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Second International 1919-1922 - After the War

Immediately after the Armistice steps were taken for the reconstruction of the International under the auspices of a committee appointed by the Inter-Allied Socialist and Labour Conference of March 1918. This committee, consisting of Messrs. Albert Thomas, Henderson and Vandervcldc, acting in conjunction with M. Camille Huysmans, the International secretary, issued invitations for a preliminary International Socialist and Labour Conference to be held at Berne concurrently with the official Peace Conference.

The Berne Conference was held in Feb. 1919, and was attended by delegates from 26 nations. Certain sections of the Left refused to participate, including the Russian Communist party (who had already issued their invitation for a separate conference to inaugurate a new International) and the official parties of Italy, Switzerland, Serbia and Rumania.

The Beme Conference, although not strictly a conference of the old Second International either in origin or composition, made arrangements for the resumption of the International at a full congress to be held the next year, and appointed a Permanent Commission for this purpose. The conference also passed resolutions in favour of a League of Nations based on a just peace, of national self-determination, and of an International Labour Charter. War responsibilities and Bolshevism gave rise to sharp debates. The former subject was remitted to a subsequent congress. On the latter subject a resolution denouncing the dictatorship of the proletariat and declaring democracy the only possible means of achieving socialism received a majority of votes; but the conference decided to postpone a definite decision until it had sent a mission of inquiry to Russia (for which, however, passports were refused).

The Permanent Commission appointed at the Berne Conference met at Amsterdam in April Wiq, and at Lucerne in Aug. 1919. It made arrangements for the first full after-war congress to be held at Geneva in Feb. 1920, and drew up a provisional constitution. Difficulties in the way of the Geneva Congress arose owing to the growing strength of the newly founded Third or Communist International and the steady defection of parties and sections from the Second International. In consequence the Geneva Congress was postponed until Aug. 1920.

By the time the Geneva Congress was held in Aug. 1920, the Second International had come to represent in practice the right wing of the International Labor movement, although still in its basis accepting all labor and socialist organizations. Its main strength lay in the British Labour party and the German Majority socialists, together with the parties of certain smaller countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Holland and Hungary The official parties of America, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, the Balkans, Ukraine and Russia had left it, as had also the German Independent socialists, while of the British socialist organizations only the Fabian Society remained with it.

The Geneva Congress adopted for the first time a regular constitution for the International, and drew up a carefully worded programme on the economic and political side. This program follows more or less the lines made familiar in England by Fabian socialism, together with the recognition of a large measure of workers' control in industry. The Geneva Congress further recommended that the Secretariat should be transferred to London; and the British section was invited to undertake the task of negotiating with national socialist and labour bodies not represented, in order to secure their adherence.

The Vienna International

The International Working Union of Socialist Parties (also known as 2½ International or the Vienna International) was an international organization for cooperation of socialists. While the issues of the Second and Third Internationals were agitating the socialist world, a number of parties which occupied a centre position endeavoured to start a new movement with a view to the reconstruction of the International. These parties had left the Second International, but were not prepared to enter the Third International. In Dec. 1920, a conference was held at Berne which made preparations for an inaugural congress of the new movement at Vienna in Feb. 1921. This congress was attended by the Austrian, Swiss and Hungarian parties, the British Independent Labour party, and the right-wing minorities of the French Socialists and the German Independent Socialists, the Russian Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, and one or two groups from other countries. An "International Working Union of Socialist Parties" was constituted, open to all parties not affiliated with either the Second or the Third International, and with the object of " unifying the activities of the affiliated parties, arranging common action, and promoting the establishment of an International which will embrace the whole revolutionary working class of the world." A statement on the "Organization and Methods of the Class Struggle" was adopted, which insisted on the probable necessity of expecting the use of violent measures by the capitalist class, but claimed national autonomy for each party to determine its own method of action.

Thus, by the summer of 1921, there were in existence three Internationals claiming the allegiance of the labour and socialist movements of the world. In Germany in the fall of 1922, the USPD, one of the main components of IWUSP, merged with the SPD, a member of the Second International. In the spring of 1923 IWUSP merged with the Second International to form the Labour and Socialist International. Some, such as the Independent Socialist Party (Romania) refused to join the new body.