‘Nae Pasaran’

We live in a time of overwhelming access to information, but may struggle to genuinely connect with, or feel empowered to change, any of the issues we care about on a national or international level. However, at other points in history many working class folks across the UK, both knew about and took action in solidarity with peoples struggles elsewhere. From Leith dock workers signing up to fight in the Spanish Civil War to a wee lady who had never been outside the town of Hawick, writing letters in favor of abolition to the British Government. What is the role of Internationalism today, and what does it mean to act in an Internationalist way? 

“Why, in a few years time you’ll be able to send a message between [Rome] and [London] in a matter of minutes!”

“Hmm. I wonder if by then they’ll have figured out anything intelligent to say to each other.”

- paraphrased from the Discworld series, by Terry Pratchett.

We live in an international world, whether we like it or not. Almost everything we use or eat, the companies we work for, the events that run our lives. A war halfway across the world affects food prices. High street fashion dictates what’s made in factories even farther away. Modern communications and media have made some of this more visible, but it’s been the case for a long time.

The money James Watt developed the steam engine with - a part of history Scotland is so proud of - came from West Indian trading which included enslaved people. Thousands of Gaels had already been shipped off to Canada in the clearances, leaving a trail of empire and impact that has shaped the world we live in now. Historically, political upheaval in Scotland was often caused by power struggles with their roots in Europe – up to the iconically Scottish tale of Bonnie Prince Charlie, who spent most of his life in Italy and attempted rebellion in Scotland with support from Rome and Paris.

In these ‘Island nations’ we often fail to discuss history with a global perspective; the stories of industry, trade, social upheaval and revolutionary ideas begin and end within our borders. In order to understand Internationalism we must also understand ourselves as territory intimately and continuously connected to a global exchange of people, ideas, products and materials.

Internationalism, though, means more than just recognising this reality. Instead, it stands for a history of building connection, love, resistance and common struggle across borders, in real and concrete ways. It was first named clearly in the 19th century by Marxists who saw simply that if capitalism was a global system, resistance to it must be global as well.

By its nature, of course internationalism has examples almost everywhere. European socialists fought to create solidarity to resist the outbreak of WW1. The Haitian revolution at the end of the 18th century interrupted colonial trading, inspired enslaved people to rise up against plantation owners across the Atlantic realm, spurred and supported other independence movements across the Caribbean and the Americas, and changed the narrative for those fighting for their rights in Europe. People travelled for months and risked detention or death in their countries of origin to attend, for example, the 1949 Asian Women’s Conference in Beijing. Internationalism is a global phenomenon, but its history in Scotland is often neglected by mainstream historical narratives, and even discussions on the left.

There have been lots of moments when people in and from Scotland have seen what they have in common with those on another frontline. Striking weavers in the late 18th century whose

organising eventually led to uprisings across all of Scotland, added calls in support of abolishing the Transatlantic slave trade, Latin American independence and French radicalism to their own demands. In turn, their own ideas and manifestoes were fed by their comrades’ around the world; the French revolution and the ideas associated with it had a huge impact on Scottish radicalism in the late 18th and early 19th century that led to full on rebellion in the 1820 Radical War.

Almost a quarter of the internationalist fighters who went from Britain to fight in the Spanish Civil War against fascist general Francisco Franco were from Scotland. Among them was Ethel MacDonald, who broadcast English-language war reports on the CNT’s anarchist radio station. A generation later, another working-class Glaswegian, Stuart Christie, was arrested for his part in a plot to assassinate Franco who had by then become the dictator of Spain. MacDonald, Christie and the hundreds like them didn’t see any contradiction between their politics at home and their involvement in the struggle in Spain.

It’s sometimes easy to look back at history and see it with a clarity and (usually misguided!) simplicity that we can’t see our own times with. It’s possible to write off stories of Scotland and Internationalism as a glorified past of naive sincerity.Black and white photos of socialist in pinnies or flat caps, fluttering flags feels like a very different world to our HD coloured, high speed, cynical modern era.

So what does it mean to be an internationalist today? We’re definitely still in a globally connected world. Products disappear from supermarket shelves at the flicker of post-Brexit trade regulations or covid vaccine red tape; migration of all kinds is guided by the same economic system that uses it as a scapegoat; energy prices are impacted by wars as well as international corporations.

Lots of social movements are working hard to answer that question. The Black Lives Matter movement which originated in the US was and still is passionately promoted in Scotland, and linked to campaigns around similar issues in Scotland such as the Sheku Bayoh campaign for justice for the family of a Black man killed in police custody in Kirkcaldy. Women’s and feminist organising has made connections with Latin American movements, the women’s revolution in Rojava Kurdistan, and many more, through networks like International Women’s Strike and organising for the 8th of March. Youth organisations in Scotland are actively involved in international projects. Volunteers have gone to fight in Ukraine, often on anti-imperialist and internationalist grounds. Scotland has a rich history of solidarity with Palestine, both from Palestinian communities in Scotland and solidarity activists. These connections all continue to cross-pollinate, enrich and strengthen Scottish resistance movements, and change the shape of everything from University occupations, to mutual aid networks, to the independence movement.

Just a couple of years ago a delegation of Zapatista revolutionaries left Chiapas, Mexico, and travelled to Europe to meet with resistance and grassroots movements and build connections. A group of young women from the Zapatista movement travelled around Scotland, sharing their generational story and asking questions about indigenous language struggle on Skye and women’s role in independence organising in Dundee. They were offered the chance to attend some of the demonstrations outside COP 26 happening at the same time and politely declined- they had no desire to ‘stand outside the bad governments’. They wanted to meet people who thought at least something like them, with time to exchange on a deep level.

What does this internationalism thing really mean? How is internationalism different from overseas charity, participating in ‘multiculturalism’ or even solidarity?

Internationalism means finding common cause and common ground. It means, by definition, recognition of oppression and struggle against it. It means meeting each other eye to eye and shoulder to shoulder.

It has to be of the heart. It has to be something we feel. It means understanding that we have far more in common with other human beings than we have to fear. Overcoming the divide-and-conquer tactics of the system so we can be stronger together. It means trusting that our own little corner of the world and our own small struggles are part of a network of something massive, something beautiful and something powerful.

In our culture, we often feel we are participating in Internationalism by scrolling through a multi-cultural feed on social media, or reposting global content. Social media has the power to connect, and in some contexts has been used as a powerful tool of organising but it also has the power to give the empty sense of connection and to distract us from real organising and collectivity. Internationalism was possible long before we had the internet, and it has to mean much more.

Internationalism doesn’t need to mean giving up our own identity for some kind of empty, liberal, usually privileged idea of being ‘citizens of the world’. Nor does it mean flattening the differences and hierarchies between our experiences. We can truly and deeply love and understand where we come from and let it connect us more, instead of divide us. We can advocate for ourselves and the communities we belong to, and use our experiences of suffering to empathise with and step towards others.

In the world as it is, we are encouraged to focus on our differences, to define and redefine the self and the other into individualised labels. On every level we see the need for self determination, and acknowledgement of suffering or love of place distorted into nationalism, liberal versions of identity politics or supremacist ideologies. On all of these fronts we are pitted against each other, marginalised groups vying for the same tiny pots of grant money, oppression olympics playing out within our organising groups and the SNP attempting to fund the new Nation State of Scotland through tax havens on the Moray Firth and getting cosy with oil company executives.

The Kurdish Freedom Movement is an example of a movement that’s been internationalist since its very beginnings whilst standing on a firm rock of collective identity and relationship to place. Welatparêzî is a Kurdish expression that means ‘love and defence of the land’. It means to have a bond with the homeland and to defend your country, culture and language. But love for the homeland is also love for nature and society. It means trying to create free life and a free, plural, open society. No one can live without their homeland, just as no one can live without society and love. What could it look like to put Scottish identity, pride and love into this framework? 

Internationalism offers us an alternative to Nationalism, and a collective sense of identity that connects, and propels us without reinforcing Borders or Statism. Internationalism needs everybody to genuinely know and love their own roots and their own context, in order to stand in the strength of self knowledge with others. It is a call to understand our own society, history and love of place as much as it is a call to solidarity with the struggles of other people and other territories. 

In Scotland, the current organising of internationalist solidarity with Palestine, is part of a long history, of ordinary people taking actions in defence of people they do not personally know, but whose struggles they can relate to. Our ancestors here in these lands, thought and felt the same as us, that we are part of global systems and global struggles. That we can and should work to undermine parts of our society and economy that causes harm elsewhere in the world. That we can and should participate in conflicts that feel ‘remote’ to our lives here, but which are ideological frontlines in a global war against imperialism, patriarchy and ecological destruction. That we can and should understand the struggles which are happening around the world, as innately connected to our own struggles here in these territories! 

‘Nobody is free until we are all free’ - Fannie Lou Hamer