The Left Can’t Win Without an Internationalist Vision
The globalization hype of the early 2000s has given way to an intense focus on national borders and competition between states. But the Left can’t afford to abandon its own form of internationalism based on the idea of universal human emancipation.
The aim of the Left is not simply to redistribute wealth or roll back racial discrimination in one’s own country; it is to abolish every form of oppression and domination everywhere. By definition, universal emancipation has to be global or not at all. (Yuri Cortez / AFP via Getty Images)
As we enter a new age of imperial wars, internationalism is very much back on the Left’s agenda. But what is internationalism? And why does it matter?
The Left’s preoccupation with “internationalism” stems from the fact that its political project has always been tied in some way to what might be called universal emancipation. To emancipate is to free someone or something from a power, and universal emancipation stands for the liberation of everyone from all domination.
The aim of the Left, in other words, is not simply to redistribute wealth, expand state services, or roll back racial discrimination in one’s own country; it is to abolish every form of oppression and domination everywhere. By definition, universal emancipation has to be global or not at all.
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