---
Title: International Socialist Workers and Trade Union Congress, London (1896)
Description: The resolutions adopted by the International Socialist Workers and Trade Union Congress held at the Queen's Hall, London, from July 27th to August 1st, 1896, from the official report.
Author: International Socialist Workers and Trade Union Congress, London
Date: 1896-07
URL: https://marxismo.school/archivo/congresos/originales/1896%20International%20Socialist%20Workers%20and%20Trade%20Union%20Congress%20London%20%28Second%20International%29
---


*Text from: International Socialist Workers and Trade Union Congress, London, 1896. Report of Proceedings, List of British and Foreign Delegates, and Balance Sheet. London, The Twentieth Century Press, 1896, pp. 2, 25-27, 29-31, 35-36, 40-42, 45-48, 50-52 ([archive.org](https://archive.org/details/london-1896)). The resolutions are given as printed in the reports of the Commissions (a few obvious misprints corrected); the amendments adopted to the report of the Economic and Industrial Commission are given in the words of the Report. Some headings are ours. [Traducción al español](https://marxismo.school/archivo/congresos/1896%20Congreso%20de%20Londres%20%28II%20Internacional%29).*

## Confirmation of the Zürich Resolution on Admission (adopted July 28th, 1896)

All Trade Unions shall be admitted to the Congress; also those Socialist Parties and Organisations which recognise the necessity of the organisation of the workers and of political action.

“By ‘political action’ is meant that the working-class organisations seek, as far as possible, to use or conquer political rights and the machinery of legislation, for the furthering of the interests of the proletariat and the conquest of political power.”

## Sympathy with the Socialist Municipality of Lille (adopted July 30th, 1896)

That the delegates assembled at this Congress express their sympathy with citizen Delory, suspended from his functions as Mayor of Lille by the reactionary Prefect of the Department, on account of disturbances intentionally fomented by the Clerical Party, and encourage the Socialist Municipality of Lille to continue the good work they have begun.

## The Agrarian Question (adopted July 30th, 1896)

The evils which capitalistic exploitation, including landlordism, produce alike for the cultivator of the soil as for the whole of society at an ever increasing rate, can be definitely abolished only in a society in which land, like the other means of production, has become socialised, *i.e.*, common property, which society in its corporate capacity, causes to be cultivated in the common interest and on the most scientific methods.

The conditions of land tenure and the division of classes among the agricultural population in different countries are, however, too various for it to be possible to formulate a programme which shall be binding for the labour parties of all countries as regards the means for attaining this end or the particular classes to be won over.

It is none the less the first duty of the Labour Parties throughout the world, in so far as the agrarian question is concerned, to organise the agricultural proletariat in its class struggle against its exploiters.

According to these principles the Congress leaves it to every nation to formulate, for the attaining of this end, the ways and means most suitable to the situation of their country.

The Congress declares it desirable that, in every country where there are statistical committees appointed by the labour parties, they shall combine and centralise their results by communicating among themselves their statistical abstracts, &c.

## Protest against the Observations of Justice Grantham (adopted July 30th, 1896)

That this Congress of representative workers records the expression of its indignation at the abominable observations of Justice Grantham yesterday, in the action against the trade union officials of the pianoforte trade, wherein he describes workmen joining a trade society as obtaining the strength of brute beasts depriving them of reasoning power.

## Greeting to the Russian Workers (adopted July 30th, 1896)

The Congress notes the eminently remarkable fact that has never yet occured, viz., the represensation of Russian working-class organisations at an International Congress. It hails with joy this fresh awakening of the proletarian movement, and in the name of the working-class fighting the good fight, wishes for its Russian brethren courage and indefatigable perseverance in their fight against bitter tyranny.

The organisation of the Russian working-class is the best guarantee against Czarism, the last stronghold of European reaction.

## Political Action (adopted July 30th, 1896)

This Congress understands political action as the organised struggle in all forms for the conquest of political power and its use nationally and locally in legislation and administration by the working class on behalf of their emancipation.

The Congress declares that with the view of realising the emancipation of the workers, the enfranchisement of humanity and the citizen, and the establishment of the International Socialist Republic, the conquest of political power is of paramount importance, and calls upon workers of all countries to unite, independent of and apart from all bourgeois political parties, and to demand Universal Adult Suffrage, One Adult One Vote, the Second Ballot, together with the National and Local Referendum and Initiative.

The Congress also declares that the political emancipation of women is inseparable from that of the workers; and therefore calls upon women in all countries to work and organise politically side by side with the workers.

The Congress declares in favour of the full autonomy of all nationalities, and its sympathy with the workers of any country at present suffering under the yoke of military, national, or other despotisms; and calls upon the workers in all such countries to fall into line, side by side with the class-conscious workers of the world, to organise for the overthrow of international capitalism and the establishment of International Social-Democracy.

This Congress declares that, whatever the pretext, whether it be religious or in the interests of so-called civilisation, colonial extension is only another name for the extension of the area of capitalist exploitation in the exclusive interests of the capitalist class.

## Education and Physical Development (adopted July 31st, 1896)

In presenting their report to the Congress, the Commission on Education and Physical Development desire to express their sense of the enormous importance of the subject to the Socialist movement and to the well-being of the working classes of the whole world. Under the present system of capitalist exploitation, the children of the masses are stunted in their physical growth, deprived of that healthy leisure which is the condition of harmonious development, and prevented from obtaining access to the education and knowledge which is the common heritage of the whole human race. Under present circumstances the parents of the proletarian class struggle in vain to secure to their children those opportunities of nurture and culture without which neither a healthy family nor a well-organised society is possible.

Further, the use by the capitalist employer of the labour of children and young persons to displace the labour of adults, is a serious menace to the standard of life even of the best organised workmen, whilst, by reducing the level of wages, it results in no pecuniary advantage even to the families concerned. Finally, seeing that the future well-being of society depends on the constant discovery of further scientific truths, especially in regard to economic, industrial, and social organisation, Socialists in all countries are urged to use their best efforts to promote scientific investigation and research of the highest kind, and to demand that the necessary means for such work be provided from public funds.

The following resolutions are submitted to the Congress.

*Resolutions.*

1. That the Congress, whilst fully recognising the value in education of independent experiment, declares that it is an essential duty of the public administration in each country to provide a complete system of education, under Democratic public control, extending from the Kindergarten to the University (including physical, scientific, artistic, and technical [manual work] training), the whole made generally accessible to every citizen by freedom from fees and by scholarships covering maintenance.

2. That the school arrangements should include one meal a day in common as in the cantines scolaires, without invidious distinction between rich and poor ; and that adequate provision be made for the complete maintenance and education, according to the best methods, of all orphan or destitute children.

3. That the minimum age at which children should be exempted from full attendance at school, and legally allowed to be employed in industry, whether in factories or domestic workshops, should be gradually, but as quickly as possible, raised in all countries to at least sixteen years.

4. That the employment of any child under eighteen in any trade proved to be unhealthy or dangerous, or in night work, be absolutely forbidden by law.

5. That, in order to ensure proper continuance of educational training, and to restrain the illegitimate use of child labour by the capitalist, no employer be permitted to work any boy or girl under eighteen years of age, whether in factory or domestic workshops, for more than twenty-four hours per week (the half-time system), with compulsory attendance at continuation classes.

6. That, with regard to children, at any rate, the factory legislation of all industrial countries should be uniformly fixed by international agreement; and the Congress observes that the various Governments have not yet carried out the engagements to this effect solemnly entered into by them at the Berlin Conference of 1891, the British Government, in particular, still permitting child labour at the age of eleven.

7. That for the proper protection and education of children in the industrial centres, it is absolutely necessary that manufacturing work done at home should be as effectively regulated and inspected as work done in factories; and where a capitalist employer, in order to escape from factory legislation, gives out work to be done in the workers’ own homes, this Congress declares that he should be made legally responsible for seeing that such work is done under proper sanitary and other conditions, precisely as if it were done in his own factory.

## Organisation (adopted July 31st, 1896)

I.

1. That in the opinion of this Congress an effort should immediately be made to create a permanent international committee, with a responsible secretary, centred in some convenient part of Europe.

2. That a small committee be appointed from this Congress to frame proposals for giving effect to No. 1, and report to the next Congress.

3. That said committee be empowered to act as a provisional committee for the movement between now and the next Congress; and that any nationality not represented on the committee by election from this Congress may send one representative to act until the International Congress next meets.

II.

4. This Congress recognises the constantly growing necessity of international economic information, and invites all nationalities to exercise their utmost diligence in carrying out the resolutions of Brussels and Zürich concerning the establishment of international bureaux of information.

III.

5. In view of the large emigration from European countries to America and other continents, where a highly concentrated capitalism is thereby afforded extraordinary opportunities of reducing the wages of labour, and generally overcoming any resistance of the workers to oppression and degradation ;

In view also of the fact that many of the emigrants, previously connected with the labour parties and labour organisations of their respective native lands, are generally failing (chiefly because of their ignorance of the English language) to connect themselves with the militant labour bodies of their adopted countries, so that the forces lost to the European movement by emigration are entirely lost to the international movement ;

The Congress recommends that arrangements be made between the European countries and the Trans-Oceanic continents for the distribution among the emigrants at European ports and on board emigrant ships of printed leaflets containing necessary information and directions; also, for such Socialist agitators as America and the other continents may require to properly organise the foreign portion of their proletariat.

## War (adopted July 31st, 1896)

Under capitalism the chief causes of war are not religious or national differences but economic antagonisms, into which the exploiting classes of the various countries are driven by the system of production for profit.

Just as this system sacrifices unceasingly the life and health of the working class on the battlefield of labour, so it has no scruple in shedding their blood in search of profit by the opening up of new markets.

The working class of all countries should rise up against military oppression on the same ground that they revolt against all other forms of exploitation under which they are victimised by the possessing class.

To attain this object they must acquire political power so as to abolish the system of capitalist production, and simultaneously refuse, in all countries, to Governments which are the instruments of the capitalist class, the means of maintaining the existing order of things.

Standing armies, whose maintenance even in times of peace exhausts the nation, and the cost of which is borne by the working class, increase the danger of war between nations, and at the same time favour the brutal oppression of the proletariat of the world. This is why the cry “Lay down your Arms” is no more listened to than the other appeals to humanitarian sentiments raised by the capitalist classes.

The working class alone have the serious desire, and they alone possess the power, to realise Universal Peace.

They demand :—

1. The Abolition of Standing Armies and the Establishment of a National Citizen Force.

2. The Establishment of Tribunals of Arbitration, to regulate peaceably disputes between nations.

3. The final decision on the question of War or Peace to be vested directly in the People in cases where the Governments refuse to accept the decision of the tribunal of arbitration ;

And they protest against the system of Secret Treaties.

The working class will only attain these objects by securing the control of legislation and by entering into an alliance with the International Socialist Movement, whereby Peace may be finally assured, and the real Fraternity of Peoples permanently established.

## Greeting to the Bulgarian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (adopted August 1st, 1896)

That the Congress send its fraternal greetings to the third National Congress of the Bulgarian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party which meets on Sunday, August 2nd, at Sofia.

## The Riots at Zürich (adopted August 1st, 1896)

Seeing that the recent regretable riots at Zürich are the result of the economic and moral servitude in which the greater part of the Italian immigrant workers are under capitalism, the Congress declares that the results of that economic competition of the workers which prevents the solidarity of the proletariat, can only be got rid of by the propagation and organisation of Socialism.

## In Remembrance of the Founders of the International (adopted August 1st, 1896)

That the Congress record its respectful and grateful remembrance of those who more than 30 years ago founded, in this very town of London, the International.

## Economic and Industrial Action (adopted August 1st, 1896)

In the opinion of this Congress, the workers of all nations should strive continuously as a class for the socialisation of the means of production, transport, distribution, and exchange; the whole to be controlled by a completely democratic organisation in the interests of the entire community, thus emancipating the labouring class and the people at large from the domination of capitalism. This Congress considers that national and international action in this complete Socialist sense is becoming more necessary every day, in view of the disappearance of free competition and the rapid growth of national and international monopolies controlled by huge organisations of the capitalist class. Petroleum oil, sewing cotton, certain minerals, large iron castings, &c., are now controlled by combinations of capitalists who aspire to fix both prices and wages in these trades. Such powerful corporations cannot be effectively encountered by ordinary trade unions or isolated political action. A more complete organisation of the workers is essential to overcome successfully the machinations of these great companies; and this Congress recommends that steps be taken to organise an international agency to call attention to the movements of these corporations, which frequently use political intrigues to further their ends, and endeavour to bring about the socialisation of such enterprises by national and international enactment.

In other directions the increasing power of mankind to produce wealth, instead of being turned to the advantage of the community, is proving the cause of gluts and commercial crises, national and international. The workers in coal, iron, leather, cotton, and other trades are in all countries thrown out of work and deprived of their livelihood by the action of economic causes which, so far, they have been unable to control. In all civilised nations the absolute need for the substitution of ownership by the community for such a chaotic system is being recognised ; and the great coal mines, the great iron works and chemical works, the railways, and the larger factories have all reached the stage where their nationalisation and socialisation present no difficulty from the economic point of view.

This Congress, therefore, calls upon the workers of the world to proceed at once to urge definite measures of socialisation, nationalisation, and communisation in their respective countries, keeping one another fully informed as to what each nationality is doing in this direction, so that whatever policy is resolved upon may be be adopted, so far as possible, simultaneously.

II.

The trade union struggle of the workers is indispensable to resist the economic tyranny of capital, and thereby better the actual condition of the toilers. Without trade unions no living wage and no shortening of hours of labour can be expected. By this struggle, however, the exploitation of labour will only be lessened, not abolished. The exploitation of labour can only be done away with entirely when society has taken control of all the means of production, including the land and the means of distribution. This, however, requires in the first instance a system of legislative measures. In order to carry out those measures completely the working class should be the dominating political power, which depends on the standard of organisation attained. The trade unions, therefore, help to consolidate the political power of the labouring classes by reason of their organising efforts. The organisation of the working class is incomplete and unfinished so long as it is political only.

But the economic struggle also calls for political action by the labouring class. Whatever the workers gain from their employers in open disputes must be confirmed by law in order to be maintained, while trade conflicts may in other cases be rendered superfluous by legislative measures.

The more the international organisation and co-operation of the capitalist world-market are perfected, the more the international co-operation of the working classes in regard to trade union action, more especially the protection of labour by law, becomes necessary.

In the near future international co-operation of the proletariat on the following lines will be necessary :—

I. Abolition of all tariffs, duties on articles of consumption, and exportation premiums.

II. International factory and labour protection laws.

Whereas, in regard to the latter point, the resolutions of the Paris Congress are reaffirmed, the Congress resolves temporarily to limit the palliative agitation to :—

(*a*) To demand the Legal Eight Hours Day.

(*b*) To abolish the sweating system, and to introduce perfect legislative protection for the workers who do not work in factories, workshops, &c.

(*c*) The recognition of the unassailable right of combination and coalition of both sexes.

The resolutions adopted at the Paris Congress were :—

I. The Legal Eight Hour Day, to which it is proposed to add that six hours’ night work constitute an equivalent for eight hours' day work.

2. Abolition of child labour under the age of 14, and limitation of the working day to six hours a day for all between 14 and 15.

3. Prohibition of night work, save in trades in which continuous running is a necessity.

4. Prohibition of night work for both sexes under the age of 18.

5. At least 36 hours of complete leisure in each week.

6. Prohibition of those industries and methods of production which specially injure the health of the workers.

7. Abolition of the truck system.

8. The inspection of all industries—whether carried on in factories, small workshops, or at home—by paid inspectors, at least half of whom should be chosen by the workers.

To accomplish this, economic and political action must go hand in hand.

Therefore, the Congress declares the organisation of the workers in trade unions to be an urgent matter in the struggle for the emancipation of the working class, and in connection with similar resolutions passed at the Brussels and Zürich Congresses, considers it to be the duty of all workers who endeavour to liberate labour from the yoke of capitalism, to join the unions in their respective trades.

In order to make the trade unions as effective as possible they are recommended to organise as national trade unions in their respective countries, thus avoiding waste of power by small independent or local organisations. Especially, difference of political views ought not to be considered a reason for separate action in the economic struggle; on the other hand, the nature of the class struggle makes it the duty of the labour organisations to educate their fellow members up to the truths of Social-Democracy.

Trade Unions should also admit female workers into their ranks, and secure for them equal wages for the same kind and amount of work.

In the struggle for better wages and conditions of work, the Trade Unions ought to control the application of the existing laws for the protection of labour

The Congress considers strikes and boycotts are necessary weapons to attain the objects of Trade Unions. What is most essential is the thorough organisation of the working classes; as the successful management of a strike depends on the strength of its organisation.

In order to have a uniform international Trade Union movement, a Central Trade Union Commission should be constituted in every country. These commissions shall collect statistics about the labour market, and shall exchange these statistics, together with other regular reports on important events in each country.

It should be the special duty of the Trade Unions of all countries to take care that workers coming from another country become members of the unions of their respective trades and do not work for less than Trade Union wages.

In case of strikes, lock-outs, and boycotts, the Trade Unions of all countries should assist one another according to their means.

III.

The economic and industrial development is going on with such rapidity that a crisis may occur within a comparatively short time. The Congress, therefore, impresses upon the proletariat of all countries the imperative necessity for learning, as class-conscious citizens, how to administer the business of their respective countries for the common good.

*Amendments carried:*

Amie Hicks (Rope Makers, England) moved (1) that no woman be allowed to work in a factory or workshop for six weeks before and six weeks after her confinement; (2) that in resolution 1, as adopted at the Paris Congress, the word “fourteen” read “sixteen.”

Dr. Pankhurst: That with regard to the great and serious question of the unemployed this Congress declares that wherever private employment fails, public employment should be provided at reasonable wages.

Edward Aveling (S.D.F., Australia): To insert after the paragraph beginning “Trade unions” and ending “amount of work” the words “and should not appeal for restrictive legislation against the immigration of aliens.” This resolution was signed by the following delegates from trade unions in England consisting almost entirely of aliens: John N. Dysche, Mantle Makers Union; A. Rosebury, Independent Tailors Union; Marks Shayer, Amalgamated Society of Tailors, Jewish branch; Michael Frenchman, Sam Freedman, Jewish Tailors Union, Leeds, York; William Hess, Hebrew Compositors Association, London, and International Cigarette Makers Union, Glasgow; F. Warshawsky, Hebrew Branch 49, Alliance Cabinet Makers and Furnishers Trade Union; J. Presbury, International Journeymens Upper Machinists’ Union.

A. Fauquez (S.D.P., Switzerland): That as far as concerns the May Day Demonstrations the Congress declares in favour of continuing to carry out the decisions of preceding congresses and considers that these demonstrations should have as their chief objects the obtaining the Legal Eight Hours Day and protests against militarism.

Octors (Belgium): To add to paragraph c of Section II. “Further, it is the duty of trade unions to admit as members women working in the particular trade and to try to carry out the principle of equal wages for equal work for both sexes, and also to admit apprentices in order to form them into a special section of adherents and in order to carry on their Socialist and trade education.”

D. Hennessy: Considering that when strikes occur, as they often do, it has been found by experience that the capitalist often manages to get batches of workmen from other countries to supply a temporary necessity and thus enable them to withstand the demands of their own workmen, this Congress, while objecting to any workman emigrating to another country in search of better living, trusts that the delegates of all countries represented at this Congress will do their best in future to prevent this evil either by their trade organisations or by means of the newspapers.

Herbert Burrows: The abolition of home work wherever possible.

## Miscellaneous (adopted August 1st, 1896)

1. That this Congress declares the fundamental right of liberty of conscience, of speech, and of the Press, and the right of public meeting and combination both locally and internationally of the workers and all other sections of the people for the attainment of political, industrial and social change.

2. The Congress calls upon the workers to use their strongest efforts in their respective countries to obtain an amnesty for political prisoners; and expresses its condemnation of the system of police provocation of plots designed to bring discredit upon and provoke repressive measures against advanced movements ; and further calls for the immediate exposure of and investigation into all cases concerning which suspicion exists that the convictions have been obtained by any such detestable methods.

3. As agencies by which the workers may obtain employment are a matter of public necessity, and should not be used for private speculation or profit-making, and in view of the gross abuse and corruption attached to employment registries conducted by private persons, the Congress urges the abolition of such registries and demands the institution of free registries or labour bureaux conducted by the municipalities or *bonâ fide* trade unions.

*Resolution moved by Agyriades, carried by acclamation:*

The French delegation having carried a resolution in favour of those struggling for emancipation in Cuba, Crete and Macedonia, asks the Congress to vote its wishes for the emancipation of these three nations who are struggling for their political and economic liberty.

## The Next Congress and the Conditions of Admission (adopted August 1st, 1896)

The Standing Orders Committee of the Congress is entrusted with the duty of drawing up the invitation for the next Congress by appealing exclusively to :—

1. The representatives of those organisations which seek to substitute Socialist property and production for Capitalist property and production, and which consider legislative and Parliamentary action as one of the necessary means of attaining that end.

2. Purely trade organisations which, though taking no militant part in politics, declare that they recognise the necessity of legislative and Parliamentary action ; consequently Anarchists are excluded.

Each nationality shall verify the credentials of its delegates, with right of appeal to a Special Commission elected by all the nationalities represented at the Congress. The credentials of all nationalities sending less than five delegates to be referred to the Credential Commission to deal with in the same way as disputed credentials.

Resolved that the next Congress be held in Germany in the year 1899. In case it should be impossible to hold the Congress in Germany it is decided that it shall be held in Paris in the year 1900.