All Topics  
Second International

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Second International
 
 
  Topics Second International Topic Home

The Second International (1889–1916) was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated. It continued the work of the dissolved First International, though excluding the still-powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement and unions, and was in existence until 1916.

Among the Second International's most famous actions were its (1889) declaration of May 1 as International Workers' Day
International Workers' Day

International Workers' Day is a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement. May Day commonly sees organized street demonstrations and street marches by millions of working people and their trade unions throughout most of the countries of the world ? though, as noted below, rarely in the United S...
 and its (1910) declaration of March 8 as International Women's Day
International Women's Day

International Women's Day is marked on March 8 every year. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Second International'
Start a new discussion about 'Second International'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Second International (1889–1916) was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated. It continued the work of the dissolved First International, though excluding the still-powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement and unions, and was in existence until 1916.

Among the Second International's most famous actions were its (1889) declaration of May 1 as International Workers' Day
International Workers' Day

International Workers' Day is a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement. May Day commonly sees organized street demonstrations and street marches by millions of working people and their trade unions throughout most of the countries of the world ? though, as noted below, rarely in the United S...
 and its (1910) declaration of March 8 as International Women's Day
International Women's Day

International Women's Day is marked on March 8 every year. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women....
. It initiated the international campaign for the 8-hour working day.

The International's permanent executive and information body was the International Socialist Bureau
International Socialist Bureau

The International Socialist Bureau was the permanent organization of the Second International, established at the Paris congress of 1900. Before this there was no organizational infrastructure to the "Second International" beyond a series of periodical congresses, which weren't even given a uniform name....
 (ISB), based in Brussels
Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
 and formed after the International's Paris Congress of 1900. Emile Vandervelde
Emile Vandervelde

Emile Vandervelde was a Belgium statesman, born at Ixelles. He studied law at the Free University of Brussels and became doctor of laws in 1885 and doctor of social science in 1888....
 and Camille Huysmans
Camille Huysmans

Jean Joseph Camille Huysmans was a Flemings-Belgian politician.Huymans studied German philology at the University of Liege. He was a teacher from 1893 until 1897....
 of the Belgian Labour Party
Belgian Labour Party

The Belgian Labour Party, called Belgische Werkliedenpartij in Dutch language and Parti Ouvrier Belge in French language, was the first socialist party in Belgium, founded in 1885....
 were its chair and secretary. Lenin was a member from 1905.

The Second International dissolved during World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, in 1916, as the separate national parties that composed it did not maintain a unified front against the war, instead generally supporting their respective nations' role. French socialist
Sfio

Sfio, or Safe/Fast String/File I/O, is a C I/O Library developed by David Korn and Kiem-Phong Vo AT&T Labs Research, intended as a replacement for the standard C stdio.h....
 leader Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès

Jean L?on Jaur?s was a French Socialism leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first Social Democracy, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party , which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France....
's assassination, a few days before the beginning of the war, symbolized the failure of the antimilitarist
Antimilitarism

Antimilitarism is a doctrine commonly found in the anarchist and, more globally, in the socialist movement, which may be both characterized as internationalist movements....
 doctrine of the Second International. In 1915, at the Zimmerwald Conference
Zimmerwald Conference

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 socialism and Reformism socialists in the Second International....
, anti-war socialists attempted to maintain international unity against the social patriotism
Social Patriotism

Social Patriotism is an openly patriotic standpoint which combines patriotism with socialism. It was first identified at the outset of the First World War when a majority of Social Democracy opted to support the war efforts of their respective governments and abandoned socialist internationalism and workers solidarity....
 of the social democratic leaders. The International continued in skeleton form in neutral Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 through the war, as the Berne International
Berne International

The term Berne International refers to the skeleton continuation, formally called the International Socialist Commission , of the socialist Second International after the latter's break-up due to World War I....
.

In 1920, the defunct Second International was reorganized. However, some European socialist parties refused to join the reorganized international, and decided instead to form the International Working Union of Socialist Parties
International Working Union of Socialist Parties

The International Working Union of Socialist Parties was a political international for the co-operation of Socialism parties. IWUSP was founded on February 27 1921 at a conference in Vienna, Austria by ten parties, including the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany , the Section fran?aise de l'Internationale ouvri?re , the Independ...
 (IWUSP) ("Second and a half International" or "Two-and-a-half International"), heavily influenced by Austromarxism
Austromarxism

Austromarxism was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner and Max Adler , members of the SDAP? during the late decades of the Austria-Hungary and the First Austrian Republic ....
. In 1923, IWUSP and the Second International merged to form the social democratic Labour and Socialist International. This international continued to exist until 1940. After World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, the Socialist International
Socialist International

Socialist International is a worldwide organization of Democratic socialism, social democracy and labour party political parties. It was formed in 1951....
 was formed to continue the policies of the Labour and Socialist International, and it continues to this day.

Congresses of the Second International


  1. 1889: Paris
    Paris

    Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
  2. 1891: Brussels
    Brussels

    Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
  3. 1893: Zurich Socialist and Labor Congress, 1893
    Zurich Socialist and Labor Congress, 1893

    The Zurich Socialist and Labor Congress that met from August 6 - 13 1893 was the third congress of the Second International. Among other things it is remember for the "Zurich resolution" which expelled anarchists from the Congress, and for Friedrich Engels' closing address....
  4. 1896: London
    London

    London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
  5. 1900: Paris
    Paris

    Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
  6. 1904: Amsterdam
    Amsterdam

    Amsterdam is the Capital of the Netherlands and List of cities in the Netherlands with over 100,000 people of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands of North Holland in the west of the country....
  7. 1907: Stuttgart
    Stuttgart

    Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-W?rttemberg in southern Germany. The list of cities in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 590,429 while the metropolitan area referred to as Stuttgart Region has a population of 2.7 million ....
  8. 1910: Copenhagen
    Copenhagen

    Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,153,615 . Copenhagen is situated on the Islands of Zealand and Amager....
  9. 1912: Basel
    Basel

    Basel is Switzerland's third most populous city . With 731,000 inhabitants in the tri-national metropolitan area , Basel is Switzerland's third-largest urban area....
     (Extraordinary Congress)


Prominent members of the Second International by country


Germany
  • August Bebel
  • Hugo Haase
    Hugo Haase

    Hugo Haase was a Germany politician, jurist and pacifist....
  • Karl Kautsky
    Karl Kautsky

    Karl Kautsky was a leading theoretician of social democracy. He became the leading promulgator of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels....
  • Karl Liebknecht
    Karl Liebknecht

    was a German socialist and a co-founder of the Spartakusbund and the Communist Party of Germany....
  • Wilhelm Liebknecht
    Wilhelm Liebknecht

    Wilhelm Liebknecht was a Germany social democrat, one of the founders of the SPD and father of Karl Liebknecht and Theodor Liebknecht....
  • Rosa Luxemburg
    Rosa Luxemburg

    Rosa Luxemburg was a Poland Germany Marxist theory, Socialism philosopher, and revolutionary for the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the German Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Germany....
  • Clara Zetkin
    Clara Zetkin

    Clara Zetkin, maiden name Eissner was an influential Socialism Germany politician and a fighter for women's rights.Until 1917 she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany, then she joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and its far-left wing, the Spartacist League; this later became the Communist Pa...


France
  • Jean Allemane
  • Jules Guesde
    Jules Guesde

    Jules Basile Guesde was a France socialist journalist and politician.Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Guesde and Paul Lafargue, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles....
  • Jean Jaurès
    Jean Jaurès

    Jean L?on Jaur?s was a French Socialism leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first Social Democracy, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party , which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France....
  • Gustave Hervé
    Gustave Hervé

    Gustave Herv? was a France politician. At first he was a fervent socialism and pacifist, but later turned to equally zealous ultranationalism....
  • Édouard Vaillant
    Édouard Vaillant

    Marie ?douard Vaillant was a France politician.Born in in Vierzon, son of a lawyer, ?douard Vaillant studied engineering at the ?cole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, graduating in 1862, and then law at the Sorbonne....


Russia
  • Vladimir Lenin
    Vladimir Lenin

    Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov and also known by the pseudonyms V.I. Lenin and N. Lenin, was a Russians revolutionary, a Bolshevik Communism politician, the principal leader of the October Revolution and the first head of the USSR....
  • Georgi Plekhanov
    Georgi Plekhanov

    Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia and was the first Russian Marxist....
  • Pavel Axelrod
    Pavel Axelrod

    Pavel Borisovich Axelrod Private life Born Pinches Borutsch in Potscheff near Chernigov and raised to Shklov, a small provincial town in and Mogilev, the biggest town of the three in the Russian Empire , Axelrod was the son of a poor Jewish innkeeper....


Austria
  • Victor Adler
    Victor Adler

    Victor Adler was an Austrian Empire SP? leader.Founder of Socialism movement in Austria, he created the Marxism journals Gleicheit in 1886 and Arbeiterzeitung in 1889....
  • Karl Renner
    Karl Renner

    Karl Renner was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz and died in Vienna. He is called the Father of the Republic because he was the 1st President of Austria in 1919/20 and refounded the Republic in 1945 that lasts till today....


Netherlands
  • Anton Pannekoek
  • Pieter Jelles Troelstra
    Pieter Jelles Troelstra

    Pieter Jelles Troelstra was a Netherlands politics active in the socialist workers' movement. He is most remembered for his fight for universal suffrage and his failed call for revolution at the end of World War I....


Belgium
  • Camille Huysmans
    Camille Huysmans

    Jean Joseph Camille Huysmans was a Flemings-Belgian politician.Huymans studied German philology at the University of Liege. He was a teacher from 1893 until 1897....
  • Emile Vandervelde
    Emile Vandervelde

    Emile Vandervelde was a Belgium statesman, born at Ixelles. He studied law at the Free University of Brussels and became doctor of laws in 1885 and doctor of social science in 1888....


Switzerland
  • Robert Grimm
    Robert Grimm

    Robert Grimm was a Switzerland Socialist politician and former President of the Swiss National Council.Grimm was a leading member of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland and opposed the First World War, which after the collapse of the Second International made him work closely with the world Communist movement....


Ireland
  • James Connolly
    James Connolly

    James Connolly was an Ireland socialist leader. He was born in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to Irish immigrant parents. He left school for working life at the age of 11, but despite this he would become one of the leading Marxist theorists of his day....


Spain
  • Pablo Iglesias
    Pablo Iglesias

    Pablo Iglesias Posse led the Spanish socialist movement. He founded the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in 1879 and the Uni?n General de Trabajadores in 1888....


Latin America


In Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
, the International had two affiliates; the Socialist Party of Argentina and the Socialist Party of Uruguay
Socialist Party of Uruguay

The Socialist Party of Uruguay is an Uruguayan political party founded in 1910. Its main leader and spokesman was Dr Emilio Frugoni, the most prominent advocate of socialism in Uruguay....
.

See also

  • First International
  • Socialist International
    Socialist International

    Socialist International is a worldwide organization of Democratic socialism, social democracy and labour party political parties. It was formed in 1951....
  • International Working Union of Socialist Parties
    International Working Union of Socialist Parties

    The International Working Union of Socialist Parties was a political international for the co-operation of Socialism parties. IWUSP was founded on February 27 1921 at a conference in Vienna, Austria by ten parties, including the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany , the Section fran?aise de l'Internationale ouvri?re , the Independ...
     ("Second and a half international"/"Two-and-a-half International")
  • Third International (Comintern)
    Comintern

    The 'Comintern' was an international Communism organization founded in Moscow in March 1919. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the Sta...
  • Fourth International
    Fourth International

    The Fourth International is an international communist organisation which opposes both capitalism and Stalinism. Consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, it is dedicated to helping the working class bring about socialism....
     and Trotskyist internationals
    List of Trotskyist internationals

    This is a list of Trotskyist internationals. It includes all of the many political internationals which self-identify as Trotskyist.Of the tendencies listed, only the reunified Fourth International claims to be the original Fourth International....
  • Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière
    Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière

    The French Section of the Workers' International , founded in 1905, was a French Socialism political party, designed as the local section of the Second International ....
     (SFIO, the French section of the Second International)
  • International Marxist Tendency
    International Marxist Tendency

    The International Marxist Tendency is an international Trotskyist tendency based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. Ted Grant is its chief theoretician and the person who has built the organization since its beginning....


External links

  • , at Marxists.org
  • by Fractal-vortex