16.06.2004

The people's flag is deepest red "¦ and white

Jem Jones gives a communist view of the nationalism around Euro 2004

Euro 2004 is here. Our television screens have been taken over with coverage of matches; our newspapers are full of endless commentary and speculation; our pubs substitute for stadium terraces on the nights of England matches and the shops are festooned with football-related promotions. Meanwhile people dress in overpriced England shirts, and the flag of St George flutters from rooftops, window ledges and is atop seemingly every other car on the road.
On one level, I cannot see what all the fuss is about. My acute clumsiness and dislike of physical exertion ensured that I had no aptitude for playing football, and I find watching it somewhat baffling. I have tried to enjoy it. I have been to see football matches and I watched the last World Cup, but I just do not get it. The 'thrill' of watching two teams running around after a ball for an hour and a half escapes me.

Clearly though, a large proportion of the population disagree. For them the tournament is a joyous occasion. They will have the pleasure of gathering together in pubs and living rooms watching the action unfold with a pint of lager in their hands; people across the country will rise to their feet simultaneously when a goal is scored, or a penalty awarded. They will bellow in unison when the referee makes an unfavourable decision. They will commiserate when England loses to France; and their chests will swell with pride when England hammers Switzerland - forgive me if the latter forecast (not my own) turns out to be sadly wrong.

Obviously the fervour that has gripped the country owes as much to patriotism as it does to any love for the beautiful game. Millions of people, who under other circumstances would no more surrender their Saturday afternoons to watch a match than I would, suddenly become armchair aficionados when the England team is on the pitch. There is an episode of the 1970s sitcom Citizen Smith, where the urban guerrilla from Tooting, Wolfie, takes his long-suffering girlfriend, Shirley, on a romantic date to Karl Marx's grave. While they are there, Shirley asks Wolfie why his much promised revolution has not happened yet. Wolfie claims that the revolution is delayed because of England's victory in the 1966 World Cup. There is a ring of truth in that. Whether the country is at war or in an international sporting tournament, when national pride is at stake, the nation shows a tenacious tendency to rally to the flag and cling to all that is English.

Englishness is a curious beast, a sub-variety of Britishness, and seems to be going through a period of rejuvenation at the moment. The key to this must be a decline in class politics and class identity, on the one hand, and a ruling class and political elite which is now acutely embarrassed by its colonial past and totally uncertain about its future, on the other. Under these circumstances the revolutionary left is worse than useless. Essentially it preaches national nihilism. The Socialist Workers Party, for example, has nothing positive to say about Britain, so if petty national division broke up Britain - including the historically constituted working class - that would be welcomed by the likes of Chris Bambery.

Deprived of the real bonds of class solidarity, people clutch at the illusory certainties of the past and the fleeting warmth and sense of belonging that comes from being part of a crowd. Football is a tangible collectivity which unites 'us' because it pits us against 'them'.

With the rise of Scottish and Welsh national identity - not necessarily the same as nationalism by any means - there has been a dawning discovery in England of Englishness and the ubiquitous taking up of the flag of St George. In 1966 English fans waved on Bobby Moore, Nobby Stiles, Geoff Hurst and Bobby Charlton with the union flag. Now they wave on David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Sol Campbell and Steven Gerrard with the cross of St George. There is, of course, the comforting middle class myth that the flag of St George is being reclaimed. Supposedly from the likes of the British National Party - which, in fact, wraps itself in the union flag.

Then there are the promoters of multiculturalism, paid and otherwise. For them the omnipresent St George flag is seen as an incitement or an insult. Difference can be promoted - so long as it is not that of the majority. At the extreme this produces a morbid oversensitivity: eg, the probation service in Bolton, a car auction company in Liverpool and a taxi company in Manchester, all of whom have banned their workers from displaying the flag on their cars. Multiculturalism may, in part, stem from good intentions; but it is a deeply divisive ideology. It reduces the population down to competing ethnic groups and in the final analysis creates a situation where the majority can feel marginalised.

The response from much of the left to Euro 2004 is equally mistaken and altogether unhelpful. It amounts to a crass 'revolutionary' defeatism. The daft slogan is 'Anyone other than England'. Hence a defeat against France is celebrated and a victory (?) over Switzerland mourned. England fans - not only those in Portugal, but throughout the kingdom - are politically equated with the far right. Whether that be the BNP or the UK Independence Party, it makes no difference. In reality England fans are far more likely to vote Labour, Tory or Liberal Democrat.

England fans are also written about as if they are all white. They are not. The evidence of our own eyes tells us that many black British and Asian-British people are supporting England and displaying the St George flag. Nationalism, it should never be forgotten, both incorporates as well as excludes, and racist nationalism is no longer really tenable, let alone hegemonic, in Britain. Both British national identity and English national identity come nowadays with many skin pigmentations.

The flag of St George symbolises the largest and most powerful component of the UK state. It is quite understandable that many on the left correspondingly see national identity in terms of oppression, colonialism and imperialism. However, though the socialist revolution is fundamentally internationalist in content, it begins on the national terrain. Hence, as part of our internationalist duty, communists seek to achieve working class leadership over the British nation and its English, Scottish and Welsh sub-groups. That necessitates both a delving back into history to reveal the other nation within the nation and an active, forward intervention in all aspects and spheres of social life - including sport - in order to refashion and remake national identity.
Sport is not the equivalent of the enemy's state machine - armed bodies - which have to be overcome and then disbanded. Instead by degree, before and after the socialist revolution, the working class must wrest national identity away from the ruling class and its middle class toadies. What was alienated and used against us can that way be turned into its opposite. That is why, though football might not be 'more important than life or death', for communists it surely matters.