The Hamburg Congress

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SOCIALISM

At Hamburg, Socialist delegates, representing 30 nations and more than 50,000,000 workers, constituted themselves the Socialist Workers' Internationale. Thus the existence of the Second Internationale and the Vienna Internationale (often alluded to as the Second and One-Half) came to an end.

The Second Internationale came into being in 1899; that of Vienna 1921. Their separate existence was terminated by special meetings of their executives. [The Third Internationale is purely Communist and has its headquarters at Moscow, capital of Soviet Russia.]

The tenor of the new Socialist Workers' Internationale is anti-Bolshevik and antiFascist. It looks with disfavor upon the national movement in Germany; it censors the militarist and imperialist proclivities of the French; it denounces the "selfish diplomatic policy " of Britain.

Its program embraces:

1) The substitution of socialist for capitalistic methods of production, so to achieve " the emancipation of the working class."

2) The organization and complete unification of the Socialist Workers' movement.

3) The voluntary restriction of national party autonomy in order to make the decisions of the Internationale binding on all parties.

4) The construction of the organization as a peace or war-time instrument.

A speech well received came from M. Abramovitch, leader of the Menchevist Party. He was pessimistic about his country; there was no freedom, only another despotism by a virulent oligarchy remained. He wanted his country to be made a democracy.