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    In the present article I intend to confine myself to an account of the transactions of the Congress on the question indicated in the heading and to a description of the trends of socialist thought which came into conflict there.

    Prior to the Congress three draft resolutions on co-operative societies were published. The Belgian draft (in No. 5 of the Periodical Bulletin of the International Socialist Bureau, which is issued irregularly in the three official languages of the International Congresses) begins by warning socialist workers against the doctrine of those who regard co-operative societies as something self-sufficient, a sort of means for the solution of the social question. Then, admitting that the working class is extremely interested in utilising the co-operative societies as a weapon in their class struggle, the draft resolution of the Belgian party points out the direct advantages of co-operative societies (combating commercial exploitation, improving the working conditions of persons in the employ of the suppliers, etc.) and expresses the desire for "organic, closer and closer ties" to be established between the socialist parties and the co-operative societies.

    The draft resolution submitted by the majority of the French Socialist Party is drawn up in the Jaurès spirit. The co-operative societies are exalted to the skies and are put forward -- exactly in the style of the bourgeois reformers -- as a "necessary" element of "social reformation". There are vague phrases about converting the co-operatives from

 
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unions of separate persons into general federations of associations. Proletarian co-operative societies are confused with the co-operatives of petty proprietors (in agriculture). The resolution advocates the neutrality of co-operative societies, describing as harmful the imposition of any obligations on the co-operative societies with respect to the Socialist Party.

    Lastly, the draft submitted by the minority of the French socialists (Guesde-ists) declares emphatically that the co-operatives in themselves are by no means class organisations (as, for instance, the trade unions are), and that their importance is determined by the use which is made of them. The workers, by joining the co-operative societies en masse, can benefit from them in their struggle against capital; from the example they offer, the workers can to some extent get an idea of the socialist society that would be organised after the contradictions of the present social order have been eliminated. The draft therefore emphasises the limited significance of the co-operative societies and calls upon the socialist parties to assist the proletarian co-operative societies, warns against illusions as to the role of co-operative societies, and recommends socialists to unite within the co-operative societies in order to explain to the masses their real task: the conquest of political power and the conversion of the means of production and distribution into common property.

    It is quite clear that there are two main lines of policy here: one -- the line of proletarian class struggle, recognition of the value of the co-operative societies as a weapon in this struggle, as one of its subsidiary means, and a definition of the conditions under which the co-operative societies would really play such a part and not remain simple commercial enterprises. The other line is a petty-bourgeois one, obscuring the question of the role of the co-operative societies in the class struggle of the proletariat, attaching to the co-operative societies an importance transcending this struggle (i.e., confusing the proletarian and the proprietors' view of co-operative societies), defining the aims of the co-operative societies with general phrases that are acceptable even to the bourgeois reformers, those ideologues of the progressive employers, large and small.

 
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    Unfortunately these two lines were only sketched in the three drafts that had been prepared beforehand, and they were not opposed one to the other, clearly, distinctly and sharply, as two trends, whose conflict should settle the question. Hence the transactions of the Congress proceeded unevenly, confusedly, and as it were spontaneously. It "came up against" differences of opinion every minute, but they were not cleared up and the result was a resolution reflecting the confusion of ideas, one which did not say everything that could and should have been said in a resolution of a Congress of Socialist Parties.

    In the commission on the question of co-operative societies two trends immediately became apparent. One was represented by Jaurës and Elm. Elm was one of the four German delegates on the co-operative commission and acted as spokesman for the Germans -- adopting a definitely opportunistic tone. The other trend was the Belgian. The mediator and conciliator was the Austrian, Karpeles, a prominent leader of the Austrian co-operative movement, who upheld no definite line of principle, but (or "because" rather than "but") who inclined more often than not to the opportunists. Moreover, even when the Belgians did challenge Jaurès and Elm this was due more to the instinct for a really proletarian approach to co-operative affairs than to a distinct understanding of the hostility and the irreconcilable breach between the proletarian and the petty-bourgeois point of view on the question. That is why, for instance, Anseele (chairman of the co-operative commission) made some forceful and excellent speeches to the commission against neutrality in the co-operative societies, against exaggerated ideas of their importance, and urging the necessity of our being socialist co-operators, not co-operator socialists. Yet when the resolution was being drawn up the same Anseele might have driven anyone to despair by his toleration of the formulations put forward by Jaurès and Elm, his reluctance to inquire into the causes of the dissension.

    But to return to the meetings of the commission. Naturally the course of its work was decisively influenced by the representatives of nations with a strongly developed co-operative movement. Moreover, it immediately became apparent that there was a difference of opinion between

 
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the Belgians and the Germans, vastly to the disadvantage of the latter. At any rate the Belgians pursued a proletarian line, although not quite consistently, not quite distinctly. Elm came out as an opportunist of the first water (especially in the subcommission, of which more later). Naturally, the leading role belonged to the Belgians. The Austrians were sympathetically disposed to them and at the end of the commission's deliberations an Austro-Belgian resolution was read, while Elm, who submitted the German resolution, declared forthright that he thought it would be quite possible to make it agree with Jaurès's draft. Since among the French there was a strong minority against Jaurès (there were 202 mandates for his point of view and 142 for Guesde's) while among the Germans there would have been a no less strong minority against Elm (if the question of the two points of view had come up clearly and sharply), the Austro-Belgian alliance had real chances of victory. And it was not so much a question of "victory" in the narrow sense of the word as of consistently upholding the proletarian point of view on the co-operative societies. Due to the excessive concessions which the subcommission made to Jaurès and Elm, this consistency was not attained.

    As for us, the Russian Social-Democrats, we tried to support the Austro-Belgian line in the commission and with this aim in view, before the reading of the Austro-Belgian conciliatory draft, we submitted a draft resolution of our own, as follows:

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NOTES



  ^[116] Lenin quotes A. Bebel's words in a report on "Attacks on the Fundamental Views and Tactics of the Party" at the German Social-Democratic Congress in Hanover (October 9-14 [New Style], 1899).    [p. 280]

  ^[117] The International Congress in Stuttgart -- the Seventh International Socialist Congress, held August 18-24 (New Style), 1907. Lenin took part in the Congress as a delegate of the R.S.D.L.P. (see present edition, Vol. 13, pp. 75-93  [Transcriber's Note: See Lenin's "The International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart [a]" and "The International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart [b]". -- DJR]).    [p. 281]