CMV: Left-wing politics cannot succeed on a national level without nationalism or a strong sense of national identity

For left wing I am not talking about Scandinavian Social Democracy, even though Scandinavian countries do have a fairly strong national identity. I am more referring to an alternative to capitalism that relies on some form of collectivism. 

For a strong national identity or maybe even nationalism I am referring to a strong loyalty and allegiance to the nation state and those that share the same language and culture within the nation state. 

I’m neither particularly nationalist nor left wing.

Nationalism or strong national identity can motivate large groups of people to prioritise the wellbeing of the state over individual personal gain. It also provides a moral framework and for implementing the large-scale changes that would be required for a collective alternative to capitalism.

Without any form of national identity people would have no reason to sacrifice for the good of unknowable others. Fractionalisation among ethnic, religious or cultural lines would form and those competing interests would become too prevalent for a state to achieve collectivised success.  

In a global world it would be very difficult to convince those with crucial skills to stay for the collective benefit of the nation. Those with specialised skills or an ability to conceptualise and implement new technologies will always be rewarded more financially under capitalism. Therefore, any alternative to capitalism would need those sorts of people to stay otherwise it would fall behind the rest of the world and inevitably that would lead to failure. Without the ideal of a nation state, it is less likely these people would turn down personal wealth for collective benefit.

Some examples of current left wing or collectivised states. This is somewhat difficult to define. I would argue Cuba isn't particularly successful.

* China: Mao Zedong’s policies were deeply intertwined with Chinese nationalism, and the current Chinese state view is very nationalistic and sees that who are not subservient to the Han Chinese culture as suspicious and actively try to stamp out the culture. Tibet and Xinjiang show this.

* Cuba: The Cuban Revolution succeeded because it was framed not only as a class struggle but also as a fight for Cuban sovereignty and national pride. Fidel Castro’s rhetoric emphasised Cuba’s independence from imperialist powers. 

* Rojava: The left-wing Kurdish movement relies Kurdish nationalism for its base. Without the ideal of a Kurdish nation state it would not exist. The members of the YPG are willing to die to achieve this which shows how strong the national identity is.

Lots of left-wing thought emphasises global solidarity. This is utopian. It assumes that majority of people would be willing to sacrifice things for groups of people they have little to nothing in common with culturally, religiously or ethnically. I think people need something that binds them together prior to any sort of collectivism. 

To change my view, I would like to see some examples of long term collectivism between many people of differing cultures that have been achieved or at least conceptualising how it would be possible