as being part of a single global class struggle rather than separate localized events. It is based on the theory that capitalism is a global system and therefore the working classes of all nations must act in concert if they are to replace it with
.
political theory, based on the principle that working-class people of all countries must unite across national boundaries and actively oppose
in order to overthrow capitalism. In this sense,
. Supporters
of
internationalism are known as
internationalists and generally believe that humans should unite across national, political, cultural, racial, or class boundaries to advance their common interests.
Internationalism is characterized by opposition to
nationalism and isolationism, support for international struggles, and a cosmopolitan outlook that promotes and respects other cultures.
No Borders No Nations is a popular
internationalist slogan in the anarchist movement.
Socialist thinkers such as
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argue that economic class, rather than nationality, race, or culture, is the main force that divides people in
society and that nationalist
ideology is a
propaganda tool of a
society's dominant economic class. From this perspective, it is in the ruling class' interest to promote
nationalism in order to hide the inherent class conflicts at play within a given
society, such as the exploitation of workers by capitalists for profit. Therefore, socialists see
nationalism as a form of ideological control arising from a
society's given mode of economic production. Since the 19th century, socialist political organizations and
radical trade unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) have promoted
internationalist ideologies and sought to
organize workers across national boundaries to achieve improvements in the conditions of labor and advance various forms of industrial
democracy. The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Internationals were socialist political groupings that sought to advance worker's
revolution across the globe and achieve international
socialism and world
revolution.
Socialist
internationalism is anti-imperialist, and therefore supports the liberation of peoples from all forms of colonialism and foreign domination and the right of nations to self-determination. Therefore, socialists have often aligned themselves politically with anti-colonial independence movements, and actively opposed the exploitation of one country by another. Proponents of proletarian
internationalism often argued that the objectives of a given
revolution should be global rather than local in scope?for example, triggering or perpetuating
revolutions elsewhere. Proletarian
internationalism is closely linked to goals of world
revolution, to be achieved through successive or simultaneous
communist revolutions in all nations. According to Marxist theory, successful proletarian
internationalism should lead to a world
revolution and eventually stateless
communism. The notion was strongly embraced by the first
communist party, the
Communist League, as exercised through its slogan "Proletarians of all countries, unite!", later popularized as "Workers of the world, unite!" in English literature.