Misplaced Pages

#636363

57-564: The International Socialist Congress, Amsterdam 1904 was the Sixth Congress of the Second International . It was held from 14 to 18 August 1904. The Congress was held in the 'Burcht van Berlage', Amsterdam . This congress called on "all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of

114-640: A dissident offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation of Henry Hyndman at the end of 1884. Never an ideologically harmonious group, by the 1890s the group had turned from socialism to anarchism , and disbanded in 1901. Until March 1884, the members of the Democratic Federation, forerunner of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), worked together in harmony. The new organisation had expected to make rapid headway with existing radical workingmen's organisations but few chose to join

171-480: A theory of imperialism , associating the reformism and social imperialism of the various pro-war parties with the rise of monopoly capital and imperialist superprofits . The Bolsheviks believed that monopoly capitalists had created large national blocs of capital which sought to divide the world among themselves, a process which created superprofits either through tariffs, or as a side-effect of capital export. Superprofits extracted from colonized areas were diverted to

228-546: A degree, the international continued to be plagued by major factional disputes at each congress. By the time of the 1896 congress in London , considered "the most agitated, the most tumultuous, and the most chaotic of all the congresses of the Second International", a more concrete rift had developed between reformist and revolutionary approaches to socialist power, which resulted in many factions along national lines. Among

285-479: A half International or Two-and-a-half International), heavily influenced by Austromarxism . In 1923, IWUSP and the Second International merged to form the social democratic Labour and Socialist International which continued to exist until 1940. After World War II , a new Socialist International was formed to continue the policies of the Labour and Socialist International, which continues to this day. Another successor

342-522: A major instance of antisemitism within the international, as although all of the delegates were ostensibly opposed to antisemitism, the resolution indicates that many delegates believed in the antisemitic canard that Jews controlled the banking system , or that financial capital was somehow intrinsically tied to Jews. In addition to antisemitism against Jewish bankers and capitalists, the British socialist newspaper Justice reported that "[t]here appears to be

399-445: A more reformist approach, arguing that socialists should pursue whichever reforms are "possible" at any given time, while still taking advantage of revolutionary opportunities. A Marxist faction led by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue , and supported by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , denounced the possibilist faction as opportunists, founding the rival French Workers' Party in 1882. Confusingly, both parties would call themselves

456-602: A much greater schism between the reformist and revolutionary wings of the international, which would eventually result in the Third International . In July 1920 at Geneva, the last congress of the Second International was held, following its functional collapse during the war. However, some European socialist parties refused to join the reorganised International and decided instead to form the International Working Union of Socialist Parties (IWUSP) (Second and

513-612: A new socialist manifesto to be approved at a subsequent meeting. According to Yuri Steklov , the conference was exceedingly poorly organized, and thus didn't engender confidence that a new international could be founded. Efforts to found a new international were greatly complicated by a factional divide within the FTSF between the Marxists and Possibilists . From its founding in 1879, a faction inspired (though not always endorsed) by Paul Brousse had moved away from revolutionary socialism towards

570-621: A proposal by the Dutch delegate Henri van Kol that the international drop its anticolonial position, which was defeated 128 votes to 108. Part of this was due to a concerted effort by non-socialist parties and the media to question the patriotism of anti-colonial parties, for example the SPD and Catholic Centre Party of Germany initially opposed the Herero and Namaqua genocide before giving in to extreme political pressure. The Dutch Social Democratic Workers' Party

627-670: A strong feeling against the Jews in the Congress." The "Jewish question" was not revisited after the 1891 congress; however, after the establishment of the ISB there appears to have been some attempt to rectify the imbalance against Jewish organizations within the international by granting them additional consultative votes on relevant issues. Such votes were granted to the Jewish Socialist Workers Party and Zionist Socialist Workers Party at

SECTION 10

#1732848604637

684-406: A very sickly William Morris. Discussion of anarchism would dominate the congress, but the anarchists were not successful in reversing their expulsion. Bolshevik figures like Vladimir Lenin and Nikolai Bukharin gained international notability during the war years for their criticisms of the international's inability to coordinate an anti-war opposition. Lenin and Bukharin based their critique in

741-451: A vote of 10 to 8. The anti-Hyndman dissidents handed in their prepared letter of resignation, believing the federation's lack of fraternal cooperation to be irreconcilable. The 10 seceding members of the old SDF Executive Council issued a statement To Socialists in January 1885 explaining their perspective. Early in 1885, the secessionists established themselves in a new organisation called

798-592: Is true, the split between the Possibilists and Marxists threatened to create two separate internationals, with subsequent conferences in Brussels and Zürich respectively. However, after the anger aroused during the split congresses had died down, the Marxists ultimately agreed to join the Brussels conference and create a single, unified international. While the factional divide between the Possibilists and Marxists abated to

855-575: The Parti Ouvrier (worker's party), and so were generally known as the Marxist party and Possibilist party. The Possibilist party would convene international socialist conferences several times, in 1883, 1884, and 1886. At the 1886 convention, it was decided that another convention would be held in 1889, but the Social Democratic Party of Germany disagreed with the decision, and the decisions at

912-738: The eight-hour day , for the class demands of the proletariat , and for universal peace ." Second International The foundation of a new international was first discussed at a conference at Chur in October 1881. Delegates included members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Belgian socialists, the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (FTSF), French and German-speaking Swiss delegations, two Polish delegates, and one delegate each for Russia and Hungary. The conference did not form an international that year, but decided to write

969-591: The 1886 convention were generally seen to have lacked legitimacy. The SPD held its own convention in St. Gallen in 1887, whereupon the FTSF decided to hold their own international conference the following year. When the London International Trades Union Congress declared that a new international meeting would be called in Paris in 1889, both the SPD and Possibilists decided to fold their next congress into

1026-591: The 1907 congress. After World War I, there were three Socialist Conferences in Switzerland. These served as a bridge to the creation of the Labour and Socialist International . Chronological list by ideology. After the Second International (1889–1916): Socialist League (UK, 1885) The Socialist League was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. The organisation began as

1083-535: The British Socialist League. Anarchist individuals and factions would ultimately be officially excluded at the 1893 Zurich congress, prompting many social democratic parties to expel their anarchist factions. An attempt to repeal the decision was made at the subsequent London congress of 1896, which was attended by anarchist figures like Errico Malatesta and Christiaan Cornelissen , supported by some Marxist figures including Keir Hardie , Tom Mann , and

1140-571: The Chur congress of 1881, instead opting to hold a separate congress in London which would result in the International Working People's Association or "black" international. As a result, anarchist organizations were not involved in discussions to found the Second International in 1889. Nonetheless, several anarchist individuals would hold positions in the international, and anarchists were actually

1197-575: The League's membership split ideologically into three factions : anarchists, parliamentary-oriented socialists, and anti-parliamentary socialists. Around the middle of this same year, 1887, anarchists began to outnumber socialists in the Socialist League. The 3rd Annual Conference, held in London on 29 May 1887 marked the change, with a majority of the 24 delegates voting in favor of an anarchist-sponsored resolution declaring that "This conference endorses

SECTION 20

#1732848604637

1254-467: The Marxists (many of whom faced conditions of illegality at home) were concerned about information being discovered by the authorities. However, according to John Burns , William Morris , and some of the Marxist delegates, there were no real concerns around verification until Henry Hyndman proposed the measure, and the dispute was a deliberate ploy to split the congress in two, an allegation strongly rebuked by Annie Besant . Regardless of which account

1311-466: The Marxists tolerated the earnest ethical socialists, the anarchists concerned them, with memories of the role of the anarchist schism in the First International still fresh in their memory. Eleanor Marx was one of the Socialist League leaders who was particularly concerned about the place of the largely non-English anarchists in the new party. The Socialist League was involved in the fight for

1368-453: The SDF's parliamentary emphasis choosing to involve themselves in the burgeoning movement for so-called " New Unionism ." As the socialist factions left, the anarchist faction solidified its hold on the organisation. By 1889, the anarchist wing had completely captured the organisation. William Morris was stripped of the editorship of Commonweal in favor of Frank Kitz , an anarchist workman. Morris

1425-621: The SDF. Early enthusiasm gave way to disappointment and introspection. Personal relationships began to loom large among the small group's leading members. The personal vanity and domineering attitude of the organisation's founder, Henry Hyndman , along with his nationalism and fixation on parliamentary politics, were the leading causes of the internal acrimony. By the end of 1884, a group of SDF members sought to remove Hyndman from his position as party leader in December Executive Council meetings. A resolution to censure Hyndman passed by

1482-470: The SPD and their Marxist supporters decided to hold a separate congress near the Possibilist congress, with the hope of uniting the two at a later date. The separation into two congresses in 1889 effectively forced foreign delegations to divide themselves up between supporters of the Possibilists, and supporters of the SPD. When the first meetings of the new international were held in Paris on 14 July 1889,

1539-572: The Second International's famous actions were its 1889 declaration of 1 May ( May Day ) as International Workers' Day and its 1910 declaration of the International Women's Day , first celebrated on 19 March and then on 8 March after the main day of the women's marches in 1917 during the Russian Revolution . It initiated the international campaign for the eight-hour working day . The International's permanent executive and information body

1596-543: The Socialist League. Several SDF branches, such as those in East London , Hammersmith , and Leeds , joined the new group. In Scotland the Scottish Land and Labour League severed its connection with the SDF to join the new organisation. Several important individuals in the movement such as author Edward Carpenter and artist Walter Crane also chose to cast their lot with the fledgling Socialist League. In February 1885

1653-410: The advanced countries, whereupon a portion was given over to a labor aristocracy as a "bribe", in the form of higher wages. The Bolsheviks saw this privileged, highly-skilled strata of workers organized into craft unions as a threat within the labor movement, which would try to take leadership positions in order to gain higher wages at the expense of other proletarians. Lenin and Bukharin believed that

1710-693: The allied powers successfully met four times at the Inter-Allied Socialist Conferences of World War I . Anti-war parties first met as representatives from the neutral countries at the Neutral Socialist Conferences during the First World War , then as part of the Zimmerwald movement which successfully convinced the neutral, pacifist and revolutionary parties to split from the international. The Zimmerwald movement would lead to

1767-435: The congress would pass an amended resolution targeting "philo-semitic tyranny", noting that many Jewish bankers were "great oppressors of labour". Regnard stated that he believed many Jews owned the newspapers, while Argyriades stated his belief that Jews owned the banks and many industries. The Times reported that the pair's amendment was greeted with applause and was passed with only minor opposition. This has been noted as

International Socialist Congress, Amsterdam 1904 - Misplaced Pages Continue

1824-574: The days of the First International, which was frequently characterized by clashes between the state socialists (ie. the Lassallists , Marxists and Blanquists ) on one hand, and the anarchists (ie. the mutualists and collectivists ) on the other. Tensions reached their peak after the Hague Congress of 1872 , wherein an attempt was made to expel Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume and move

1881-465: The dominant faction within several of the ostensibly Marxist organizations, such as the Social Democratic League . Despite holding positions as delegates, and ostensibly being welcome during the first two congresses, expressions of anarchist ideas were often shouted down, and in one incident Francesco Saverio Merlino faced violence from the other delegates, but was shielded by delegates from

1938-510: The founding of the international, Paul Lafargue affirmed that socialists were "brothers with a single common enemy [...] private capital, whether it be Prussian, French, or Chinese." The 1907 conference at Stuttgart resulted in a joint resolution which stated that "struggle against militarism cannot be separated from the Socialist class struggle in general." The extraordinary congress in Basel in 1912

1995-406: The general council to New York City , effectively disbanding the organization. Competing anarchist and state socialist internationals attempted to continue on alone, but both ultimately ended in failure within five years. As a result of the 1872 split, anarchist and social democratic factions were reluctant to work with one another. The anarchist organizations ultimately refused to participate in

2052-493: The group's international socialists began to leave. In August 1888, the London branch of the Socialist League, which included Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling, seceded in favor of establishing itself as an independent organization, the Bloomsbury Socialist Society . By the end of 1888 many other parliamentary-oriented individuals had exited the Socialist League to return to the SDF, with others who remained hostile to

2109-541: The international in 1889 included some noted antisemites including Henry Hyndman, who led the English attendees at the Possibilist congress, but also a great many Jewish-led organizations and Jewish delegates. Despite these differences, at the 1891 congress in Brussels the delegates managed to pass a unanimous resolution against antisemitism; however, at the insistence of the Blanquist delegates Dr. A. Regnard and M. Argyriades,

2166-590: The international into three factions: the pro-war social democratic parties in the Central Powers, the pro-war parties of the Triple Entente, and the various anti-war parties, including the parties in neutral countries and many pacifist or revolutionary socialist parties. The leadership of the international, especially Secretary General of the ISB Camille Huysmans, attempted to coordinate meetings between

2223-481: The international, the "who started it?" theorists represented by Georgi Plekhanov , and the more nuanced "saccharo-conciliatory chauvinis[ts]" represented by Karl Kautsky . Plekhanov generally agreed with the Entente, believing that German warmongering was a criminal act that needed to be punished by an international coalition. Kautsky suggested that the principle of national self-determination gave each national proletariat

2280-496: The leadership of the international, especially in the pro-war parties, were largely labor aristocrats or else were influenced by a labor aristocratic ideology. While the labor aristocracy thesis informed the Bolsheviks' general critique of the international, Lenin also had more specific criticisms of the leaders of the international who had sided with the pro-war parties. Lenin believed that there were really two pro-war ideologies in

2337-658: The new one, creating one large international meeting. However, the SPD had only joined the new meeting on the condition that the hosts would not ask for records and names from the delegates, since the SPD could have faced immediate dissolution and ejection from the Reichstag if the German government discovered it had sent delegates abroad. When the Trade Union Congress responded that delegates would only be considered legitimate if they could prove their mandate with appropriate records,

International Socialist Congress, Amsterdam 1904 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2394-431: The new party established its official journal, a newspaper called Commonweal . This publication was initially published monthly but was soon converted into a weekly. Editor of the publication was William Morris, who paid the paper's operating deficit out of pocket. The Socialist League was a heterogeneous organisation, including Fabians , Christian Socialists , anarchists , and Marxist revolutionary socialists. While

2451-548: The outbreak of war, all of the major socialist parties in belligerent nations (with the notable exception of the Independent Labour Party ) had issued statements in full support of war. This took many socialist parties in neutral countries by surprise, such as the Romanian Social Democrats , who initially refused to print the SPD's endorsement of war, believing it to be a forgery. The war effectively split

2508-454: The policy of abstention from parliamentary action, hitherto pursued by the League, and sees no sufficient reason for altering it." Frederick Engels , living in London and a very interested observer in the League's affairs, saw William Morris' role as decisive. Morris, a benefactor of the Commonweal , declared on principle that he would quit if the League took any parliamentary action. Many of

2565-610: The right of free speech in London during 1885 and 1886. Whereas religious organisations such as the Salvation Army were allowed to preach in the streets, the London Metropolitan Police banned the Socialists from similar activities. Members of the Socialist League and their rivals the SDF simply continued to speak and to incur fines, attracting public attention, until the authorities made the decision that their prosecution

2622-416: The right to defend itself, including violence against other proletarians. Lenin believed that both positions represented different attempts to rationalize labor aristocratic ideology. Despite issuing a statement against colonialism at the 1896 London congress, the international was criticized by anti-colonial figures for providing insufficient opposition to colonial expansion. While the pre-war international

2679-614: The two factions were still discussing the possibility of unity. The two meetings had effectively divided the entire European socialist movement into two camps: the Possibilists, supported by the British Social Democratic Federation , and the Marxists, supported by the SPD, the British Socialist League , and most of the other European delegates. The Possibilists insisted upon recording the names and documentation of delegates so as to verify their mandate, while

2736-496: The various parties, including one-on-one meetings between pro-war leaders from opposing sides, but by July 1916 the ISB's attempts had failed. Despite the failure to bring the various parties together into a single congress, each faction would hold its own conferences during the war. The German, Austrian, and Hungarian pro-war parties successfully met at the Vienna Socialist Conference of 1915 . The pro-war parties in

2793-571: The war, for peace, and for the settlement of the Austro-Serbian conflict by international arbitration.” The antimilitarist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) leader Jean Jaurès 's assassination a few days before the beginning of the First World War generated an outpouring of antimilitarist sentiment from many members of the socialist international. Nonetheless, immediately after

2850-418: Was "ethical imperialism". Ho Chi Minh wrote that the Second International's pro-colonial reputation led him to support the Third International instead. From its outset, one of the objectives of the international was to build a consensus on the " Jewish question ", a contemporary term for debates on the civil, legal, national, and political status and treatment of Jews as a minority group. The founders of

2907-493: Was counterproductive and stopped their interference. Thereafter, public interest in the street meetings rapidly evaporated. While the political contributions of the tiny Socialist League were not measurable, it did have a lasting literary impact. The newspaper of the Socialist League, The Commonweal, provided the venue for first publication of a number of original writings, including the serialized novels of William Morris, Dream of John Ball and News from Nowhere . In 1887,

SECTION 50

#1732848604637

2964-466: Was largely devoted to a discussion of rising militarism, which resulted in a manifesto stating that the working classes should "exert every effort in order to prevent the outbreak of war by the means they consider most effective." Finally on July 29, 1914, the ISB held an emergency meeting wherein it “resolved unanimously that it shall be the duty of the workers of all nations concerned not only to continue but to further intensify their demonstrations against

3021-409: Was left to foot the ongoing operating deficit of the publication, some £4 per week — this at a time when £150 per year was the average annual family income in the kingdom. By the autumn of 1890, Morris had had enough and he, too, withdrew from the Socialist League. The anarchist movement had newspapers of its own, including the journals Liberty and Freedom. The William Morris Society "reformed"

3078-467: Was particularly insistent on the legitimacy of a "socialist colonialism", and opposed most anti-colonial resolutions on the basis that colonialism under a socialist government could be benevolent and mutually beneficial. The French SFIO likewise supported a policy of "national colonialism", while the right wing of the SPD supported "national imperialism", and the British Labour Party 's stated policy

3135-548: Was relatively consistent in its opposition to an inter-imperialist conflict between European powers, it was often paternalistic towards colonial areas, and statements often mentioned a need to educate or civilize conquered peoples. By the Stuttgart congress of 1907, parties in the international had substantially shifted away from their earlier consensus on ostensible anticolonialism towards a mix of overtly pro-colonial, anti-colonial and neutral views. These divisions were made apparent in

3192-627: Was the International Socialist Bureau (ISB) based in Brussels and formed after the International's Paris Congress of 1900. Emile Vandervelde and Camille Huysmans of the Belgian Labour Party were its chair and secretary. Vladimir Lenin was a member from 1905. The pre-war period is notable for the repeated statements against militarism jointly issued by members of the international, which were largely ignored in 1914. At

3249-708: Was the Third International organised in 1919 by revolutionary socialists after the October Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union. It was officially called the Communist International (Comintern) and lasted until 1943 when it was dissolved by then Soviet leader Joseph Stalin . The Second International had a complex and changeable relationship to anarchist groups and individuals. The conflict between anarchist and Marxist factions dated back to

#636363