The struggle of oppressed nations against imperialism is an integral part of the world socialist revolution
National liberation movements are the organised struggles of oppressed nations and peoples against colonial domination, imperialist exploitation, and national subjugation. These movements seek political independence, economic sovereignty, and the right of nations to determine their own development.
Marxism-Leninism recognises that the struggle for national liberation is not separate from the class struggle — it is a component of the world revolutionary process. The oppression of nations by imperialism creates the material conditions for their revolt, and this revolt strikes directly at the foundations of the imperialist system.
Lenin developed the theory that the national and colonial question was inseparable from the question of imperialism. The super-exploitation of oppressed nations provides superprofits that allow the imperialist bourgeoisie to bribe a section of the working class in the oppressor nations — the labour aristocracy. The liberation of oppressed nations therefore weakens imperialism at its economic base and advances the cause of the proletariat everywhere.
"The socialist revolution will not be solely, or chiefly, a struggle of the revolutionary proletarians in each country against their bourgeoisie — no, it will be a struggle of all the imperialist-oppressed colonies and countries, of all dependent countries, against international imperialism."
— V. I. Lenin, Address to the Second All-Russia Congress of Communist Organisations of the Peoples of the East (1919)Before Lenin, the European socialist movement largely ignored the colonial question or treated it as secondary. The parties of the Second International, corrupted by social-chauvinism, often defended their own countries' colonial empires. Some openly argued that colonialism was progressive because it developed the productive forces.
Lenin demolished this position. He showed that imperialism does not develop the colonies for the benefit of their peoples — it systematically underdevelops them, extracting raw materials and surplus value while preventing independent industrial development. The colonies are kept in a state of enforced backwardness to serve the needs of metropolitan capital.
At the Second Congress of the Communist International in 1920, Lenin laid down the fundamental principle: communists must support the national liberation movements of oppressed peoples, not because all national movements are progressive in themselves, but because the struggle against imperialism objectively weakens the world bourgeoisie and advances the conditions for socialism.
Lenin distinguished between the nationalism of oppressor nations (which serves imperialism) and the nationalism of oppressed nations (which strikes against imperialism). Communists oppose the former and support the latter — while always maintaining the independent position of the working class within the national movement.
National liberation movements are not homogeneous. They contain different class forces with different aims. The national bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, the peasantry, and the working class all participate in the struggle against imperialism, but they do so with conflicting long-term interests.
The national bourgeoisie seeks political independence to develop its own capitalism free from imperialist domination. It wants to replace foreign exploitation with its own exploitation of the domestic working class. It is willing to compromise with imperialism when its profits are secured.
The petty bourgeoisie — small traders, professionals, students, junior officers — often provides the initial leadership of national movements. They are radicalised by colonial humiliation but lack a consistent class programme. They oscillate between revolutionary action and compromise.
The peasantry forms the mass base of national liberation in colonial and semi-colonial countries. Dispossessed by colonial land policies and crushed by feudal and capitalist exploitation, the peasantry has a powerful revolutionary potential — but without working-class leadership, it cannot formulate an independent political programme.
The working class, even where it is numerically small, represents the most consistently revolutionary force. Only the working class has no interest in any form of exploitation and can lead the national movement to its completion — from political independence to social emancipation.
The question of hegemony within the national movement is decisive. If the bourgeoisie leads, independence results in neo-colonialism. If the working class leads (in alliance with the peasantry), independence can develop into socialist construction.
"In the last analysis, the outcome of the struggle will be determined by the fact that Russia, India, China, etc., account for the overwhelming majority of the population of the globe."
— V. I. Lenin, Better Fewer, But Better (1923)The 20th century witnessed the greatest wave of national liberation in human history. The October Revolution of 1917 shattered the myth of European invincibility and demonstrated that the oppressed could overthrow their rulers. The Soviet Union provided material support, diplomatic backing, and a living example to national liberation movements worldwide.
The defeat of fascism in 1945 — in which the Soviet Union bore the principal burden — further weakened the colonial empires. Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal could no longer maintain their colonial possessions in the face of rising popular resistance and the changed global balance of forces.
The Chinese Revolution, led by the Communist Party under Mao Zedong, liberated 500 million people from semi-colonial oppression and feudalism. The revolution demonstrated that the peasantry, under working-class leadership, could be the main force of liberation in colonial countries.
Read more →The Vietnamese people, under Communist Party leadership, defeated Japanese, French, and American imperialism in succession. Ho Chi Minh's strategy combined national liberation with socialist revolution, proving that a small nation could defeat the mightiest imperialist power.
Read more →The Cuban Revolution overthrew the US-backed Batista dictatorship and established socialism 90 miles from the United States. Cuba became a beacon for national liberation in Latin America and Africa, sending tens of thousands of internationalist fighters and medical workers abroad.
Read more →The Algerian War of Independence against French colonialism was one of the most heroic struggles of the 20th century. Over a million Algerians died in the fight for freedom. The FLN's victory inspired liberation movements across Africa and the Arab world.
The MPLA in Angola and FRELIMO in Mozambique fought Portuguese colonialism for over a decade. Their victory, supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union, ended the oldest colonial empire in Africa and opened the path to socialist-oriented development.
The Korean people fought for national liberation against Japanese colonialism and then against US imperialism. The DPRK, under the leadership of the Workers' Party, built an independent socialist state despite massive destruction and ongoing imperialist encirclement.
Read more →The Soviet Union was the greatest ally of national liberation movements in history. From the earliest days of the revolution, the Bolsheviks renounced all tsarist colonial treaties, recognised the right of nations to self-determination, and provided material support to anti-colonial struggles.
Soviet support took many forms: diplomatic recognition of liberation movements, military assistance (weapons, training, advisors), economic aid to newly independent states, educational opportunities (Patrice Lumumba University trained tens of thousands of students from the Global South), and the political weight of a socialist superpower in international forums.
Without the Soviet Union, the wave of decolonisation would have been far slower, far more costly in lives, and far less complete. The existence of the socialist camp gave oppressed nations an alternative to dependence on their former colonial masters — an option that largely disappeared after the counter-revolution of 1991.
Many national liberation movements won political independence but failed to achieve genuine economic sovereignty. Where the national bourgeoisie led the movement, independence often resulted in neo-colonialism — the maintenance of imperialist economic control through new mechanisms.
Kwame Nkrumah, the revolutionary leader of Ghana, identified neo-colonialism as the last stage of imperialism. Under neo-colonialism, the former colonial power (or a new imperialist patron, usually the United States) controls the economy through debt, structural adjustment programmes, unequal trade agreements, and the threat of military intervention.
The experience of Africa after independence proves the Marxist-Leninist thesis: political independence without social revolution — without the working class seizing the means of production and breaking the chains of imperialist economic domination — is formal independence only. The national bourgeoisie, having gained political power, becomes the comprador agent of international finance capital.
The difference between Ghana (bourgeois-led independence, now under IMF control) and Cuba (working-class-led revolution, sovereign despite 60+ years of blockade) demonstrates the decisive importance of class leadership in the national movement.
"The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside."
— Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965)The struggle for national liberation is far from over. Imperialism continues to dominate the majority of the world's people through economic subjugation, military aggression, and political interference.
Palestine. The Palestinian people continue their struggle against Zionist settler-colonialism, backed by US imperialism. The Palestinian cause is the defining national liberation struggle of our era — a litmus test for every communist and progressive force.
Africa. The Sahel region — Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger — has seen a new wave of anti-imperialist revolt, expelling French military bases and challenging the CFA franc system of monetary colonialism. These movements, while led by military forces rather than communist parties, represent genuine anti-imperialist sentiment.
Latin America. Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia continue to resist US imperialism despite sanctions, coups, and economic warfare. The Bolivarian movement represents a new form of anti-imperialist struggle, though Marxist-Leninists must critically assess its class character.
Asia. The DPRK, Laos, and Vietnam maintain socialist-oriented states in the face of imperialist encirclement. China's rise challenges US hegemony, though the class character of the Chinese state remains a subject of debate among Marxist-Leninists.
Communists in the imperialist countries have a special duty to support national liberation movements and to oppose their own ruling class's wars of aggression and neo-colonial exploitation. The main enemy is at home.
Lenin understood that the world revolution is composed of two streams: the proletarian socialist revolution in the advanced capitalist countries and the national-democratic revolution in the colonial and semi-colonial countries. These two streams are not separate — they are united against the common enemy: world imperialism.
National liberation weakens imperialism by depriving it of super-profits, markets, raw materials, and strategic military positions. Every nation that breaks free from imperialist control narrows the base of capitalist exploitation and strengthens the forces of socialism.
Conversely, the socialist revolution in the imperialist countries directly assists national liberation by overthrowing the imperialist bourgeoisie. The October Revolution was the greatest blow to colonialism precisely because it destroyed one of the imperialist great powers from within.
The task of communists is to unite these two streams into a single world revolutionary movement. This requires that communists in the oppressor nations actively fight against their own imperialism, and that communists in the oppressed nations fight for working-class hegemony within the national movement.
Every nation has the right to self-determination, up to and including secession. This right is unconditional for oppressed nations. Communists defend this right even when they may politically argue against separation in specific cases.
The outcome of the national movement depends on which class leads it. Bourgeois leadership produces neo-colonialism. Working-class leadership, in alliance with the peasantry, can carry the national revolution through to socialist construction.
The proletarian revolution in imperialist countries and national liberation in oppressed countries are two fronts of the same world revolution against imperialism. Neither can succeed without the other.
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