2.

Brussels Congress, August 16–22, 1891

Introductory Note

Attended by 337 delegates from sixteen countries, the Brussels Congress of the Second International effectively healed the breach between the two rival congresses held two years earlier. The main reformist forces that had attended the Possibilist gathering of 1889 were participants at Brussels.

Also present and highly visible at the congress were several anarchist delegates. At the time, anarchism was a major current in the workers’ movement. A central tenet of anarchists was to reject all forms of political action, including participation in elections and the fight for political reforms and social legislation. At several points during the congress, anarchist delegates engaged in noisy and disruptive procedural protests, harkening back to anarchists’ participation in the First International, which had led to a split in 1872. With this experience in mind, the Brussels Congress adopted a motion excluding anarchist organizations from participating in the congress in their own name.

Other points of contention at the congress involved the general strike and militarism, as well as the call for international actions on the First of May.

Frederick Engels made his assessment of the Brussels Congress in a letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, who had been a fellow leader of the First International decades earlier. “In matters of principle as of tactics the Marxists have been victorious all along the line,” Engels wrote. A few days later, he added, “The Congress has proved a brilliant success for us. . . . The new, incomparably larger and avowedly Marxist International is beginning again at the precise spot where its predecessor [the First International] left off.”^[1]

* * *

CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION TO THE CONGRESS

Remarks by Jean Volders presenting a motion on behalf of the Belgian delegation on anarchist participation in the congress. After extensive discussion, the congress voted overwhelmingly to reject the credentials of the Belgian anarchist delegate whom Volders refers to.

Belgium is represented by 187 delegates from political and trade union organizations. However, one case requires clarification. Three anarchist delegates are present. As anarchists, they have no business attending a socialist congress. Two of them, however, have come as delegates of nonanarchist groups. That leaves in question the mandate of only a single delegate. The Belgian Workers Party requests that this delegate be excluded on the grounds that anarchists support neither organization of the workers [in unions] nor legislative initiatives by governments in the workers’ interests. There is therefore no basis for their participation in this congress.

* * *

LABOR LEGISLATION

Commission resolution presented by Émile Vandervelde, incorporating amendments by Leo Frankel and British trade unionists. In the discussion on this resolution, German SPD leader August Bebel sought to put the question of labor legislation in a revolutionary perspective: “I wish above all to emphasize that in my opinion the chief task of Social Democracy is not to secure laws for labor protection, but to explain to the workers the nature and character of present-day society, in order that this society should disappear as quickly as possible, the more quickly as it bears within itself, by virtue of its own laws of development, the fatal germ of its own decay. The workers must learn to understand the nature of this society so that when its last hour has struck, they will be able to establish the new society.”^[2]

This Congress, recognizing the existence of the class struggle and convinced that as long as class rule prevails the emancipation of the working classes will be impossible, declares:

That the laws enacted and the decrees issued in various countries since the Paris International Congress held in 1889 do not in any respect meet the aspirations of the workers. That although the Berlin conference, as admitted by those who themselves initiated it, met under the pressure exerted by the International Socialist Congress and may therefore be regarded as an important concession to the growing power of the working class, its results have demonstrated that existing governments do not wish to effect necessary reforms, and that, on the other hand, the resolutions of the Berlin conference have served as a pretext by certain governments to halt the development of protective labor legislation by invoking the decisions of the Berlin conference and pointing to the defects in the legislation of competing countries.^[3]

Moreover, the Congress affirms that this legislation is not only defective in itself, but is insufficiently applied and monitored.

The Congress therefore urges upon the workers of all countries to fight energetically with all the means of agitation and propaganda at their disposal for the realization of the program laid down by the Paris Congress, even if this agitation has no other result for the moment than to make it clear to the workers that the governing and exploiting classes are hostile to any effective labor protection.

Whereas it is necessary to give to the international socialist labor movement a common direction, especially with regard to protective labor legislation, the Congress urges workers’ organizations and parties:

1. To organize in every country a permanent body of inquiry into the conditions of labor and the situation of the working class.

2. To exchange all necessary information with a view to the development and uniformity of labor legislation.

3. This Congress finally recommends that wageworkers throughout the world unite their efforts against capitalist rule, and, wherever they enjoy political rights, to exercise them with the object of gaining their emancipation from wage-slavery.

* * *

WORKING-CLASS ORGANIZATION AND ACTION

Commission resolution as amended by the congress.

Under the present economic conditions, and with the unceasing efforts of the ruling classes to suppress more and more the political rights of the working classes, and to reduce their economic standard of living, strikes as well as boycotts are to be considered as an unavoidable means to be used by the laboring classes for the purpose of resisting the attempts of their adversaries to encroach on their political rights and make their material life one of misery and unendurable privations. They are to be considered at the same time as a means to better as far as possible their political and social position within the now-existing society.

But whereas strikes and boycotts are double-edged weapons which, when used at an unfavorable time and in the wrong place may do more harm than good, this Congress recommends a careful investigation of all the circumstances that should be taken into consideration, before these arms are taken up with any hope of success.

And furthermore this Congress considers it necessary before entering into any fights of this kind, to organize trade unions, so that they are enabled to gain their purposes by the weight of their numbers, as well as by their financial means.

Therefore:

The Congress recommends all workers to support with all their strength trade union organizations, and protests against all attempts on the part of governments or owners to interfere in any fashion whatever with the right of coalition of the workers.

In order to ensure this right of coalition, the Congress demands the repeal of all laws that either directly or indirectly attack this right, and declares it to be the duty of the workers to pursue this end with all their strength.

And since, desirable as it is, a central organization of the international forces of the workers for the moment presents difficulties of various kinds, the Congress decides to provide a common means for the working-class solidarity of the different countries to manifest itself.

And therefore recommends wherever it is possible the formation in every country of a national correspondence committee (secrétariat du travail) in order that, when a struggle breaks out anywhere between capital and labor, the workers of the different nationalities may be informed of the circumstances and be in a position to act accordingly.

* * *

PIECEWORK

Resolution presented by Louis Bertrand from Belgium.

Considering:

That piecework and contract work is becoming more and more generalized;

That this form of wages constantly intensifies the exploitation of the labor force, and consequently increases the poverty and misery of the workers;

That it reduces more and more the worker to the status of a machine; That it decreases the rate of wages as a result of fierce competition among workers, in which the productivity of an elite group of workers is set as a standard;

That this system is a perpetual cause of conflict between bosses and workers, and among workers themselves;

That, finally, it tends to generalize homework in place of factory work within a great number of trades, as well as undermining the spirit of association, preventing workers from organizing, and rendering impossible the application of protective labor laws;

The Congress considers that this abominable system of overwork is a necessary consequence of the capitalist system and will disappear along with it.

It is the duty of workers’ organizations of all countries to oppose by every means the development of this system.

The sweating system [sweatshops], too, leads to disastrous consequences and must be fought for the same reasons.

* * *

INTERNATIONAL FIRST OF MAY DEMONSTRATIONS

Motion proposed by the French delegation, as amended by the congress. In the commission that discussed this resolution, the German and British delegations expressed opposition to calling for a cessation of work on May 1, and proposed instead that demonstrations be held the first Sunday in the month. The following is the compromise resolution adopted.

The Congress,

In order to maintain the true economic character of the First of May, viz., the demand for a legal eight-hour working day and the affirmation of the class struggle;

The Congress decides:

That there shall be one common demonstration for this purpose by the workers in all countries;

That this demonstration shall be the First of May, where possible, and that all shall cease work on that day.

* * *

WOMEN’S EQUALITY

Adopted by the congress on a motion by Wilhelmina Drucker, Emma Ihrer, Louise Kautsky, Anna Kuliscioff, and Ottilie Baader.

The Congress urges the socialist and labor parties of all countries to affirm energetically in their programs the complete equality of the two sexes, and to demand in particular that women be granted the same political and civil rights as men, and the repeal of all laws placing women outside public rights.

* * *

THE JEWISH QUESTION

Abraham Cahan, a delegate from the United Hebrew Trades in the United States, had made an appeal to the congress to address the Jewish question and anti-Semitism. Responding on behalf of a commission that took up this question, Belgian socialist Jean Volders condemned anti-Semitic agitation as a capitalist device to sow division among the working class. But Volders stated that the congress need do nothing more than make a general statement to this effect, declaring that it recognized no distinction of race or nationality, and linking condemnation of anti-Semitism with that of “philo-Semitism.” A resolution on anti-Semitism adopted by the 1904 Amsterdam Congress presented an entirely different perspective on the question (see pages 92–93). The Brussels Congress commission’s resolution, below, was adopted unanimously.

The Congress:

Considering that socialist and workers’ parties of all countries have always affirmed that for them racial or national antagonism and struggle cannot exist, but only the class struggle of proletarians of all races against capitalists of all races;

Considering that for the Jewish-language working-class population, there can be no other means of emancipation than through unity with the labor or socialist parties of their respective countries;

While condemning both anti-Semitic and philo-Semitic agitation as one of the maneuvers by which the capitalist class and reactionary governments seek to divert the socialist movement and divide workers;

Decides that there is no need to take up the question proposed by the delegation of American Jewish-language socialist groups, and passes to the next order of business.

* * *

MILITARISM

Commission resolution, prepared by Wilhelm Liebknecht and Édouard Vaillant. A counterresolution presented by Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis for the Dutch delegation called for a general strike against the threat of war; that resolution was rejected. For the text of the Dutch resolution, see the appendix.

The Congress:

Declares that militarism, which bears down heavily on Europe, is the fatal result of the permanent state of open and latent war, imposed on society by the system of the exploitation of man by man and the class struggle that is the consequence of this.

Declares that all attempts to obtain the abolition of militarism and the establishment of peace among the nations—however generous be their intentions—can only be utopian and powerless if they do not touch the economic sources of the evil.

Declares that only the creation of a socialist order, putting an end to the exploitation of man by man, will put an end to militarism and assure permanent peace.

Declares that consequently it is the duty of all those who wish to finish with war to join the international socialist party, which is the true and only party of peace.

Therefore the Congress:

In view of the situation in Europe that daily becomes more threatening, and of the chauvinist inciting of the governing classes in the various countries, calls on all workers to protest, by means of unceasing agitation, against all desires for war and against the alliances that favor such, and to hasten, by the development of the international organization of the proletariat, the triumph of socialism.

Declares that it is the only means capable of averting a general war, the expenses of which all workers would have to bear.

In any case, the Congress intends, in the presence of history and humanity, to throw all responsibility for whatever happens onto the ruling classes.

* * *

MOTION ON MARITIME WORKERS

Motion by Raymond Lavigne, delegate from Bordeaux.

The Congress urges all labor parties of the world to support the organization of seafaring workers, as well as to publicize the international maritime congress that will take place in Bordeaux in 1892.^[4]

Footnotes

Frederick Engels, letters to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, September 2 and 14, 1891, in Marx Engels Collected Works, vol. 49, pp. 232, 238. ↑

In Verhandlungen und Beschlüsse des Internationalen Arbeiterkongresses zu Brüssel (Berlin: Verlag der Expédition des “Vorwärts,” Berliner Volksblatt, 1893), p. 11. It is also quoted in J. Lenz, The Rise and Fall of the Second International (New York: International Publishers, 1932), pp. 19–20. ↑

The Berlin conference of March 15–29, 1890, involving representatives of fourteen European governments, discussed a number of questions related to labor legislation, such as the employment of women and children, Sunday work, mining, and methods of enforcing agreements. Purely advisory in character, the conference helped lead to the formation in 1900 of the International Association for Labor Legislation. ↑

The Bordeaux conference took place March 13–20, 1892, attended by two hundred workers. The meeting helped lead to the formation of the Fédération nationale des syndicats maritimes (National Federation of Maritime Unions). ↑