Internal and external don’t have meanings set in stone. They depend on context and scope.

Consider this. Arundhati Roy wrote a book about the Maoists in Chhattisgarh, India called “Walking with the Comrades”. Maoists mostly help the tribal people in that area to resist against the violent forces of the state. But this is not the only problem they have to tackle. She says that women approached the communist leaders and asked them to help curb some practices that were ingrained in the culture but where problematic and demeaning for the women. The leaders called these internal contradictions.