Socialist Workers International

The Socialist Workers 'International (historical spelling Socialist Workers' International , SAI, officially also English Labor and Socialist International and French Internationale ouvrière socialiste ) was the international organization of socialist and social democratic parties between the world wars . It emerged in May 1923 from the merger of the reformist London International and the centrist International Working Group of Socialist Parties . The seat of the SAI was initially London , from 1925 Zurich and from 1935 to 1940 Brussels .

The SAI executive was chaired successively by Arthur Henderson (1923/24 and 1925–1929), Concemore Thomas Cramp (1924/25), Émile Vandervelde (1929–1935), Louis de Brouckère (1935–1939), Johan Willem Albarda (1939 ) and Camille Huysmans (1940). The secretary responsible for the political and organizational work of the SAI was Friedrich Adler from 1923 to 1940 (together with Tom Shaw until 1925 ). The SAI was closely connected with the International Trade Union Confederation (IGB) and the Socialist Youth International (SJI).

The most influential parties of the SAI were the British Labor Party and - until 1933 - the German SPD , which also significantly influenced the reformist orientation of the organization. In its guiding principles, the SAI made positive reference to the liberal-parliamentary order and placed the struggle for the “ democratic state” at the center of its program. In the course of the 1920s, most of the member parties also adopted the theoretical concept of “ organized capitalism ” developed by Rudolf Hilferding . At the height of its mass influence in 1928, the SAI had 45 parties with 6.6 million members.

The smashing of the German and Austrian labor movements in 1933/34 exacerbated the disputes in the SAI, whose self- image had been severely shaken by the political and economic upheavals after the onset of the global economic crisis . The triumphant advance of conservative-authoritarian and / or fascist regimes in Europe, which began as early as the 1920s, had called into question the exclusive commitment to parliamentary-legal forms of political work before 1933. The number of illegal member parties increased steadily. Against this background, the relationship to the communist parties and the Communist International , which the SAI repeatedly offered limited cooperation between 1933 and 1939, became the focus of the debate several times. While the camp, led by the Labor Party and the parties of the Scandinavian countries, strictly rejected any cooperation with communists and illegal forms of struggle, the French, Italian, Spanish and Austrian socialists in particular spoke out in favor of a revolutionary-socialist realignment of the “office to register Deaths ”( Pietro Nenni ) sunk SAI. However, this group was unable to prevail in the clashes that reached their climax in the summer of 1937 and repeatedly brought the SAI to the brink of split.

In addition to the two main currents, groups appeared in some member parties after 1930 that attempted - such as the French " neo-socialists " around Pierre Renaudel and Marcel Déat , the wing of the Belgian POB led by Hendrik de Man and the Jaksch - Franzel group in the DSAP to develop a rightly compatible policy.

The internal disputes over basic political and theoretical questions after the Munich Agreement initiated the phase of open disintegration of the SAI. The Czechoslovak member party withdrew from the SAI in protest, the Labor Party, together with the parties of Belgium, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, endeavored to remove all references to Marxist socialism from the SAI's program and to make binding international agreements in the event that it was deemed to be inevitable To prevent war. In 1939, these parties tried to bring the SAI completely under control by changing the organizational statute and by disempowering Friedrich Adler, and to convert it into a pure information office. After the beginning of the Second World War , the SAI no longer appeared. The remaining organizational structures disintegrated in May 1940 during the German campaign in the west .

The Socialist International , founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1951, sees itself as the successor organization to the SAI.

development

prehistory

London International and IASP

As early as the final phase of the First World War , attempts had been made - like the meeting planned in Stockholm in the summer of 1917 , which failed consistently - to reestablish the contacts between the leaderships of the socialist and social democratic parties that had broken off in 1914. After the collapse of the Second International at the beginning of the war, initially only opposition minorities of the individual parties tried to create a new international forum (conferences in Zimmerwald (September 1915), Kienthal (April 1916) and Stockholm (September 1917)). At the end of the war, not only was the International disintegrated, but the division of the workers' movement into reformist, centrist and communist directions was largely complete, but organizationally not yet consolidated in many countries.

From 3rd to 10th In February 1919 an international socialist conference met again for the first time in the Bern Volkshaus . While those parties controlled by reformist leadership groups welcomed the conference and usually sent delegates, several centrist parties had declined to participate, including the socialist parties of Italy, Serbia and Switzerland. Representatives of the SPD and the USPD had traveled from Germany . The focus of the Bern conference was on the Paris Peace Conference , the Russian Revolution and the related agenda item “Democracy and dictatorship”. Karl Kautsky , who was still a member of the USPD at the time, made a name for himself as the main spokesman for the reformist conference majority, while the Austrian socialist Friedrich Adler appeared as the spokesman for the centrist minority. Kautsky wrote the resolution on the League of Nations adopted by the conference and had a major influence on the draft resolution submitted by Hjalmar Branting on the subject of "Democracy and Dictatorship", in which for the first time before an international socialist forum a factual rejection of the socialist revolution and a commitment to the liberal parliamentary order was pronounced. However, this position was still heavily disputed at the conference. Not only centrist delegates, but also outspoken reformists like the Dutchman Pieter Jelles Troelstra opposed “now to elevate the ideology of bourgeois democracy to the ideology of the working class.” After a two-day debate, the conference management decided not to vote on this item on the agenda. Since the course of the conference had made it clear that the majority of the centrist parties would not participate in an immediate reconstitution of the International, this did not take place. The delegates, however, appointed a standing commission headed by Branting, Arthur Henderson and Camille Huysmans (the so-called "Bern International").

When this commission from 26.-29. Meeting in Amsterdam on April 1919 , the rift between the reformist and centrist camps had widened further. Several parties that had sent delegates to Bern declined to take part in the Amsterdam deliberation, including Finland, Austria, Norway, Spain and Czechoslovakia. At the following conference in Lucerne (August 2-9, 1919), the centrist parties still taking part distinguished themselves from the reformist majority of delegates by submitting their own draft resolutions, which in turn convened a congress in Geneva in February 1920 that would re-establish the International should perform.

In late 1919 and early 1920, however, several important parties decided to begin accession negotiations with the Communist International (KI) founded in early March 1919 , including the USPD, the SFIO and the Independent Labor Party . For this reason, the "Bern International", to which only a few insignificant Eastern European parties declared themselves to be in addition to the SPD, the Labor Party and the Danish, Swedish, Dutch and Belgian socialists, postponed the planned congress in December 1919 to July 1920. The 118 delegates to the Geneva Congress (July 31 - August 5, 1920) decided to form a new International and approved its statutes, which had already been discussed in Lucerne. This “London International” (London was chosen as the seat of the organization) regarded itself as the legitimate successor organization or continuation of the Second International and explicitly invited the centrist parties not present in Geneva to cooperate.

The centrist parties, many of which went through an often dramatic process of division between 1919 and 1921, initially created an independent international organization in the form of the International Working Group of Socialist Parties (IASP) founded in Vienna in February 1921 . The IASP initially ruled out an organizational rapprochement with the London International, in which it saw an amalgamation of the “purely reformist and nationalist wing of the international labor movement”. She recognized the Leninist party concept and the dictatorship of the proletariat under certain conditions, but turned against the “stereotyped imitation of the methods of the Russian peasant and workers' revolution” in Central and Western Europe. Above all, however, it rejected the Communist International's categorical demand to irrevocably break with the “right-wing opportunist” wing of the labor movement and, conversely, declared the creation of a new “International as a community of equals” (Friedrich Adler) to be its main task.

The Berlin Conference of the Three Executives

On January 15, 1922, the IASP's office took up an appeal by the KPD that it had published on December 23, 1921. In it she had asked the AI ​​to take steps to prepare for an international congress to which representatives of all political and trade union workers' organizations should be admitted. Now the IASP proposed that the London International and the KI jointly consult the executives of all three Internationals. The Executive Committee of the Communist International (EKKI) accepted the invitation in early March 1922. The London International, which could not simply reject the proposal because of the reintegration of the parties affiliated to the IASP that it wanted, agreed to participate.

The “Conference of the Three Executives”, the first (and last) joint consultation of all branches of the international labor movement since the Basel Congress in 1912 , met from April 2nd to 5th, 1922 in the Berlin Reichstag building . On the first day, Clara Zetkin spoke on behalf of the KI for the joint preparation of the Workers' World Congress proposed by the KPD (and supported by the IASP). After Zetkin, Émile Vandervelde spoke for the London International. Without going into Zetkin's speech, he called for the cessation of communist activity in the trade unions, the recognition of the independence of Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia by Soviet Russia, and the admission of observers from the London International to a trial of 47 Social Revolutionaries in Moscow . Thereupon riots broke out, which led to the deliberations being interrupted. The spokesmen of the IASP - Friedrich Adler, Jean Longuet and Otto Bauer - warned the representatives of the London International in a separate discussion against bringing the conference to a failure by provocations; this is of use only to the communists, since the “desire for unity among the workers” is too strong. On April 5, the London International signed a “Joint Declaration” by which the three Internationals instructed the “Committee of Nines” that had previously been formed to prepare the World Congress and further deliberations of the executives. The representatives of the KI withdrew from this committee on May 23, 1922, after Ramsay MacDonald had spoken out clearly against such a congress on behalf of the London International. The last attempt to prevent a “crystallization of the split” and to bring about an organizational coordination or unification of the labor movement at the international level had thus failed.

The establishment of the SAI in 1923

After the attempts at mediation failed, the Socialist Workers' International was founded at the Socialist Congress in Hamburg, which began on May 21, 1923.

The consolidation of the SAI 1923–1927

The International developed positively and reached its climax at the Socialist Congress in 1931 in socialist-dominated Vienna. 753 delegates from 36 countries took part in this congress.

The SAI at the height of its development 1928–1931

However, this climax was followed by a steady decline, which was initiated by Hitler's rise to power.

The SAI and the establishment of the Nazi regime

In 1933 the SPD, the most influential member party of the SAI alongside the Labor Party, was confronted with a regime that, along with the socialist labor movement as a whole, also called into question the organizational existence of the party itself. The controversial handling of this danger and the disputes about the consequences to be drawn from the demise of the German labor movement dominated all discussions in the management bodies of the SAI in 1933. Friedrich Adler, who in October 1932 had already spoken out in favor of reviving the programmatic guiding principles of the IASP, which was dissolved in 1923, and making them “common property” in the SAI, saw “all the problems of the labor movement (...) through the victory of fascism in Germany newly put. ”With the“ surrender of German social democracy to fascism ”, the differences of opinion on fundamental issues, which had been outlined in the previous years, became quite open for the first time and soon“ opened up such a deep gap that the division of the SAI threatened. "

The SPD was one of the SAI parties that before 1933 had unconditionally committed to working in the parliamentary system and at the same time had made a decidedly anti-communist profile. The party leadership defended the passive tolerance of Brüning's emergency ordinance policy and the renunciation of any resistance to the deposition of the Prussian government on July 20, 1932 against criticism from other SAI parties and individual suggestions for an understanding with the KPD to ward off the threat from the right looking for, rejected. In December 1932, the SPD chairman Otto Wels had demanded that Adler's proposed topic, “The path to unity of the working class”, be removed from the agenda of a meeting of the SAI office in Berlin . On January 30, 1933 , the SPD executive committee refused to join the KPD's call for a general strike, which the KPD had addressed to the ADGB , the AfA-Bund and the Christian trade unions in addition to the SPD , and emphasized in a declaration the fight against wanting to lead the Hitler government exclusively “on the basis of the constitution”. The rumors, especially among the supporters of the SPD who were ready to act, that leading Social Democrats were negotiating joint actions with KPD representatives, immediately denied the party leadership.

The appeal “To the workers of the whole world”, which the SAI office dominated by the group around Adler published under the impression of the transfer of power to the NSDAP on February 19, 1933, criticized this line indirectly. In it the SAI called for “unified action by the entire working class on the basis of honest and open understanding”; the "fratricidal war" was the "strongest ally of fascism", it was time to "stop the mutual attacks". This is exactly what the AI ​​offered in its response on March 5 in the event of joint actions. The SAI welcomed this declaration, but at the same time recommended to its member parties on March 19 not to enter into any agreements with communist parties before a direct understanding between the two internationals.

The SPD chairman Wels, however, was not prepared to accept the calls of February 19 and March 19 ("Down with fascism. High international solidarity!"), Considering the legality of his party. After a meeting between leading Social Democrats and Hermann Göring in the last week of March, he sent envoys to several European countries and traveled to Switzerland himself to have a “moderating effect” on the SAI leadership and the Social Democratic press. However, in a sharp declaration on March 27, the SAI office refused to "subject the press of the member parties to the censorship of Messrs Hitler and Göring." Wels then demonstratively stepped out of the office on March 30 and stayed in at the same time a letter "in the sharpest way against any demonstration of any kind on the question of the united front with the communists." After 65 SPD members of the Reichstag had voted for Hitler's foreign policy declaration on May 17, 1933, the dispute between the SAI and the SPD escalated completely . A resolution by the International condemned the parliamentary group's behavior on May 18 as incompatible with the political principles of the SAI, while Adler publicly described the “attempts at adjustment in Germany” on June 10 as “insane tactics”.

Wels, who had meanwhile emigrated and disapproved of the course taken by the board members who remained in Berlin, revoked his resignation from the SAI office on May 18. The combative appeal of the Wels group on June 18 (“Break the chains!”), As well as the SPD ban four days later, contributed to the fact that there was no complete break between the SAI and the SPD. In August Wels gave a statement to the Paris Congress of the SAI (August 21-25, 1933) in which he - without going into the conflicts with the SAI after January 30, 1933 - described the policy of tolerance towards Brüning as a grave error , but justified the overall policy of the SPD as “driven by the compulsion of the circumstances”. He ultimately blamed the “German catastrophe” on the Versailles Treaty and the KPD. Although the reformist majority of delegates essentially accepted this declaration and only accused Wels of “paralysis of the will” on July 20, 1932 and January 30, 1933, the events in spring 1933 meant that the German Social Democrats in the SAI were “political and moral discredited to such an extent ”that they were barely able to emerge with independent contributions in the fundamental debates of the following years. Even with the parties closely related to the SPD, after January 30, 1933, the impression arose that the party had returned to the "Politics of August 1914" under changed conditions.

The failure of the SPD did not, however, weaken the reformist wing of the SAI, as the Scandinavian parties, with their strong finances and members, were able to fill this gap together with the Labor Party and, in February 1934, the most politically and organizationally most important centrist party, the Austrian SDAP , was crushed by the Dollfuss regime .

The directional battles in the SAI 1933–1937

Under the influence of Friedrich Adler, the International rejected all attempts to eliminate or destabilize the Soviet system, fearing that a non-socialist, repressive system in Russia would be even more detrimental to the development of international socialism than Soviet communism. In return, Adler made no secret of the rejection of the undemocratic power structures and the unacceptable handling of human rights and vigorously opposed all attempts to give this system a role model.

The collapse of the SAI 1938–1940

1940 came to an end with the German occupation of France.

organization

The Socialist Workers' International had an extremely slim structure. The secretariat was moved from London to Zurich in 1926 and to Brussels in 1935. It was only in Zurich that money was available to set up a secretariat with a small number of typists. In London, Tom Shaw and Friedrich Adler worked together as secretaries , while in London Friedrich Adler assumed this function alone. Arthur Henderson , Émile Vandervelde and Louis de Brouckère served as chairmen of the International . Since the chairman of the International was an honorary function, the work weighed heavily on the secretary. He had to prepare congresses, prepare and lead innumerable committee meetings, select speakers, conduct the extensive correspondence and was also responsible for the finances. He was able to influence the course of the International with his memoranda, with which topics were addressed and defined.

Overview of the member parties

country	Political party	Membership in the SAI	last known number of members	Orientation of the party	Members of the executive branch of the SAI
Argentina	Socialist party	1924-1940	23,779 (1934)	reformist	Menéndez Etchegoin (March 1925 – August 1927), Bernardo B. Delom (August 1928 – February 1934), Dino Rondani (February 1934–1940)
Armenia	Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Daschnakzutjun)	1923–1940 (anti-communist emigrant group based in Paris, recognized as a party by the SAI)		reformist, nationalist, extremely anti-communist	Mikayel Varandjan (May 1923 – March 1925, until June 1924, alternating with Shlomo Kaplansky (Poale Zion, Palestine), July 1933 – April 1934), Archak Izachakjan (March 1925 – July 1933), Setrak Sassuni (April 1934 – December 1936) , Vahan Champarzumjan (December 1936–1939), Hrand Samueljan (1939/40)
Belgium	Belgian Labor Party	1923-1940	559,000 (1931)	reformist, centrist minority	Louis de Brouckère (May 1923 – May 1939), Émile Vandervelde (May 1923 – June 1925, November 1927 – March 1935, February 1937 – December 1938), Joseph Van Roosbroeck (June 1927–1940, SAI cashier from November 1927), Camille Huysmans (August 1931–1940), Désiré Bouchery (March 1935 – June 1936), Arthur Wauters (August 1935 – February 1937), Jean Delvigne (June 1936–1937), Max Buset (1937–1940), Achille Delattre (1938 –1940)
British Guiana	British Guiana Labor Union or Labor Union of British Guiana	1924-1940	417 (1936)	reformist
Bulgaria	Bulgarian Social Democratic Labor Party	1923–1940 (illegal from May 1934)	28,000 (1931)	reformist, nationalist	Janko Sakasov (May 1923–1940, until August 1925, alternating with Živko Topalović , Yugoslavia)
China	Chinese Social Democratic Party	August 1925-1940	Members were Chinese living in France, no party organization in China can be proven	reformist
Denmark	Social Democratic Federation in Denmark	1923-1940	206,995 (1939)	reformist	Thorvald Stauning (May 1923 – April 1924, January 1927 – May 1929), Carl F. Madsen (May 1923– October 1928), Alsing Andersen (April 1924 – January 1927, May 1929 – November 1935), Vilhelm Nygaard (October 1928– December 1936), Hans Hedtoft (November 1935–1940), Christian Jensen (February 1938–1940)
German Empire	Social Democratic Party of Germany	1923–1940 (banned in June 1933, various groups of emigrants, of which the SAI only recognized the Sopade )	971,499 (1932)	reformist	Arthur Crispien (May 1923 - May 1936), Hermann Müller (May 1923 - June 1928, February 1931 - March 1931), Otto Wels (May 1923 - Summer 1938), Johannes Stelling (June 1928 - February 1931), Hans Vogel (1931 –1938), Rudolf Hilferding (May 1936–1937, 1939/1940)
Estonia	Estonian Socialist Workers Party	1923–1940 (in fact split in 1934 after the establishment of the Päts dictatorship, banned in March 1935, then listed as a member without still existing)	5,130 (1930)	reformist, nationalist, centrist minority	August Rei (February 1931 – November 1932, December 1933–1937)
Finland	Social Democratic Party of Finland	1923-1940	32,897 (1939)	reformist, influential centrist minority around Wiik	Karl H. Wiik (May 1923–1938), JW Keto (1939/40)
France	Parti socialiste (Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière)	1923-1940	275,377 (1938)	Left reformist, centrist, split off from the right wing of the party in November 1933, united or popular front alliance with the FKP 1934 / 36–1938	Alexandre Bracke (May 1923 – May 1936), Jean Longuet (May 1923–1939), Pierre Renaudel (August 1925 - June 1929, July 1930 - November 1933), Léon Blum (June 1929 – July 1930, May 1934 – May 1936, June 1939–1940), Jean-Baptiste Sévérac (November 1936–1940), Jean Zyromski (May – November 1936), Marceau Pivert (1938), Salomon Grumbach (1939–1940)
Free City of Gdansk	Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Gdansk	1923–1940 (banned in October 1936, then listed as a member without still existing)	7,194 (1930)	reformist	Arthur Brill (January 1929–1936, until July 1931, alternating with Johann Kowoll (DSAP, Poland))
Georgia	Social Democratic Labor Party of Georgia	1923–1940 (anti-communist emigrant group with members in France, Germany and the USA, recognized as a party by the SAI)		reformist, nationalist, extremely anti-communist	Irakli Tsereteli (May 1923 – July 1929), Constantin Gvardjaladze (July 1929–1940)
United Kingdom	Labor Party	1923-1940	2,662,067 (1939), mostly members of the corporate unions	reformist	Arthur Henderson (May 1923 – January 1924, February 1925 – July 1929), Ramsay MacDonald (May 1923 – January 1924), James Henry Thomas (May 1923 – January 1924), Harry Gosling (May 1923 – January 1924, SAI cashier) , Alexander Gordon Cameron (January 1924 – February 1925), Charlie Cramp (January 1924 – October 1925), William Gillies (July 1929–1940), Joseph Compton (October 1929 – January 1937), George Dallas (October 1936–1940), Hugh Dalton (October 1936–1940), Arthur Jenkins (January 1937-December 1937)
	Independent Labor Party	1923–1933 (resigned)	40,000 (1930)	centrist	RC Wallhead (February 1924 – August 1925, SAI cashier), Clifford Allen (January 1924 – November 1927), Fenner Brockway (November 1927 – November 1932)
Greece	Socialist Party of Greece	1923–1931 (split in 1931, deleted by the SAI in 1933)	3,100 (1930)	changing reformist and centrist majorities in the party leadership
Iceland	Icelandic Social Democratic Party	1926-1940	13,000 (1936)	reformist
Italy	Partito Socialista Unitario	1923–1930 (banned and dissolved in November 1925, re-established as PSULI in exile in 1926, merged with PSI in 1930)	31,000 (1925)	reformist	Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani (May 1923–1938), Claudio Treves (May 1923 – July 1930, August 1931 – June 1933), Pietro Nenni (July 1930 – February 1940), Franco Clerici (June 1933 – March 1934)
	Partito Socialista Italiano	1930–1940 (banned in October 1926, merged with the PSULI in 1930 and member of the SAI in its place)	3,500 (1939)	centrist
Yugoslavia	Socialist Party of Yugoslavia	1923–1940 (dissolved in January 1929, still managed by the SAI as a member, re-established in 1934, de facto illegal from 1935)	4,000 (1927)	centrist	Živko Topalović (May 1923 – January 1929, until August 1925 alternating with Sakasov (Bulgaria), August 1925 – June 1928 alternating with Bolesław Drobner, from June 1928 alternating with Józef Kruk (both USAP, Poland))
Latvia	Latvian Social Democratic Labor Party	1923-1940 (banned in May 1934, the left wing continued to operate illegally under a different name, but was no longer a member of the SAI)	12,525 (1932)	reformist, centrist minority	Feliks Cielens (May 1923 – April 1924, February 1928 – April 1932, 1938–1940), Bruno Kalniņš (April 1924 – February 1928), Fritz Menders (April 1932–1938)
Lithuania	Lithuanian Social Democratic Party	1923–1940 (de facto illegal since December 1926, banned in 1935)	3,000 (1926)	reformist	Steponzs Kairys (November 1931 – November 1934)
Luxembourg	Labor Party of Luxembourg	1923-1940	1,226 (1930)	reformist	Jean Fohrmann (February 1936–1939), Alphonse Hummer (1939–1940)
Netherlands	Social Democratic Labor Party	1923-1940	82,145 (1939)	reformist	Pieter Jelles Troelstra (May 1923 – May 1925), Willem Viegen (May 1925–1930), Floor Wibaut (August 1925 – April 1935), Willem Albarda (April 1930 – August 1939), Koos Vorrink (April 1935–1940)
Norway	Social Democratic Labor Party of Norway	1923–1927 (association with DNA)	11,000 (1925)	reformist, right-wing split of the DNA	Magnus Nilssen (May 1923 – January 1927)
	Norwegian Labor Party	1938-1940	170,889 (1938)	1921–23 member of the KI, 1927 merger with the NSA, reformist reorientation	Martin Tranmæl (1939–1940), Einar Gerhardsen (1939–1940)
Austria	Social Democratic Labor Party of Austria	1923–1940 (banned in 1934, illegal re-establishment as RSÖ , after the “ Anschluss ” in March 1938, it was broken up again)	648,497 (1932)	centrist	Otto Bauer (May 1923 – July 1938), Ferdinand Skaret (May 1923 – October 1931), Robert Danneberg (October 1931 – December 1935), Karl Seitz (October 1931 – December 1935), Franz Korac (December 1935–1938), Joseph Buttinger (1939/1940, under the pseudonym Gustav Richter)
	Czechoslovak Social Democratic Labor Party in the Republic of Austria	1923–1940 (banned in 1934)	8,760 (1930), members were mainly Czech and Slovak workers living in Vienna	centrist	Alois Wawrousek (August 1925–1937)
League of Nations mandate for Palestine	Poale Zion	1923–1930 (international organization, formally led by the SAI as the Social Democratic Party of Palestine)	5,650 in Palestine (1930)	centrist	Shlomo Kaplansky (until June 1924, alternating with Mikayel Varandjan , August 1925–1940)
	Mapai	1930–1940 (in May 1930 recognized by the SAI instead of Poale Zion as the "Jewish section of the SAI in Palestine")	15,000 (1938)	reformist, nationalist
Poland	Polish Socialist Party	1923–1939 (after the establishment of the Sanacja regime in 1926/28, the left and right wing were split off, after 1930 factually illegal in phases, officially dissolved at the end of September 1939)	60,000 (1930)	reformist, after 1934 centrist reorientation, rapprochement with the Communist Party of Poland	Herman Diamand (May 1923 - February 1931), Mieczysław Niedziałkowski (August 1925–1940), Herman Lieberman (1931–1940)
	German Socialist Labor Party	1925-1940	11,759 (1937)	1928 split off from the reformist German national wing, after 1933 increasing radicalization, support of the communist united front policy	Johann Kowoll (January 1929 – June 1936, alternating with Arthur Brill (Danzig) until July 1931, alternating with Emanuel Chobot (PSPR, Czechoslovakia) since July 1931); Emil Zerbe (June 1936–1940)
	Independent Socialist Workers Party	1923–1933 (resigned)	3,500 (1930)	centrist, left split from the PPS	Bolesław Drobner (May 1923 – June 1928), Józef Kruk (June 1928 – October 1933), both alternating with Topalović (Yugoslavia)
	General Jewish workers' union "Bund" in Poland	1930-1940	15,000 (1931)	centrist	Henryk Erlich (December 1930–1940)
	Ukrainian Socialist Radical Party	1931-1940		centrist	Matwij Stachiw (August 1931–1940)
Portugal	Portuguese Socialist Party	March 1925–1940 (banned in March 1933, then listed as a member without still existing)
Romania	Romanian Social Democratic Party	1923–1940 (banned in February 1938)	6,114 (1936)	reformist, centrist minority	Şerban Voinea (May 1923 – December 1923), Iakob Pistiner (May 1923 – August 1930), Gheorghe Grigorovici (January 1931 – May 1933), Ilie Moscovici (May 1933–1940)
Russia	Russian Social Democratic Labor Party / Mensheviks	1923–1940 (anti-communist emigrant group based in Berlin (until 1933) or Paris (until 1940), recognized as a party by the SAI)		centrist	Rafael A. Abramowitsch (May 1923–1940)
	Party of Socialist Revolutionaries	1923–1940 (anti-communist emigrant group based in Prague, recognized as a party by the SAI, largely disintegrated in 1928)		reformist, extremely anti-communist	Vassilij V. Suchomlin (May 1923 – May 1930), Viktor Tschernow (May 1923–1940)
Sweden	Swedish Social Democratic Labor Party	1923-1940	450,831 (1939)	reformist	Hjalmar Branting (May 1923 – October 1924), Gustav Moeller (May 1923 – October 1924, July 1926 – September 1932), Arthur Engberg (October 1924 – July 1926), Rickard Lindström (October 1924 – July 1926, September 1932–1940) , Per Albin Hansson (July 1926 – September 1932), Zeth Höglund (September 1932–1940)
Switzerland	Social Democratic Party of Switzerland	1927-1940	50.599 (1936), 37.129 (1939)	centrist, increasingly reformist since 1935	Robert Grimm (January 1927–1940)
Spain	Spanish Socialist Workers Party	1923-1940	90,000 (1936)	centrist	Julián Besteiro (May 1924 – October 1932), Francisco Largo Caballero (October 1932 – November 1932, September 1933 – September 1936), Remigio Cabello (November 1932 – September 1933), Fernando de los Ríos (September 1933–1937), Manuel Cordero (September 1933–1938)
Czechoslovakia	Czechoslovak Social Democratic Labor Party	1923–1940 (resignation in 1938 and self-dissolution, still managed as a member)	163,000 (1937)	reformist	Antonín Němec (May 1924 – August 1925), František Soukup (August 1925 – September 1938), Leo Winter (August 1931 – August 1935), Josef Stivín (August 1935 – September 1938), Gustav Winter (1937–1938)
	German Social Democratic Labor Party in the Czechoslovak Republic	1923–1940 (self-dissolution, but still managed as a member)	80,949 (1929), 12,000 (1937)	reformist	Ludwig Czech (May 1923 – February 1930), Siegfried Taub (February 1930–1938), Wenzel Jaksch (1939–1940) for the exile group in Great Britain
	Hungarian Social Democratic Labor Party	1923–1926 (incorporated into TSDAP and DSDAP in 1926/27)	3060 (1925)	reformist
	Polish Socialist Workers Party	1923–1938 (merged with the PPS)	1,000 (1937)	reformist	Emanuel Chobot (from July 1931, alternating with Johann Kowoll , DSAP, Poland)
	Karpatho-Russia Social Democratic Labor Party	1923–1930 (incorporated in the TSDAP in 1930)	3,500 (1927)	reformist
	Socialist Association	1923–1925 (leaving and joining the KPTsch )	15,000 (1923)	centrist
Turkey	Turkish Socialist Party	1923–1929 (deleted)	illegal, probably dissolved as early as 1922	reformist
Hungary	Social Democratic Party of Hungary	1923-1940	150,156 (1930)	reformist, centrist minority	Gyula Peidl (February 1924 – October 1928), Ernö Garami (May 1930 – March 1931), Emanuel Buchinger (March 1931–1940)
	Világosság socialist emigrant group	1923-1940	2,600 (1930), group of emigrants in Austria around Zsigmond Kunfi	centrist	Vilmos Böhm (August 1931–1940)
Ukrainian People's Republic	Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party	1923–1940 (anti-communist emigrant group, recognized as a party by the SAI)		reformist, nationalist	Osyp Bezpalko (June 1924 – February 1929), Panas Fedenko (February 1929–1938)
Uruguay	Uruguayan Socialist Party	1932–1940 (banned 1933–1938)	480 (1931)	reformist
United States	Socialist Party	1923-1940	11,922 (1936), 6,500 (1937)	Reformist majority since 1919, centrist majority in party leadership since 1934, right-wing split in 1936	Victor L. Berger (May 1923 – August 1929), Morris Hillquit (May 1923 – October 1933), Norman Thomas (December 1932–1940), James Oneal (November 1933 – October 1935), Devere Allen (October 1935–1936)

literature

• Braunthal, Julius , History of the International (Volume 2) , Hanover 1963 (3rd edition Berlin-Bonn 1978).
• Collette, Christine, The International Faith. Labor's Attitudes to European Socialism 1918-1939 , Aldershot (et al.) 1998.
• Dankelmann, Otfried, The Socialist Workers' International on the Threshold of War , in: Eichholtz, Dietrich , Pätzold, Kurt (eds.), The path to war. Studies on the history of the prewar years (1935/36 to 1939) , Berlin 1989, pp. 435–485.
• Sokolova, Maria, Les congrès de l'Internationale socialiste entre les deux guerres mondiales , Paris 1953.
• Werner Kowalski ( inter alia), History of the Socialist Workers International (1923-1940) , Berlin 1985.
• Axel Wörner: The disintegration of the Socialist Workers' International (SAI) and its causes (1933-1940) , 1982 (habilitation thesis ( dissertation B ) University of Leipzig 1980, 246 pages); New edition: The collapse of the SAI and its causes (= Hallesche Studies on the History of Social Democracy , Volume 8). Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Research Group “Social Democracy”, Science Journalism Department of Martin Luther University, Halle (Saale) 1982, DNB 850489342

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Werner (inter alia), Geschichte der Sozialistische Arbeiter-Internationale (1923–1940), Berlin 1985, p. 271.
2. ↑ See Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 16. For the conference as a whole, see Braunthal, Julius, Geschichte der Internationale (Volume 2), 3rd edition Berlin-Bonn 1978, pp. 167–173.
3. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 16.
4. ↑ See Braunthal, Geschichte, p. 173ff. and Kowalski, Geschichte, pp. 18ff.
5. ↑ See Kowalski, Geschichte, pp. 21f. and Braunthal, Geschichte, pp. 177-179.
6. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Werner, Glasneck, Johannes, Die Sozialistische Internationale. Your history and politics, Berlin 1977, p. 23.
7. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 23.
8. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 24.
9. ↑ See Kowalski, Geschichte, pp. 27f.
10. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 30.
11. ↑ Braunthal, Geschichte, p. 249.
12. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 176.
13. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 180.
14. ↑ Braunthal, Geschichte, p. 399.
15. ↑ Hanisch, Ernst: The great illusionist. Otto Bauer (1881-1938) Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2011, p. 350.
16. ↑ See Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 177.
17. ↑ Quoted from Schneider, Michael, Unterm Hakenkreuz. Workers and the labor movement 1933 to 1939, Bonn 1999, p. 35.
18. ↑ According to Braunthal, “the German workforce (...) was ready to fight in February 1933 as hardly ever before since November 1918.” Braunthal, Geschichte, p. 400.
19. ↑ See Schneider, Hakenkreuz, p. 45.
20. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 181.
21. ↑ See Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 182.
22. ↑ Quoted from Schneider, Hakenkreuz, p. 85.
23. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Geschichte, pp. 184f.
24. ↑ Quoted from Kowalski, Geschichte, p. 185.
25. ↑ See Braunthal, Geschichte, p. 404 (fn.).
26. ↑ Quoted from Hebel-Kunze, Bärbel, SPD and Fascism. On the political and organizational development of the SPD 1932–1935, Frankfurt am Main 1977, p. 241.
27. ↑ See Kowalski, Geschichte, pp. 190f.
28. ↑ See Braunthal, Geschichte, p. 418.
29. ↑ Kowalski, Glasneck, Sozialistische Internationale, p. 40.
30. ↑ Wörner, Axel, Der Zerfall der SAI und seine Causes, Halle (Saale) 1982, p. 8 emphasizes, however, that the importance of the Sopade for the further self-understanding of the reformist camp is underestimated.
31. ↑ See Schneider, Hakenkreuz, p. 941.
32. ↑ Information from Kowalski, Geschichte, pp. 282–338 and Dankelmann, Otfried, The Socialist Workers' International on the Threshold of War, in: Eichholtz, Dietrich, Pätzold, Kurt (eds.), Der Weg in den Krieg. Studies on the history of the pre-war years (1935/36 to 1939), Berlin 1989, pp. 435–485, pp. 477–481.