On January 26, most people around the country celebrated "Australia Day". Thousands of Australian flags with the British union jack were raised, shrimps rolled on the barbie and beer poured like water.
The same day, rallies have marked Invasion Day, reminding all those who celebrated that their precious country was built on the blood of its Aboriginal inhabitants. Still today, Aboriginal people live in Third World conditions: their life expectancy is 20 years less than that of the broader population, their unemployment rate is three times higher and their communities are torn apart by hundreds of years of white Australian "national" domination. Since the beginning of white settlement back in 1788 — when many thousands of Indigenous people were murdered — entire languages have been wiped out.
So what is this "nationalism" that justifies atrocities here in Australia and around the world? Whether you grow up in Australia or elsewhere, you are brought up with a very strong sense of belonging to a certain nation. The world we live is divided into "nation-states", which draw moral justification for their existence and sovereignty from their rights as a nation.
But what defines a nation? Religion? No, as there are many different nations in which the main religion is Christianity or Islam for example, and also inside a nation you often have members of many different religions. Language? Once again, there are so many different nations of English, Spanish or Arabic speakers, to name a few. Ethnicity? Not necessarily, as many nations consists of people from various backgrounds. Perhaps it is no more than what is written on your birth certificate.
People from different nations around the world live in very different conditions. Millions of people around the world have no access to clean drinking water. Even more people have no access to sufficient medical care. The conditions in which people live are completely dictated by the pure luck of where they were born.
But why is it like that? Why does a person born in Australia have more rights than someone born in Sudan, for example? Why do refugees need to beg for their basic human rights and many of them sit in detention camps around the world, while other people — purely because of where they were born — are allowed to live anywhere they want?
In reality, nationalism is another tool used by the ruling class to divide working people by uniting them within the borders of "their" nation behind "their" capitalist ruling class. The phrase "national interests" doesn't refer to the interests of the working majority, but to the interests of Australian capital. Much like racism, nationalism is no more than thinking that your country is superior to all others. It is not based on reality, but it is entrenched so deeply that most of us think nationalism is natural.
Capitalism divides us into nations, and then categorises us according to those nations. The idea is that as independent political and geographic entities, these nations have the right to govern themselves, the right to self-determination. But even this right is not fulfilled: many nations around the world are still fighting for their independence, while the self-determination of others is crippled by illegal invasions and occupations by richer nations.
An example of this is the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people. Later this year will mark 60 years since "The Nakba", the ethnic cleansing of vast parts of Palestine. Since then, millions of Palestinians have lived in refugee camps. Those who live in the West Bank and Gaza are suffering from brutal Israeli occupation. Israel is conducting these ongoing atrocities in the name of nationalism.
As a person who went through the Israeli education system, I was explained again and again the importance of protecting our "nation". Everything Israel did was justified with the "nationalist" card.
Today, in Australia, nationalism justifies a "tight border" policy, in which only a handful of refugees are allowed to enter the country. Refugees are locked up in detention centres. Their only "crime" is that they were born in the wrong place, and tried to get away. There are thousands of people around the world who — trying to escape extreme conditions and war-torn regions — sought refuge in Australia and failed.
Even if you are an Australian citizen, you are still not guaranteed decent conditions — just look at life on remote Indigenous communities.
We in Resistance believe that "nationalism" is a concept that serves the interests of the ruling class. We must reject ideologies that divide us. We have more that unites us, and united we can build a better world.