Proletarian-nation rhetoric reframed imperial conquest as class struggle

Evidence

As the class struggle within a nation is waged for the readjustment of unequal distinctions, so war between nations for an honorable cause will reform the present unjust distinctions. The British Empire is a millionaire possessing wealth all over the world; and Russia is a great landowner in occupation of the northern half of the globe. Japan with her scattered fringe [sic] of islands is one of the proletariat, and she has the right to declare war on the big monopoly powers. The socialists of the West contradict themselves when they admit the right of class struggle to the proletariat at home and at the same time condemn war, waged by a proletariat among nations, as militarism and aggression … If it is permissible for the working class to unite to overthrow unjust authority by bloodshed, then unconditional approval should be given to Japan to perfect her army and navy and make war for the rectification of unjust international frontiers. In the name of rational social democracy Japan claims possession of Australia and Eastern Siberia. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 378

Categorization

• CANDY: Kita Ikki recasting Japan as a ‘proletarian’ nation with a right to war against ‘monopoly’ empires is a strikingly quotable inversion of Marxist categories.
• XREF: This survivalist competition narrative of ‘conquer or be conquered’ prefigures the civilizational and demographic competition frames the reader tracks in Islamophobia discourse. — connects to: The gulf between class struggle and anti-imperialist struggle began to close; The Revolution’s class struggles were reinterpreted as race history — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 226; Nineteenth-century struggle was redefined as civilian and economico-political, not warlike — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 240

Related

• Anti-colonial socialism can be re-cast as imperialist proletarian nationalism (similarity 0.87)

Broader Connections

• The gulf between class struggle and anti-imperialist struggle began to close #corroborates (0.80)
• The Revolution’s class struggles were reinterpreted as race history #corroborates (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 226