Giuseppe Mazzini and revolutions in the Third World: transnational echoes of Mazzini’s emancipatory nationalism

This article argues that, to understand the 20th century, it is instructive to reflect upon the thought of Giuseppe Mazzini which, to a greater extent than that of Karl Marx, shaped the revolutionary struggles of the period under the banner of the myth of class or nation. Mazzini's thought is paradigmatic of a wide range of revolutionary political systems, inspired by an ideology that sought to reconcile class and nation in the myth of the 'third way.' This is particularly evident in the revolutionary struggles that inflamed the Third World during the era of decolonization, and which made the principle of self-determination of peoples, collaboration between classes, emotional appeals to the people and the ethic of sacrifice and work – all central to Mazzini's ideology – their pièces de résistance.