Fatherland or Mother Earth

Lowly has been writing on the "national question" to great acclaim for over 20 years. Under the impact of globalisation and new outbreaks of nationalism in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, he argues that the fragmentary writings on national issues by Marx and Engels could from the basis of a second coherent theory, a truly international dialectic which remains to be developed. Lowy argues that the explosion of nationalist movements around the world today cannot be wholly understood without acknowledging Lenin's notion of "oppressed nations" nor be adequately addressed without Bauer's toolbox of "national/cultural autonomy". Lowy demonstrates that by doing justice to national realities and identities, and simultaneously linking together new forms of social-movement internationalism - anti-IMF, ecological, feminist - a new internationalism can be created for the 21st century. Fully updated and revised for the English readership, this English language edition reflects the changes in Lowy's approach and comprises a reordering and rewriting of the original French edition.