orders of the nobles who ruled them.
The nation-state, which today we think of as almost "natural", was in fact created by capitalism. This was because capitalism was the first economic system that needed the nation-state.
Capitalism needs the broadest possible market, and therefore needs a common language, an absence of barriers to the movement of goods and a state apparatus that will defend the interests of a special minority of the population, namely capitalists.
So as capitalists began to develop and grow within medieval society, they began thinking about how convenient it would be if everyone for many kilometres around them spoke the same language, and if they could send goods to a market in the next district using decent roads and without paying taxes, and if there was a government that protected their businesses by taxing competing imports from more distant places and passing laws to keep wages low.
These sorts of ideas, taken together, are the basis of nationalism, the ideology of the capitalist nation-state. According to this ideology, all members of the nation share a common interest. This common interest is greater than their differences, distinguishes them from other nations and is defended by the state against other nations.
Directed against feudalism, nationalism had a certain progressive content. But once capitalism was free to develop, the ideas of nationalism became increasingly false and reactionary.
In reality, there is no significant common interest that all Australians share, except for those that are so general that they are also shared by other nations — not having the earth become uninhabitable, for example. The big majority of Australians, working people, have far more in common with working people in other countries than they do with Australian capitalists.
The racists who incited the lynch mob at Cronulla in December relied on nationalism, waving the flag and telling the gullible that the Australian nation was threatened in some way by recent migrants.
NSW Premier Morris Iemma wants schools to teach "Australian values", by which he means the values of Australian nationalism. (In fact, they already do this, but Iemma would like it done more blatantly.)
The values of Australian nationalism are nothing more nor less than the class interests of Australian capitalists. Help "fellow Australians" — by buying from Australian capitalists, not their competitors. "Give other Aussies a fair go" — by not striking against their companies. Protect "the national interest" — by supporting an aggressive war halfway around the world. Be "self-reliant" — by going hungry if you can't find a job. "Proud to be Aussie" — join a lynch mob.
Nationalism is for two types of people. Capitalists. Suckers.
Allen Myers
From Green Left Weekly, February 1, 2006.
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