Page 28 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

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Introduction
ments of the educated elite contribute to the development of nationalism as “a vi-
sion of the future which restores to [men and women their] basic patterns of living
and being, which was once [their] undisputed birthright. It is not a mechanical link-
125
ing of the tradition into the modern.”
126
who impressively contributes to studies of nationalism by explor-
Even Smith,
ing how cultural, historical, social, ideological, and political factors facilitate the emer-
gence of oppressed nationalism, fails to see the interplay of the material and subjective
forces. He does not explain how political economy and racial/ethnonational stratifi-
cation are interwoven and result in irreconcilable contradiction between the coloniz-
ing structures and the colonized ones.There are scholars who give less importance to
the complex issues that Smith seriously addresses, and who only deal with one or
more factors. For instance, John Breuilly sees nationalism as a form of opposition pol-
127
itics that seeks to gain access to state power.
He identifies three functions of na-
tionalism as coordination, mobilization, and legitimation of a national movement.
Nationalism coordinates diverse political and class interests, and mobilizes new groups
to join the movement by providing it with a unity of purpose and value in articulat-
ing its political objectives. He also notes that the movement needs ideological legiti-
mation to be acceptable to its sympathizers and outsiders to get political, moral, and
material support. But Breuilly considers culture and other factors as secondary issues
in studying and understanding nationalism. Breuilly says that focusing “upon culture,
ideology, identity, class, or modernization is to neglect the fundamental point that na-
tionalism is, above and beyond all else, about politics, and that politics is about power.
Power, in the modern world, is primarily about control of the state.The central ques-
tion, therefore, should be to relate nationalism to the objective of obtaining and using
state power.” 128 Although his identification of nationalism with state power is impor-
tant, Breuilly confuses his analytical separation of political power from cultural and
economic power with social reality.
Breuilly correctly explains why the colonized populations struggle for political
power:“The creation of a genuine worldwide economic and political system has been
marked by enormous disparities in wealth, power and values. These disparities have
provoked attempts to get rid of subordination and exploitation or to sustain domi-
nance and economic advantage.They have also involved painful adjustments to rapidly
changing situations and the attempts to realise new objectives in ways which call for
directed social change. All these responses have, to some extent, been related to na-
tionalism.” 129 However, those who believe the notion that politics can be separated
from cultural and economic arenas in defining nationalism fail to grasp the complex-
ity of nationalism.This work attempts to provide a corrective explanation to that ap-
proach by considering cultural, economic and political factors. Correctly explaining
the connection between culture and politics, Smith explains that nationalism moves
the subject people “from isolation to activism, from quietism to mobilization and from
culture to politics.” 130 Cabral captures the interplay between material and subjective
forces and their impact on individual and collective identities. He also challenges both
economic and cultural reductionism by demonstrating the dynamic interplay of ma-
terial and subjective factors in developing revolutionary nationalism. 131
Failing to grasp this dimension of nationalism and its material and subjective
sources leads some scholars to claim that nationalism is a political principle that nec-
essarily attempts to create a congruent political and cultural boundary to let “all na-
tions have their own political roofs, and let all of them also refrain from including