Comments Elsewhere

I’m unclear on what the excellent point that Goldberg is making is supposed to be.

There’s an extensive literature by Leftists on the tortured relationship between Leftism, anti-imperialism, and nationalism. Everyone from internationalist Marxists to milksop Social Democrats to anarchists has written and argued extensively about when, where, and how you might support nationalist movements. Explicit topics of discussion have included Zionism, competing forms of Jewish nationalism (Bundism), Arab nationalism, Palestinian nationalism, etc. (The discussion hasn’t been confined to post-colonial nationalism; it’s also discussed phenomena such as Black Nationalism in the United States.) In spite of a lot of intense disagreements, there has always been a general consensus that “It’s the Empire, stupid!”—i.e., that there’s a big difference between nationalist tendencies that are struggling against international empires and those that are struggling to strengthen the resolve and power of international empires. The main debates focus on how cautious the Left has to be about which anti-imperial nationalisms they’re willing to support (i.e., supporting most, some, or none), with different answers coming out all around, but none of them urging an uncritical embrace.

I might mention that this is precisely the position which has been taken by some L&P posters on secessionist movements here and around the world.

I don’t expect Goldberg to agree with either any of the particular views or the general consensus of that discussion. Heck, I don’t even expect him to know much about it. But if he doesn’t know about it, then why is he still writing about it?