Internationalism

In politics, internationalism denotes ideas or efforts that go beyond the framework of the nation-state or consider a transnational level to be decisive or desirable. Internationalism had or still has a special meaning in left , socialist and anarchist political drafts.

Marxism, real socialism

The demand “ Workers of all countries, unite! “From the Communist Manifesto is a point of reference in Marxism for an internationalist orientation of political action. It emphasizes what the international working class has in common , detached or irrespective of nationality, in the antagonism of the class struggle . The International is the most widespread battle song of the socialist labor movement worldwide.

Association of socialist parties

The party-political organizational principle of internationalism provides that the individual national parties with a socialist orientation should join together in a federation. This federation, the international or world party, is characterized by the fact that the individual member parties surrender part of their sovereignty to it and, conversely, its decisions are valid and binding for all members.

Internationalism as a party-political organizational principle was developed in its original form by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels for the League of Communists and the International Workers' Association (1864–1876). The most important source texts for this are the manifesto of the Communist Party as well as the inaugural address and the statutes of the International Workers' Association.

After the division and dissolution of the International Workers' Association into an anarchist and a Marxist direction, several successor organizations emerged:

In 1889 the Socialist International or Second International was founded, which collapsed in 1914 because the most important member parties did not implement the resolutions of the International to settle the conflict at the beginning of the First World War . The Socialist International was reestablished in 1951 and functions to this day as the umbrella organization of social democratic parties.

The Communist International or Third International was founded in 1919 on Lenin's initiative . It was dissolved by Stalin in 1943 .

In response to the dissolution of the second international and the Stalinization of the third, the London office was founded in 1932 as an alliance of left-wing socialist parties (until 1940), and the Trotskyist Fourth International in 1938 . In 1953 there was a first split, later further and partial reunions. Whether existing associations of this name can still be called actual internationals today or whether these should first be rebuilt is a matter of dispute among the various Trotskyist organizations.

Union of socialist states

Coat of arms of the USSR

The first constitution of the USSR was conceived in terms of world federalism . The Soviet Union was conceived as the rump of a world state that was to emerge through the accession of further future socialist states. In Stalinism this idea was abandoned and the Soviet Union is now regarded as an extended Russian National State (see. " Socialism in one country "). Remnants of Lenin's internationalism were preserved, such as the use of the “Internationale” as the country's hymn (until 1943) and the coat of arms of the USSR (until 1991), with the slogan “ Proletarians of all countries, unite! ".

Anarcho-syndicalism

In anarchism or syndicalism , internationalism describes the striving of workers for transnational unity under anarchist auspices. The social democratic and communist organizations are accused of integrating into the respective national political framework or their practical-political orientation to this (in accordance with the political strategy of Marxism of the conquest of political power in the respective countries through the party). This path would increasingly inhibit proletarian internationalism in practice and is ultimately limited to the ideal moment. Syndicalism (especially in the form of the CGT and the ITF ) countered this with its own concept of transnational trade union struggle, but could not prevail in the conflict with social democracy and communism in the workers' movement.

United States Foreign Policy

As “bourgeois internationalism”, the term was used in foreign policy in the United States from 1917 as a name for the endeavor to spread one's own liberal political values internationally. President Woodrow Wilson was the first to make the spread of democracy based on a liberal-capitalist system a political goal in 1918 through the 14-point program . This foreign policy approach continued, for example, with the state formation of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1945 and, for example, with today's US Middle East policy . US foreign policy traditionally oscillates between isolationism and internationalism.

New social movements

In the New Left and the New Social Movements since the 1960s and the anti-globalization movement that grew stronger from the end of the 1980s , the catchphrase of international solidarity was taken up again and expanded to include further political content. In the information and solidarity work with groups and people who fight against different forms of oppression and exploitation in different countries , there was an increased networking . For example, non-partisan organizations, so-called NGOs ( non-governmental organizations ) have been founded that appear and work with an internationalist claim.

literature

Josef Hierlmeier: Internationalism. An introduction to his history of ideas - from the beginning to the present , Schmetterling Verlag, 2., aktuellis. u. exp. A. 2006, ISBN 3896575945
Holger Marcks: Structures of Internationalism. The problem of the organizational conditions for an internationalist labor movement . In: Marcks / Seiffert: The great strikes. Episodes from the class struggle , Münster 2008, pp. 88–92.
Theodor Bergmann : Internationalism in the 21st Century. Learning from failure - for a new international solidarity . VSA-Verlag , Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89965-354-0 . ( Excerpts, online )
Werner Balsen, Karl Rössel: High international solidarity: On the history of the Third World movement in the Federal Republic . Verlag Kölner Volksblatt, Cologne 1986, ISBN 978-3923243211

Web links

Wiktionary: Internationalism - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Yanis Varoufakis : In the loop of globalization: For a new internationalism , in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik , 3/2018, pp. 41–47
Ambros Waibel (translation): Proletarian internationalism; The last battle; In the trenches of World War I, the idea of the homeless worker died , in: taz on September 16, 2014
Goedart Palm: American Internationalism , in Telepolis , September 21, 2002

Individual evidence

^ Eugene R. Wittkopf et al: American Foreign Policy - Pattern and Process. 7th edition. Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont 2005, p. 29.

[wittk29-1] Eugene R. Wittkopf et al: American Foreign Policy - Pattern and Process. 7th edition. Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont 2005, p. 29.