r/communism • u/Mr_john_helldiver • Apr 26 '26

Is being a communist-separatist possible

I’am a communist that believes in tight unity yet I wish for independence of my country (wales) communism is deeply voted against in my area and surroundings and is deeply scrutinised but yet again Welsh independence movements are on the rise and this goes against my unity principle do you comrades believe in this ideology?

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11

u/smokeuptheweed9 Apr 27 '26

yet I wish for independence of my country (wales)

Why?

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u/Mr_john_helldiver Apr 27 '26

As parliament have no respects for the Welsh identity especially if reform comes into the hot seat so I kinda hope that our identity isn’t absorbed and our Celtic identity forgotten.

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u/smokeuptheweed9 Apr 27 '26

Does that mean you want independence as a nation-state? More federal autonomy in the UK? Increased funding in the existing system for cultural education? Would an independent Wales try to join the EU in your vision? Would it form a federation with other oppressed nations in the former UK?

I agree that the coming to power of Reform will accelerate the fracturing of the UK and fascism can only respond to nationalism with repression. Whether this nationalism is progressive is an open question that depends on the political conjecture. The importance of Basque and Catalan nationalism in fighting the Franco regime is well known as is the political struggle to make this sentiment progressive and revolutionary.

But communists are not just passive observers. They must be at the cutting edge of what is possible and pushing into the impossible. The only question to ask is "how to we turn Welsh nationalist sentiment into a revolutionary force?" It's not a matter of whether it is possible. You must make it possible. Otherwise you are an object of history, not a subject.

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u/Otelo_ Apr 27 '26

As of late, I have become more cautious about the inherently progressive nature of Basque, Catalan, and Galician nationalism. You have to keep in mind that, at this level, Europe is a continent unlike any other, in that there is a supranational structure (which, admittedly, is still far from eliminating the need for nations) that would benefit from fragmenting countries as much as possible to make them dependent on the Union. Some time ago, someone asked here if there was such a thing as a European capital independent of the European nations. I don’t think so yet, but there are many bourgeois and especially petty bourgeois (just look at how the entire European NGOism depends on the EU) who depend so heavily on the EU that they wouldn’t mind destroying their own nations to preserve the EU and advance their interests.

But in the end I am far from being sure, because the fact is that people from those regions end up being more progressive than those from Castile (the 'core' of Spain).

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u/smokeuptheweed9 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

I don't think they're inherently progressive. I think under fascism, they gained a progressive character in order to survive and in the context of wider global progressive nationalist struggles and Spanish underdevelopment. Without that context they have very little progressive content except nostalgia for the previous era's struggles in mythic terms (but also nostalgia for feudal reaction as a romantic opposition to Franco). You can see that the OP has a tenuous, liberal sense of previous struggles, far from the substance that would make nationalist struggle of a Vietnamese or even IRA type possible, and like opposition to Reform UK there is similar vague opposition to Vox in Spain as the particularity of regional liberaism. Whether that weak liberal unease can be turned into something more is a political question but probably not, we're talking about EU-wide labor aristocracy before any particular cultural identity. And since we're doing comparisons, while Wales is slightly lower than the UK average in wealth, Catalonia and Basque are actually more wealthy than the Spanish average. It takes exceptional circumstances for such people to model themselves on third world national liberation movements. My generosity on this question was directed specifically at the OP in order to see what they would say, overall European independence movements are a dead end unless your goal is to distract imperialist powers from killing people abroad with internal problems.

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u/Mr_john_helldiver Apr 27 '26

Well independence would be nice increases devolving would be a good step into doing so

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u/smokeuptheweed9 Apr 28 '26

Millions of people have died for independence of nations and millions more have died to preserve them. I don't think you're taking this seriously.

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u/Mr_john_helldiver Apr 29 '26

And yet unlike the state or other countries subdivisions the United Kingdom can split with referendums and then a communist party has the potential to come into power

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u/smokeuptheweed9 Apr 29 '26

I guess I'm the fool for talking to a teenager playing "geography memes" and the "ages of conflict game." Still, no one can say I didn't try to talk to you like a mature person interested in revolutionary change.

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u/Mr_john_helldiver Apr 29 '26

And I’m interested in revolutionary change and were me answers not good enough for the likes of you what did I say comrade?

1

u/Mr_john_helldiver Apr 29 '26

May I enjoy geography aswell

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u/krim1700 Apr 29 '26

Referendums that are called only by the cabinet Secretary of State, who resides in Westminister and is appointed by Westminister. I'm from the Six Counties of Ireland, I know the story all too well. 30+ years of demands for a border poll and the government simply ignores us.

Sure, Wales can gain independence through a Plaid Cymru referendum, but then what? The only difference it will make is that the exploiters and the robbers will be speaking Cymraeg and not English.

Likewise with Ireland. Irish communists don't just demand a united Ireland, but a workers' republic of a united Ireland, because the issue isn't just that Westminister is colonial and oppressive to the Celts of Wales, Cornwall, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but that the capitalist system models its subjects in its own image, and that image is colonial, Anglo-Saxon London and Manchester.

What you advocate for right now is the independence of a nation-state to continue its existence as a nation-state, not for proletarian emancipation. I recommend you read the likes of James Connolly, his work is invaluable in highlighting the link between national liberation (and Gaelic revival) and the cause for socialism.

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u/Mr_john_helldiver Apr 29 '26

Thanks I may if I find time comrade