Episode 151: Lenin on the Irish Independence Struggle and National Self-Determination Today
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To help work out the dialectic of national self-determination in the face of Trump’s imperialist aggression against Venezuela, Greenland, Canada, etc., Andrew and Gabriel revisit 1914-16 writings of V.I. Lenin on Ireland’s struggle for independence from England. They discuss Lenin’s response to Rosa Luxemburg, who thought that national self-determination is impossible, and the bases of her thinking. They then turn to Lenin’s defense of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin: his denial that it was a “putsch” and his view that such struggles are “one of the ferments, one of the bacilli,” that help the socialist proletariat to appear on the scene. They also discuss why it was Marx’s custom to “sound out” acquaintances about their attitudes to national self-determination, as a way to test their convictions and intelligence. The following documents are cited during the segment: section 8 of Lenin’s The Right of Nations to Self-Determination; his article on “The Irish Rebellion of 1916”; section 6 of his Critical Remarks on the National Question, regarding “autonomy”; and Raya Dunayevskaya’s comment about Luxemburg on p. 57 of Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation and Marx’s Philosophy of In the episode’s current-events segment, the co-hosts discuss the fightback against the Trump regime’s aggression against Greenland and Minneapolis, as two facets of one struggle. Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Gabriel Donnelly and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI. We welcome and encourage listeners’ comments, posted on this episode’s page. |
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