On June 14, Flag Day, 5-10 million people took to the streets to say no to Trump’s authoritarian administration in the biggest single day of protests in US history. The 50501 movement, which called for the “No Kings” protests, encouraged protesters to raise the US flag to “reclaim” it from Trump and the right wing.
It’s very understandable why some would see it as progressive to reclaim patriotism and the US flag from the right wing. The motivation for doing so is no doubt genuine from the many people who are fighting to defend US society from Trump’s authoritarian assault. But nationalism is a dangerous game for workers: it’s an ideology that comes from the ruling class that tries to tell us that working people in this country have common interests with US billionaires to “defend America” together. That’s because they don’t want us to recognize that our actual shared interest is with working people around the world, not the bosses and corporate politicians at home. We can and should celebrate the resilience and determination of the diverse working class in this country to fight for a better life, but we should do so without blurring the line of who’s really on our side.
The US flag is an international symbol of US imperialism, which has backed authoritarian dictatorships, brutally colonized other nations, and crushed revolts seeking national independence. That same imperialism has also frequently committed widespread violence against working people on US soil. The flag was never ours to reclaim—we need to do away with the symbols of US imperialism’s bloodlust and fight for working-class solidarity across national borders.
The US flag has been sold to us as a symbol of freedom and democracy. In reality, this symbol has been used to justify countless attacks on working people all over the world. After 9/11, the US ruling class launched its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq under the guise of “defending freedom.” These wars had nothing to do with freedom in either the US or the Middle East—they were about expanding US hegemony and fattening the pockets of oil executives while millions of ordinary people suffered from violence, starvation, and environmental devastation. The combined cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated to be between $4 and $6 trillion, with an estimated 4.7 million direct and indirect deaths.
The 2020s have been characterized by war and militarism, and this trend will only escalate as US and Chinese imperialism compete for global dominance. We must be crystal clear that the working class has nothing to gain from imperialist wars or the divisive nationalism that comes with them. Trump has relied on rhetoric about “loving and defending America” to justify brutal ICE raids on immigrants and the crackdown on anti-war protesters. Trump will be eager to use patriotism to whip working people into shape so that they will fight his wars for him.
At the end of the day, despite our best intentions, the bosses’ nationalism can’t be fought with more nationalism—it can only be fought with working-class internationalism. The more we confine the struggle against authoritarianism, imperialism, and capitalism to national borders, the weaker it becomes. That’s why the struggle against global capitalism can only be fought with international socialism.