Nationalism

Originally appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review 32 (Sep 30, 2001): page 26

"Let a thousand flowers bloom"
The USA was always supposed to be a "melting pot." Canada, by contrast, calls itself a "mosaic", which may explain why Canadians seem to suffer a kind of long-drawn-out and perpetual identity crisis. What does it mean to be "Canadian" as opposed to (or as well as) Quebecois, Celt, or Native?
In the 1950s the USA was supposed to be immune to such headaches. All cultures would "melt" and fuse into the American character, the main stream. In truth, however, (...)

On the theoretical and practical level, theorist-activists such as Bakunin, Reclus and Berkman all condemned and fought against imperialism. In the colonial world, anarchists played an important role in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles, notably those in Cuba, Ireland, Korea, Macedonia, Mexico, Nicaragua and the Ukraine.
For example, the national hero of Nicaragua, Augustino Sandino, who led a revolt against the American occupation in the 1920s and 1930s was an (...)

The Nineteenth Century (March 1885) pp. 527-46
National questions are not in vogue now in Europe. After having so much exercised the generation of ’48, they seem to be now in neglect. The poor results of a movement which caused so many illusions; the new problems that are coming to the front – the social problem taking the precedence of all; the prominence recently given to the ideas of unification and centralisation above those of territorial independence and federalism, by the sudden (...)

translated by Ray E. Chase. New York : Rocker Publications Committee, 1937. 592 p.
Bibliography: p. 557-566.
Translated from the German manuscript which the author brought out of Germany fleeing from Hitler’s rise to power. That ms. was first published in Spanish in 1936-1937 in 3 v. under title: El nacionalismo.
[2d American ed.] Los Angeles, Rocker Publications Committee [1947, c1937] 592 p. port. 24 cm. "Epilogue to the second American edition" p. 537-554.
Includes index. (...)

University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, c1998.

This article may be quoted as long as it is appropriately acknowledged. No commercial reproduction is authorized. The author retains copyright to this essay
During my research I came across the Russian revolutionary anarchist Mikhail Bakunin curiously using the expression "the United States of Europe". In 1867 he asserted that in order to achieve the triumph of liberty, justice and peace in the international relations of Europe, and to render civil war impossible among the various peoples (...)