Sources on the Development of the Socialist International(1907-1919) by Gerd Callesen Speech at the XXXVII IALHI Conference, Zurich, 6-9 September 2006 Over recent years, the Library of the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation has gained much experience in the retroactive digitalization of sources relating to the Labour Movement. Among the most successful projects, mention can be made of the manifesto edition"Programmatische Dokumente der deutschen sozialdemokratischen Parteien und deutschen Gewerkschaften http://library.fes.de/cgi-bin/populo/prodok.pl) the online edition of the exile periodical"Sozialistische Mitteilungen(http://library.fes.de/sozialistische-mitteilungen/) and the electronic reprint of the "Sozialistische Monatshefte"(http://libray.fes.de/cgi-bin/populo/sozmon.pl) and of the "Sozialdemokratischer Pressedienst"(http://www.fes.de/library/index_gr.html). This work was sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and others. In its digitalization activities, the Library cooperates with a number of external, specialist organizations. The Libray plans to open a"Portal Arbeiterbewegung"[Labour Movement Portal] to provide a single gateway to all the electronic sources concerning the Labour Movement in Germany. This portal is a project to be executed by the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation and other organizations ranging form the Bibliotèque nationale de France to a number of US university libraries. This "electronic guide" will also document the sources relating to those international organisations of the Labour movement to which German organizations were affiliated. The"Sources on the Development of the Socialist International(1907-1919)" will have a prominent position on this new portal. The revised edition of this collection of digital sources constitutes a continuation of the 23 volumes originally published by Édition Minkoff, Geneva, under the title Histoire Géneralé du Socialisme. Histoire de la Deuxième Internationale. The source edition included publications concerning the congresses of the International held between 1888 and 1917. The subsequent volumes were planned to be an edition of the texts here made available. With the approval of the Édition Minkoff, the documents here collected for the first time are now made available to the public. The address is http://library.fes.de/si-online/. The present edition is available in three languages: English, French, and German; the desired language version is clickable and the documents wanted can be found by clicking. All documents can be found in all

the three languages. It is, thus, not necessary to look for English language documents in the English version of the page in question. As a result of the political conditions at the time, the 1970ies saw the birth of a new academic interest being taken in the development of the labour movement. Increasingly, endeavours were made to make accessible the sources of this history on a broader scale. Relatively early in the German Democratic Republic reprints of central labour movement papers were produced, in Great Britain reprints of primarily early labour-movement papers were published, especially those linked to the Chartist movement. In the Federal Republic of Germany an antiquarian bookshop made an effort to realize a comprehensive reprint programme; however the initiative failed as a result of prohibitively high costs. The remainders were sold by the publishing house J.H.W. Dietz Nachf. in Bonn. This publishing house also produced a number of reprint texts relating to the Social Democratic and trade union movements, but also material pertaining to the International, thus, for instance, the documents of the Bern Conference held by the Social Democratic parties in 1919 were published. In Moscow the complete protocol and minutes of the International Working Men's Association were published in additional volumes while, again, in the GDR the documents of the Communist League (Bund der Kommunisten) were published in three volumes as well as one volume covering the I International in Germany thus establishing a close link between the national and the international labour movements. In this connection the series published by the Geneva publishing house Minkoff Histoire de la Deuxième Internationale 1889-1914 saw the light of day. Till then, this publishing house had primarily made a name for itself by publishing reprints of musical material, but wanted to add another string to its bow. The series began with the publication of reprints of works which were deemed to be of fundamental importance, but whose value seems debatable. 1 From volume 6 the material relating to the II International, including the significant 1888 London Congress held by essentially national trade union confederations was published. The ground for the bibliographical information in the edition had to a wide extent been provided by Georges Haupt. 2 , however already 1 As, for example, the first volume in the series by Max Beer, Fifty Years of International Socialism, first published in London 1938 . 2 Georges Haupt, La Deuxième Internationale 1889-1914. Etude Critique des Sources. Essai bibliographique, Paris, 1964. A German version without the bibliographical part but with an expanded textual part was published with the title Programm und Wirklichkeit. Die internationale Sozialdemokratie vor1914, Neuwied, 1970. Despite the fact that the 35 years that have elapsed since then have seen the publication of a number of important sources, in particular the edition of letters published by IISG Amsterdam and the Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe(MEGA), this text remains an analysis of central importance. Furthermore, Haupt published the first volume(1900-1907) of material of the International Socialist Bureau(ISB): Bureau Socialiste International. Comptes rendus des réunions manifestes et circulaires. Documents recueillis et présentés par Georges Haupt, Paris, 1969.

in this first series reports, among other things, made by some organizations to the congress were integrated into the edition, material which had not originally been included by the two researchers Michel Winock and Georges Haupt. 3 . In addition to the congress material proper a number of reports in newspapers and periodicals evaluating the outcomes of the congress were included in the volumes. Exhaustiveness in this respect was not attempted as this would go beyond the scope of the publication. However, a fairly high proportion of articles – frequently highly interesting – in connection with some of the congresses were included; for the London congress in 1896 a separate volume containing press contributions was published. 4 Regrettably, the criteria for inclusion were not indicated; thus, it remains a puzzle why, for instance, relatively important contributions made by Daniel De Leon on the Stuttgart Congress 1907 or the Austro-Marxist Otto Bauer on the Copenhagen congress of 1910 were not included. To be sure, the series does make available the most important organisational reports. The parties' own evaluations of themselves are made clear by means of these authentic reports. This material appeared in the volumes 6 to 22 and covers all the congresses before 1912. Furthermore, the official volume on the Stockholm congress of the Social Democratic parties in 1917 was also published, albeit without the materials of the congress itself. 5 The periodic bulletin of the International Socialist Bureau, published in 11 numbers and one annex during the period 1909 to 1914 was published as the 23 rd and last volume. This three-language bulletin contains many central documents of the ISB. It seems that so far its full importance has not been appreciated. Before the Bulletin began being published, communications of the ISB were brought in the periodical of the Belgian Labour Party, l'Avenir Social. Revue du Parti Ouvrier Belge prior to 1907 – these communications although not extensive are of considerable historical relevance, but as the periodical is not widely known, these communications have barely been subject to research at all. Originally Minkoff intended to publish a second – and possibly later on also more – series. The basic publications for the planned X congress of the International in Vienna, the publications of the 3 Unfortunately, this did not mean that the material was now complete. For instance, the comprehensive report by Max Schippel Die fremden Arbeitskräfte und die Gesetzgebung der verschiedenen Länder. Materialien für den Stuttgarter Internationalen Kongress, which had been an annex to the periodical Die neue Zeit(No 41, vol. 25/2, 1906/1907) was not included in the relevant volume of the Stuttgart Congress. 4 Le Congrès de Londres devant la presse, Genève, Minkoff, 1980, 638 p. 5 Parts of the material relating to the endeavours of the Social Democratic parties of the neutral states to bring the World War to an end have now become accessible. A project to publish this material in three volumes was never realized, however, Martin Grass of the Archive and Library of the Swedish Labour Movement in Stockholm has put the documents on the Stockholm congress 1917, collected and prepared by him, on the Internet at http://labourhistory.net/stockholm1917/index.php#top

Women's International from 1907 to 1915 and the International Federation of Socialist Young People’s Organizations 1907–1919 were collected around 1980 and partially prepared for publication. However, the first series did not enjoy any major success, and the publishing house had to abandon the project. The possibilities provided by the existence of the Internet have now opened up another path to publication. In the present version, only the documents of the organizations are published to the extent that they could be localized. Press reports and analyses in the periodicals published by the participating organizations are not included here. Originally the material was found following intensive searches in many different, primarily but not exclusively European archives and institutions. A final report, the English-language report of the Socialist Labour Party of the USA has been found in connection with the most recent preparatory activities. The political transformations after 1989 have had as a result that some of these institutes no longer exist or have been given a new remit. This hampers any search for source material for which reason it has become all the more necessary to make the documents accessible. This will have been achieved by this publication that should be used in connection with other publications of source material, like for instance the abovementioned web-publication by Martin Grass and other initiatives such as the conference of the Stockholm archive and the Library of the Labour Movement, The International Labour Movement on the Threshold of Two Centuries (http://www.arbarkiv.nu/sem_international.htm) This edition is linked to the Labour History Project (http://labourhistory.net/stockholm1917/index.php) and this website contains a number of links to others dealing with the history of the international labour movement. The X th International Socialist Congress had been planned for August 1914 in Vienna, but the outbreak of the First World War made it impossible for the Congress to take place. However, a great deal of the material for the Congress had already been printed; in his bibliography mentioned above, Georges Haupt lists 47 titles. In the course of the search for the 47 titles mentioned there, a number of other texts and reports were located so that the present collection now numbers 65 including part of the report of the Socialist Labor Party of Australia 6 . We assume that this collection is incomplete – for instance mention has been made that the report of the Social Democratic Party of Hungary also exists in French; similarly short reports from Switzerland in German and from Serbia in English are said to exist in an archive, however we have never gained access to this 6 According to the biography by Georges Haupt, the SLP had sent an English and a German report to the organizing committee in Vienna. Apparently these reports have not survived. However, the English language version can be found as an excerpt in the document collection edited by William English Walling(ed.): The Socialism of To-Day. A SourceBook of the Present Position and Recent Development of the Socialist and Labor Parties in all Countries Consisting mainly of Original Documents, p. 335–339 New York, Henry Holt& Co., 1916, 642 p.

material. 7 Nevertheless, it must be assumed that with the present collection by far the largest part of the reports published but not circulated at the time are included. We hope that this collection will provide stimulation for locating other printed materials and that they will be made available to us for inclusion on the Internet edition. To the extent that the language versions have been located, the texts are published in English, French and German. 8 The material relating to the Women's International differs somewhat from the material relating to the"Congress That Never Took Place". A total of 70 documents dating from the years between 1907 and 1915 are made available, texts that have largely remained unknown till now, and have only in exceptional cases been subject to scholarly research, e.g. the discussion at the Copenhagen conference concerning the central issue of a ban against night work for women. Danish and Swedish delegates were in favour of a resolution opposing a ban on night work for adult women and in stead demanded the adoption of a resolution“forbidding night work for both men and women”. A majority was against this resolution; primarily Clara Zetkin and Nina Bang were vehement in their opposition to this proposal.(Re Point 4 on the agenda). 9 . The present Internet publication makes a total of 70 documents available including documents relating to the extraordinary conference in 1912, the planned third conference in 1914, and the Bern Conference in 1915. Whenever possible all extant material has been included in the three official languages of the International. The documents consist of printed reports to and on the conferences. Conference material such as proposals, resolutions, draft agendas, etc., as well as the official reports in the Vorwärts(1907, 1910) or the Berner Tagwacht(1915). English and French language versions of the reports to the 2 nd conference could not be located; various types of reports published in the press have not been included. 7 The information originates in Georges Haupt's bibliography. According to the Swiss Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv in Zurich, the report of the Swiss Social Democratic Party at the Archief en Museum voor het Vlaamse Cultuurleven in Antwerp should not be categorized as the official report of the party. The protocols and minutes of the party's executive committee do not show that such a report was ever adopted by any party body. 8 The rule was that the reports had to be forwarded to the organizing committee in each of the three languages in 1000 copies. 9 Christl Wickert: Kvinder, valgret og fred. Omkring den internationale socialistiske kvindekonference i København 1910. In: Arbejderhistorie. København. N o 29, October 1987, p. 14 – 28; see also Gabriella Hauch:„Arbeite Frau! Die Gleichberechtigung kommt von selbst“? Anmerkungen zu Frauen und Gewerkschaften in Österreich vor 1914. In: Rudolf Ardelt und Helmut Konrad(eds.): Dass unsere Greise nicht mehr betteln gehn!, Wien 1991, p. 62–86; AnnaBirte Ravn:„Lagging far behind all Civilized Nations“. The Debate over Protective Labor Legislation for Women in Denmark, 1899–1913, p. 212, 216/ 217, 220. In: Ulla Wikander et al.(eds.): Protecting Women. Labor Legislation in Europe, the United States, and Australia, 1880–1920, Urbana und Chicago 1995, p. 210–234; Ulla Wikander: Feminism, familj och medborgerskap. Debatter på internationella kongresser om nattarbetsförbud för kvinnor 18891919. Stockholm 2006, p. 288–2293.

The collection relating to the International Federation of Socialist Youth 1907-1919 includes material concerning the background for and creation of the IFSY, Karl Liebknecht's"Militarismus und Antimilitarismus"[British edition Militarism and Anti-Militarism, 1917] as well as Tschitscherin's memoirs, in other words the material is not strictly limited to the Congress, nor to the official publications of the IFSY. This part of the material consists of a total of 60 documents plus around 55 numbers of the IFSY's Bulletin. It has not been possible to locate all the numbers of the Bulletin, but the three different language versions complement each other, which means that it has been made possible to provide an almost complete edition. As regards this Bulletin in particular we should be grateful for information concerning additional numbers. This part of the text will be made available in late 2007 at the earliest, and we hope to be able to locate additional numbers before then. The texts published have been found in the following institutions: Arbeiderbevegelsens arkiv og bibliotek, Oslo Arbejderbevægelsens Bibliotek og Arkiv, Copenhagen, Arbetarrörelsens Arkiv, Stockholm, Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Milan Fondazione Lelio e Lisli Basso, Rome, Fövárosi Szabo Ervin Könyvtár, Budapest, GOPB(State Social Political Library). Moscow, Internationales Institut für Sozialgeschichte, Amsterdam, Institut Emile Vandervelde, Brussels, New York Public Library, New York, RGASPI(Russian State Archive of Social and Political History), Moscow, Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, Zurich, Socialist Labor Party USA, Mountain View/San Jose, Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR, Berlin, Tamiment Library, New York Työväen Arkisto, Helsinki, Biblioteka Sejmowa. Wydzial Zbiorów Historii Spolecznej, Warsaw