Why anarchists are internationalists

Capitalism is a global system—it doesn’t exist on a closed, national scale, but as the economy of the entire world.

Production chains are globalised to the point where a product as simple as a frozen meal may cross several borders before it’s sold. Beans from Egypt, spices from Türkiye, and meat from Australia are cooked in factories in England, packaged in plastic from China, and sold in a supermarket in Ireland.

In each of these countries, bosses and governments exploit workers for profit. In that process, capitalism generates crises which can’t be resolved in any one country. Wars are fought to control resources and markets, global financial institutions punish any government which acts against the interests of capital, and climate change continues to threaten the survival of human civilisation.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the success of any revolution depends squarely on internationalism. We can’t wait: internationalism has to be built now. Not just for moral reasons, but because our shared future depends on it.

Workers of the world…?

The decline in internationalism within the workers’ movement has been disastrous. Virtually all international union bodies have no rank- and-file participation whatsoever. Most union members don’t even know they exist. These bodies are enmeshed within the UN’s International Labour Organisation, a class collaborationist entity that involves “tripartite” politics wherein unions join hands with employers and governments.

Organising across borders is rarely even attempted. Today, most “international campaigns” consist of symbolic “solidarity actions” that have few tangible results. Real international solidarity would involve things like workers in one part of a global production chain taking action in support of workers in another part, or workers in different countries fighting as one unit. In September, when European dockworkers met in Italy to discuss a coordinated blockade of Israeli war shipments, they were practicing this kind of internationalism.

Nationalism hurts workers within Australia’s borders too. Because social benefits are tied to visa or citizenship status, migrant workers are a hyper-exploitable section of the working class. Rather than organise alongside these workers, too many unions play into the ruling class’s game of division. The Australian Workers’ Union, for instance, has repeatedly lobbied governments to implement anti-migrant policies, claiming this will “protect” members’ jobs and wages. This is bullshit, and weakens the power of the workforce. By contrast, the Maritime Union of Australia has made a determined effort to organise migrant workers and, in one recent example, forced an employer to guarantee permanent residency visa pathways to their mostly migrant workforce. Their union is now stronger as a result, and they have solid coverage in sectors of the workforce they hadn’t represented in years.

…Unite!

Australia isn’t some self-sufficient island isolated from the rest of the world. The capitalists are organised internationally, so to have any hope of beating them, we have to be too.

For us, that means building closer links with workers in Southeast Asia, Melanesia, China, and beyond. These links need to be established between sibling unions, as well as anarchist communist groups. Where no anarchist organisations exist, we need to help our comrades bring them into being.

Where we fail to build internationalism, the threat of war grows. In recent months, Australia has moved to integrate the army of Papua New Guinea under its control as part of an anti-Chinese alliance. War between Australia and China would only benefit the rulers of both countries. In such a war, we would call for Australian and Chinese workers to unite in class struggle against both governments.

But given where things stand, how would we actually put that into practice? What bodies are there linking Chinese workers with Australian workers? And if we can’t unite to stop war, how can we possibly unite to overthrow the global system of capitalism?

World revolution

Revolution won’t happen all at once. Individual cities or countries will inevitably rise up first. But whether we’re prepared for it or not, the revolution will be international.

Uprisings and revolutions are contagious. As workers in one country rise up, workers in others tend to follow their example. Take the case of the Arab Spring. It began with small protests in Tunisia in 2011, but before long erupted into a region-wide revolution.

But these international struggles can’t stay separated. If revolutionaries in one country are left to fight alone, isolation and the demands of self-defence will force them to compromise their revolution. To import essential resources would mean retaining some degree of private property and a commercial market.

No half measures

Not all compromises lead to defeat. But these can only ever be temporary. To stop half-way, or think that we can build socialism in one country, would be suicidal. Everything has to be subordinated to the need for revolution to spread.

Workers’ control over production is at the core of socialism, but literally taking over our workplaces is only half the task. Capitalism doesn’t rule us just through our bosses, but through the world market. To meaningfully control our labour, we need to get rid of the money-based market economy. But this can only be done on an international level by wiping out capitalism entirely.

We have a lot to do. The threats of global war and irreversible climate catastrophe require urgent action. But the first step is recognising as clearly as possible that internationalism isn’t just a nice word, but a fundamental duty.

Picket Line

Länk: https://ancomfed.org/2025/11/why-anarchists-are-internationalists/