Berne International

Berne International
Founded1919 (1919)
Dissolved1923 (1923)
Preceded bySecond International
Succeeded byLabour and Socialist International
IdeologySocial democracy
Political positionLeft-wing
International affiliationSecond International (formal)
Colors  Red

The Berne International, by its opponents also known as the Yellow International, was a Socialist International formed in Bern, Switzerland 3–9 February 1919.[1] Its goal was to re-establish the Second International. However it did not support world revolution and rejected involvement with the Communist International.

History

The initiative grew out of the failure of a group of social democratic parties to hold a conference in Stockholm in 1917.

Hjalmar Branting rejected any role for the dictatorship of the proletariat arguing it could not lead to socialism. Karl Kautsky and Eduard Bernstein urged the conference to condemn the Bolsheviks and their seizure of power in Russia. Branting moved a resolution which supported the ideology of bourgeois democracy and greeted the revolution in Soviet Russia, but which also denounced the dictatorship of the proletariat. Whilst this gained much support, a group of delegates led by Friedrich Adler and Jean Longuet proposed a resolution calling on the conference to avoid taking a definite stand on Soviet Russia, as there was a lack of information about the situation there. To remedy this they proposed that a commission should be sent to Russia to study the economic and political situation there so that the question of Bolshevism could be discussed at the next Congress.

The commission was to be led by Adler, Kautsky, and Rudolf Hilferding. The Soviet regime agreed to admit the commission, but in return requested the admittance of the Soviet commission to those countries whose representatives were on the Bern commission. The Soviet government received no reply to this request and the commission proposed at the conference never visited Russia.[2]

Conferences

Event Location Date Notes
Berne Conference of 1919 Bern 3–8 February 1919
International Socialist Conference, Lucerne, 1919 Lucerne 1–9 August 1919
International Socialist Congress, Geneva, 1920 Geneva 31 July – 4 August 1920 Scheduled for February 1920, it was actually convened on 31 July. Sidney Webb as committee chairman drafted a resolution entitled "Political System of Socialism", that distanced the Second International from Leninism, but emphasized it was "ever more urgent that Labour should assume power in society". It also moved the Secretariat from Brussels to London and set the "next congress of the Second International in 1922", but this did not take place.[3]

Affiliates

Participants

Observers

See also

References

  1. ^ Docherty, James C.; Lamb, Peter (2006). Historical Dictionary of Socialism. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810864771. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  2. ^ "Glossary of Events: Be". marxists.org. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  3. ^ Braunthal, Julius (1967) [1963]. History of the International. Vol. 2: 1914-1943. Translated by Clark, John. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. pp. 159–161.

Further reading

  • Albert S. Lindemann, The 'Red Years'. European Socialism Versus Bolshevism, 1919-1921. Berkeley, Los Angelis: University of California Press.
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