Page "Fredy Perlman" Paragraph 18

In 1984 Perlman wrote a work on the subject of nationalism called The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism In it he argues that " Leftist or revolutionary nationalists insist that their nationalism has nothing in common with the nationalism of fascists and national socialists, that theirs is a nationalism of the oppressed, that it offers personal as well as cultural liberation.

" And so " To challenge these claims, and to see them in a context ," he asks " what nationalism is-not only the new revolutionary nationalism but also the old conservative one.

" And so he concludes that nationalism is an aid to capitalist control of nature and people regardless of its origin.

Nationalism thus provides a form through which " Every oppressed population can become a nation, a photographic negative of the oppressor nation " and that " There's no earthly reason for the descendants of the persecuted to remain persecuted when nationalism offers them the prospect of becoming persecutors.

Near and distant relatives of victims can become a racist nation-state ; they can themselves herd other people into concentration camps, push other people around at will, perpetrate genocidal war against them, procure preliminary capital by expropriating them.