7.
Stuttgart Congress, August 18–24, 1907
Introductory Note
The Stuttgart Congress of 1907, attended by 884 delegates from 25 countries, took place as interimperialist rivalries and colonial wars continued to shape world politics. The congress was also the first international socialist congress since the Russian Revolution of 1905. That event, which extended into early 1907, was the first major revolutionary uprising in Europe since the Paris Commune of 1871. It inspired and energized the working-class movement of the entire world, particularly left-wing forces within the parties of the Second International, leading to growing polarization in the world movement.
These international events shaped the debates at Stuttgart, in which the growing divergence between the revolutionary and opportunist trends within the Second International was unusually sharp and clear-cut.
There were important debates at the Stuttgart Congress around five issues:
1. War and militarism.
Four resolutions were presented to the congress. The main one, put forward by August Bebel on behalf of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), was largely a restatement of resolutions adopted at previous congresses, condemning capitalist militarism in a general sense. But it lacked any concrete statement regarding action to be taken by the working class in response to the threat of war. A second resolution, put forward by Jean Jaurès and Édouard Vaillant for the majority of the French delegation, restated the position the French had been putting forward for years on the need to meet war threats with a general strike. A more extreme version of this view was presented in a resolution by Gustave Hervé, who called for meeting war threats with insurrection and military disobedience. The final resolution, put forward by Jules Guesde for the French minority, rejected any special antiwar measures apart from the general fight for socialism.
A debate over these resolutions took place in the congress commission on war and international conflicts. A subcommission was then established to prepare a draft for the congress itself. In this subcommission, Rosa Luxemburg submitted a series of amendments to Bebel’s resolution prepared by her, V. I. Lenin, and Julius Martov. These amendments sharpened the Bebel resolution considerably, spelling out the need not just for the working class to oppose these wars formally but also to take concrete action against them, and to do so in such a way as to advance the perspective of proletarian revolution. These amendments were incorporated into Bebel’s draft, and the amended resolution was then unanimously adopted by the commission and presented to the congress plenary, where it was also adopted unanimously. For a version of the resolution that highlights the Luxemburg-Lenin-Martov amendments, see the appendix.)
2. Immigration and emigration.
A sharp debate occurred within the commission taking up the question of emigration and immigration of workers. Morris Hillquit, who defended a resolution submitted by the Socialist Party of America, focused on “capitalism’s importation of foreign labor cheaper than that of native-born workers.” He went on to say,
This threatens the native-born with dangerous competition and usually provides a pool of unconscious strikebreakers. Chinese and Japanese workers play that role today, as does the yellow race in general. While we have absolutely no racial prejudices against the Chinese, we must frankly tell you that they cannot be organized. Only a people well advanced in its historical development, such as the Belgians and Italians in France, can be organized for the class struggle. The Chinese have lagged too far behind to be organized.[1]
Hillquit’s anti-immigrant and prejudiced views were answered heatedly by a number of speakers, who expressed the traditional socialist stance opposing immigration restrictions and welcoming immigrant workers as allies in the struggle. The US SP resolution on immigration was rejected in the commission and by the congress plenary, although the exact vote totals are not recorded in the proceedings. For the text of the Socialist Party of America resolution, see the appendix.)
3. Colonialism.
The congress commission taking up the colonial question adopted a resolution put forward by Hendrick Van Kol, in line with the “socialist colonialism” remark he had made at the Amsterdam Congress four years earlier. This pro-colonialism view was hotly contested in the commission, but Van Kol’s resolution was adopted there with 18 votes in favor against 10 for the commission minority.
When the congress plenary took up the question, however, the vote was reversed. There the colonialism resolution of the commission minority was approved by 127 votes against 108, with 10 abstentions.[2] The traditional socialist condemnation of bourgeois colonial policy was therefore adopted—but by a surprisingly narrow margin. (For the text of Van Kol’s commission majority resolution, see the appendix.)
4. The relations between trade unions and political parties.
A debate occurred at the Stuttgart Congress over whether trade unions should be neutral on the question of working-class political power. Within the commission, the main resolution taking up this question, presented by Louis de Brouckère for the Belgian delegation, reaffirmed the traditional view of the Second International opposing the “neutrality” principle and stressing the need for permanent and close contact between trade unions and socialist parties. A slightly different resolution was presented by Max Beer for the Austrian delegation, which put more stress on the need for a strict division of labor between the two. Eventually a combined Belgian-Austrian compromise resolution was accepted by the commission. The majority of the French delegation opposed this resolution and defended the traditional syndicalist view concerning the absolute autonomy of unions and parties.
The Belgian-Austrian resolution was adopted by the commission with 7 votes against. In the congress plenary, it was adopted by a vote of 222½ to 18½ against, with 4 abstentions.
5. Women’s suffrage.
On the eve of the Stuttgart Congress, the First International Socialist Women’s Conference was held, under the leadership and guidance of Clara Zetkin. A debate occurred there on the question of women’s suffrage. At the time, women could not vote in most countries, and movements for women’s right to vote were beginning to have an impact on politics in many places.
The socialist movement’s longstanding position was to unconditionally support women’s right to vote. In opposition to this stance, at the International Socialist Women’s Conference, the British Independent Labour Party and Fabian Society put forward a call to support limited women’s suffrage, with property qualifications. Additionally, the Austrian delegates—who were in the midst of a struggle for universal male suffrage—presented the view that in some cases, for practical reasons, it was permissible to back off from supporting women’s suffrage in order to campaign for universal male suffrage.
A resolution calling for no compromise on this question, put forward by Zetkin on behalf of the German SPD delegation to the Socialist Women’s Conference, was approved 47 to 11 at that conference. Zetkin’s resolution was then brought into the Second International congress and adopted.
* * *
RULES FOR INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES
AND THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST BUREAUSTRIKEThe following rules were approved by the congress.
I
Those admitted to international socialist congresses are:
A. All associations that adhere to the essential principles of socialism: socialization of the means of production and exchange; international union and actions of the workers; conquest of public powers by the proletarians, organized as a class-party.
B. All labor organizations that accept the principles of class struggle and recognize the necessity of political action (legislative and parliamentary) but do not participate directly in the political movement (international congress held in Paris 1900).
II
A. The parties and organizations of each country or nation constitute one section that itself decides upon the admission of all other parties and organizations of the countries or nations concerned.
The parties and organizations not admitted by the section have the right of appeal to the International Socialist Bureau, which decides in the last resort.
B. The National Committee of each section, or in default of it the secretary of each affiliated party, will transmit to the socialist groups and other affiliated organizations the invitations to attend the international congress and the resolutions adopted by the International Socialist Bureau.
The texts of all resolutions must be in possession of the Bureau fully three months before the date fixed for the meeting of the international congress and be distributed a month after receipt.
No new resolution whatever will be accepted, distributed, or discussed unless it is in accordance with this rule, except matters in which urgency is admitted. The International Socialist Bureau is alone competent to decide on the question of urgency, but the amendments or resolutions must be drawn up and submitted to the International Bureau, which will decide if the amendments are acceptable or not, and are not attempts to put forward new resolutions in the shape of amendments.
III
The manner of voting at international congresses is established by the following rules:
A. Voting is per head, and per national sections, when three represented nations demand it.
B. Each section will have a number of votes varying from two to twenty, according to a list that will be issued for the first time by the International Socialist Bureau 1906–07. This list will be periodically revised when the circumstances require it.
C. The division of votes for each nation will be fixed:
(a) According to the number of paying members, taking into consideration the number of inhabitants;
(b) According to the importance of the nationality;
(c) According to the strength of the trade union, cooperative, and socialist organizations;
(d) According to the political power of the socialist party or parties. The affiliation of the paying members will be proved by such documents or accounts as the Bureau may ask for.
D. The sections divide the votes that have been allotted to them. If the whole of the parties or organizations forming the section cannot agree on the division of votes, it will be decided by the International Socialist Bureau.
IV
An International Socialist Bureau, based on the representation of the national sections of the international congress, shall continue their functions. Each section can send two delegates to the Bureau. The delegates may be replaced by substitutes, mandated by the affiliated parties. The national secretaries of the Interparliamentary Commission will act as assistant delegates and may, in this capacity, attend the meetings of the International Socialist Bureau.
V
The Bureau has a permanent secretary, whose functions were determined by the Paris Congress in 1900. The secretary has his residence in Brussels and the Belgian delegation [Belgian ISB members] shall act as the Executive Committee.
VI
The contributions of each affiliated party shall fall due each year in January, according to a scale established periodically by the Bureau.
* * *
STATUTES OF THE INTERPARLIAMENTARY COMMISSIONSTRIKE
These statutes were adopted at a meeting of the Interparliamentary Committee held August 17, 1907, on the eve of the congress. They were then approved by the congress itself.
ARTICLE 1. The Interparliamentary Committee (IC) was founded on August 20, 1904, by the Amsterdam International Socialist Congress, pursuant to the following resolutions of the international congresses of London and Paris:
The International Socialist Committee will require socialist members of parliament in each country to form a special interparliamentary commission to facilitate common action on the big international political and economic questions. This commission will be assisted by the International Socialist Bureau. (Paris Congress, 1900).
An Interparliamentary Conference has been established, composed of one delegate of each nationality. Its object is the unification of parliamentary work in all countries. (Communications to be addressed to Édouard Vaillant.) (London Congress, 1896)[3]
ARTICLE 2. The year begins on September 1, and closes on August 31.
ARTICLE 3. Members of the IC are:
The parliamentary groups of the parties affiliated to the International Socialist Bureau and having applied for membership in the IC. When such application is made, the parliamentary group appoints one of its members as secretary-correspondent. Each parliamentary group is considered as representing the party to which it belongs.
ARTICLE 4. The office of secretary of the IC will be filled by the secretary of the ISB.
ARTICLE 5. Every parliamentary group must, through correspondence and documents, keep the IC informed of the legislative activity of their party.
The IC is responsible, to the degree possible, for satisfying every request for information by sending documents and materials.
A. For this purpose, the IC must respond to requests, through both summary notes and special packets of material, on the question at hand, giving dates and texts of laws passed.
B. By sending out laws drafted by one parliamentary group on an issue, the IC will put the other parliamentary groups in a position to present similar drafts based on the conditions specific to their countries, but as much as possible simultaneously and in accordance with these draft laws.
C. The parliamentary fractions affiliated to the Interparliamentary
Commission will send to the secretariat the texts and materials concerning laws drafted on their initiative. The Interparliamentary Commission will publish them and make all the documents available to other affiliated fractions on the various questions of labor legislation. The Interparliamentary Commission, for its part, has the right to request information from an affiliated fraction concerning current legislative issues.
ARTICLE 6. The finances of the IC consist of the obligatory and voluntary contributions of its members. The obligatory contribution of each party is 5 francs (4 shillings) for every deputy it sends to parliament.
The sum total of annual contributions—dues for parliamentarians of affiliated sections or parties—is payable at the same time as the dues of sections and parties to the International Socialist Bureau.
ARTICLE 7. One ordinary assembly will be held every year, following the meeting of the Bureau, an assembly to which will be admitted all the members of the parliamentary groups affiliated to the IC. This conference appoints the place where the next one will be held.
ARTICLE 8. There will also be extraordinary conferences, at which each parliamentary group may be represented by one or more delegates.
ARTICLE 9. Such an extraordinary conference is to be called when desired by five parliamentary groups.
Such an extraordinary assembly will be called, at the same time and place as the meeting of the International Socialist Bureau, as soon as secret or public events occasion fear of conflicts between governments and make war possible or probable, in order to arrange and discuss the common and combined means of action by labor and socialism to oppose and to prevent war.
ARTICLE 10. The International Socialist Bureau is entitled to be represented at every meeting of the IC, to take part in its discussions, to propose resolutions, and to a consultative vote.
The national secretaries of the IC will have the status of deputy delegates to the ISB, and in that capacity they may attend meetings of the Bureau.
ARTICLE 11. The voting system shall be similar to that adopted by the International Socialist Bureau.
ARTICLE 12. The rules, as also eventual modifications, shall only be valid when the International Socialist Bureau has approved of the same.
* * *
MILITARISM AND INTERNATIONAL CONFLICTSSTRIKE
Resolution of the First Commission, presented to the congress by Émile Vandervelde. The original draft was prepared by August Bebel. In the commission, a series of amendments presented jointly by Rosa Luxemburg, V. I. Lenin, and Julius Martov were adopted and incorporated in the text, which was then adopted by the congress. For a version of this resolution that highlights the Luxemburg-Lenin-Martov amendments, see the appendix.
The Congress reaffirms the resolutions passed by previous international congresses against militarism and imperialism, and it again declares that the fight against militarism cannot be separated from the socialist class struggle as a whole.
Wars between capitalist states are as a rule the consequence of their competition in the world market, for every state is eager not only to preserve its markets but also to conquer new ones, principally by the subjugation of foreign nations and the confiscation of their lands. These wars are further engendered by the unceasing and ever-increasing armaments of militarism, which is one of the principal instruments for maintaining bourgeois class rule and for subjugating the working classes politically and economically.
The outbreak of wars is further promoted by the national prejudices systematically cultivated in the interest of the ruling classes, in order to divert the masses of the proletariat from their class duties and international solidarity.
Wars are therefore essential to capitalism; they will not cease until the capitalist system has been done away with, or until the sacrifices in men and money required by the technical development of the military system and the rejection of the armaments race have become so great as to compel the nations to abandon this system.
The working class especially, from which the soldiers are chiefly recruited, and which has to bear the greater part of the financial burdens, is by nature opposed to war, because war is irreconcilable with its aim: the creation of a new economic system founded on a socialist basis and realizing the solidarity of nations.
The Congress therefore considers it to be the duty of the working class, and especially of its parliamentary representatives, to fight with all their might against military and naval armaments, not to grant any money for such purposes, pointing out at the same time the class character of bourgeois society and the real motives for maintaining national antagonisms, and further, to imbue working-class youth with the socialist spirit of universal brotherhood and developing their class consciousness. The Congress considers that the democratic organization of national defense, by replacing the standing army with the armed people, will prove an effective means for making aggressive wars impossible, and for overcoming national antagonisms.
The International cannot lay down rigid formulas for action by the working class against militarism, as this action must of necessity differ according to the time and conditions of the various national parties. But it is the duty of the International to intensify and coordinate, as much as possible, the efforts of the working class against militarism and war.
In fact, since the Brussels Congress [of 1891], the proletariat in its untiring fight against militarism, by refusing to grant the expenses for military and naval armaments, by democratizing the army, has had recourse, with increasing vigor and success, to the most varied methods of action in order to prevent the outbreak of wars, or to end them, or to make use of the social convulsions caused by war for the emancipation of the working class: as for instance the understanding arrived at between the British and French trade unions after the Fashoda crisis, which served to assure peace and to reestablish friendly relations between Britain and France;[4] the action of the socialist parties in the German and French parliaments during the Morocco crisis: the public demonstrations organized for the same purpose by the French and German socialists;[5] the common action of the Austrian and Italian socialists who met at Trieste in order to ward off a conflict between the two states;[6] further, the vigorous intervention of the socialist workers of Sweden in order to prevent an attack against Norway;[7] and lastly, the heroic sacrifices and fights of the masses of socialist workers and peasants of Russia and Poland rising against the war provoked by the government of the tsar, in order to put an end to it and to make use of the crisis for the emancipation of their country and of the working class.[8] All these efforts show the growing power of the proletariat and its increasing desire to maintain peace by its energetic intervention.
The action of the working classes will be the more successful, the more the mind of the people has been prepared by an unceasing propaganda, and the more the labor parties of the different countries have been spurred on and coordinated by the International.
The Congress further expresses its conviction that under the pressure exerted by the proletariat, the practice of honest arbitration in all disputes will replace the futile attempts of the bourgeois governments, and that in this way the people will be assured of the benefits of universal disarmament, which will allow the enormous resources of energy and money, wasted by armaments and wars, to be applied to the progress of civilization.
In case of war being imminent, the working class and its parliamentary representatives in the countries concerned shall be bound, with the assistance of the International Socialist Bureau, to do all they can to prevent the outbreak of war, using for this purpose the means that appear to them the most effective, and which must naturally vary according to the acuteness of the class struggle and to the general political conditions.
In case war should break out notwithstanding, they shall be bound to intervene for its speedy termination, and to employ all their forces to utilize the economic and political crisis created by the war in order to rouse the masses of the people and thereby hasten the downfall of capitalist class rule.
* * *
THE RELATIONS BETWEEN TRADE UNIONS
AND SOCIALIST PARTIESSTRIKEResolution of the Second Commission, presented to the congress by Max Beer. It was adopted in the plenary by a vote of 222½ to 18½ against, with 4 abstentions.
I
To free the proletariat completely from the bonds of intellectual, political, and economic serfdom, the political and economic struggle are alike necessary. If the activity of the Socialist Party is exercised more especially in the domain of the political struggle of the proletariat, that of the unions displays itself in the domain of the economic struggle of the workers. The unions and the party have therefore an equally important task to perform in the struggle for proletarian emancipation. Each of the two organizations has its distinct domain, defined by its nature and within whose borders it should enjoy independent control of its line of action. But there is an ever-widening domain in the proletarian struggle of the classes in which they can only reap advantages by concerted action and by cooperation between the party and trade unions.
As a consequence, the proletarian struggle will be carried on more successfully and with more important results if the relations between the unions and the party are strengthened without infringing the necessary unity of the trade unions.
The Congress declares that it is in the interest of the working class in every country that close and permanent relations should be established between the unions and the party.
It is the duty of the party and of the trade unions to render moral support the one to the other, and to make use only of those means that may help advance the emancipation of the proletariat. When divergent opinions arise between the two organizations as to the suitability of certain tactics, they should arrive at an agreement through discussion.
The unions will not fully perform their duty in the struggle for the emancipation of the workers unless a thoroughly socialist spirit inspires their policy. It is the duty of the party to help the unions in their work of raising the workers and of ameliorating their social conditions. In its parliamentary action the party must vigorously support the demands of the unions.
The Congress declares that the development of the capitalist system of production, the increased concentration of the means of production, the growing alliances of employers, and the increasing dependence of particular trades upon the totality of bourgeois society would reduce trade unions to impotency if, concerning themselves about nothing more than trade interests, they took their stand on corporate selfishness and admitted the theory of harmony of interests between labor and capital.
The Congress is of the opinion that the unions will be able more successfully to carry on their struggle against exploitation and oppression, in proportion as their organization is more unified, as their benefit system is improved, as the funds necessary for their struggle are better supplied, and as their members gain a clearer conception of economic relations and conditions and are inspired by the socialist ideal with greater enthusiasm and devotion.
II
The Congress urges all the trade unions that accept the conditions laid down by the Brussels conference of 1899 and ratified by the Paris Congress of 1900,[9] to be represented at the international congress and to maintain relations with the International Socialist Bureau. It charges the latter to enter into relations with the International Secretariat of Trade Unions at Berlin so as to exchange information respecting working-class organization and the workers’ movement.[10]
III
The Congress directs the International Bureau to collect all documents that may facilitate the study of the relations between trade organizations and the socialist parties in all countries and to present a report on the subject to the next congress.
* * *
THE COLONIAL QUESTIONSTRIKE
The Third Commission, dealing with the colonial question, was the scene of heated debate. It approved, by a vote of 18 to 10, a resolution drafted by Hendrick Van Kol that endorsed the “socialist colonialism” perspective Van Kol had been putting forward. A minority of the commission opposed to this perspective submitted a counterresolution, proposed by Georg Ledebour, Emmanuel Wurm, Henri de la Porte, Alexandre Bracke, and Karski (Julian Marchlewski). When the rival commission resolutions were submitted to the congress plenary, however, the Van Kol resolution was rejected, and the commission minority’s resolution, below, was adopted by a vote of 127 to 108, with 10 abstentions. For the text of Van Kol’s Colonial Commission majority resolution, see the appendix.
The Congress is of the opinion that capitalist colonial policy, by its very nature, must lead to enslavement and compulsory labor or to the extermination of the native population of the colonial territories.
The civilizing mission, to which capitalist society appeals, serves only as a cover for a burning passion for conquest and exploitation. Only with the achievement of the socialist society will it be possible for all peoples to develop themselves to a complete civilization.
Capitalist colonial policy, instead of increasing the productive forces, by the very fact that it enslaves and pauperizes the natives, as well as the damage that it inflicts by war, destroys the natural riches of the countries in which it plants its methods. It renders slower or hinders thereby the very development of commerce and of the sale of the industrial products of the civilized states.
The Congress condemns the barbaric methods of capitalist colonization and demands in the interest of the development of the productive forces, a policy that guarantees the peaceful development of civilization and places the natural riches at the disposal of the entire humanity.
In reaffirmation of the Paris (1900) and Amsterdam (1904) resolutions, the Congress repudiates colonization, as at present carried on, since being of a capitalist character, it has no other aim but to conquer new countries, and to subjugate their populations in order to exploit them mercilessly for the benefit of an insignificant minority, while increasing the burden on the proletariat at home.
The Congress, as an enemy of all exploitation of man by man, and the defender of all oppressed without distinction of race, condemns this policy of robbery and conquest, this shameless application of the right of the strong trampling underfoot the rights of the vanquished races; and further states that this colonial system increases the danger of international complications and war, thus making heavier the financial burdens for navy and army.
From the financial point of view, the colonial expenses—both those that arise from imperialism and those that are necessary to further the economic evolution of the colonies—must be borne by those who profit from the spoliation of the colonies and derive their wealth therefrom.
The Congress declares finally that it is the duty of the socialist members of parliament to oppose without compromise in their respective parliaments the regime of exploitation and serfdom that prevails in all colonies of today, to exact reforms for the amelioration of the condition of the natives, to safeguard their rights by preventing their exploitation and enslavement, and to work with every means at their disposal for the education of these races to independence.
* * *
IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION OF WORKERS STRIKE
Resolution of the Fourth Commission, presented to the congress by Wilhelm Ellenbogen. A debate occurred in the commission, as Morris Hillquit from the Socialist Party of America raised the need for restrictions on Chinese and Japanese immigration. That position was rejected by the commission majority. For the US SP resolution on immigration, see the appendix.
The Congress declares:
Immigration and emigration of workers are phenomena as inseparable from the substance of capitalism as unemployment, overproduction, and underconsumption of the workers; they are frequently one of the means to reduce the share of the workers in the product of labor, and at times they assume abnormal dimensions through political, religious, and national persecutions.
The Congress does not consider exceptional measures of any kind, economic or political, [to be] the means for removing any danger that may arise to the working class from immigration and emigration, since such measures are fruitless and reactionary: especially not the restriction of the freedom of migration and the exclusion of foreign nations and races.
At the same time, the Congress declares it to be the duty of organized workers to protect themselves against the lowering of their standard of living, which frequently results from the mass import of unorganized workers. The Congress declares it to be their duty to prevent the import and export of strikebreakers.
The Congress recognizes the difficulties that in many cases confront the workers of the countries of a more advanced stage of capitalist development through the mass immigration of unorganized workers accustomed to a lower standard of living and coming from countries of prevalently agricultural and domestic civilization, and also the dangers that confront them from certain forms of immigration.
But the Congress sees no proper solution of these difficulties in the exclusion of definite nations or races from immigration, a policy that is besides in conflict with the principle of proletarian solidarity.
The Congress, therefore, recommends the following measures:
I. For the countries of immigration:
1. Prohibition of the export and import of such workers who have entered into a contract that deprives them of the liberty to dispose of their labor power and wages.
2. Legislation shortening the workday, fixing a minimum wage, regulating the sweating system [sweatshops] and house industry, and providing for strict supervision of sanitary and dwelling conditions.
3. Abolition of all restrictions that exclude definite nationalities or races from the right of sojourn in the country and from the political and economic rights of the natives, or make the acquisition of these rights more difficult for them. It also demands the greatest latitude in the laws of naturalization.
4. For the trade unions of all countries, the following principles shall have universal application in connection with it:
(a) Unrestricted admission of immigrant workers to the trade unions of all countries.
(b) Facilitating the admission of members by means of fixing reasonable admission fees.
(c) Free transfer from the organizations of one country to those of the other upon the discharge of the membership obligations towards the former organization.
(d) The making of international trade union agreements for the purpose of regulating these questions in a definite and proper manner, and enabling the realization of these principles on an international scale.
5. Support of the trade unions of those countries from which the immigration is chiefly recruited.
II. For the country of emigration:
1. Active propaganda for trade unionism.
2. Enlightenment of the workers and the public at large on the true conditions of labor in the countries of immigration.
3. Concerted action on the part of the trade unions of all countries in all matters of labor immigration and emigration.
4. In view of the fact that emigration of workers is often artificially stimulated by railway and steamship companies, land speculators, and other swindling concerns through false and lying promises to workers, the Congress demands:
Control of the steamship agencies and emigration bureaus, and legal and administrative measures against them, in order to prevent emigration from being abused in the interests of such capitalist concerns.
III. Regulation of the system of transportation, especially on ships. Employment of inspectors with discretionary power over who should be selected by the organized workers of the countries of emigration and immigration. Protection for the newly arrived immigrants, in order that they may not become the victims of capitalist exploiters.
In view of the fact that the transport of emigrants can only be regulated on an international basis, the Congress directs the International Socialist Bureau to prepare suggestions for the regulation of this question, which shall deal with the conditions, arrangements, and supplies of the ships, the air space to be allowed for each passenger as a minimum, and shall lay special stress that the individual emigrants contract for their passage directly with the transportation companies and without intervention of middlemen. These suggestions shall be communicated to the various socialist parties for the purpose of legislative application, and adaptation, as well as for the purposes of propaganda.
* * *
WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE
Resolution of the Fifth Commission, presented to the congress plenary by Clara Zetkin. This resolution was based on the one adopted by the First International Socialist Women’s Conference, which had taken place on the eve of the international congress. It was then approved by the Second International’s congress with one dissenting vote, from the Fabian Society.
The Congress greets with the utmost pleasure the First International Socialist Women’s Conference, and expresses its entire solidarity with the demands concerning women’s suffrage put forward by it.
The Socialist Party repudiates limited women’s suffrage as an adulteration and a caricature of the principle of political equality of the female sex. It fights for the sole living, concrete expression of this principle: namely, universal women’s suffrage, which should belong to all women of age and not be conditioned by property, taxation, education, or any other qualification that would exclude members of the laboring classes from the enjoyment of this right. The socialist women shall not carry on this struggle for complete equality of right of vote in alliance with the bourgeois feminists, but in common with the socialist parties, which insist upon women’s suffrage as one of the fundamental and most important reforms for the full democratization of the political franchise in general.
It is the duty of the socialist parties of all countries to agitate strenuously for the introduction of universal women’s suffrage. Hence, the agitation for the democratization of the franchise to the legislative and administrative bodies, both national and local, must also embrace women’s suffrage and must insist upon it, whether it be carried out in parliament or elsewhere. In those countries where the democratization of manhood suffrage has already gone sufficiently far, or is completely realized, the socialist parties must raise a campaign in favor of universal women’s suffrage, and in connection with it, of course, put forward all those demands that we have yet to realize in the interest of the full civil rights of the male portion of the proletariat.
Although the International Socialist Congress cannot dictate to any country a particular time at which a suffrage campaign should be commenced, it nevertheless declares that when such a campaign is instituted in any country, it should proceed on the general Social Democratic lines of universal adult suffrage without distinction, and nothing less.
* * *
ON ROMANIA
Resolution proposed by Romanian delegates and adopted unanimously.
The International Socialist Bureau has been informed by the Romanian delegation that the Romanian government has adopted a policy of extermination towards the people of the town and country districts.[11]
After having killed thousands and thousands of peasants who had been forced to make an unhappy revolt by the system of unlimited exploitation and oppression, the government is now attacking the working-class organizations, the trade unions and socialist societies, and strives to outlaw them by wholesale arrests and condemnations to exile. It is not only foreign workers who are expelled from the country but also an entire category of Romanian citizens, the Jewish workmen of Romania who are not considered subjects of any other country; now on foreign soil, they therefore have no national protection and are rejected from these foreign countries.
This odious persecution is contrary to all the laws of humanity and in opposition to the international obligations of the Romanian government. Finally, this policy of savage persecution constitutes an act of defiance against the international proletariat, whose interests are identical.
The Bureau therefore proposes that the Congress should express, at one and the same time, its good wishes and every encouragement for the Romanian proletariat in its struggle to acquire its rights; and also protests indignantly against the odious policy of the Romanian government.
At the same time, it urges the socialist deputies of the different parliaments to ask that the Romanian government fulfill its obligations toward the different categories of citizens of Romania, which international treaties have placed under its protection.
Further, the Congress recommends the workers of different countries not to accept the invitations made by the Romanian employers; for at the first sign of solidarity they may show towards their Romanian fellow workers, they will be piteously expelled from the country.
The Congress also calls upon the Romanian delegation to present a memorandum giving full details of cases submitted to the Bureau.
* * *
GREETINGS TO REVOLUTIONARIES OF RUSSIA
Adopted unanimously by the congress on a motion submitted by Henry Hyndman, Samuel George Hobson, Enrico Ferri, Amilcare Cipriani, Jules Guesde, Gustave Delory, Jean Jaurès, Édouard Vaillant, Victor Adler, Karl Kautsky, August Bebel, and Morris Hillquit.
The Congress holds that the Russian Revolution, although only just begun, is already a powerful factor in the international struggle of labor against capital, and it sends its fraternal greetings to the heroic combatants of the Russian working class of town and country.
* * *
ON MOROCCO
Resolution proposed by the French and Spanish delegations and adopted unanimously.
The Congress reiterates its decision with regard to colonial undertakings, as well as its condemnation of militarism.
It denounces before the world proletariat the current French-Spanish campaign in Morocco, which arises, as in all similar cases, from capitalism’s financial speculations.[12]
It condemns this new example of the bourgeoisie’s constant practice of shedding the blood of workers for its own benefit.
It urges socialist parties of all countries—and especially the working people of France and Spain—to undertake vigorous action to stop the Franco-Spanish expedition in Morocco, which threatens all of Europe with expanding international conflicts.
* * *
THE TRIAL OF THE AMERICAN MINERS
This resolution adopted by the congress was signed by A. M. Simons, Robert Hunter, Morris Hillquit, Algernon Lee, Frank Bohn, Jean Longuet, Amilcare Cipriani, Karl Kautsky, August Bebel, Paul Singer, Hendrick Van Kol, Camille Huysmans, Rosa Luxemburg, M. [V. I.] Lenin, Émile Vandervelde, Edward Anseele, Enrico Ferri, Peter Knudsen, H. M. Hyndman, Jean Jaurès, and Victor Adler.
The International Socialist Congress sends to William D. Haywood the salute of the socialist world, for the admirable struggle he has waged in the interests of the organized proletariat of the United States.[13]
The Congress condemns the effort by the mine owners in their goal of sentencing an innocent man for the services he has rendered to the cause of the organized proletariat.
The Congress views the illegal form of his arrest and trial, along with the systematic campaign of slander against him by the entire capitalist class and its government and press, as the expression of an increasingly brutal class policy and of its complete lack of tolerance and honor in all cases where their profits and their power are concerned.
The Congress, at the same time, salutes the proletarians and socialists of the United States for the unanimity and enthusiasm with which they have responded to this attack. The conscious proletariat of Europe views the power of their solidarity action as a pledge and guarantee for the future, and it hopes that this same unanimity and solidarity of the American proletariat is maintained in its struggle for the definitive emancipation of labor.
Footnotes
Riddell, ed., Lenin’s Struggle for a Revolutionary International, chapter 1, pp. 17–18 (original pagination). ↑
At the 1907 Stuttgart Congress, for the first time, the different delegations were entitled to a number of votes in accordance with the strength of the parties they represented. The largest received twenty votes, the smaller ones from fifteen down to two. ↑
A reference to the resolutions on international organization adopted by the London and Paris Congresses of 1896 and 1900. ↑
The Fashoda Incident of September 18, 1898, was the climax of a series of territorial disputes between the British and French colonial empires in Africa. It involved a military standoff between British and French troops in Fashoda in Egyptian Sudan. Following the incident, the two powers eventually came to an agreement on the boundaries of their respective spheres of influence. ↑
In April 1904 the French and British governments formed the Entente Cordiale to advance their respective interests in North Africa; France subsequently signed a secret treaty with Spain to partition Morocco. The German rulers, however, had their own designs, and declared for Moroccan independence, leading to the First Moroccan Crisis of 1905–06 and sparking the threat of war between Germany and France. The crisis was resolved at a conference in Algeciras, which acknowledged Germany’s economic interests while entrusting France and Spain with policing Morocco.
Socialists in Germany and France organized protest meetings and demonstrations against the war threat. A public meeting organized by the SPD in Berlin on July 9, 1905, for example, had invited French Socialist Party leader Jean Jaurès to speak. The latter’s participation in the meeting, however, was prohibited by Germany’s chancellor. ↑
On May 21–22, 1905, a summit meeting was held in Trieste between Italian and Austrian socialist leaders, headed by Leonida Bissolati and Victor Adler, to discuss a coordinated response in case war broke out between the two countries. ↑
In 1905 mass working-class mobilizations in Sweden helped prevent a war by that country’s ruling class against Norway following the Norwegian declaration of independence from Sweden. ↑
The social crisis resulting from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 was a factor leading to the outbreak of the revolution of 1905 throughout the tsarist empire. ↑
The Brussels conference of May 27–28, 1899, attended by labor and socialist delegations from eleven countries, laid down a set of conditions for participation in the Second International’s Paris Congress of 1900. The congress would be open to all political organizations whose object was to replace the capitalist mode of production and property with socialist ones and that recognized the need for political action. All trade unions standing on the ground of the class struggle and recognizing legislative and parliamentary action as one of the means to this end were also invited. ↑
The International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centers, linked politically to the Second International, was founded in 1901. Its affiliates included the national union federations in Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. Its offices were moved to Berlin in 1903. In 1913 the organization changed its name to the International Federation of Trade Unions. ↑
The Romanian Peasants’ Revolt of February–April 1907 was an uprising throughout Romania against the country’s semifeudal system of land ownership. Some 140,000 troops were mobilized to suppress the revolt, with up to 11,000 peasants killed. ↑
On August 5–7, 1907, French forces carried out a naval bombardment of Casablanca, killing up to seven thousand Moroccan residents. The effort marked the beginning of the French conquest of Morocco. The Spanish government gave its support to the French attack, sending a gunship and a small number of troops. ↑
In February 1906, three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners—William (“Big Bill”) Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone—were arrested in Denver, Colorado, and extradited to Idaho, charged with having assassinated the governor of Idaho two months earlier. The frame-up was conducted in an obvious attempt to break the union. Facing the death penalty, Haywood was acquitted in July 1907. Tried separately, Pettibone was also found not guilty, after which charges against Moyer were dropped. ↑
Last updated on 23 September 2025