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The Rise and Fall of the Second International J. Lenz

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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL BY J. LENZ INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS NEW YORK Copyright 1932, by International Publishers Co., Inc. Printed in the U.S.S.R. by Trade Union Labour CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 5 CHAPTER I: The Second International in Its Prime .......................................... 8 1. The Foundation of the Second International: Paris 1889 .................... 8 2. The Genera! Strike Against War — Celebration of May Day: Brussels 1891 ............................................................................ 12 3. Against Tsarism; May Day and Tactical Questions: Zurich 1893 ..... 17 4. Exclusion of Anarchists; the Agrarian and Colonial Questions: London 1896 .............................................................................. 26 5. The Struggle Against Millerandism; the Pliable Kautsky: Paris 1900 .................................................................................. 30 6. The Fight Against Revisionism: Amsterdam 1904 ............................. 39 CHAPTER II: Opportunist Degeneration ........................................................ 51 1. The Turning Point; the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Debates on the Mass Strike in the German Party: 1904—1907 ... 51 2. Right Majority — Left Resolutions; Stuttgart 1907............................ 63 3. Nationalism in the Trade Union Question; Opportunism in the Co-operative Question: Copenhagen 1910 .................................. 77 4. The Discussion on Imperialism and the Oath of Basle: 1911—1913 ............................................................................... 82 CHAPTER III: The Collapse of the Second International and the Rise of the Third International .............................................................................. 92 1. The Collapse of the International on the Outbreak of the War; the Capitulation of the Centre; the Roots of Social-Imperialism ... 92 2. The Bolsheviks Raise the Standard of the Third International; Zimmerwald and the Zimmerwald Left: 1914—1916 ................. 102 3. The Russian February Revolution and the Stockholm Conference: 1917 ..................................................................... 115 4. The October Revolution, the Beginning of Proletarian World Revolution; 1917—1918 ........................................................... 126 CHAPTER IV: Galvanising the Corpse of the Second International; Development of the Communist International .................................... 134 1. The Reconciliation Feast of the Social-Patriots at Berne and the Foundation of the Communist International in Moscow: 1919 .. 134 2. Geneva — Moscow — Vienna: 1920—1921 ..................................... 140 3. The Fight for the Proletarian United Front ...................................... 153 CHAPTER V: The International of Capitalist Reaction and the International of Proletarian World Revolution ..................................... 162 1. The Reconciliation Feast of the Reformists in Hamburg: 1923 ........ 162 2. Proletarian Defeats and the Relative Stabilisation of Capitalism; the Fifth World Congress of the Comintern and the Marseilles Congress of the Social-Patriotic International: 1923—1925 ....... 168 3. Capitalist Rationalisation and the Advance of the New Revolutionary Wave; the Brussels Congress: 1926—1928 ......... 182 4. From Social-Imperialism to Social-Fascism — the Road of the Second International; Forward to the World Union of Soviet Republics, Forward to World Communism — the Road of the Third International ............................................................................ 195 INDEX OF NAMES ...................................................................................... 204 INTRODUCTION Over forty years ago, in 1889, the Second International was founded at the International Workers’ Congress in Paris. In the space of twenty-five years it grew and developed into a powerful mass organisation, to which millions of workers in capitalist countries paid allegiance. It was the pride and hope of countless class conscious workers. In numerous resolutions, appeals and speeches, the leaders of the Second International declared in favour of interna- tional proletarian solidarity, of determined struggle against imperialist war. In August 1914 the Socialist International was the first victim of the war. Without any attempt at resistance, the proud edifice fell in ruins, like a house of cards. The leading parties in the International, above all the German Party, went over with flying colours into the camp of the capitalist war criminals. This collapse taught the international working class a sanguinary lesson: to renounce militant international organisation is death for the working class. The experience of every great struggle between capital and labour demonstrates the necessity of international proletarian solidarity. When capital is closely knit on an international scale, when international cartels and trusts, which serve also as international organisations for capitalism’s fight against the working class, dominate the world, a united proletarian international is doubly neces- sary. The belief that the war of 1914-1918 was the war to end all wars is re- vealed more and more clearly as an empty illusion. Now, as in the period pre- ceding 1914, feverish competition in armaments is proceeding. The question of how the working class shall, by joint action in all countries, fight against the danger of war, occupies the mind of every class conscious worker. At the present time it is more than ever necessary to consider thoroughly the question of the international policy and organisation of the working class. Out of the fight against the Imperialist War and the treachery of the Second In- ternational there arose, under the leadership of the Russian Bolsheviks, the Third, the Communist International. Through many years of struggle it has de- fended the dictatorship of the proletariat over one-sixth of the earth’s surface, adopting a united revolutionary attitude in all imperialist conflicts, rallying un- der its banner the most resolute revolutionary class fighters in all countries. But in a number of the most important capitalist countries the majority of the organised workers regard Communism partly with hostility, partly with distrust. After the end of the war various attempts were made again to organise on an international scale the parties of the Second International, which had broken apart when the first shot was fired. At the Congress held in Hamburg in 1923 the formal unity of all Social Democratic parties was established. The “Labour and Socialist International,” as this new body was called, claimed to carry on the traditions of the First and Second Internationals. It promised the workers that in the event of a future war the Social Democratic leaders who had failed them in 1914 would not fail them again. Millions of workers still rely on this promise, as they relied on the promises of their leaders before 1914. But while, in 1914, even the best revolutionaries and Marxists were astonished by the profoundly opportunist and chauvinist corruption of the Second Inter- national, today it re quires only a critical examination of the theory and prac- 6 THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL tice, the social and political character of the patched-up International of re- formism, to see that the part which it is playing now, in “peace” time, is but the consistent continuation of the treachery of 1914 that in a future war this “In- ternational” will play a part even worse than it did in 1914. The Third, the Communist International, on the other hand, is the only guarantee that in the new slaughter of the peoples which the imperialists of every country are preparing, the proletariat will not again be left defenceless, that the international revolutionary proletariat has now forged a weapon which will not fail it in its hour of need, that the promises which the Second Interna- tional could not keep will be carried out in the coming war. What has been said above is proved by a study of the history of the in- ternational labour movement in the period from 1889 to 1929. But it is not the object of this book to give in detail the story of those forty years. The history of the Second International has yet to be written. The work here published, writ- ten amidst the turmoil of daily life, does not claim to give the reader that which can only be the result of a thorough historical investigation. It merely attempts, on the basis of historical facts, to explain some problems which every worker who wishes to carry out his duty in the international proletariat’s great struggle for freedom must understand. Why the Second International was bound to fail; why, in the present period, it is necessary for the proletarian International to be organised in a body fundamentally different from that which collapsed in 1914; why the “International” which claims to be a replica of the old Interna- tional can at the present time only serve as an auxiliary force of imperialism; why it was essential to establish a new International capable of carrying out the tasks indicated by Marx and Engels in The Communist Manifesto — these are the questions with which we shall deal in the following pages. Our object has been, not complete historical description, but selection of the most important points. One defect, of which the author is fully conscious, consists in the impossibility of giving an adequate
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