ABSTRACT

Marx and Engels’ famous claim that ‘working men have no country’ (1998: 58) was a realistic evaluation of the situation of many workers in nineteenth-century Europe, dwelling in multinational, transnational empires where they had minimal power and representation. Marxism’s appeal for international workers’ unity was therefore a powerful supplement to the ideals of international brotherhood already articulated by the French Revolution. Ever since, the left has always claimed to be an international phenomenon, with pretensions to universal relevance beyond national boundaries.