Citizen Brandt takes the chair and expresses his thanks for the honour that is being paid to the Swiss Free State in his person. In the struggle for existence that it currently has to endure, Switzerland counts on the French republic, which citizen Brandt calls a sister republic. If he specifically greets France here, it is not meant to set one nationality against another. Switzerland is in fact an amalgamation of different nationalities which, under the aegis of the same laws, rub along together in peace and freedom. The delegates sent to this congress represent the entirety of the Swiss proletariat (applause), which gives all the more interest and sympathy to these great negotiations of working men because Switzerland has earned the merit of taking the initiative towards an international labour protection law. This meeting in Paris of the workers’ organizations and socialist parties of the whole world is a pledge of peace, the peace that only the workers who have come together in political parties seriously strive for, just as they alone strive for the freedom and well-being of the peoples (Bravo).
The telegrams and messages of support that have arrived since midday are then read out.
Citizen Lavigne, rapporteur for France, reports the arrival of new delegates, among whom is an envoy from the Miners’ Union of the Loire Department, Citizen Ottin, with an obligatory mandate to join only the so-called “Marxist” Congress (applause).
Citizen Georg M. Hugh reads out a statement of sympathy from the American Federation of Labor, signed by President Samuel Gompers, which includes a clarification that the Federation is too occupied with the eight-hour movement to be able to send a representative to the Congress, and which recommends union with the Possibilist Congress, and the greatest prudence in all resolutions taken.
Citizen de Paepe communicates the letter of the National Council of the Belgian Workers’ Party,[a] which is addressed to both congresses and reads as follows:
—12—
Brussels, July 9, 1889.
To the members of the Executive and the Assembly of Delegates of the International Socialist Congress in Paris.
Citizens!
The Belgian Workers’ Party, convinced of the overwhelming necessity to gather all socialist workforces of the world into one single bundle,[b] obeys an imperative duty in turning to you with the request that you join it in the endeavour to merge both of the Socialist Congresses summoned to Paris into one.
It is a matter of the highest interest to the whole socialist proletariat. There are not two international socialist proletariats, there is only one; there are not two international social-democracies, there is only one. That means: one congress must suffice and two congresses are a moment of weakness for today and a danger for tomorrow. It is useless to go back over the things which led to the calling of two congresses. What is done, is done. But it is urgent and indispensable that the party, which upholds its prerogatives and autonomy in respect of private capital, should not provide an opportunity for applause at the spectacle of the fragmentation of the workforce.
All countries are represented at the Paris Congress; everyone wants fraternal understanding in international socialism. May you decide to merge the two congresses, and then this understanding will be realized, as it it should be.
All socialist workers’ groups strive to march together, closely united, on the way to the realization of the socialist ideal. Since the masses have decided, and since you are a democratic party, you must bow and obey. That is what the Workers’ Party demands, what it explains to each of the two congresses.
And if — which would be a real misfortune - if this request is not followed, it explains to the delegates that one must at all costs avoid aggravating the contradictions caused by the calling of two congresses. It claims the honour of being able to invite the next international socialist congress, for 1890 or 1891, to Belgium. The adoption of this proposal in each of the two assemblies would allow the end of the duplication of the international socialist congress.
The Workers’ Party of Belgium greets you fraternally and invites the representatives of the other foreign socialist parties to join it with the aim of establishing a permanent and definitive organization of the whole social democratic movement.
For the Belgian Workers' Party, on behalf of the General Council,
Secretary Gustave Defuet.
Citizen Lafargue announces that Citizen Keir Hardie represents 60,000 Scottish miners.
The chairman submits the following motions on behalf of the Bureau:
—13— Citizen Volders will in no way accept a vote by head count, since this would automatically give a majority of the Congress to the French. He asked what reasons the Bureau had for proposing this method of voting.
Citizen Vaillant replies on behalf of the Bureau that nationality is irrelevant at an international congress. There should no longer be French, Germans, Belgians etc. here, but only members of a large international socialist family.
Citizen Kessler does not want to allow voting by nationalities even as an exception. There is only one proletariat here, in which neither large nor small nationalities, which could outvote the others or be outvoted, have any place. He also notes a practical reason for sticking to voting by head count, namely that the other way of voting would require the delegates of each nation to meet separately to agree on their national vote, thereby wasting precious time.
Citizen Bebel replies that voting by nationalities had to be applied in certain cases so that those socialist parties which, like German social democracy, were subject to exceptional laws, were given the opportunity to abstain from any resolutions for which they could not assume any responsibility.
It is approved by a large majority that voting by head count is the rule and that in the event that the delegates of a country unanimously demand voting by nationality, this will be allowed as an exception.
In a long debate, citizens Guillot, Brunet and Duprès on the one hand demand evening sessions in larger halls for purposes of propaganda and agitation, while on the other hand citizens Antide Boyer, Vaillant and Bebel declare that an international congress has a completely different task: communication between the workers everywhere for joint action; subsequently, Congress accepts the Bureau's proposal as to the timing of the sessions.
The sitting ended once the unification question had been placed at the top of the agenda for the next session.
a. The Belgian Workers’ Party (in Dutch, Belgische Werkliedenpartij and in French Parti Ouvrier Belge) was founded by de Paepe, Anseele, Volders and others in 1885. All three were present at this Congress.
b. Presumably a reference to Aesop's fable of the sticks which can be broken individually but are unbreakable as a bundle, often explained as “Unity is Strength”.