TY - CONF
T1 - Stances of the Bund and Hungarian Socialists in the Debate over Labor Migration within the Second International (1904-1907)
AU - Poy, Lucas
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The split in the Second International in 1914 dramatically expressed the insurmountable limits of its proclaimed internationalism. Its collapse was a result of pre-existing tensions that are generally assessed with a focus on militarism, the colonial question and even the problems of patriotism and nationalism. Less attention, in relative terms, has been paid to the question of migrations, even though it was an important debate of the first decade of the 20th century. The topic was debated in the Amsterdam (1904) and Stuttgart (1907) congresses of the Second International, and in social democratic newspapers of different countries. During the debate, Australian, American, and Dutch socialists developed an openly racist approach, explicitly demanding restrictions on migration from ‘backward’ countries. Whereas the Stuttgart congress finally approved a radically worded resolution, most parties shared many of these restrictive and racist perspectives. The main exceptions were the interventions of delegates of the Bund and the Hungarian Jozsef Diner-Denes, who put forward an openly internationalist approach and heavily criticized the restrictive proposals. Drawing upon a wide range of secondary literature, socialist newspapers from different countries and archive materials of the Second International, this paper provides an overview of the debates of both congresses and focuses on the stances of the Bund and Hungarian socialists about this question. More generally, it seeks to draw some conclusions about the tensions that have crossed the global history of the working class in terms of nationalism and racism.
AB - The split in the Second International in 1914 dramatically expressed the insurmountable limits of its proclaimed internationalism. Its collapse was a result of pre-existing tensions that are generally assessed with a focus on militarism, the colonial question and even the problems of patriotism and nationalism. Less attention, in relative terms, has been paid to the question of migrations, even though it was an important debate of the first decade of the 20th century. The topic was debated in the Amsterdam (1904) and Stuttgart (1907) congresses of the Second International, and in social democratic newspapers of different countries. During the debate, Australian, American, and Dutch socialists developed an openly racist approach, explicitly demanding restrictions on migration from ‘backward’ countries. Whereas the Stuttgart congress finally approved a radically worded resolution, most parties shared many of these restrictive and racist perspectives. The main exceptions were the interventions of delegates of the Bund and the Hungarian Jozsef Diner-Denes, who put forward an openly internationalist approach and heavily criticized the restrictive proposals. Drawing upon a wide range of secondary literature, socialist newspapers from different countries and archive materials of the Second International, this paper provides an overview of the debates of both congresses and focuses on the stances of the Bund and Hungarian socialists about this question. More generally, it seeks to draw some conclusions about the tensions that have crossed the global history of the working class in terms of nationalism and racism.
M3 - Paper
ER -