Nationalism: What it is and What it is not?

This is a complex subject as the word nationalism has a different definition depending who you talk to and where they come from.

There is no way any form of nationalism could be compatible with anarchism. There is a common misunderstanding with some people associating struggles for the self-determination of the people with nationalism. But it's not.

Take for example flags. Celebrating the USA flag would definitely be nationalism. But when a country like Palestine or Tibet is invaded by another country that is trying to deface its cultural identity, then this flag becomes a symbol of resistance. There's a reason why Tibet flags are illegal in China, it's not just a flag it's a symbol of a struggle against imperialism.

The same thing is happening right now with Ukraine. Even anarchists fighting on the battlefield in Ukraine have patches with the Ukrainian flag. This war has a lot in common with the Spanish Civil War of 1936, during the same time there was an anarchist revolution going down in Spain and fighters of internationalist battalions were wearing the colors of the flag.

Another common misunderstanding is thinking nationalism is just a synonym for patriotism, or that independentists are the same as nationalists. There's a lot of nuances.

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind"
- Albert Einstein

No, it's not, but it's definitely one of the main characteristics of fascism along with totalitarianism.

Rojava can't be nationalist, it's a region, not a state, and it's associated with the wider project of Kurdistan which includes parts of Syria, Irak, Iran, and Turkey. But there are a lot of different ideologies in this region, and one could argue that the PKK has nationalist tendencies.

EZLN, at first it sounds strange due to the name, but when you read books by Subcommandante Marcos and other Zapatistas it is clear they are 100% internationalists. The movement is organized nationally but the ideology is international so it wouldn't fit under the traditional definition of nationalism.