Left-wing nationalists typically have a socialist (democratic or authoritarian), social democratic, progressive, or societally conservative background (the conservative left) combined with a preference for nation-state sovereignty. Left-wing nationalists therefore strive to reduce the wealth gap in the country, retain control or nationalize public services (such as health, energy and public transport). Left-wing nationalist movements do not tend to advocate supremacy, however, certain forms of left-wing nationalism have adopted
racialist theses favorable to a homogeneous society, with opposition to immigration. It is important to emphasise that there is not just one type of left-wing nationalism: the nation can be framed in many different ways, which means that left-wing politics drawing on national identity can do so in different manners and with varying levels of inclusiveness. In this context, left nationalists completely or to a large extent reject
neoliberalism and supranational interference. Left-wing nationalists want countries to decide for themselves on issues such as the economy, health and defense.
Social democratic nationalism Social democratic nationalism is strongly diffused in certain developing nations but also in part of
Europe. As a European example, the Slovak party
Direction – Social Democracy supported a moderate nationalist conception of
social democracy in the 2020s which translated into a clear rejection of immigration. During the campaign for the
2023 Turkish presidential election, the
Republican People's Party and its presidential candidate
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu openly adopted a stance against illegal immigration. The
Australian Labor Party had also held a similar line in its history in the 20th century.
Social ethno-nationalism Social Ethno-nationalism is a doctrine aimed at promoting social progress while defending the ethnic interests of different peoples, both emancipation and supremacy. For example, the
Australian Labor Party had a strong
white nationalist component and has openly supported the
White Australia policy in the past. Secular
Arab nationalism advocated by
Baathism and previously by
Nasserism defends
Arab socialism, which emphasizes a
secularist and progressive position seeking (at least in principle) to integrate
Arab Christians,
Alawites,
Druze and others by eliminating tribal and sectarian divisions. Some
black nationalism in the
United States aimed at defending the interests of
African Americans was highly influential in the 1970s with groups like the
Black Panthers Party. South American indigenous groups also have as their basis the defense of the ethnic interests of Amerindians while promoting social progress and the sharing of wealth.
Socialist nationalism Socialist nationalism is a concept that refers to the combination of socialism with nationalism or with some form of national sentiment or nationality. The term contrasts with the
internationalism of
Marxist socialism and is generally applied to certain non-Marxist variants of socialism such as the
Burmese Way to Socialism, Pan-Arab
Nasserism and
Ba'athism,
African socialism and
neosocialism in
France. Some forms are influenced by Marxism while being independent of it such as
Sandinismo and
Chavismo. Left-wing nationalisms that have not been influenced by
Marxism are mostly hostile to Marxist principles of
proletarian internationalism,
class struggle and
state atheism, particularly forms influenced by
religious socialisms or defending moderate
secularism.
Marxist interpretation Marxism identifies the nation as a socioeconomic construction created after the collapse of the
feudal system which was utilized to create the
capitalist economic system.
Classical Marxists have unanimously claimed that nationalism is a bourgeois phenomenon that is not associated with Marxism. In certain instances, Marxism has supported patriotic movements if they were in the interest of class struggle, but rejects other nationalist movements deemed to distract workers from their necessary goal of defeating the bourgeoisie. Marxists have evaluated certain nations to be
progressive and other nations to be
reactionary.
Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels interpreted issues concerning nationality on a
social evolutionary basis. Marx and Engels claim that the creation of the modern nation state is the result of the replacement of feudalism with the
capitalist mode of production. With the replacement of feudalism with capitalism, capitalists sought to unify and centralize populations' culture and language within states in order to create conditions conducive to a
market economy in terms of having a common language to coordinate the economy, contain a large enough population in the state to insure an internal division of labor and contain a large enough territory for a state to maintain a viable economy. Marx followed
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's view that the creation of individual-centered
civil society by states as a positive development in that it dismantled previous religious-based society and freed individual conscience. Marx described this in detail in
The German Ideology, stating: Civil society embraces the whole material intercourse of individuals within a definite stage of development of productive forces. It embraces the whole commercial and industrial life of a given stage, and, insofar, transcends the state and the nation, though on the other hand, it must assert itself in its foreign relations as nationality and inwardly must organize itself as a state. Marx and Engels believed that certain nations that could not consolidate viable nation-states should be assimilated into other nations that were more viable and further in Marxian evolutionary economic progress. In general, Marx preferred internationalism and interaction between nations in class struggle, saying in
Preface to the Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy that "[o]ne nation can and should learn from others". Similarly, although Marx and Engels criticized Irish unrest for delaying a worker's revolution in England, they believed that Ireland was oppressed by
Great Britain, but that the Irish people would better serve their own interests by joining proponents of class struggle in Europe as Marx and Engels claimed that the socialist workers of Europe were the natural allies of Ireland. Marx and Engels also believed that it was in Britain's best interest to let Ireland go as the Ireland issue was being used by elites to unite the British working class with the elites against the Irish. When Stalin joined the Georgian Marxists, Marxism in Georgia was heavily influenced by
Noe Zhordania, who evoked Georgian patriotic themes and opposition to Russian imperial control of Georgia. Zhordania claimed that communal bonds existed between peoples that created the plural sense of countries and went further to say that the Georgian sense of
identity pre-existed capitalism and the capitalist conception of
nationhood. However, Stalin believed that cultural communities did exist where people lived common lives and were united by holistic bonds, claiming that there were real nations while others that did not fit these traits were paper nations. Stalin defined the nation as being "neither racial nor tribal, but a historically formed community of people". In 1913, Stalin rejected the concept of national identity entirely and advocated in favor of a universal cosmopolitan modernity. Stalin's view of vanguard and progressive nations such as Russia, Germany and Hungary in contrast to nations he deemed primitive is claimed to be related to Engels' views. i.e.
socialist patriotism. Tito's Yugoslavia was overtly nationalistic in its attempts to promote unity between the Yugoslav nations within Yugoslavia and asserting Yugoslavia's independence. This nationalism was opposed to
cultural assimilation as had been carried out by the previous
Yugoslav monarchy, but it was instead based upon
multiculturalism. While promoting a Yugoslav nationalism, the Yugoslav government was staunchly opposed to any factional
ethnic nationalism or domination by the existing nationalities as Tito denounced ethnic nationalism in general as being based on hatred and was the cause of war. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia blamed the factional division and conflict between the Yugoslav nations on foreign
imperialism.
By country Africa Mauritius The
Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) is a
political party in
Mauritius formed by a group of students in the late 1960s, advocating independence from the United Kingdom, socialism and social unity. The MMM advocates what it sees as a fairer society, without discrimination on the basis of social class, race, community, caste, religion, gender or sexual orientation. The MMM was founded in 1968 as a
students' movement by
Paul Bérenger, Dev Virahsawmy, Jooneed Jeeroburkhan, Chafeekh Jeeroburkhan, Sushil Kushiram, Tirat Ramkissoon, Krishen Mati, Ah-Ken Wong, Kriti Goburdhun, Allen Sew Kwan Kan, Vela Vengaroo and Amedee Darga amongst others. In 1969, it became the MMM. The party is a member of the
Socialist International as well as the
Progressive Alliance, an international grouping of socialist, social-democratic and labour parties.
Ethiopia The
Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) (
Tigrinya: ህዝባዊ ወያነ ሓርነት ትግራይ,
ḥəzbawi wäyanä ḥarənnät təgray, "Popular Struggle for the Freedom of Tigray"; widely known by pejorative names
Woyane,
Wayana (Amharic: ወያነ) or
Wayane (ወያኔ) in older texts and Amharic publications) is a
political party in
Ethiopia, established on 18 February 1975 in
Dedebit, northwestern
Tigray, according to official records. As a strategy, TPLF used guerilla tactics as it saw those as befitting to a Marxist–Leninist political organization. Within 16 years, it had grown from about a dozen men into the most powerful armed liberation movement in Ethiopia. It led a coalition of movements named the
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) from 1989 to 2018. With the help of its former ally, the
Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), EPRDF
overthrew the dictatorship of the
People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) and established a new government on 28 May 1991 that ruled Ethiopia.
Americas Latin America Left-wing nationalism has inspired many Latin American military personnel, who are receptive to this doctrine because of the repeated interference of the United States in the political and economic affairs of their countries and the social misery in the continent. While some of the military regimes such as the
Argentine dictatorship and the
Augusto Pinochet's
regime in Chile were right-wing, left-wing soldiers seized power in Peru during the 1968 military coup and established a
Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces headed by General
Juan Velasco Alvarado. Although it was dictatorial in nature, it did not adopt a repressive character as the regimes mentioned above. Similarly and also in 1968, General
Omar Torrijos seized power in Panama, allied himself with
Cuba and the
Sandinistas of
Nicaragua and above all led a fierce battle against the United States for the
nationalisation of the
Panama Canal.
Cuba Venezuela North America Canada In Canada, nationalism is associated with the left in the context of both
Quebec nationalism and pan-
Canadian nationalism (mostly in
English Canada, but also in
Quebec). In Quebec, the term was used by S. H. Milner and H. Milner to describe political developments in 1960s and 1970s Quebec which they saw as unique in North America. While the Liberals of the
Quiet Revolution in Quebec had opposed Quebec nationalism which had been right-wing and reactionary, nationalists in Quebec now found that they could only maintain their cultural identity by ridding themselves of foreign elites, which was achieved by adopting radicalism and socialism. This ideology was seen in contrast to historic socialism, which was internationalist and considered the working class to have no homeland. The 1960s in Canada saw the rise of a movement in favour of the independence of Quebec. Among the proponents of this constitutional option for Quebec were militants of an independent and socialist Quebec. Prior to the 1960s, nationalism in Quebec had taken various forms. First, a radical liberal nationalism emerged and was a dominant voice in the political discourse of
Lower Canada from the early 19th century to the 1830s. The 1830s saw the more vocal expression of a liberal and republican nationalism which was silenced with the rebellions of 1837 and 1838. In a now annexed Lower Canada in the 1840s, a moderately liberal expression of nationalism succeeded the old one, which remained in existence but was confined to political marginality thereafter. In parallel to this, a new Catholic and
ultramontane nationalism emerged. Antagonism between the two incompatible expressions of nationalism lasted until the 1950s. According to political scientist , the manifestation of a third kind of nationalism became significant when intellectuals raised the issue of the economic colonization of Quebec, something the established nationalists elites had neglected to do. Milner identifies three distinct clusters of factors in the evolution of Quebec toward left-wing nationalism: the first cluster relates to the national consciousness of Quebecers (
Québécois); the second to changes in technology, industrial organization and patterns of communication and education; and the third related to "the part played by the intellectuals in the face of changes in the first two factors". In English Canada, support for government intervention in the economy to defend the country from foreign (i.e. American) influences is one of Canada's oldest political traditions, going back at least to the
National Policy (tariff protection) of Sir
John A. Macdonald, can historically be seen on both the left and the right. However, calls for more extreme forms of government involvement to forestall a putative American takeover have been a staple of the Canadian left since the 1920s and possibly earlier. Right-wing nationalism has never supported such measures, which is one of the major differences between the two. Leftist nationalism has also been more eager to dispense with historical Canadian symbols associated with Canada's British colonial heritage, such as the
Canadian Red Ensign or even
the monarchy (see
republicanism in Canada). English Canadian leftist nationalism has historically been represented by most of
Canada's socialist parties, factions with the social-democratic
New Democratic Party (such as the
Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada in the 1960s and 1970s) and in a more diluted form in some elements of the
Liberal Party of Canada (such as
Trudeauism to a certain extent), manifesting itself in pressure groups such as the
Council of Canadians. This type of nationalism is associated with the slogan "It's either
the state or
the States", coined by the
Canadian Radio League in the 1930s during their campaign for a national
public broadcaster to compete with the private American radio stations broadcasting into Canada, representing a fear of annexation by the United States. Right-wing nationalism continues to exist in Canada, but it tends to be much less concerned with
integration into North America, especially since the
Conservative Party embraced free trade after 1988. Many far-right movements in Canada are nationalist, but not Canadian nationalist, instead advocating for
Western separation or
union with the United States.
United States Theodore Roosevelt's
1912 Presidential campaign, which promoted his platform of "
New Nationalism," combined his traditional progressive policies, such as
anti-trust legislation,
national health insurance, anti-
corporatocracy policies,
direct democracy, reductions on
campaign finance, an
eight-hour workday, and
women's suffrage combined with
American nationalist policies, such as his support for a
naval buildup, as well as use of nationalist rhetoric,
appealing to the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and the
American Civil War. The American Indian Movement (AIM) has been committed to improving conditions faced by
native peoples. It founded institutions to address needs, including the Heart of The Earth School, the Little Earth Housing, the International Indian Treaty Council, the AIM StreetMedics, the American Indian Opportunities and the Industrialization Center (one of the largest Indian job training programs) as well as the KILI radio and the Indian Legal Rights Centers. In 1971, several members of the AIM, including
Dennis Banks and
Russell Means, traveled to
Mount Rushmore. They converged at the mountain in order to protest the illegal seizure of the Sioux Nation's sacred
Black Hills in 1877 by the United States federal government which was in violation of its earlier 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The protest began to publicize the issues of the American Indian Movement. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had illegally taken the Black Hills. The government offered financial compensation, but the Oglala Sioux have refused it, insisting on return of the land to their people. The settlement money is earning interest.
East Asia Korea Many
Koreans (both North and South) possess a strong sense of 'ethnic pride', driven in part by how more powerful neighbors (
Japan,
China) took advantage of Korea throughout its history. Many Koreans are wary of neighboring powers. A representative example of this sentiment is
South Korean dramas, which are generally known to have negative portrayals of Americans, Chinese, and Japanese and positive depictions of North Koreans. In early November 2018, a popular Japanese music show cancelled
BTS' performance, citing a T-shirt a member wore the year before, bearing a photograph of a
mushroom cloud following the
bombing of Nagasaki. At that time, the T-shirt had phrases symbolizing
Korean independence movement. Japanese people felt this aspect of BTS was "racist", but many South Korean people and mainstream South Korea politicians argued that it was an unfair attack by Japanese people. Many Koreans take this in a positive sense because the U.S. atomic bomb attack on Japan soon led to
Korea's independence from
Japan's colonial rule. In South Korea, there is a lingering perception that whites or Japanese are perpetrators of racism, and Koreans are victims of racism, and BTS actively supports
Black Lives Matter. In modern politics, South Korean liberals and progressives put "independence" (독립) (autonomy) as their main value, while North Korea's far-left
Juche also put forward a strong "independence" (주체) ideology based on
Korean nationalism and anti-imperialism.
Korea under Japanese rule Shin Chae-ho is a representative left-wing nationalist during the
Korea under Japanese rules. Most of the
Korean independence activists of the period were
Korean nationalists who resisted the Japanese Empire.
North Korea Experts analyze that North Korea's radical anti-
sadaejuui and anti-colonialism have been the main causes of North Korea's economic poverty. The North Korean government shows hostility to all for historical reasons against neighboring powers such as the
United States,
China, and
Japan.
Bruce Cumings analyzed that the reason why North Korea does not collapse is that it is a thoroughly
anti-imperialist country. (Many North Korean people distrust the surrounding powers.)
South Korea South Korea's left-wing nationalism supports
anti-imperialism,
anti-Japanese decolonialism, and
Korean unification. They are usually viewed as '
ethnonationalist left' (좌파민족주의) in that they oppose
state-aligned nationalism, foster hostility to Japan and sympathy for North Korea, but it's more like
romantic nationalism (낭만적 민족주의, 낭만적 내셔널리즘) because left-wing nationalists often embrace
diversity and
multiculturalism. Progressive nationalists see the elimination of hierarchical "pro-
Japanese (partially pro-
Chinese and pro-
American) colonialist" remnants through nationalism as a prerequisite for realizing social progressivism. 's Poster in
Seoul Metro by the Seoul Transit Corporation Labor Union in 2019 Historically, Korea's classical liberals have hated and resisted
Qing dynasty (China) and
Empire of Japan rather than the classical conservatives who conform to the powers. Due to the history of the
division of Korea led by the
United States and the
Soviet Union, where Koreans'
self-determination was ignored,
Korean nationalism became more prominent in the
liberal and
progressive camp than in the
conservative camp in South Korea. South Korea's "progressive-nationalists" criticize conservative "
New Rightists" for having a romanticized perception of the
United States,
anti-communist hatred of
North Korea, and supporting pro-
Japanese
colonialist view. The Korean nationalist sentiment of South Korean progressives also has other factors, which stem from the historical fact that some Korean conservative elites were
pro-Japanese fascists. Progressive nationalists support the punishment of Nazi collaborators and redress by Israel. Progressive nationalists in South Korea analyze that the remnants of authoritarianism created by
Chinilpa, including
Park Chung-hee, are the cause of many unreasonable social hierarchies in Korean society. The negative stance against Japan in South Korea is also closely related to the intense lobbying by human rights groups for the redress of Korean victims of Japanese war crimes. South Korea has demanded a level of contrition from Japan that few colonial powers have ever shown to their former possessions. South Korean liberals/progressives refer to it as a 'victim-centered idea'(피해자 중심주의). According to them, the perpetrator's position should not be considered, some of the assets of Japanese companies should be confiscated to compensate the victims, and the Japanese right-wing
LDP government is absolutely "
far-right" even "
fascist". On the other hand, some South Korean conservatives tend to oppose such a demand for compensation for Japan, which liberals/progressives accuse of being "
pro-Japanese colonialists". This 'victim-centered idea' has little room for compromise with right-wing
Japanese nationalists, including the Japan's LDP government. Modern left-wing nationalism was formed in the 1980s. At that time, South Korean activist groups showed anti-American tendencies because the
United States supported Chun Doo-hwan dictatorship, citing anti-communism as the main reason, and was silent on the
massacre in Gwangju. As a result, many South Korean liberal activists, who had pursued a somewhat pro-American and moderate democratic path until the 1970s, turn into leftist activists due to their betrayal they felt from the United States. South Korea's left-wing activists were divided into two factions, '
PD' () and '
NL' (). In the case of 'PD', it
opposes nationalism by advocating European
socialism or Soviet
communism, but 'NL' takes a leftist
Korean nationalist and
anti-imperialist line based on strong opposition to American and Japanese imperialism. Leftist nationalists in South Korea oppose perceived Japanese imperialist attitudes towards South Korea, support friendly relations with Russia, China and the
Sunshine Policy toward North Korea, but
liberal nationalists and the
National Liberation nationalists differ significantly in their attitudes toward United States in the 21st century. Far-left nationalists and Centre-left nationalists differed in terms of their policies. •
Liberal nationalists (mainly the
Democratic Party of Korea,
Justice Party, etc.) believed in the necessity of the presence of American troops to protect South Korea's sovereignty and believe it can achieve unification through dialogue with North Korea. They are diplomatically pro-American, but at the same time somewhat
pro-Russian (친러), and tend to distrust
China and
Japan. •
National Liberation nationalists (mainly the
Progressive Party, etc.) are "anti-American" (반미) and supported the "withdrawal of
U.S. troops from the peninsula" (미군 철수) and "Dissolution of the
U.S.-South Korea alliance" (한미동맹 파기) because they believed Korea is a puppet of the United States and lack true sovereignty.
Taiwan (Republic of China) welcoming
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's delegation outside
Grand Hyatt Taipei Taiwan's left-wing nationalist movement tends to emphasize the "Taiwanese identity" separated from
China. As a result, Taiwan's left-wing nationalism takes a pro-American stand to counter "
Chinese imperialism", even though it has initially been influenced by Western socialist movements, including
Leninism.
Europe Historically, left-wing nationalists have often emerged in opposition to European states whose borders had been formed by medieval dynastic unity, bringing together multiple linguistic and ethnic groups into
one single state. During the 18th and 19th centuries, those
centralised states began to promote
cultural homogenisation. In reaction, some regions developed their own progressive nationalism. This often occurred in regions whose cultural, economic or sociological distinctiveness from the dominant culture had produced historical grievances (political discrimination such as the
Irish Penal Laws, economic crisis such as the
Irish Great Famine, or traumatic war deaths). The idea could gain ground that government by distant economic or aristocratic elites was responsible for current misfortune, but that self-rule could remedy the situation by allowing a more egalitarian or state-interventionist approach, better suited to local tastes or needs, than the royal or imperial state. Left-wing nationalists have been prominent in leading the
autonomist and
separatist movements in the
Basque Country (
Basque nationalism);
Catalonia (
Catalan independence);
Corsica (
Corsican nationalism);
Galicia (
Galician nationalism); the
Republic of Ireland and
Northern Ireland (
Irish republicanism and
Irish nationalism);
Sardinia (
Sardinian nationalism);
Scotland (
Scottish nationalism);
Székely Land (
Székely autonomy movement) and
Wales (
Welsh nationalism).
France In Europe, a number of left-wing nationalist movements exist and have a long and well-established tradition. Nationalism originated as a left-wing position during the
French Revolution and the
French Revolutionary Wars. The original left-wing nationalists endorsed
civic nationalism which defined the nation as a daily plebiscite and as formed by the subjective will to live together. Related to
revanchism, the belligerent will to take revenge against
Germany and retake control of
Alsace-Lorraine, nationalism could then be sometimes
opposed to imperialism. In practice, motivated by the dual idea of liberating areas from conservative rule and that those liberated peoples could be absorbed into the civic nation, French left-wing nationalism often ended up justifying or rationalising
imperialism, notably in the case of Algeria. France's centralist left-wing nationalism was at times resisted by provincial left-wing groups who saw its Paris-focussed cultural and administrative centralism as little different in practice to right-wing French nationalism. From the late 19th century, several of the many ethnic groups that made up France developed a movement for separatism and regionalism, becoming a significant political factor in
Alsace,
Brittany,
Corsica,
French Flanders and the French portions of the
Basque and
Catalan countries, with smaller movements in other parts of the country and eventually equivalent movements in overseas territories (
Algeria and
New Caledonia, among others). These regional nationalisms could be either left-wing or right-wing. For instance,
Occitan nationalism in the early 20th century was expressed by the
far-right leaders
Maurice Barrès and
Charles Maurras (who imagined a
right-wing Occitan regionalist identity within a multiethnic French state as a bulwark to protect conservative zones against
left-wing Parisian governments) whereas a portion of the
Félibrige cultural movement represented a more progressive Occitan nationalism and looked for inspiration to the
federalist republicanism of
Catalonia. It was a similar situation in each of the traditionally regionalist zones, including the left-wing
Breton Federalist League against the right-wing
Breton National Party and the left-wing
Alsatian Progress Party against the right-wing
Heimatsbund, among others. Since the 1970s, a cultural revival and left-wing nationalism has grown in strength in several regions. For instance, the
Pè a Corsica party has close links with both
social democracy and the
green movement and is currently the dominant political force in Corsica. After the
2017 legislative election, the party obtained three-quarters of Corsican seats in the
National Assembly and two-thirds in the
Corsican Assembly.
Ireland Irish nationalism has had left-wing nationalist elements since its mainstream inception. Early nationalists during the 19th century such as the
United Irishmen in the 1790s,
Young Irelanders in the 1840s,
Fenian Brotherhood in the 1880s, as well as
Sinn Féin, and
Fianna Fáil in the 1920s all styled themselves in various ways after French left-wing
radicalism and
republicanism. This combination of nationalism with left-wing positions was possible as the
nation state they sought was envisaged against the backdrop of the more socially conservative and pluri-national state of the United Kingdom. Today, parties such as
Sinn Féin and the
Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland are left-wing nationalist parties. Earlier nationalist republican parties that were once rather more left-leaning for the time, notably Fianna Fáil in the Republic of Ireland, have over time grown more
conservative ("
sinistrism"), today representing a
centrist or
centre-right republican nationalism.
Right-wing nationalist outlooks and
far-right parties in general are few in Irish history. When they did emerge, it was usually short-lived and contextual (the
Blueshirts during the
Great Depression) or took the form of Anglo-British nationalism (as with
Orangism and other tendencies within
Ulster unionism). Since World War II, right-wing Irish nationalism has been a rare force in the Republic of Ireland, espoused primarily by small, often short-lived organisations. As such, left-wing nationalism with a republican, egalitarian, anti-colonial tendency has historically been the dominant form of nationalism in Irish politics.
Poland In the late 19th century, Polish labour movement split into two factions, with one proposing
communist revolution and Polish
autonomy within the Russian Empire which established the
Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, renamed later as the
Communist Party of Poland. However, most activists have seen Polish independence as a requirement to realize socialist political program as after
Poland partitions Austria-Hungary,
Prussia and
Russia repressed their ethnically Polish citizens of all social classes. Those activists established
Polish Socialist Party (PPS). During
World War I, PPS' leader
Józef Piłsudski became a leader of
German dominated puppet Poland and then broke an alliance with
Central Powers, claiming an independent
Second Polish Republic. As a
Chief of State, Piłsudski signed in very first weeks
decrees about the eight hour work day, equal rights for women, free and compulsory education, free healthcare and social insurance, making Poland one of the most progressive countries of
interwar period. In Poland itself, the PPS is considered pro-independence and patriotic left-wing (in contrast with the internationalist left-wing) rather than left-wing nationalist. The term nationalism is used nearly exclusively for the right-wing
national democracy of
Roman Dmowski and other officially far-right movements such as
National Radical Camp and
National Revival of Poland. Nowadays, notable parties and organizations that come the closest to the idea of a left-wing nationalism are
Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland under the leadership of
Andrzej Lepper and Zmiana led by
Mateusz Piskorski. Both advocate
patriotism,
social conservatism,
Euroscepticism,
anti-imperialism (strong criticism of a
NATO and
American foreign policies) and
economic nationalism. The Self-Defence won 53 seats out of 460 in 2001 elections and 56 in 2005. From 2005 to 2007, it was in the coalition government with two other parties (one right-wing and the other nationalist). Since then, it has no representatives in the Polish
Sejm. It could be argued that the ruling
Law and Justice party exhibits forms of left-wing nationalism. (However, the party is more defined as either a right-wing nationalist.) On economic issues, the party takes partial stance against privatization and pushes for a strong state role in the market. On social issues, the party is very conservative and often alludes to the policies of the interwar
sanation movement which was led by
Józef Piłsudski.
Scotland The
Scottish independence movement is mainly left-wing and is spearheaded by the
Scottish National Party, who have been on the
centre-left since the 1970s. There are other political parties from the political left in favour of Scottish independence, namely the
Scottish Greens, the
Scottish Socialist Party and
Solidarity.
Spain EH Bildu is the political coalition that represents leftist
Basque nationalism, formed by
Sortu,
Eusko Alkartasuna,
Aralar and
Alternatiba political parties. In
Catalonia, there are two main political parties which defend the Catalan left-wing independentist movement, both with institutional representation, which are the
Republican Left of Catalonia and
Popular Unity Candidacy. In
Galicia the main opposition party in the autonomous parliament
Galician Nationalist Bloc,
BNG advocates for Galicia to exert its national self-determination and conquer national sovereignty, always with a social and left-wing approach.
Turkey In
Turkey, the
Republican People's Party and the Enlightenment Movement (
Aydınlık Hareketi) have been synonymous with left-wing nationalism. The Enlightenment Movement has been advocated by the
Patriotic Party.
Ukraine In
Ukraine, the national question and the agrarian question especially before the
Russian Revolution were highly entangled. This led to the
Borotbists.
Wales flag from the
Welsh Language Society, reading "A free Wales for everyone!" Similarly to Scotland, there is a left-wing movement in Wales led by
Plaid Cymru for
Welsh independence. Since its founding in 1925, the party has been an anti-capitalist party due it seeing the English dominance capitalism as a threat on the Welsh language. Its second leader
Saunders Lewis wrote an article in the party's newspaper in opposition to capitalism in 1926. During the 80s and 90s Plaid Cymru's agenda became more left-leaning on social issues with the party adopting policies of the
New Left. Today Plaid Cymru campaigns on a
social-democratic policy with emphasis on being a party 'for the whole of Wales'.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith, established in 1962, campaigns for Welsh language rights, left wing and Welsh nationalism causes using
non-violent direct action. Welsh independence is also supported by the
Wales Green Party.
Oceania Australia During the 1890s, Australian-born novelists and poets such as
Henry Lawson,
Joseph Furphy and
Banjo Paterson drew on the
archetype of the Australian bushman. These and other writers formulated the bush legend which included broadly left-wing notions that
working class Outback Australians were democratic,
egalitarian,
anti-authoritarian and cultivated
mateship. However, terms like nationalist and patriotic were also utilised by pro-
British Empire political conservatives, culminating with the formation in 1917 of the
Nationalist Party of Australia, which remained the main centre-right party until the late 1920s. During the 1940s and 1950s, radical intellectuals, many of whom joined the
Communist Party of Australia (CPA), combined philosophical internationalism with a radical nationalist commitment to
Australian culture. This type of cultural nationalism was possible among radicals in Australia at the time because of the patriotic turn in
Comintern policy from 1941; the most common understanding of what it meant to be patriotic at the time was a kind of pro-imperial race patriotism and anti-British sentiment was until the late 1960s regarded as subversive; and radical nationalism dovetailed with a growing respect for Australian cultural output among intellectuals which was itself a product of the break in cultural supply chains—lead actors and scripts had always come from Britain and the United States—occasioned by the war. Post-war radical nationalists consequently sought to
canonise the bush culture which had emerged during the 1890s. The post-war radical nationalists interpreted this tradition as having implicitly or inherently radical qualities since they believed it meant that working-class Australians were naturally democratic and/or socialist. This view combined the CPA's commitment to the working class with the post-war intellectuals' own nationalist sentiments. The apotheosis of this line of thought was perhaps
Russel Ward's book
The Australian Legend (1958) which sought to trace the development of the radical nationalist ethos from its
convict origins through bushranging, the Victorian gold rush, the spread of agriculture, the industrial strife of the early 1890s and its literary canonisation. Other significant radical nationalists included the historians
Ian Turner, Lloyd Churchward,
Robin Gollan,
Geoffrey Serle and
Brian Fitzpatrick, whom Ward described as the "spiritual father of all the radical nationalist historians in Australia"; and the writers
Stephen Murray-Smith,
Judah Waten,
Dorothy Hewett and
Frank Hardy. The
Barton government, which came to power following the first elections to the Commonwealth parliament in 1901 was formed by the
Protectionist Party with the support of the
Australian Labor Party. The support of the Labor Party was contingent upon restricting non-white immigration, reflecting the attitudes of the
Australian Workers Union and other labour organisations at the time, upon whose support the Labor Party was founded. At the start of
World War II, Labor Prime Minister
John Curtin reinforced the message of the White Australia policy by saying: "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race". Labor Party leader
Arthur Calwell supported the White European Australia policy. This is reflected by Calwell's comments in his 1972 memoirs
Be Just and Fear Not in which he made it clear that he maintained his view that non-European people should not be allowed to settle in Australia, writing: I am proud of my white skin, just as a Chinese is proud of his yellow skin, a Japanese of his brown skin, and the Indians of their various hues from black to coffee-coloured. Anybody who is not proud of his race is not a man at all. And any man who tries to stigmatize the Australian community as racist because they want to preserve this country for the white race is doing our nation great harm. [...] I reject, in conscience, the idea that Australia should or ever can become a multi-racial society and survive. The radical-nationalist tradition was challenged during the 1960s, during which
New Left scholars interpreted much of Australian history—including
labour history—as dominated by racism, sexism, homophobia and militarism. Since the 1960s, it has been uncommon for those on the political left to claim Australian nationalism for themselves. The bush legend has survived the above changes in Australian culture as it informed much cultural output during the period of the new nationalism in the 1970s and 1980s, the language of Australian nationalism was adopted by centre-right politicians such as Prime Minister
John Howard for the political right during the 1990s. In the 21st century, attempts by left-leaning intellectuals to reclaim nationalism for the left are few and far between. Some Indigenous groups such as the
Black Peoples Union can be described as left-wing nationalist. Political parties and groups in Australia that maintain some form of left-wing nationalist orientation include the
CPA-ML, New Democratic Front of Australia, Republican Workers Party (formerly Australian Communist Party) and the Eureka Initiative.
South Asia Bangladesh After its
1971 liberation war, Bangladesh wrote its binding beliefs to be for "Secularism, Nationalism and Socialism". For a long time,
Bengali nationalism was promoted in Bangladesh while excluding other minorities which led to President
Ziaur Rahman of the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to change Bengali nationalism to
Bangladeshi nationalism where all citizens of the country is equal under the law. This new nationalism in Bangladesh has been promoted by the BNP and the
Awami League calling for national unity and cultural promotion. However, the BNP would later promote Islamic unity as well and has excluded Hindus from the national unity while bringing together
Bihari Muslims and
Chakma Buddhists. This is different from Awami League's staunch secularist stance of the national identity uniting all religious minorities. == List of left-wing nationalist political parties ==