Second International | The 1889 Congresses | Proceedings of First Congress (Possibilist)
The session opens at 9 a.m. in the presence of a considerable audience.
Citizeness Besant, English, and Citizen Lavy are elected as chairmen; citizens Defnet, Belgian, and Lenormand, French, are appointed as assessors; the secretary is citizen Augé.
Chairman Lavy says: Citizens, I informed you at one of our last sessions that our comrades in Dublin had presented the bureau with some flowers that had been gathered from the grave in Chicago. It was agreed that they would be placed on the tomb of the martyrs of 1871. We wanted these flowers to be treated respectfully and carefully preserved. One of us, Citizen Stassart, a portrait framer delegated to Congress by the Parisian group of the 9th Arrondissement, made a point of personally making, without charge, the frame which encloses the flowers gathered from the tomb in Chicago. Here is the very frame.
The flowers have been arranged in such a way that they represent an axe, the axe which will be taken to the root of the old world to establish the world of justice and equality.
So I ask you, before our foreign friends have left, to set aside a day and an hour to —89— go all together to take this image to the grave of those who died during the year of blood.[1]
Congress is consulted and decides to mark a rendezvous for tomorrow, Sunday, July 21, at 3pm. in the hall of Lexcellent.
Congress then addresses the fourth question:
Setting date and location for the next Congress.
Citizen Defnet, on behalf of the Belgian delegation, tables the following motion:
In accord with the terms mentioned in their letter to the Congress of the 9th instant, the representatives of Belgium propose that the next international workers' Congress be held in 1891, in Brussels.
The national Committee of the Belgian workers' party would be responsible for convening the Congress. All nationalities, as well as associations, groups, etc., which can prove that they have been in existence for six months, will be invited to attend.
It is decided from this moment on that verification of mandates will be required and will be carried out by the delegates of each nationality with appeal to the Congress in case of dispute. In short, the same procedure followed by the National Organizing Committee of the international workers' Congress of Paris would be observed.
Citizen Parnell demands that "no society which did not exist in 1890 may be admitted to the Congress of 1891".
Citizen Gilliard, delegate of the numbering machine makers, gives a Boulangist speech which ends being hooted by the assembly. Among other things, he asks that the chambres syndicales alone be responsible for organizing the next Congress.
Citizen Gelez contests this proposal which would tend to nothing less than the exclusion of militants of the socialist proletariat from future Congresses.
Citizen Goldschalck, a delegate from Antwerp, declares that far from inviting the workers not to concern themselves with politics —90— he personally would not agree to appear at a Congress which did not fly the red flag.
Next comes the vote on the proposal of the Belgian delegation, which is accepted unanimously.
Citizen Blancvalet, a Belgian delegate, takes the floor next:
Citizens, in the name of socialist Belgium, I thank you for having nominated that country for our next Congress. We will receive you as sincere and convinced socialists should receive their brothers in socialism. We will not receive you in town halls. We will not be able to offer you celebrations as beautiful as those which were offered to us yesterday evening. But we will receive you in our home, in our House of the People, a property that belongs to us, a property that the workers have acquired by offering for years, week by week, day by day, the farthings they sacrificed from their pleasures and from their needs.
You will not take away from your visit to Belgium the same memories that we will take away from our visit to the capital of the civilized world; but you will at least take away the memory of being among fundamentally socialist associations; of seeing men sincerely determined to work for the triumph of proletarian ideas. (Applause.)
And since I have the floor, and since I am speaking here in the name of the Belgian people, in the name of the Belgian proletariat, I speak here also in the name of the foreign delegation, and I believe that I will be the interpreter for all the delegates present in expressing all our gratitude to the French workers' party for the reception it has given us and for the truly admirable way in which it has received the Socialists in this Congress, which will be recounted in the annals of the proletariat.
We must pay tribute to the French workers' party; above all we must pay homage — I myself am happy here to be called by circumstances to express this feeling in person — above all, we must pay homage to the tact, courtesy and delicacy on the part of the French national Committee which presided over all the discussions which have taken place in this Congress. (Applause.)
—90— French workers have always been in the forefront when it comes to fighting for socialist ideas. So we will end this Congress with cries of: Long live France! long live the Revolutionary Commune! long live the International! (Prolonged applause.)
The following resolution was then passed by acclamation:
The secretary of the International labour congress is entrusted with sending an acknowledgment of receipt of his letter and an expression of the debt that Congress owes him for the very useful information he provided to Citizen Samuel Gompers of New York, President of the American Federation,
The secretary will also declare to Citizen Gompers his keen desire to see the success of the eight-hour campaign which the American Federation is committed to pursue energetically in May 1890.
The agenda now calls for the designation of the country where the committee responsible for international correspondence will meet until the Congress of 1891.
Citizen Berchy proposes France. An English delegate supports this proposal.
Citizen Hyndman proposes Belgium. The Danish delegation proposes France.
Citizen Allemane, a French delegate, says that whether in Belgium or in France, we will still find ourselves in the presence of Marxists who want to subject the universal proletariat to authoritarian leadership.
Citizen Blancvallet, a Belgian delegate, replies to citizen Allemane. The Belgian workers' party will never accept the orders of the Marxists, because it relies on proper unions and associations.
The Congress decides for Belgium. Five nationalities, including France, have voted for that country. Two nationalities have voted against. Italy abstained from taking part in the vote.
—99— In the name of the "Solidarity" of the hairdressers, Citizen Lenormand asks Congress to pass a resolution for the abolition of employment agencies in countries where these institutions of capitalist exploitation exist. This resolution was passed unanimously by the delegations.
Citizeness Besant, the English chairwoman, thanks the French for giving the foreign workers a warm welcome. In the international Congress, European and American workers' delegates have passed resolutions of vast importance. The reduction of the working day to 8 hours, for example, will tear the proletarian away from a purely animal life.
No comparison can be made between the freedom demanded by the socialists and that offered to them by the bourgeoisie. The former will emancipate humanity; the latter make the poor into the slaves of the rich.
The proletarians of the world have their eyes fixed on France where the idea of revolution first germinated. If the Republic is threatened by a band of unscrupulous adventurers, foreigners will come to its aid to fight under the folds of the red flag, the only flag of humanity.
Citizen Besant's eloquent speech is greeted with the enthusiastic applause of the members of Congress.
Citizen Lavy, on behalf of the French delegation, thanks Citizen Besant for her kind words. The French workers' party has done everything possible to make the international Congress a magnificent one. If disagreements have arisen, disagreements which gave birth to a rival Congress, the fault lies with the celebrities who want to lead the proletariat of the civilized world by the nose. The men of the French workers' Party have a clear conscience because they have fulfilled their duty.
By calling citizeness Besant to chair Congress tonight —93— the Socialist delegates have proved that they want to emancipate man's companion.
France is currently passing through a terrible crisis. But in spite of the abdication of Paris on the 27th of January,[2] the Republic will not fall, for the Socialists have burning convictions which they will never abandon.
The people will defend the Republic as in 1792, 1848, and 1871. By fulfilling this duty they will bring the day of the Social Revolution closer. (Prolonged applause).
At the proposal of citizeness Besant, Congress gives a vote of thanks to citizen Lavy, secretary general of the Congress of 1889, to the national Committee of the French revolutionary socialist workers Party and to Citizen S. Headingley, English interpreter and delegate.
The following proposals were adopted by acclamation:
Considering that economic reforms can only be the result of complete political freedom and the right to vote for all workers;
Considering that a great number of nations (Austria-Hungary, for example) are subjected to a despotic and oppressive regime which blocks the development of socialist ideas and stifles in blood or by proscription the complaints of the workers;
Congress affirms once again the need for universal suffrage in all countries and sends its cordial greetings and warm encouragement to all Socialists who are victims of a tyrannous government for the struggle which they so valiantly sustain.
The proceedings of this Congress will be printed and sold at cost price; each supporting group must pay 5 francs for printing costs which will be reimbursed in brochures for the said congress.
The Russian delegate remarks that since he does not represent the Russian workers' Party (and no delegate could represent it under the present conditions in Russia), he had to abstain in the votes on all questions —94— submitted to Congress which directly concern the workers' parties.
But on the question of the organization of continuing relations between the socialist parties of the various countries the Russian delegate is authorized by his group to declare that he agrees with the proposals submitted to Congress in this regard. He therefore believes in the need for the autonomy of the parties in each country and declares himself ready to support the implementation of the decisions of Congress with all his power.
At midnight, the closure of the 1889 international workers' Congress is announced by Citizen Lavy, who ends the session with cries, repeated by the audience, of: “Long live the Commune! Long live the International! Long live the Social Revolution!”
The next day, the delegates gathered together for the last time in a fraternal feast, which the Workers' Party[3] reported in these terms:
A large banquet brought the Cogress delegates together in the evening at half past six, in the Porte Dorée, avenue Daumesnil, 215-277.
Three hundred and fifty guests, many of whom were women and children, answered the call of the organizers; all the foreign delegations that came to the Congress were represented there.
The audience noticed that the Party's town councillors were particularly in demand.
The room was beautifully decorated with the flags of the workers' Party branches and with shields bearing as inscriptions the great historical dates of the proletariat and "Long live the Social Revolution".
The guests had nothing but praise for the service; as for those in charge of organization, the way in which they —95— discharged their multiple and delicate functions was above all praise. Citizen Picau had truly outdone himself.
Citizen S. Headingley, an English delegate, had been designated as the honorary chairman for this fraternal feast, while the French Prudent-Dervillers and the Belgian Blancvallet were the actual chairmen.
Places at the head table were taken by: citizen Dolosy, Hungarian; Xuriguera, Spanish; Figueiredo, Portuguese; Croce, Italian; Verryken, Belgian; J. Jensen, Danish; Limanowski, Polish; Paulard, representing Switzerland; citizen Avez, French; citizen Daubanay, representing the Chambres Syndicales of Paris; Limousin, the provincial groups; Machieraldo, those from Algeria; Lavy and Avez, representing the national Committee; Faillet, the City Council of Paris; Brunet, the Labour Exchange.
At the conclusion of the banquet citizens Blancvallet and S. Headingley were the first to take the floor; their speeches, filled with humour, aroused fervent applause.
Citizen Lavy, in a witty improvisation, addressed his thanks to the foreign delegates for the care they had taken to make the Congress a success.
The evening ended very late with a punch, offered by the Labour Exchange, and everyone went their separate ways, taking with them an excellent memory of this cordial celebration which fittingly terminated the international Congress.
1. The 'year of blood' is 1871, year of the massacre of the communards
2. January 27th 1889 was the date that Boulanger was elected deputy for Paris
3. Le Parti Ouvrier was a newspaper published by Jean Allemane and his supporters.