Second International | The 1889 Congresses | Proceedings of First Congress (Possibilist)
The session begins at 9 am, under the chairmanship of Citizen Figueiredo, a Portuguese delegate, and Citizen Berthaut, a French delegate. Assessors: Citizen Besant, an English delegate, and Citizen André-Gély; secretary for the session, citizen H. Galiment.
Citizen Augé reads out the minutes of the previous session. The minutes were accepted after a correction by Citizen Lenormand who points out that all the Chambres syndicales for the food industries demand the abolition of the employment agencies.[1]
Citizen Lenormand announces a message of support for Congress from the Chambre Syndicale of the combined corporations of Lorient. He also reminds the Unions that they must provide him, in his capacity as rapporteur, with the number of their members.
Citizen S. Headingley, English delegate, reads out the report of the administrative committee on the first question:
The Administrative Committee, after having carefully considered all reports and proposals submitted to Congress, calls for the adoption of the following series of resolutions which include the views of the vast majority of delegates:
1. Maximum eight-hour working day fixed by international law;
2. One day of rest per week and no work on public holidays;
—67— 3. Abolition of night work as far as practicable for men, and completely for women and children;[2]
4. Elimination of child labour under the age of 14 and protection of children up to the age of 18;
5. Integral, general, technical and vocational education;
6. Overtime may not exceed 4 hours per 24 hours and must be paid double;
7. Civil and criminal liability of employers in the event of accidents;
8. Nomination by the workers of an adequate number of capable inspectors, paid by the State and the municipality, with full powers to enter, at any time, workshops, workplaces or trading companies, and to visit the apprentices in their own homes;
9. Creation of workshops by workers subsidized by the municipality or the state;
10. Labour in workhouses and prisons subject to the same conditions as free labour and dedicated as far as possible to major public works;
11. No foreign worker to be able to accept a job, and no employer to be able to employ foreign workers, below the price fixed by the chambre syndicale of their profession;
12. Fixing of a minimum wage in each region commensurate with the cost of all goods reasonably essential to existence;
13. Repeal of all laws against international workers' organization;
14. Equal pay and opportunities of work for men and women doing the same work.
Citizen Merlino, Italian delegate, asks the assembly if he can attend both Congresses and take part in the votes.
Citizen Berthaut replies that the Italian delegate must act according to his conscience and his mandate.
The delegate declares that the Italian workers' party is opposed to public services organized by the State and the municipality. The original International began with a very moderate reformist program. This was one of the reasons —68— for its loss. Nevertheless, citizen de Paepe set it on the revolutionary path, by making it reject mutualism and accept collectivism.[3]
To vote for international labour legislation is not to carry out a revolutionary task. It is necessary to prevent the State from monopolizing the supervision of social forces in order to bring closer the Revolution which will emancipate human beings by making them autonomous in society.
The delegation of Denmark demands:
1. By law, 8 hours of work per day for all workers in each trade;
— The elimination of work at night, on public holidays and on Sundays, unless it is absolutely necessary, as for example for the means of communication;
— The elimination of child labour under 16;
— The elimination of domestic labour: cobbling, tailoring, etc. Foundation of workshops by the corporate bodies;
— The delegation calls for the State to supervise the health of the workers and demands the foundation of large retirement homes for workers disabled at work;
2. Foundation of legislative workingmen's courts in each municipality; they must be made up half of workers and half of employers who make an agreement to oversee workers materially and morally incapable of working. These workingmen's courts will be able to elect mediators for work disputes.
3. Oversight of workshops by the workers themselves who should be paid by the State;
4. Conclusions. — Congress calls for the founding of a Socialist state, with the sole purpose of ensuring their rights to all citizens, male and female.
Citizen Verryken, Belgian delegate, comments on various points in the committee's report:
The reduction of the working day to eight hours, which is easy in England, America and France, presents great difficulties in Belgium, where the working day is twelve hours on average. As for the day of rest compusorily granted to workers each week, it should be selected so as not to prejudice the essentials needed for human activity.
Citizen J.-B. Clément, delegate of the Federation of socialist workers of the Ardennes, demands that night work be paid double. He also demands that prohibiting child labour and making the nation responsible for their education and instruction be added to the report.
The delegate for the Solidarity of hairdressers explains the difficulties that would arise from banning all work on Sundays. Like the Belgian delegate, he feels that the days of rest should be chosen by the corporations themselves.
The delegate of the Federation of shoemakers of the Seine says that since the situation of workers of all countries has been described at length since the opening of the Congress, there is no need to dwell further on it in speeches. The Fédération of shoemakers of the Seine, in a comprehensive report, is issuing a program for immediate action and application. It asks, through its delegate, that the report be read as soon as possible.
Citizen John Burns, an English delegate, refutes Citizen Merlino's anarchist argument. In England, the Society of engineers,[4] which has 57,000 members, is in favour of the eight-hour day. The upcoming conference in Bern shows that States everywhere are dealing with this question.
The trades unionists have nominated municipal councillors, who have introduced the eight hour day in the work of towns and municipalities. By reducing the working day, the worker is enabled to become educated and mortality is reduced. Statistics from the english Society of engineers provide proof that by reducing the working day human life is extended. Twenty-five years ago, before the reduction in working hours, the average lifespan of engineers was 38 years; now it has risen to 48 and a half years.
—70— In England, America, and Australia, production increases with the reduction of the working day. This reduction allows socialists to spread their ideas. The worker who fulfills his duty by voting, by concerned himself with political and economic questions, by paying his dues regularly to his union, will do his duty valiantly when the day of the supreme struggle arrives.
Citizen Dumay replieis to Citizen Merlino: we must use the weapons provided by the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. That is how in France the law of 1874, on child labour and underage girls, has been of great service. In Paris, most notably, it allows workers to join local supervisory committees. This law is so disagreeable to employers that they no longer take on apprentices, which allows the city of Paris to set up vocational schools.
It is thanks to the struggle on the terrain of politics that the workers can delegate some of their own to elected bodies and obtain subsidies for the Congresses and the delegations to the foreign exhibitions where they can connect with the workers of other countries.
The bourgeoisie cannot refuse to pass international labour legislation when it has even enacted laws on fishing, for example.
Citizen Fenwick, MP. for the Miners of the North of England, speaks next There can only be one opinion among workers on reducing the working day to eight hours. Labour legislation presents great difficulties for every nationality, so it must be international.
Citizen Caumeau informs the Congress of a message of support from the Thélème social studies group.
Citizen Goetschalk draws attention to certain gaps in the committee's report; we must ban the industrial use —71— of toxic products which, like white lead, can be easily substituted.
We must create an international body of labour inspectors who will have the right to enter workshops and shops in any country.
Citizen Goetschalk requests that the Committee take note of these observations.
Citizen Limanowski, the Polish delegate, explains that in despotic countries labour legislation is a beautiful dream. In Poland, for example, the schools, instead of developing the child's faculties, suppress them, by teaching them respect for autocratic rule.
To realize labour legislation it is necessary for the free nationalities to assist in the emancipation of the enslaved nationalities.
The Polish delegate asks that the need for a universal social republic be included in the committee report.
The Danish delegate is of the opinion that work by small subcontractors should be banned and replaced by that of corporate workshops.
The English delegation shares this opinion. But, as a transitional measure, it asks that the workmen inspectors of working conditions have the right to oversee small subcontractors.
The president puts the report of the commission to the vote; it is adopted with the various amendments presented by the different nationalities represented in the Congress.
The English reject Article 6.[5] The Italians abstain.[6]
The session ends at midnight.
The Friday evening session will take place during the daytime, from two to five, because of the party in the Town Hall.
1. The working of these 'employment agencies' is explained in more detail by some of the speakers at the Marxist Congress (in particular, Lentz): workers had to pay the agencies to be able to work in their trade, from which employers also took a cut, and the agencies kept records of workers 'blacked' who would not be offered any work at all.
2. Hyndman claimed that the actual decision grouped women with men, not children, and hoped that the final proceedings would show this; see the International Review, August 1889, p. 33-44.
3. De Paepe was one of the early leaders of the Belgian workers' party (he was currently attending the Marxist Congress). By Collectivism is meant the social ownership of the means of production, particularly land and large fixed capital; the idea arose independently of Marxism and was largely developed by De Paepe, who defended it in the First International from the Lausanne Congress of 1867 on, in contrast with earlier Proudhonian programs of Mutualism. The idea of collectivism was general enough to be partly shared by Marxists, Municipal Socialists, and Anarchist-Communists like Merlino. See César de Paepe and the Ideas of the First International, W. Witham, Modern Intellectual History 16(3), pp. 897-925 (DOI).
4. John Burns was a member of the Amalgamated Society of Engineeers
5. Article 6 limits overtime. The English explain their position (against all overtime) in the next session
6. The Italians did not vote since their mandate only permitted voting in a unified Congress.