8.

Copenhagen Congress, August 28–September 3, 1910

Introductory Note

The Second International’s Copenhagen Congress drew 896 delegates from twenty-three countries.

Since the previous congress, international tensions had continued to build, along with important struggles by working people in many countries. In line with this world situation, the question of international working-class solidarity was a major theme of the congress, with numerous resolutions and motions adopted.

One of the most substantial congress resolutions was on militarism and war. As the arms buildup in Europe continued, with growing war threats and new incidents that could potentially lead to conflict between the imperialist powers, calls were made for more aggressive commitments to antiwar action. Keir Hardie from Britain and Édouard Vaillant from France in particular pressed for a commitment to more vigorous antiwar action. Their resolution was defeated in the militarism commission, although Hardie and Vaillant did obtain a promise by the congress to study the matter and report on it at the next international congress. The resolution adopted by the congress largely restated the conclusions of the Stuttgart resolution on war and militarism.

The issue of cooperatives and the cooperative movement was one of the more contentious and significant issues at the congress.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, cooperatives played a major part in the working-class movement as a whole. Millions of working people belonged to cooperatives, which made up a third wing of the workers’ movement, alongside parties and trade unions. In the days before any type of government health insurance or most other social benefits, cooperatives played a big role in workers’ lives and made it more possible for them to get involved in the broader struggle.

Two main lines were presented at the congress on this question: those who saw cooperatives as a weapon in the class struggle, and those who viewed cooperatives primarily as a model of the future socialist society, abstracted from the struggle of working people against capitalism. The resolution adopted largely reflected the first view, although there were points of unclarity in it. One of the participants in the congress commission on the question was V. I. Lenin, who submitted his own resolution to the commission (see the appendix).

The Copenhagen Congress was important in another way, too.

At the congress, Lenin sought to build on the efforts begun at Stuttgart in 1907 to coalesce a left wing within the Second International. During the days of the congress, Lenin organized a meeting of leftwing delegates to try to coordinate their work and to increase international left-wing collaboration. Among the dozen or so who came to the meeting were Rosa Luxemburg, Jules Guesde, and Georgy Plekhanov.

* * *

THE UNEMPLOYMENT QUESTION

Resolution of the Commission on Labor Legislation and Unemployment (Fourth Commission), presented to the congress plenary by Adolf Braun and adopted by a large majority. The original draft was prepared by the French Socialist Party.

The Congress declares that unemployment is inseparable from the capitalist mode of production and will disappear only when capitalism disappears. So long as capitalist production forms the basis of society, palliative measures alone are possible.

This Congress demands the institution by public authorities, under the administration of working-class organizations, of general compulsory insurance against unemployment, the expenses of which shall be borne by the owners of the means of production.

The representatives of the workers most urgently demand from the public authorities:

1. Exact statistical registration of the unemployed.

2. The execution on a sufficient scale of important public works, where the unemployed shall be paid the trade union rate of wages.

3. In periods of industrial crisis, extraordinary subsidies to trade union unemployed funds.

4. No payment to an unemployed worker is to cause the loss of political rights.

5. Establishment of and subsidies to labor exchanges, in which all the liberties and interests of the workers are respected by cooperation with trade union employment bureaus.

6. Social laws for the regulation and reduction of hours of work.

7. Pending the realization by legislation on general and compulsory insurance, the public authorities should encourage unemployment benefit funds of trade unions by financial subsidies, these subsidies leaving complete autonomy to the trade union.

* * *

THE DEATH PENALTY

Presented by the Commission on Resolutions (Fifth Commission). The original draft had been submitted by the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

At the dawn of modern social evolution, bourgeois rationalism condemned the death penalty as a barbaric relic of the Middle Ages. The idea of the progress of humanity did not, for the revolutionary bourgeoisie, mean only empty phrases. As a consequence, its most eminent representatives in every country proclaimed a struggle by civilized humanity against this shameful institution, as nothing but legalized and systematic murder, committed in cold blood by one man against another.

Since then a profound change has taken place in relation to this question. The ever-increasing struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (which becomes daily more and more the center of public life of each country) has induced the degenerate bourgeoisie of our days to abandon the struggle against the death penalty, along with many other democratic and liberal measures. The ruling classes employ more and more the ignominious weapon of the death penalty, sometimes to fight against the decomposition of the capitalist order itself, and sometimes to forcibly suppress the proletariat fighting for its emancipation.

In Germany, and in many other countries that present themselves as civilized masters of science and art, the most brilliant bourgeois intellectuals have lately declared the death penalty to be necessary. Eminent representatives of modern criminal science have recently declared themselves in favor of essential modifications of the right of asylum, which especially in the case of Russian emigrants, would have the effect of restoring the death penalty, even in countries, where, as in Holland, it has been abolished for a long time. In the French republic, the parliament has voted against a measure abolishing the death penalty. In the United States of North America the bourgeoisie fights a militant proletariat with the death penalty. Only a short time ago, the never-to-be-forgotten victims of judicial murder in Chicago were hanged for having demanded the eight-hour day, and were very nearly followed by the execution of the representatives of the organized miners.[1] In Spain a worn-out and reactionary regime uses judicial murder as a weapon and a means of vengeance against the aspirations of the proletariat for emancipation. Finally in Russia, a country where the death penalty has long been abolished for common-law crimes, the executioner has been active all throughout the revolution of the working population, and especially since the victory of the counterrevolution. Thousands and thousands of persons are executed after a contemptible comedy of a military court-martial. A river of blood is spreading through the whole Russian Empire. All this is being done before the eyes of the civilized world, while the bourgeois intellectual representatives dare not offer any resistance, without refusing their moral complicity and their financial help to the executioner’s regime. A large number of bourgeois intellectuals, who showed indignation at the execution of the freethinker Ferrer,[2] look on calmly while the Russian autocracy combats the proletarian revolution by wholesale massacres.

For this reason, the socialist proletariat is today the most faithful and the most important adversary of the death penalty. It is only through the light spread by the socialist parties, it is only by increasing the strength and the culture of the mass of workers, through political and trade union action, that the death penalty—this outrage on civilized humanity— can be effectively fought.

The representatives of the proletariat of every country organized politically and in trade unions, now deliberating at Copenhagen, desire to pillory the active and passive partisans of murder ordered by official civil and military courts. They urge the parliamentary representatives of the working class in every state to demand the abolition of the death penalty on every occasion. Their action in parliament as well as at political events should be made use of, in order to undertake energetic propaganda at public meetings and in the socialist and labor press for the abolition of the death penalty.

* * *

PARTY UNITY

Submitted by the Commission on Resolutions (Fifth Commission), presented to the commission by Paul Louis and later approved by the plenary.

The International Congress calls to mind once more the resolutions of the Amsterdam Congress relating to the unity of the party; and

In consideration that the proletariat is an undivided unity, and consequently every section of the International must form a united and solid group and is bound to get rid of their international divisions in the interest of the working class of their own country and the entire world;

In further consideration that the socialist movement in France is indebted to their unification for an enormous increase of strength and influence:[3]

The Congress urges all national sections that are still divided to unite as soon as possible, and calls on the Bureau to help in bringing this about.

* * *

WAR AND MILITARISM

Resolution of the Commission on Arbitration and Disarmament (Third Commission), adopted unanimously by the congress.

The Congress declares that the armaments of nations have increased alarmingly during recent years in spite of the peace congresses and the protestations of peaceful intentions on the part of the governments. Particularly does this apply to the general movement of the governments to increase naval armaments, whose latest phase is the construction of “dreadnoughts” [battleships]. This policy leads not only to an insane waste of national resources for unproductive purposes—and therefore to the curtailment of means for the realization of necessary social reforms in the interest of the working class—but it also threatens all nations with financial ruin and exhaustion through the unsupportable burdens of indirect taxation.

These armaments have but recently endangered world peace, as they always will. In view of this development, which threatens all the achievements of civilization, the well-being of nations, and the very life of the masses, this Congress reaffirms the resolutions of previous international congresses, and particularly that of the Stuttgart Congress.

The workers of all countries have no quarrels or differences that could lead to war. Modern wars are the result of capitalism, and particularly of rivalries of the capitalist classes of the different countries over the world market, and of the spirit of militarism, which is one of the instruments of capitalist class rule and of the economic and political subjugation of the working class. Wars will cease completely only with the disappearance of the capitalist mode of production. The working class, which bears the main burdens of war and suffers most from its effects, has the greatest interest in the prevention of wars. The organized socialist workers of all countries are therefore the only reliable guarantee of universal peace.

The Congress therefore again calls upon the labor organizations of all countries to continue a vigorous propaganda of enlightenment among all workers—and particularly among young people—as to the causes of war, in order to educate them in the spirit of international brotherhood. The Congress, reiterating the oft-repeated duty of socialist representatives in parliament to combat militarism with all means at their command and refusing funds for armaments, requires from its representatives:

(a) To constantly reiterate the demand that international arbitration be made compulsory in all international disputes.

(b) To make persistent and repeated proposals in the direction of ultimate, complete disarmament; and above all, as a first step, the conclusion of a general treaty limiting naval armaments and abrogating the right of seizure at sea.

(c) To demand the abolition of secret diplomacy and the publication of all existing and future agreements between the governments.

(d) To guarantee the self-determination of all nations and their protection from military attacks and forcible subjugation.

The International Socialist Bureau will support all socialist organizations in their fight against militarism by furnishing them with the necessary data and information, and will, when the occasion arrives, endeavor to bring about united action. In case military conflicts arise, this Congress reaffirms the resolution of the Stuttgart Congress, which reads:

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.

For the proper execution of these measures, the Congress directs the Bureau, in the event of war danger, to take immediate steps to bring about an agreement among the labor parties of the countries affected for united action to prevent the threatened war.

* * *

ON THE HARDIE-VAILLANT AMENDMENT

In the militarism commission, Keir Hardie and Édouard Vaillant had submitted a resolution that read, “Among the means to be used in order to prevent and hinder war, the Congress considers as particularly effective the general strike, especially in the industries that supply war with its implements (arms and ammunition, transport, etc.), as well as propaganda and popular action in their most active forms.” This amendment was rejected in the commission by a vote of 131 to 51, with 2 abstentions. But in an effort to avoid a debate on the congress floor on the question of the general strike as a means to prevent war, the following amendment submitted by Émile Vandervelde, Morris Hillquit, F. M. Wibaut, Rosa Luxemburg, Victor Adler, and Friedrich Ebert—and agreed to by Hardie and Vaillant—was approved by the congress.

The Congress decides that the Hardie-Vaillant amendment will be sent to the International Socialist Bureau for study. A report will be submitted to the next International Socialist Congress on the proposals contained in the amendment.

* * *

CARRYING OUT INTERNATIONAL RESOLUTIONS

Resolution of the Commission on Arbitration and Disarmament (Third Commission), and adopted by the congress, with regard to the fight against militarism and war. Originally drafted by Hendrick Van Kol and W. H. Vliegen.

The Congress, recognizing that it would be difficult to come up with written instructions for carrying out the resolutions of international congresses, declares that the power to choose the manner and moment for this must be left up to the national parties.

It nonetheless strongly insists on the duty of parties to do everything possible to carry out the resolutions of international congresses.

The International Bureau will prepare a summary report prior to each international congress on the national parties’ implementation of international congress resolutions.

* * *

TRADE UNION UNITY

Resolution of the Commission on Trade Union Questions (Second Commission). Georgy V. Plekhanov reported to the plenary for the commission majority. A minority of the commission, led by Antonín Němec from Czechoslovakia, put forward a resolution calling essentially for absolute autonomy for the union organizations in his country. With his resolution rejected by the commission, Němec presented a minority report to the plenary. The congress adopted the commission majority resolution by a vote of 222 to 5, with 7 abstentions.

The International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen renews the Stuttgart resolution on the relations between the political parties and the trade unions, especially with regard to the point that the unity of the industrial organization should be kept in mind in each state, and is an essential condition of successful struggle against exploitation and oppression.

In multilingual states the united trade unions must, of course, take into account the cultural and linguistic needs of all their members.

The Congress further declares that any attempt to break internationally united trade unions into nationally separate parts contradicts the aim of this resolution of the International Socialist Congress.

The International Socialist Bureau and the International Secretariat of Trade Unions are requested to offer their services to the organizations directly interested, in order to eliminate the conflicts on this subject, in a spirit of socialist good will and brotherhood.

* * *

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

Resolution of the Commission on Trade Union Questions (Second Commission), originally submitted by the Swedish Social Democratic Party and presented to the congress plenary by August Huggler.

The International Socialist Labor Congress of Copenhagen, emphasizing the essentially international spirit of the proletarian movement and remembering the traditions of active solidarity which owe their origin to the First International, appeals to workers of every country to fulfill their duty of solidarity each time that a struggle between capital and labor takes on such dimensions that it is evident that the workingmen of the country engaged in battle are not able to hold their own against the enemy without help, and that they assist their comrades in the fight by means of subsidies, coming from all sides, according to the proletarian forces of each country.

Such action is all the more necessary since the organization of the opposing forces is being accelerated in proportion as the working class, by its united action, is pressing capitalism. Capitalist power is concentrating itself in gigantic trusts, in cartels, and in national and international employers’ unions. On the other hand, the workers are combining their forces, in the first place, in national labor confederations. Under the pressure of this concentration of forces in the two opposed camps, the class struggle alters its aspect and takes new and vaster proportions. One can therefore be prepared for general union struggles, brought about by lockouts on a large scale, such as the one in Denmark of 1899, in Sweden of 1909, or in Germany of 1910.[4] As the class struggle is extended and organized more and more, it will in the future become even more urgently necessary to concentrate the forces of the working class of the whole world, promptly and vigorously, so as to be prepared for the day when workers of every country or of one profession should be threatened with annihilation by the power of the united capitalists.

The Congress requests the International Secretariat of Trade Unions to investigate in what way the international solidarity of the workers may be most expediently organized.

For the near future the Congress recommends:

The more intimate and permanent drawing together of the labor organizations in each country across frontiers.

The revision of the statutes of the societies and federations, with a view to eliminating from these regulations everything that would constitute a hindrance to effective and immediate international action.

The improvement and the extension of international relations of the socialist and labor press. Socialist journalists of a country in which a large conflict is imminent or has already been declared should be particularly requested to transmit prompt and accurate reports of the situation to their foreign colleagues, who, for their part, should utilize them immediately in order everywhere to arouse the sympathetic interest of the working classes, and at the proper time to correct or deny the fantastic and often-too-untrue tales that the press and the agencies in the pay of capital never fail to publish for the purpose of leading public opinion astray.

From this point of view, it is also of the highest importance for the whole labor movement of the world that there should exist everywhere a socialist press that is powerful enough to liberate the masses from the influence and suggestion of the bourgeois press.

* * *

LABOR LEGISLATION

Resolution of the Commission on Labor Legislation and Unemployment (Fourth Commission). Presented to the congress plenary by Hermann Molkenbuhr.

The increasing exploitation of the workers resulting from the development of capitalist production has brought about conditions that render imperative legislation for the protection of the life and health of the worker.

In no country do the laws even approximate that which is absolutely necessary in the interests of the workers, and which could be granted without detriment to existing industry.

The Congress reiterates the following minimum demands regarding legislation for the protection of workers (without distinction of sex) made by the Paris Congress of 1889:

1. A maximum working day of eight hours.

2. Prohibition of boy and girl labor under fourteen years.

3. Prohibition of night work, except where the nature of the work or the demands of public welfare make it inevitable.

4. Uninterrupted rest of at least thirty-six hours each week for all workers.

5. Complete suppression of the truck system.[5]

6. Absolute right of combination [unionization].

7. Effective and thorough inspection of working conditions, agricultural as well as industrial, with the cooperation of persons elected by the workers.

As a result of the Paris Congress, conferences of governments were held in Berlin in 1890 and in Bern in 1906, and international proposals were made for the protection of workers.[6] But in spite of the lengthy negotiations very little positive legislation has resulted because of the opposition of the governing classes, who fear that their class interests would be injured thereby in spite of the fact that in no country has any branch of industry suffered from the protection of the workers; rather, the improvement of the health and efficiency of the workers has benefited general civilization and also the employing class.

To prevent the workers from falling into pauperism, the Amsterdam Congress demanded adequate measures for the support and care of the sick, those disabled by accident, the old, the invalids, pregnant women and mothers in childbed, widows, orphans, and the unemployed; the administration of such measures to be under the control of the workers, and the same treatment to be given to foreigners [immigrants] as to those belonging to the country [native-born workers].

The existing laws for the protection and insurance of the workers are totally inadequate to meet the necessary and justifiable requirements of the workers. Only by the tenacious persistence of the workers can further reforms be obtained.

The Congress therefore calls upon the workers of all nations, whether occupied in industry, in commerce, in agriculture, or in any other branch, to break down the opposition of the governing classes and, by unceasing agitation, and strong and perfect organization, both political and industrial, to win for themselves real and effective protection.

* * *

THE RIGHT OF ASYLUM

Presented by the Commission on Resolutions (Fifth Commission), originally submitted by Wilhelm Ellenbogen, Keir Hardie, Jean Longuet, and I. A. Rubanovich. The reporter to the congress for the commission was Hardie.

Recently in various countries many instances have occurred where, under various fallacious pretexts, the right of asylum for political refugees has been violated. The Russian government particularly distinguishes itself in this field in a most deplorable manner. Thus Julius Wezosal has been recently arrested in Boston upon the demand of Russia for his extradition.[7]

Even England, contrary to all her traditions, consents to employ this process, violating the right of asylum, as in the case of the revolutionary Hindu, Savarkar, who, in an unprecedented manner, has been arrested on French soil and extradited without any legal formality.[8]

The Congress vigorously protests against these criminal violations of the right of asylum, and urges the proletariat of all countries to resist, by all the means of propaganda and agitation it possesses, these assaults upon the dignity and independence of their own countries, which menace the liberty of action of the working class and its international solidarity.

* * *

ON COOPERATIVES AND COOPERATION

The following resolution was presented to the congress plenary by the Commission on Cooperation (First Commission). Two main lines were debated in the commission: those who saw cooperatives as a weapon in the class struggle, and those who viewed cooperatives primarily as a model of the future socialist society. The resolution adopted largely reflected the first view. One of the participants in the congress commission was V. I. Lenin, who submitted his own resolution to the commission (see the appendix). The following compromise resolution was adopted by the commission, with two votes against (František Modráček and Lenin). It was presented to the congress plenary by Benno Karpeles, and adopted with a handful of votes against. Although Lenin opposed the resolution in the commission, he voted for it at the plenary.[9]

Taking into consideration that distributive cooperative societies are not only able to secure for their members immediate material advantages, but are also capable of first increasing the influence of the proletariat by the elimination of private commercial enterprise, and, secondly, by bettering the condition of the working classes by means of productive services organized by themselves, and by educating the workers in the independent democratic management of social means of exchange and production:

Considering also that cooperation alone is incapable of realizing the aim of socialism, which is the acquisition of political power for the purpose of collective ownership of the means of production:

This Congress declares, while warning the working classes against the theory maintaining that cooperation by itself is sufficient, that the working class has the strongest interest in utilizing the weapon of cooperation in the class struggle, and urges all socialists and all members of trade unions to take part in the cooperative movement, in order to develop themselves in the spirit of socialism and keep the cooperative societies from any deviation from the path of education and the promotion of working-class solidarity.

The socialist members of cooperative societies are urged to endeavor in these societies to see that the profits are not entirely returned to the members, but that part is devoted either by the society itself or by the federation of wholesale societies, to the development of production and to education and instruction, in order:

1. That the conditions of wages and work in the cooperative societies shall be regulated in accordance with trade union rules.

2. That the organization of the conditions of employment in cooperative societies shall be the best possible, and that no purchases of goods shall be made without regard to the condition of the producer.

It is left to the cooperative organizations of each country to decide for themselves whether and to what extent they will aid from their resources the political and trade union movement.

Furthermore, being convinced that the services that cooperation can render to the working class will be the greater in proportion as the cooperative movement is itself strong and united, the Congress declares that it is desirable that the cooperative societies of each country constituted on this basis and subscribing to this present resolution should form a single federation.

It declares, besides, that the working class in its struggle against capitalism is especially concerned that trade unions, cooperative societies, and the Socialist Party, while preserving each its own unity and autonomy, should enter into closer and closer relations with one another.

* * *

ON JAPAN

Submitted by the Commission on Resolutions (Fifth Commission).

The International Socialist Congress of Copenhagen emphatically condemns the measures taken by the Japanese government to oppress the socialist labor movement in that country—measures showing that the true character of this government is a mixture of arbitrary absolutism and of capitalist brutality. These measures have as their aim to make impossible any effort of the Japanese proletariat toward liberty, emancipation, and culture, and to bring them down to the level of an impotent and helpless class.[10]

This Congress, recognizing the immense importance of the emancipation of the Japanese proletariat for the liberation of the proletariat of the entire world, is conscious that the development of capitalism now going on in Asia in so rapid a manner prepares the soil for the socialist seed; it assures the young proletariat of Japan, which is awakening and which desires to struggle against its cruel exploiters, of the fullest sympathy of all the socialist parties.

The Congress is only doing its duty in expressing from its heart its recognition of and admiration for the valiant and intrepid fighters in the vanguard of socialism in Japan, who alone and under the most difficult conditions lead the battle against the external policy of warlike expansion and the international policy of oppression, and who, by that, serve the cause of the international proletariat in a very real manner.

* * *

ON ARGENTINA

Submitted by the Commission on Resolutions (Fifth Commission).

The International Congress condemns the attitude of the oligarchy, which systematically falsifies universal suffrage, which tramples underfoot as well the united political action of the working class.[11] This oligarchy incites violent acts and puts itself in the service of native and foreign capital, keeping the people in a state of the deepest degradation and offering them a demoralizing spectacle of anarchy.

The International Socialist Congress condemns these disgraceful conditions in Argentina in the sharpest manner possible. It welcomes the attitude of the Argentinian Socialist Party in the difficult circumstances in which they are placed, and hopes that their endeavors will succeed in enlightening the workers of Argentina and awakening them to class consciousness, securing with that the political and economic progress of the country.

* * *

THE SITUATION IN TURKEY

Submitted by the Commission on Resolutions (Fifth Commission).

In consideration of:

1. The colonial policy practiced by the European capitalist states in regard to Turkey;

2. The proclamation of a constitution, which confers on each citizen the rights of man and of citizen;

3. The violation of the rights of union and to strike by the government of Turkey;

4. The disastrous consequences of an autocratic policy in regard to the laboring class of Turkey;

The International Socialist Congress of Copenhagen declares:

That the abominable capitalist and colonial policy of the European states can be effectively combated only by democratic and constitutional reforms in the Balkan states and by a peaceful understanding among the sovereign peoples of these states, such as today is alone represented by Social Democracy in opposition to the governments of the Balkans as of other European states.

The Congress protests against the reactionary policy of the Young Turk government, and especially against the laws directed against the trade unions and strikes, and sends its fraternal greetings to the emerging socialist movement in Turkey.[12]

* * *

ON SPAIN

Submitted by the Commission on Resolutions (Fifth Commission). Presented to the congress plenary by Rosa Luxemburg and Jean Longuet.

The International Socialist Congress of Copenhagen, in view of the tragic events of which Spain—and in particular Catalonia—has been the theater during the past year, expresses its complete sympathy with the comrades of the Spanish Socialist Party, the militants of Catalonia, and all the organized workers of Spain who, in accordance with the decisions of the International, by the collective action of the proletariat, opposed the colonial adventure in Morocco, [13] protests against the barbarous repression of which our comrades of Barcelona and other towns have been the victims and, in particular, against the pseudo-juridical assassination of Ferrer, and welcomes the election of Comrade Iglesias, the first representative of the working class elected in the capital of the monarchy itself,[14] as a decisive sign of the awakening class consciousness of the Spanish workers.

* * *

ON PERSIA

Submitted by the Commission on Resolutions (Fifth Commission).

Considering:

That since the commencement of the Persian [Iranian] revolution and in consequence of the Anglo-Russian agreement, the tsar’s government has used every means possible to bring about the failure of the constitutional movement;

That on several occasions they even intervened with an armed force under the pretext of maintaining order on their frontiers and protecting the lives of their own subjects in Persia, but in reality with the obvious aim of impeding the efforts of the Persian democrats, that these troops and the Russian police in the province of Azerbaijan (Tabriz)[15] openly dealt rigorously with the insurgents and the leaders belonging to the Dashnaktsutyun party;[16]

That the Russian government even now, through the intermediary of its many secret agents, continues its intrigues and provocations in Persia;

That a considerable number of troops still remain on Persian territory, in spite of the reiterated protests of the Majlis and of the cabinet at Tehran;

That the same Russian government is actively “at work” in Turkey, especially in Armenian Turkey, for the purpose of stirring up the feudal Kurds, the most reactionary element of Turkey,[17] against the Armenians, thus fomenting disturbances and provoking a counterrevolution;

That the Russian ambassadors at Constantinople and Tcharikooff [Charykov] and the Russian consul at Erzerum have had special instructions to this effect;[18]

Considering, in short:

That tsarism, victorious in its march to kill liberty in its own territories and profoundly hating the constitutional order established on its two frontiers, is attempting, systematically and with perseverance, to restore the regime of absolutism in Persia and Turkey.

In the presence of these two grave facts, which constitute a permanent danger for the two young democracies of the East:

The Congress calls upon the socialist parties of Europe to use all the means in their power to put an end to the reactionary dealing of tsarism.

* * *

ON FINLAND

Submitted by the Commission on Resolutions (Fifth Commission). The resolution was drafted by socialists from Russia and Finland, and was presented to the commission by Charles Rappoport of France.

The International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen strongly condemns the barbarous and dishonest policy of the Russian government and the reactionary representatives of the possessing class in the Duma and the Council of State—a policy that aims at the total suppression of the autonomy and of the liberty won by Finland, and a policy that will make it the most oppressed province in the empire.

The Congress affirms that by its policy toward Finland, the tsarist government has cynically taken back all the guarantees solemnly given in 1905 and has suppressed its secular constitution in defiance of the formal will of the Finnish people, of the best part of European opinion, and of the opinion of the most eminent jurists.[19]

It also affirms that the brutal suppression of Finnish autonomy is only one consequence of a whole system of savage oppression of all nationalities, non-Russian equally with Russian, an oppression carried out by a band of assassins cloaking themselves with a pretended constitutionalism.

Seeing that the ruling classes of Europe and the great organs of the press, while they formulate platonic professions in favor of Finland, in fact sustain tyranny by all the means at their disposal, and seeing that the Finnish socialists are engaged in a serious struggle to save democratic liberty and the right of the Finnish people to control themselves, which concerns not only socialism but democratic liberty, the Congress expresses its confidence in the energy, the courage, and the perseverance of the proletariat of Finland.

It is convinced that the proletariat of Finland will march on in accord with the working class of Russia, struggling in solidarity against the same regime of oppression.

It urges all the socialist parties and all the sincere democrats of the entire world to protest, by every means in their power (press, parliament, public meetings, etc.), against the coup de force directed against Finland. The Congress instructs the International Socialist Bureau to take steps to organize in every country a demonstration as complete and powerful as possible of the socialist proletariat in favor of Finland.

* * *

ON MOROCCO

Resolution drafted by French and Spanish delegates and presented to the congress plenary by Pablo Iglesias. It was adopted unanimously.

The socialist delegates from France and Spain to the Copenhagen Congress propose by common agreement the following resolution:

The Congress,

Recalling the decision taken by the Stuttgart Congress with regard to the French-Spanish undertakings in Morocco;

Considering that the French socialists have once again protested the incursions by certain generals into Moroccan territory; That on the Spanish side, military preparations are hastily being made for a new campaign.

That the daily threats constitute a burden on the two nations and on southern Europe as a whole, as a result of capitalist appetites:

Urges the socialist parties of all countries—and especially the workers of France and Spain—to assist more than ever the mobilization of the socialist parties of these two nations, an initiative glorified by the heroism of revolutionaries in Barcelona and other centers, and to do everything in their power to oppose all new military expeditions.

Footnotes

  1. Following a rally at Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 4, 1886, to support striking workers, a bomb was thrown at police officers by an unknown person, after which the police opened fire on the crowd, killing a number of workers. The incident was used to stage a frame-up against the workers’ leaders, who were anarchists. Eight were tried and convicted of murder. Four were hanged, and one committed suicide before his scheduled execution. The Haymarket martyrs were defended and honored by the workers’ movement throughout the world, and they became associated with the establishment of May Day as an international workers’ holiday. 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. ↑
  2. Francisco Ferrer, a Catalan educator and anarchist, was arrested in September 1909, in the wake of the July 1909 Tragic Week events in Barcelona. Found guilty by a military tribunal as the “author and leader of the rebellion,” he was executed by firing squad on October 13, 1909. ↑
  3. On April 23–26, 1905, a unity congress was held in Paris between the two principal organizations of French socialism—the Parti socialiste français led by Jean Jaurès and the Parti socialiste de France led by Jules Guesde. The new united organization was formally named the Section française de l’Internationale ouvrière (French Section of the Workers International, SFIO) but was known generally as the French Socialist Party. The impetus for the unification came from the resolution on party unity adopted by the 1904 Amsterdam Congress. ↑
  4. The Danish lockout of 1899, organized by the employers’ association, lasted more than three months and affected about 20 percent of the country’s nonagricultural labor force. In June–July 1909, Swedish employers began a series of lockouts as they sought to impose wage cuts. In response, workers organized a month-long general strike of 300,000 workers in August–September of that year. In Germany, there were 1,121 lockouts in 1910. At one point, 217,000 workers were locked out at the same time. ↑
  5. The truck system refers to capitalists paying workers in company scrip, rather than money. ↑
  6. The Bern conference of September 1906, composed of officials from fourteen countries, was called to sign an agreement on labor legislation discussed at a conference in Bern the previous year. The 1890 Berlin conference was convened by the German government. ↑
  7. Julius Wezosal, editor of Proletareets, the Latvian-language organ of the US Socialist Labor Party, had been accused by the tsarist government in Russia of having participated in a robbery of the Russian treasury in Tiflis during the 1905 revolution, even though he was in Switzerland at the time. Wezosal was arrested and imprisoned in Boston in 1910, and was subject to extradition proceedings by US authorities. With legal assistance from the Political Refugees’ Defense League, Wezosal was able to win his case the following year. ↑
  8. In March 1910 Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was arrested in London by British police as a result of an antigovernment speech he had given in Mumbai, India, in 1906. As Savarkar was transported back to India for trial, on July 7 he escaped when his ship reached Marseilles, France. The following day French police arrested him and handed him back over to British authorities. At his trial, Savarkar was sentenced to fifty years’ imprisonment. He was released in 1924. ↑
  9. For an account of the debate in the Commission on Cooperatives, see Lenin, “The Question of Co-operative Societies at the International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen,” in Lenin, Collected Works (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1960–1971), vol. 16, pp. 275–83. In the article Lenin tells of his decision to vote in favor of the resolution at the congress plenary. ↑
  10. The two best-known cases illustrating the Japanese government’s efforts to suppress the socialist and labor movements at the time were, firstly, the June 1908 arrests of fourteen socialists as a result of the June 1908 “Red Flag Riot”; at their trial each defendant was sentenced to prison terms of one to two and a half years. Secondly, in May 1910 twenty-six socialists and anarchists were arrested and accused of plotting to assassinate the emperor. Following a frame-up trial in January 1911, twenty-four were sentenced to death. Twelve had their sentences commuted to life in prison, and twelve were hanged. ↑
  11. In May 1910, in response to a threatened general strike, the Argentine government unleashed a wave of repression, closing most union headquarters and jailing and deporting scores of workers’ leaders. ↑
  12. In July 1908 the Young Turk movement became the dominant power in the Ottoman Empire, restoring the 1876 constitution, recalling parliament, and establishing a constitutional monarchy with a program of constitutional rule and modernization. On April 25, 1909, the Turkish government imposed martial law; this was followed up by decreeing a new labor law on August 9 of that year prohibiting unions in public service and severely limiting all strikes. ↑
  13. The Tragic Week events in July–August 1909 involved a series of semi-insurrectional battles pitting thousands of workers in Barcelona and other cities of Catalonia against Spanish troops. The rebellion was sparked by the call-up of reserve troops for Spain’s colonial war in Morocco. Up to 150 people were reported killed, and 1,700 were indicted for rebellion in military courts. Five were sentenced to death and executed. ↑
  14. In May 1910 Socialist Party leader Pablo Iglesias became the first Spanish SP member elected to parliament, from Madrid. ↑
  15. In late 1905, the Constitutional Revolution began in Iran, then under the rule of the Qajar dynasty. The revolution established a parliamentary body, the Majlis. In response to the revolutionary upsurge, Britain and Russia, the two main colonial powers in the region, signed the Anglo-Russian Convention on August 31, 1907, dividing Iran into spheres of influence: Britain’s sphere of influence was in the south, Russia’s in the center and north. Russia, strongly opposed to the Constitutional Revolution, supported a coup to restore full monarchical rule in June 1908. Opposition to the coup was strongest in the area around Tabriz. In early 1909, Russia sent troops to the cities of Tabriz, Rasht, and Qazvin attempting to restore order. ↑
  16. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation—the Dashnaktsutyun—was founded in 1890, becoming the leading Armenian national organization. Its branch in Tabriz joined in the Constitutional Revolution, and was subject to Russian repression. The tsarist government was especially fearful of the Armenian nationalists’ alignment with the Young Turk movement and its liberalizing influence. In 1903 the Dashnaktsutyun added the struggle against tsarism into its program. ↑
  17. Kurdish political organization within the Ottoman Empire was dominated by landowning tribal chiefs, which gave Kurdish village society a semifeudal character. ↑
  18. During the 1890s, armed confrontations had developed between Kurdish and Armenian forces within the Ottoman Empire. The tsarist regime in Russia hoped to use the Armenian national movement to undermine the Ottoman Empire. M. N. Charykov (1855–1930) was Russia’s ambassador in Constantinople from 1909 to 1912. ↑
  19. A Russian protectorate since 1809, Finland had been allowed its own constitution and laws. In 1903, however, the tsarist regime began stripping Finland of these rights, revoking the Finnish constitution. The 1905 revolution in Russia gave rise to an upsurge in Finnish nationalist activity, which led the tsarist regime to authorize the election of a unicameral assembly in Finland. In June 1910, however, the Russian Duma enacted a new law giving the Russian Imperial Council effective control over Finland’s internal administration. ↑

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