Die Neue Zeit
23rd July 2017, 06:06
The Rise and Fall of the Second International (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/07/second-international-bernstein-rosa-luxemburg-unions-world-war) (excerpt follows)
By Sean Larson
On July 14, 1889, the Second International was born to unite the workers of the world. What happened to that dream?
In the aftermath of the Paris Commune’s blood-soaked suppression, Marx’s International Workingmen’s Association dissolved amid factional disputes between socialists and anarchists. For the next quarter century, socialists were deprived of their highest form of organization.
But on Bastille Day, 1889, one hundred years after the French Revolution, workers’ leaders reforged the International. A massive red banner emblazoned with the golden words “Workers of the World, Unite!” hung in an overfilled Paris ballroom. Paul Lafargue, Marx’s son-in-law, welcomed representatives from twenty-four countries to the opening congress of the Second International, extending a special welcome to the many German delegates and celebrating the absence of nationalism:
-----
We gather here not under the banner of the tricolor or any other national colors, we gather here under the banner of the red flag, the flag of the international proletariat. Here you are not in capitalist France, in the Paris of the bourgeoisie. Here in this room you are in one of the capitals of the international proletariat, of international socialism.
-----
By the dawn of the twentieth century, the parties organized in the Second International had become thriving mass organizations linked to rapidly growing trade union movements — ticking red time bombs in the heart of capitalist Europe.
But twenty-five years after its founding, almost all of these parties would betray their mission, lining up behind their national elites to support World War I and rip the promise of international solidarity to shreds.
The Second International did not have to fall. Specific political decisions led these parties to undermine their own revolutionary potential. We should learn from their experience.
An International Program
The Second International lasted from 1889 to 1914. Socialist parties all over the world sent representatives to its regular congresses and participated in shared projects. The International also included parties from across Europe, Turkey, India, Japan, the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile.
The movement’s leaders envisioned a beautiful new world, but, unlike the utopian socialists of the past, they had the means of implementing it. They moved forward with a relentless commitment to making their alternative a reality. Having discovered Marxism, a burning curiosity about nature and society drove this generation to explore every aspect of human history from their fresh perspective.
They produced brilliant work: Kautsky’s exploration of Christianity, Lafargue’s historical-philosophical defense of laziness, and Plekhanov’s theories of human agency in history. The general himself, Friedrich Engels, took the helm in those early years. His vast correspondence offered both theoretical and practical advice to Marxists organizing all over Europe.
Varying social, economic, and political contexts shaped national workers’ movements. Belgium, Germany, and Austria had the biggest and most robust parties, while those in Eastern Europe — Russia and Poland — were forced underground. The British and American parties took the least inspiration from revolutionary struggles and Marxism and tended to stay on the International’s right.
While industrial workers remained the movement’s primary base, agrarian day laborers and smallholding peasants made up a sizable chunk of Italy’s and France’s socialist parties. Those nations’ trade unions remained largely suspicious of parliament, which produced strong syndicalist currents.
Almost all the parties in the International emerged from the unification of several worker, socialist, or anarchist groups. Karl Marx’s theory and practice appeared in every party, but it did not always play a dominant role.
The continental parties all had their own specific challenges. In France, the socialist movement constantly split along sectarian lines; in Austria and Russia, party members had to grapple with the national question early on; the Italians confronted nearly insurmountable regional differences.
In Germany, a large, landowning class still controlled the state. Nevertheless, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) became the Second International’s largest party and guiding light. The German social democrats took the lead on strategy within the International, and the debates and processes happening in Germany tended to echo across the other parties.
The Birth of the SPD
In the decade following the Second International’s founding, Germany passed a series of antisocialist laws as well as measures designed to win over the working classes in hopes of curbing the SPD’s influence. A loophole allowed them to campaign for elections but nothing else.
But the movement’s exile press and socialist-friendly taverns kept the SPD alive. In fact, for many German workers, taverns became virtually synonymous with social democracy, a feature the SPD shared with the Austrian and Italian movements. A prominent Austrian socialist even argued that “the beer table” was a more effective recruitment and consciousness-raising tool than newspapers and mass meetings. By the 1890s, German socialism was leaping from victory to victory, permeating every aspect of working-class life.
A German worker could be born into a social-democratic household, join an SPD youth organization, then enter the social-democratic trade union that organized their workplace. After work they might attend a lecture at a social-democratic educational society or conspire with fellow workers at a party tavern before picking up groceries through a social-democratic consumer society. In old age, workers knew that their unions would cover their funeral arrangements. The SPD had truly become a cradle-to-the-grave movement.
The party spread socialism not only through its massive press empire, but also through the party school, regular mass festivals, and local branch meetings and party congresses. It organized gymnastics associations and a host of clubs, for singing, cycling, rowing, swimming, sailing, and football. Grassroots workers’ associations promoted public health, free theater, chess, naturalism, and anti-religious “proletarian free-thinking.” German social democracy gave workers access to a comprehensive life-world.
This social-cultural milieu transmitted the values of solidarity, the ability to self-organize, and political direction to hundreds of thousands of German workers. The promise of the socialist future — Zukunftsstaat — bound them together and animated them. This vision differentiated the SPD from the period’s liberal parties.
By the early 1900s, the SPD had become the largest single party in the German empire. The whole spectrum of ruling-class parties decried the growing workers’ movement as an almost unstoppable “red tide.” The SPD’s enemies universally called it the “party of overthrow,” Umsturzpartei.
By Sean Larson
On July 14, 1889, the Second International was born to unite the workers of the world. What happened to that dream?
In the aftermath of the Paris Commune’s blood-soaked suppression, Marx’s International Workingmen’s Association dissolved amid factional disputes between socialists and anarchists. For the next quarter century, socialists were deprived of their highest form of organization.
But on Bastille Day, 1889, one hundred years after the French Revolution, workers’ leaders reforged the International. A massive red banner emblazoned with the golden words “Workers of the World, Unite!” hung in an overfilled Paris ballroom. Paul Lafargue, Marx’s son-in-law, welcomed representatives from twenty-four countries to the opening congress of the Second International, extending a special welcome to the many German delegates and celebrating the absence of nationalism:
-----
We gather here not under the banner of the tricolor or any other national colors, we gather here under the banner of the red flag, the flag of the international proletariat. Here you are not in capitalist France, in the Paris of the bourgeoisie. Here in this room you are in one of the capitals of the international proletariat, of international socialism.
-----
By the dawn of the twentieth century, the parties organized in the Second International had become thriving mass organizations linked to rapidly growing trade union movements — ticking red time bombs in the heart of capitalist Europe.
But twenty-five years after its founding, almost all of these parties would betray their mission, lining up behind their national elites to support World War I and rip the promise of international solidarity to shreds.
The Second International did not have to fall. Specific political decisions led these parties to undermine their own revolutionary potential. We should learn from their experience.
An International Program
The Second International lasted from 1889 to 1914. Socialist parties all over the world sent representatives to its regular congresses and participated in shared projects. The International also included parties from across Europe, Turkey, India, Japan, the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile.
The movement’s leaders envisioned a beautiful new world, but, unlike the utopian socialists of the past, they had the means of implementing it. They moved forward with a relentless commitment to making their alternative a reality. Having discovered Marxism, a burning curiosity about nature and society drove this generation to explore every aspect of human history from their fresh perspective.
They produced brilliant work: Kautsky’s exploration of Christianity, Lafargue’s historical-philosophical defense of laziness, and Plekhanov’s theories of human agency in history. The general himself, Friedrich Engels, took the helm in those early years. His vast correspondence offered both theoretical and practical advice to Marxists organizing all over Europe.
Varying social, economic, and political contexts shaped national workers’ movements. Belgium, Germany, and Austria had the biggest and most robust parties, while those in Eastern Europe — Russia and Poland — were forced underground. The British and American parties took the least inspiration from revolutionary struggles and Marxism and tended to stay on the International’s right.
While industrial workers remained the movement’s primary base, agrarian day laborers and smallholding peasants made up a sizable chunk of Italy’s and France’s socialist parties. Those nations’ trade unions remained largely suspicious of parliament, which produced strong syndicalist currents.
Almost all the parties in the International emerged from the unification of several worker, socialist, or anarchist groups. Karl Marx’s theory and practice appeared in every party, but it did not always play a dominant role.
The continental parties all had their own specific challenges. In France, the socialist movement constantly split along sectarian lines; in Austria and Russia, party members had to grapple with the national question early on; the Italians confronted nearly insurmountable regional differences.
In Germany, a large, landowning class still controlled the state. Nevertheless, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) became the Second International’s largest party and guiding light. The German social democrats took the lead on strategy within the International, and the debates and processes happening in Germany tended to echo across the other parties.
The Birth of the SPD
In the decade following the Second International’s founding, Germany passed a series of antisocialist laws as well as measures designed to win over the working classes in hopes of curbing the SPD’s influence. A loophole allowed them to campaign for elections but nothing else.
But the movement’s exile press and socialist-friendly taverns kept the SPD alive. In fact, for many German workers, taverns became virtually synonymous with social democracy, a feature the SPD shared with the Austrian and Italian movements. A prominent Austrian socialist even argued that “the beer table” was a more effective recruitment and consciousness-raising tool than newspapers and mass meetings. By the 1890s, German socialism was leaping from victory to victory, permeating every aspect of working-class life.
A German worker could be born into a social-democratic household, join an SPD youth organization, then enter the social-democratic trade union that organized their workplace. After work they might attend a lecture at a social-democratic educational society or conspire with fellow workers at a party tavern before picking up groceries through a social-democratic consumer society. In old age, workers knew that their unions would cover their funeral arrangements. The SPD had truly become a cradle-to-the-grave movement.
The party spread socialism not only through its massive press empire, but also through the party school, regular mass festivals, and local branch meetings and party congresses. It organized gymnastics associations and a host of clubs, for singing, cycling, rowing, swimming, sailing, and football. Grassroots workers’ associations promoted public health, free theater, chess, naturalism, and anti-religious “proletarian free-thinking.” German social democracy gave workers access to a comprehensive life-world.
This social-cultural milieu transmitted the values of solidarity, the ability to self-organize, and political direction to hundreds of thousands of German workers. The promise of the socialist future — Zukunftsstaat — bound them together and animated them. This vision differentiated the SPD from the period’s liberal parties.
By the early 1900s, the SPD had become the largest single party in the German empire. The whole spectrum of ruling-class parties decried the growing workers’ movement as an almost unstoppable “red tide.” The SPD’s enemies universally called it the “party of overthrow,” Umsturzpartei.