Many anarchists will call nationalist movements that are anti-imperialist, “ethno-states” / ethnic-nationalism, and decry all struggles against imperialists, whether its Algerian or Vietnamese independence from France, Indian independence from the UK, etc.

While its true that these can have a nationalist rather than an internationalist character, its also true that nations have a right to self-determination, and breaking that imprisonment to western capital is probably the most important part of the fight against capitalist-imperialism. As communists we want working-class internationalism, but we also defend the right of nations to self-determination.

This was a big debate in the early 1900s, with Lenin writing a lot about the importance of nations to self-determination as being absolutely critical.

In Lenin’s words: “The bourgeois nationalism of any oppressed nation has a general democratic content that is directed against oppression, and it is this content that we unconditionally support. At the same time, we strictly distinguish it from the tendency towards national exclusiveness.”

History has since proven him right, as many socialist / communist governments, began as or had a nationalist character, and were primarily nationalist fights for independence from western finance capital: Cuba, China, Vietnam, etc.