9.

Basel Congress, November 24–25, 1912

Introductory Note

In October 1912, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire, launching the First Balkan War. Many feared that this conflict could become the spark that would ignite a European-wide conflagration.

With that danger in mind, the International Socialist Bureau encouraged antiwar meetings throughout Europe and organized an Extraordinary International Socialist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland. The congress was attended by 545 delegates from twenty-two countries.

The Basel Congress issued a manifesto, largely based on the Stuttgart resolution on war and militarism, but also going farther in its depiction of the imperialist nature of the war drive.

Among those who recognized the Basel Manifesto’s importance was Lenin. In the years after 1914, he repeatedly pointed to the revolutionary nature of this document, defending it against the practices of the majority of the Second International, which had gone over to support the war effort of their respective capitalist classes. “The [Basel] Manifesto is but the fruit of the great propaganda work carried on throughout the entire epoch of the Second International,” Lenin stated.^[1]

* * *

THE BASEL MANIFESTO ON WAR AND MILITARISM

The International, at its congresses at Stuttgart and Copenhagen, laid down the following principle for the war against war:

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.

Recent events have more than ever made it the duty of the proletariat to use all their energy to carry out organized action. On the one hand, the general mad rivalry in armaments, by increasing the cost of living, has intensified class antagonisms and created an implacable spirit of revolt in the working class. The workers want to stop this system of extravagant waste and consequent unrest. On the other hand, the periodically recurring threats of war are getting more and more critical. The great nations of Europe are constantly on the verge of being driven against each other, without the slightest pretext of real national interests for such attacks on reason and humanity.

The Balkan crisis, which is already responsible for such terrible horrors, would mean the most fearful danger for civilization and the workers if allowed to spread.^[2] It would be at the same time one of the greatest outrages of history through the discrepancy between the immensity of the catastrophe and the insignificance of the interests involved.

For this reason the Congress rejoices at the complete unanimity of socialist parties and labor unions in all countries in the war against war. The workers of all countries have risen at the same time against imperialism; each section of the International is offering proletarian resistance to the government of its country and mobilizing public opinion of their nation against all warlike ideas, thus laying the foundation for strong cooperation of the workers of all lands, which has already contributed to saving the threatened peace of the world. The ruling classes’ fear that a revolution by the proletariat will follow a world war has been an essential guarantee of peace.

The Congress therefore asks socialist parties to continue their work by all possible means at their command. Each socialist party will contribute its own action to this common end.

The socialist parties in the Balkan Peninsula have a difficult task. The great powers of Europe, by a systematic neglect of all reform in Turkey, have contributed to creating economic and political disorder, stirring up national passions, leading to revolt and war. As against exploiting these conditions in the interests of the dynasties and the capitalists, the socialist parties of the Balkans, with admirable courage, put forward the demand for a democratic federation.

The Congress urges them to continue this commendable line of action, and believes that the Social Democracy of the Balkans will do everything to prevent the results of the war, bought with such terrible sacrifices, from being exploited by the dynasties, the militarists, and the capitalist classes of the Balkan states for their own selfish and expansionist interests. Above all, the Congress urges the Balkan socialists to oppose everything likely to lead to a renewal of the old animosities between Serbians, Bulgarians, Romanians, and Greeks, as well as to all violence against Balkan peoples whom they now combat as enemies: the Turks and the Albanians. The socialists of the Balkans must strongly oppose oppression of these peoples, combat inflamed national chauvinism, and proclaim the fraternity of all Balkan peoples, including Turks, Albanians, and Romanians.

The socialist parties of Austria-Hungary, Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina must continue with all their strength their hitherto successful efforts to prevent any attack by the Austrian monarchy upon Serbia. They must continue to oppose in the future, as they have done up to the present, any attempt to violently seize from Serbia the fruits of the war, to transform that country into an Austrian province, and to embroil the peoples of Austria-Hungary and the other nations of Europe in conflict in the interests of the ruling dynasty. The socialists of Austria-Hungary will have to struggle in the future to secure a completely autonomous and democratic government for the whole of the southern Slavic nations now governed by the Habsburg dynasty within the frontiers of Austria-Hungary.

The socialists of Austria-Hungary and also of Italy have to pay special attention to the Albanian question. The Congress recognizes the right to autonomy of the Albanian nation, but protests against the fact that under the mask of autonomy Albania might fall into the hands of Austro-Hungarian and Italian usurpation, which would not only be a danger for Albania, but might over time threaten the peace between Austria and Italy. Albania can live in real independence only as an autonomous member of a democratic Balkan Federation. Therefore, the Congress urges the socialists of Austria-Hungary and Italy to protest against all actions by their governments to draw Albania into their spheres of influence. Socialists must continue their efforts to consolidate peaceful relations between Austria-Hungary and Italy.

The Congress heartily salutes the protest strikes of the Russian workers, thus proving that the Russian and Polish working class is beginning to recover from the blows received during the tsar’s counterrevolution. The Congress sees therein a guarantee against the criminal intrigues of tsarism, which, after having shed the blood of the Russian people and after having so often betrayed and delivered the Balkan nations to their enemies, is staggering between the fear of the consequences that a war would have for them, and the fear of a nationalist movement it itself created. And if the tsar is once more pretending to play the part of liberator, it is in order to reconquer through this lying trick Russian predominance in the Balkans.

The Congress expects that the strengthened working class of Russia, Poland, and Finland, both in town and country, will tear asunder this mask of lies, oppose all bellicose adventures, and resist every tsarist attack, whether upon Armenia or Constantinople, by devoting their every energy towards renewing their revolutionary opposition to tsarism. If tsarism is the hope of all reactionary forces of Europe, it is also the bitterest foe of democracy and of the peoples over whom it rules. It is therefore the bounden duty of the International to bring about its downfall.

The most important task of the International falls on the working class of Germany, France, and Great Britain, to demand from their governments to withhold all support to either Austria or Russia, to abstain from all intervention in the Balkan troubles, and in every respect to observe strict neutrality. A war between the three great nations over an outlet to the sea, concerning which Austria and Serbia are in dispute, would be criminal madness. The workers of Germany and France do not recognize that any secret treaties necessitate any obligation to intervene in the Balkan conflict.

If, however, as a consequence of the military defeat of Turkey, the downfall of the Ottoman power in Asia Minor becomes inevitable, it would be the duty of British, French, and German socialists to oppose with all their might the policy of conquest of Asia Minor, since the result would inevitably be a world war.

The Congress is of the opinion that the greatest danger to European peace is the artificially maintained animosity between Great Britain and Germany. The Congress therefore salutes the working class of the two countries for their efforts to improve the situation. It believes that the best means of removing friction would be an understanding between Germany and Great Britain to halt the increase of their respective fleets and to suppress the seizure of private property at sea. The Congress urges the socialists of Great Britain and Germany to continue their agitation for such an agreement. To overcome all outstanding differences between Germany, on the one side, and Great Britain, on the other, would be to remove the greatest danger to world peace. It would weaken the mighty position of tsarism, now trying to strengthen itself owing to these differences. It would make impossible an attack on Serbia by Austria, and would finally secure peace to the world. To this end, above all, the efforts of the international movement must be directed.

The Congress declares the foregoing to be the policy of the Socialist International and expects all affiliated organizations to agree to uphold these principles of foreign policy. It urges the workers of all countries to oppose the power of capitalist imperialism through international working-class solidarity. It wants the ruling classes in all countries to put an end to the economic misery produced by the capitalist system, not to increase it by warlike action. It insists on the demand for peace. Governments must not forget that in the present condition of Europe and the present state of mind of the workers, war will not be without disaster to themselves. They must remember that the Franco-German war resulted in the revolutionary movement of the Commune,^[3] that the Russo-Japanese war put into motion the revolutionary movement in Russia, and that the arms race increased class conflicts in England and provoked enormous strikes on the continent.

It would be madness if the governments did not comprehend that the mere notion of a world war will call forth indignation and passion among the workers. Proletarians consider it a crime to shoot each other down in the interests of and for the profit of the capitalists, for the sake of dynastic honor and secret diplomatic treaties.

If the governments cut off even the possibility of normal development of the people and thereby provoke desperate steps, they will have to bear the entire responsibility for the crisis they bring about.

The International will redouble its efforts to avert such a crisis and will spread its views more energetically. The Congress requests the International Socialist Bureau to follow events with redoubled attention, and whatever happens, to keep up communications and relations among the proletarian parties of every country.

The proletariat is aware that at the present moment it is the bearer of the future welfare of humanity. The proletariat will exert all its efforts to prevent the destruction of the youth of the nations menaced by all the horrors of wholesale slaughter, famine, and pestilence.

The Congress appeals to you, proletarians and socialists of all countries, so that in this decisive hour you make your voices heard.

Make known your wishes in every form and everywhere with all your energy. Raise unanimous protests in every parliament, in demonstrations and mass action. Utilize every means that the organization and power of the proletariat place in your hands, in such a way that the governments will constantly feel before them the attentive and active will of the working class for peace.

Against the capitalist world of exploitation and mass murder stands the proletarian world of peace and union among the peoples.

Footnotes

Lenin, “Opportunism and the Collapse of the Second International,” in Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 22, p. 110. ↑
The First Balkan War, from October to December 1912, was waged by Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro against the Ottoman Empire. Under the terms of a May 1913 peace treaty, the Ottoman Empire lost almost all its remaining European territory. A Second Balkan War was waged from June to August 1913 with Serbia and Greece defeating Bulgaria over division of the territory conquered from the Ottoman Empire in Macedonia. ↑
The defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 helped lead to the Paris Commune of March–May 1871, the first historical experience of a revolutionary working-class government. ↑