Open AccessThe Fifth International: International or Global?
Author(s) -
Owen Worth
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of world-systems research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.219
H-Index - 2
ISSN - 1076-156X
DOI - 10.5195/jwsr.2019.957
Subject(s) - internationalism (politics) , nationalism , sovereignty , dialectic , proletariat , bourgeoisie , political science , materialism , political economy , historical materialism , sociology , epistemology , law , philosophy , politics , marxist philosophy
Worth welcomes Amin’s call for a renewal of Internationalism, but he is critical of the “significant shortcoming of understanding an internationalist strategy around a traditional collection of national struggles.” Recalling Rosa Luxemburg’s contributions to the second International at the 100th anniversary of her brutal murder, he notes: Luxemburg … condemned any form of nationalism as a tool used by the bourgeoisie in order to divide the proletariat….[F]or Luxemburg, the whole notion of dialectical materialism should be understood not through the development of existing structures but as a process where new structures emerge and develop over time. Likewise, Internationalism should not be something restricted by structures of the present, nor by pre-existing norms such as national sovereign, but instead be understood as a mechanism that could move beyond the confines of the present towards the realms of the ‘possible.’”