" If war threatens to break out, it is the duty of the working class in the countries concerned and of their parliamentary representatives, with the help of the International Bureau as a means of coordinating their action, to use every effort to prevent war by all the means which seem to them most appropriate, having regard to the sharpness of the class war and to the general political situation.
"Should war none the less break out, their duty is to intervene to bring it promptly to an end and with all their energies to use the political and economic crisis created by the war to rouse the masses of the people from their slumbers and to hasten the fall of capitalist domination."
This decision would again appear definite: but a proposal at the Copenhagen Congress in favour of a general strike in the event of war was referred back by 131 votes to 51, with instructions to the International Bureau to remit it to the national sections for report. The Trade Union International had already refused discussion of the same proposal on the ground that it was a political question falling within the scope of the Socialist Inter- national. The subsequent fate of the proposal is worth observing as evidence of the pre-war position. The International Bureau, in accordance with instructions, circularized the national sections in 1910 with a request to report. By 1912 four replies had been received in all, from (i) the Armenian Revolutionary Federation; (2) the Commission of Resolutions of the Seine; (3) the Central Unions and Socialist Party of Denmark; (4) the Socialist Party of Finland. In 1912 the International secretary again circular- ized the national sections, pointing out the urgency of the subject, as Aug. 1914 (the Vienna Congress) was approaching. This was the position reached before the war.
^The International during the War. The collapse of the In- ternational at the outbreak of war in 1914 thus came as more of a surprise to those outside the International than to those acquainted with it. The International, despite its imposing aspirations, was in reality no more than a loose federation of political parties with no strong central authority. In the words of M. Camille Huysmans, the International secretary, describing it as he found it when he took office in 1904, it was " no more than a letter-box and a postal address, a mere medium of communication, without power and without real influence"; and he goes on to describe how efforts to improve this position met with little encouragement.
The outbreak of the war revealed that the national sections were stronger than the International. It is true that in Serbia, the country first affected by invasion, the Socialist party stood by the International and voted against the war credits; but their example was not followed. The most important national sections affected (with the exception of Russia), Britain, France, Belgium and Germany, rallied to the support of what they felt to be a war of national defence. Opposition was expressed only by minorities in each of these countries, consisting of extreme revolutionary socialists or of pacifist socialists.
The effect of the war was, accordingly, to break up the International into two sections, pro-war and anti-war. The International Secretariat was transferred to Holland; and sub- stitute members were taken on to the Executive from the Dutch section. There followed a period of sectional conferences. In Jan. 1915, the neutral socialists met at Copenhagen and issued an appeal to the belligerent socialists to act to stop the war. In Feb. 1915, the Allied socialists met in London and passed a resolu- tion emphasizing the necessity of continuing the war. In April 1915, the Central Powers socialists met at Vienna and passed resolutions dealing chiefly with relations after the war.
All these conferences were held with the knowledge and sanc- tion of the International Executive, which was endeavouring by negotiation to pave the way for a full congress. But in Sept. 1915, the anti- war socialists took matters into their own hands, and held an unofficial socialist conference at Zimmerwald in Switzerland. This conference set up a permanent International Socialist Commission, which was henceforth in tacit, though not at first intended, rivalry with the official bureau. This rivalry became intensified when a second conference was held under the auspices of the commission at Kienthal in April 1916, and the revolutionary section of the anti-war socialists began to play a more dominant part.
The situation was brought to a head by the Russian Revolu- tion of March 1917. An invitation for a full International Socialist Conference to be held at Stockholm was issued by the Petrograd Soviet in conjunction with the Dutch-Scandinavian committee which had been formed to act for the bureau. The invitation was accepted by all the principal sections, including the British Labour party, the French Socialist party, and the German and Austrian socialists. But after a protracted crisis the refusal of passports by the British and French Governments led to the failure of the project. It was at this stage that the Zimmerwaldian Commission held a separate meeting at Stockholm and finally decided on founding a new International.
In March 1918, an Inter-Allied Socialist and Labour Con- ference was held, which drew up a statement of war aims and communicated it to the socialist parties of the Central Powers. The replies of the latter were received during the summer of
1918, and negotiations were proceeding on these lines when the Armistice came. .
The Second International after the War. Immediately after the Armistice steps were taken for the reconstruction of the International under the auspices of a committee appointed by the Inter-Allied Socialist and Labour Conference of March 1918. This committee, consisting of Messrs. Albert Thomas, Henderson and Vandervelde, acting in conjunction with M. Camille Huys- mans, the International secretary, issued invitations for a preliminary International Socialist and Labour Conference to be held at Berne concurrently with the official Peace Conference.
The Berne Conference was held in Feb. 1919, and was attended by delegates from 26 nations. Certain sections of the Left refused to participate, including the Russian Communist party (who had already issued their invitation for a separate conference to inau- gurate a new International) and the official parties of Italy, Switzerland, Serbia and Rumania.
The Berne Conference, although not strictly a conference of the old Second International either in origin or composition, made arrangements for the resumption of the International at a full congress to be held the next year, and appointed a Permanent Commission for this purpose. The conference also passed reso- lutions in favour of a League of Nations based on a just peace, of national self-determination, and of an International Labour Charter. War responsibilities and Bolshevism gave rise to sharp debates. The former subject was remitted to a subsequent congress. On the latter subject a resolution denouncing the dictatorship of the proletariat and declaring democracy the only possible means of achieving socialism received a majority of votes; but the conference decided to postpone a definite decision until it had sent a mission of inquiry to Russia (for which, how- ever, passports were refused).
The Permanent Commission appointed at the Berne Confer- ence met at Amsterdam in April 1919, and at Lucerne in Aug.
1919. It made arrangements for the first full after-war congress to be held at Geneva in Feb. 1920, and drew up a provisional constitution. Difficulties in the way of the Geneva Congress arose owing to the growing strength of the newly founded Third or Communist International and the steady defection of parties and sections from the Second International. In consequence the Geneva Congress was postponed until Aug. 1920.
By the time the Geneva Congress was held in Aug. 1920, the Second International had come to represent in practice the right wing of the International Labour movement, although still in its basis accepting all labour and socialist organizations. Its main strength lay in the British Labour party and the German Majority socialists, together with the parties of certain smaller countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Holland and Hungary. The official parties of America, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, the Balkans, Ukraine and Russia had left it, as had also the German Independent socialists, while of the British socialist organizations only the Fabian Society remained with it.
The Geneva Congress adopted for the first time a regular constitution for the International, and drew up a carefully worded programme on the economic and political side. This pro-
