International Socialist Congress (1912)

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An extraordinary International Socialist Congress , also called the Peace Congress of the Second International , took place on November 24th and 25th, 1912 in Basel . Concerned about a possible imminent war between the great powers, the labor movement demonstrated its will for peace and passed a manifesto against the war.

prehistory

Since 1907 there has been increasing discussion within the Socialist International about the danger of a European war and possible countermeasures. The Balkan wars of 1912/13 made the topic more topical. Against this background, the executive branch of the Second International decided on October 28, 1912 to hold an extraordinary congress. This should take place either in Basel or Zurich . For Switzerland as the host country's neutrality spoke.

It was not entirely by chance that Basel was chosen as the conference venue. The 4th Congress of the First International had already taken place there in 1869 . In the canton of Basel , social democracy had meanwhile also achieved a strong position. Basel was even regarded as a purely working-class city around 1900 due to its then up-and-coming chemical industry and the associated high proportion of employees there. The event in Basel was largely organized by the Swiss National Councilor Herman Greulich . Hermann Blocher and Eugen Wullschleger were also involved . The organizers were also faced with particular challenges because the venue was only set at the beginning of November and the date was brought forward from December to November. Despite the tight time, the event was organized professionally. The traveling journalists were provided with state-of-the-art aids for the time, such as two duplicators, typewriters, telephones and also linguistically speaking ladies to use the means of communication.

In a leaflet by the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland , the congress said: " Next Sunday the Social Democratic World Congress against the war will meet in Basel. It will oppose the unscrupulous warmongers, the diplomats, officers and princes, the profit-loving army suppliers and their newspaper mercenaries Will of the proletariat of the whole earth. It will be the voices of all the peoples of the globe, and these peoples want peace, want peace at all costs, are determined to defend against an expansion of the Balkan war into world fire by all means. "

course

555 delegates from 23 countries attended the two-day conference. 49 from Switzerland were there, including Carl Moor , Hermann Greulich, Fritz Platten and Robert Grimm . Germany sent 75, the Bohemian countries 70 and Austria 59 delegates. 36 representatives from different groups were present from Russia.

The congress was opened on November 24th in the city's own bailiwick (on the site of today 's Volkshaus ) on the Kleinbasel side of the Rhine, a working-class district. The peace march of the participants and supporters through the city of Basel, from the nearby courtyard of the barracks in a column of six across the Mittlere Brücke into Grossbasel , past the town hall , up to the cathedral, attracted great attention . Around 10,000 people took part in it, led by a symbolic peace wagon, including around 20 groups of whistlers and drummers, children dressed in white with palm branches and a large number of people carrying red flags. Most of the demonstrators came from all over Switzerland, but also from neighboring Alsace , Baden and France . Speeches were given by Jean Jaurès , Hugo Haase , Hermann Greulich, August Bebel , Clara Zetkin , James Keir Hardie , Viktor Adler and other leading representatives of the social democratic movement during an event in Basel Minster or on Münsterplatz . That a socialist conference could take place in a church and that a cantonal government addressed a greeting to the assembly was registered with astonishment across Europe.

Peace manifesto

Finally, on November 25th, the congress adopted a peace manifesto prepared on the evening before the conference in the Hotel Drei Könige . When it was drafted, some points had been discussed controversially. This included the question of the effectiveness of a general strike . This aspect was eventually left out. In the manifesto the program of an international foreign policy was developed, with the help of which an impending war could be prevented. The aim was to balance the differences between Germany on the one hand and Great Britain and France on the other. This, so the thought, would weaken the position of tsarism , which would instrumentalize this opposition. An attack by Austria-Hungary on Serbia would also be prevented. The working class should everywhere demonstrate the proletariat's will for peace . The manifesto stated: " If war threatens to break out, the working classes and their parliamentary representations in the participating countries are obliged, supported by the comprehensive work of the international bureau, to do everything possible to use the means that appear most effective to them To prevent the outbreak of war. (...) If the war should break out nevertheless, it is the duty to endeavor to end it as soon as possible and to strive with all our might to use the economic crisis caused by the war to arouse the people and thereby the To accelerate the elimination of capitalist class rule. "At the end of the event, the Basel Workers' Association held an overcrowded women's assembly.

meaning

Despite already existing internal tensions, the International appeared unanimously and presented itself as a resolute representative of a peaceful coexistence of peoples. The week before there had been peace demonstrations all over Europe with a total of around 300,000 participants. Similar rallies took place after the congress. The congress marks an external high point in the history of the Second International. However, the resolutions did not go beyond those of the Congress in Stuttgart in 1907 and the Congress in Copenhagen in 1910 . They could not prevent that at the beginning of the First World War there was no serious resistance from the socialist parties and that they stood behind the politics of their respective countries. The manifesto passed in 1912 had no effect.

literature

  • Sandrine Mayoraz et al. a. (Ed.): One Hundred Years of the Basel Peace Congress (1912–2012). The hoped-for "fraternization of the peoples" . Basel 2015.
  • Bernard Degen et al. a. (Ed.): Against the war. The Basel Peace Congress 1912 and its topicality . Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel 2012, ISBN 978-3-85616-571-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Laura Polexe: Networks and Friendship: Social Democrats in Romania, Russia and Switzerland. Göttingen, 2011 p. 83
  2. ↑ Laura Polexe: Networks and Friendship: Social Democrats in Romania, Russia and Switzerland. Göttingen, 2011 p. 83

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