International political organization (1921?23)
The
International Working Union of Socialist Parties
(
IWUSP
; also known as the
2½ International
or the
Vienna International
;
German
:
Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialistischer Parteien
, IASP) was a
political international
for the co-operation of
socialist
parties.
History
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]
The IWUSP was founded on February 27, 1921, at a conference in
Vienna
,
Austria
, by ten parties, including the
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
(USPD), the
French Section of the Workers' International
(SFIO), the
Independent Labour Party
(ILP), the
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
(SPS), the
Social Democratic Party of Austria
(SPO), and the
Federation of Romanian Socialist Parties
(FPSR, created by splinter groups of the
Socialist Party of Romania
). In April 1921, it was joined by the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
. The
Maximalist
faction of the
Italian Socialist Party
(PSI) also joined.
Members
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]
The secretary of the IWUSP was the Austrian
Friedrich Adler
of the SPO; other prominent members were
Otto Bauer
and
Julius Martov
. The group was heavily influenced by
Austromarxism
. It published
Nachrichten der Internationalen Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialistischer Parteien
("News of the IWUSP").
Poale Zion
(
labour Zionist
) leaders
David Ben-Gurion
and
Shlomo Kaplansky
were active in the movement behind the Two and a Half International.
[1]
Ideology
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The founders of the IWUSP were parties that saw neither the
reformist
Second International
nor the
Communist
and pro-
Soviet
Third International
as alternatives for affiliation. The IWUSP criticized the other two Internationals for what it perceived to be
dogmatism
, and advocated that more consideration should be given to the particularities of the political situation in each country. It worked for the unification of the Second and Third Internationals. From April 2 to April 5 1922 the
Conference of the Three Internationals
was held in
Berlin
with delegations from the three different international bodies to discuss a merger, but unity was not achieved and the Comintern withdrew from the talks.
[2]
Dissolution
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]
In Germany on September 24, 1922, the USPD, one of the main components of the IWUSP, merged with the
Social Democratic Party of Germany
(SPD), a member of the
Berne International
. Discouraged by the intransigent position of the Third International, the Berne International and the IWUSP merged to form the
Labour and Socialist International
(LSI) at a joint congress in
Hamburg
in May 1923. Some, such as the FPSR, refused to join the new body.
In the 1930s, a similar effort was made to create an international between the reformism of the Second and the
Stalinism
of the Third, as the
London Bureau
of
left-wing
socialist parties. Sometimes called the "Three-and-a-Half International", it involved many of the same parties.
See also
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
Joseph Gorny
The British Labour Movement and Zionism: 1917?1948
London: Frank Cass, ch. 3
- ^
Steiner, Herber (1967). "L'internationale socialiste a la veille de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, juillet-aout 1939: Documents de Friedrich Adler".
Le Mouvement Social
(in French) (58). Editions l'Atelier
(subscription required)
: 95?96.
doi
:
10.2307/3777238
.
JSTOR
3777238
.
Further reading
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]
External links
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]