Zimmerwald Conference

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between revolutionary socialists (communists) and reformist socialists (social democrats) in the Second International.[1]

Contents

[edit] Preliminaries

The origins of the conference lay in the mission of Italian deputy Odino Morgari on behalf of the Italian Socialist Party (with the concurrence of the Swiss Social Democratic Party) to the socialists of the Allied countries in April 1915. His immediate objective was to have the International Socialist Bureau be convened and that an international conference of neutral socialists be summoned. On April 19 he met with Emile Vandervelde, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the ISB and a representative of the French Socialist Party. His proposals were flatly rejected. On May 15–16 the Party executive met in Bologna to hear Morgari's report. He stated that the official parties were recalcitrant, but that there were minorities in both Great Britain and France who were receptive. The party decided to call a conference of all socialist parties and workers groups that were opposed to civil peace, adhered to the class struggle and were willing to work against the war.[2][3]

The Italian and Swiss socialist parties arranged for a preliminary meeting at Berne on July 11. Attending were Gregory Zinoviev of the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party (Bolsheviks); Pavel Axelrod of the Organization Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party (Mensheviks); Angelica Balabanoff and Odino Morgari of the Italian Socialist Party; Adolf Warski of the Main Presidum of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania; Maksymilian Horwitz of the Polish Socialist Party – Left; and Robert Grimm of the Swiss Social Democratic Party. Little concrete was decided at this preliminary meeting, though it was clear that a wide array of groups would be invited to the conference and not just the "lefts", as defined by Zinoviev and the Bolsheviks. A second preliminary meeting was supposed to assemble that was supposed to resolve the issue, but never met.[4]

[edit] Delegates

The delegates attending were as follows[5]:

From neutral countries

From Western Allied countries:

From the Russian Empire

Germany

[edit] The Conference Assembles

Coloured lithography of the Hotel "Beau Séjour" in Zimmerwald, where the delegates lived. The main building of the hotel was torn down in the 1960s. The guest house and parts of the park survive to this day

The delegates assembled at the Volkshaus in Berne on September 5, 1915. From there they left in four coaches for the small town of Zimmerwald some ten kilometers (6.21 miles) away. The conference began by reading communications from people and organizations who could not be present, such as a letter from Karl Leibknecht whose name could not even be printed in the official report of the conference. Then the various delegations gave reports of the situations in their respective countries. The Germans had resorted to engaging in illegal activity, such as distributing illegal leaflets. Ledebour mentioned that Germany may be headed for revolution. In France the workers were said to be in a state of disillusionment and had been corrupted by years of anarchist and Herveist thinking. Kolarov gave an extended discussion on his party's resistance to the Second Balkan War. He discussed the policy of advocating fraternization in the trenches and socialist concern for socialist prisoners of war, which had prevented enmity between the Serb and Bulgarian Social Democratic parties. He also spoke about the division of the Narrow and Broad socialists in his country. A Balkan Socialist Federation had been formed by social democratic parties in Rumania, Serbia and Greece, but did not include the broads. The Italians reported that socialists had been persecuted since Italy's entrance into the war. This was accompanied with strikes and street demonstrations; the Italian workers had their martyrs and wounded. Rakovsky shared an anecdote about the Rumanian foreign ministry notifying him as soon as they learned of the German parties endorsement of the declaration of war on August 4, 1914. Finally, Roland-Holst reported on the factional activity within the Dutch movement and described the activities of the majority party under Troelstra as "disgraceful".[6]

Chernov made the report on behalf of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. According to a hostile source, he gave a false impression of the SRs internationalism, while ignoring the fact that half of its delegation to the London Inter-Allied congress had taken a pro-war stand, while the other half abstained, that the SRs had participated in a pro-war conference with the Trudoviks and Popular Socialists or that their press was carrying patriotic articles. Pavel Axelrod gave the report for the Mensheviks and, according to the same hostile source, minimized his parties pro-war stance.[7]

[edit] Manifesto and resolutions

The first document produced by the conference was a joint declaration by the French and German delegations. This statement declared that World War I was not their war, that it was caused by the imperialist and colonial policy of all governments and advocated the restoration of Belgium and a peace without annexations or "economic incorporation" based on the self determination of the people involved. To that end they pledged to end the policy of civil peace and renew the class struggle within their respective countries in order to force their governments to end the war. The declaration was signed by Ledebour and Hoffman for Germany and Merrheim and Bouderon for France.[8]

Lenin had been busy preparing for the conference for several months, attempting to rally "left" elements and drafting documents. He wrote a "draft declaration" which he shared with Alexandra Kollontai as early as July 1915. Kollantai apparently criticized this draft for not distinguishing between imperialist wars, wars of national liberation and civil wars.[9] Lenin also corresponded with Karl Radek. Both of them wrote "draft resolutions" for the Conference. Lenin criticized Radeks original draft for not criticizing the social chauvinists and opportunists within the socialist movement or advocating means to combat them. Radek then wrote an "amended draft resolution".[10] Both of these drafts were presented to a caucus meeting of left wing delegates at the Volkshaus shortly before the opening of the conference. This group consisted of Lenin, Zinoviev, Radek, Berzin, Hoglund, Nerman, Platten and Borchart as well as "some others, including Trotsky". The first eight of these became a tight knit left wing bloc during the proceedings of the conference and could sometimes expand to include up to eleven members. This caucus voted down Lenins original resolution in favor of Radeks.[11]

The draft resolution, bearing the signature of the eight above mentioned delegates, was then presented to the conference for referral to a drafting commission. However, this was refused by a vote of 19-12. Trotsky, Roland-Holst, Chernov and Natanson voted in favor of the resolution.[12]

When the drafting commission met it decided only to draft a "manifesto" and not a supplementary "resolution". Three draft manifestos were presented to it, one from the Right within the German party, one written by Leon Trotsky on behalf of the Nashe Slovo group and one presented by the so called Zimmerwald Left. The commission consisted of Grimm, Ledebour, Lenin, Trotsky, Merrheim, Rackovsky and Modigliani. The final text most closely followed Trotskys draft and was written by Trotsky and Grimm. The German delegates insisted that parliamentary demands, such as voting against war credits and withdrawal from ministries be excluded from the text. When the text was presented to the conference it met with some hostility from Chernov and Morgari. Chernov was upset that the manifesto did not explicitly denounce czarism and said nothing about agrarian socialism, while Morgari was upset that the manifesto did not state that France did not share responsibility for the war. However these two delegates were convinced to vote for the manifesto so that it could be passed unanimously. On the motion of the French and German delegations, it was decided that each country have a delegate sign the manifesto personally.[13]

Signatures of the Zimmerwald Manifesto[14]:

  • Germany: Ledebour, Hoffman
  • France: Bouderon, Merrheim
  • Italy: Modigiani, Lazzari
  • Russia: Lenin, Axelrod, Bobrov (a pseudonym for Natanson)
  • Poland: Lapinsky, Warski, Hanecki[15]
  • Balkan Socialist Federation: Rakovsky (Rumania), Kolarov (Bulgaria)
  • Sweden and Norway: Hoglund, Nerman
  • Netherlands: Roland-Holst
  • Switzerland: Grimm

Several addenda were added to the manifesto by the delegates. A statement that the manifesto did not give complete satisfaction because it did not repudiate opportunism or advance a clear method of struggling against the war was added by Lenin, Zinoviev, Radek, Hoglund, Nerman and Berzin. It also stated that the undersigned had nevertheless endorsed the manifesto because they wish to "march side by side with the other sections of the international" and that this caveat be published with the official report. The eight delegates who introduced the Left Zimmerwald draft resolution, along with Roland-Holst and Trotsky tried to add an amendment stating that the proposal to mention war credits had to be excised from the manifesto and that Ledebours statement that the "manifesto contains all that is implied [in such a] proposal". Ledebour protested that he would not sign the manifesto if that was added was included and the amendment was withdrawn.[16]

Various other documents were submitted to the conference, only one of which, a joint declaration by the three Polish parties present was included in the ISCs Bulletin.[17]

Finally, the delegates adopted one last document. On the motion of a French delegate it unanimously passed a resolution of sympathy for the victims of the war and of persecution by the belligerent governments. Specifically it mentioned the fate of the Poles, Belgians, Armenians and Jewish peoples, the exiled Duma members, Karl Liebknecht, Klara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg and Pierre Monatte. The resolution also honored the memory of Jean Jaurès ("the first victim of the war") and socialists who had died in the war such as Amadeo Catanesi and Dimitrije Tucović.[18]

[edit] Establishing the ISC

At the end of the conference an International Socialist Commission, sometimes known as the International Socialist Committee was formed with a mandate to establish a "temporary secretariat" in Berne that would act as an intermediary of the affiliated groups and begin to publish a Bulletin containing the manifesto and proceedings of the conference. The members of the Commission were Robert Grimm, chairman, Oddino Morgari, Charles Naine and Angelica Balabanoff, who was to act as interpreter.[19]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Zimmerwald Conference 1915: Revolutionaries against the imperialist war". http://en.internationalism.org/wr/290_zimmerwald.html. Retrieved 2007-01-07. 
  2. ^ Olga Hess Gankin and H.H. Fisher eds, The Bolsheviks and the First World War: the origins of the Third International Stanford University Press, 1940 pp.309, 311-312
  3. ^ Fainsod, Merle International socialism and the World War New York, Octagon Books 1973 p.62
  4. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.312-15
  5. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.320-21
  6. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.322, 342-3
  7. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.343-4
  8. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.323, 328-9
  9. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.315-7 This draft declaration was not available to the editors at the time of publication
  10. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.318-9 Radeks original draft had also not been located at the time this was published.
  11. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.342, 348
  12. ^ Gankin and Fisher p.348
  13. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.324-5
  14. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.332-3
  15. ^ Gankin and Fisher p.333 According to one source Haleckis name had to be substituted for Radeks because the latter had been expelled from the German party and the German delegates would not sign the manifesto if he did. Accounts differ as to whether Hanecki was actually present
  16. ^ Gankin and Fisher p.334
  17. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.334-7
  18. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.326, 337-8
  19. ^ Gankin and Fisher pp.325-6

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zimmerwald_Conference&oldid=478965125"
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages