A Socialist Dilemma

Abstract

Accounts of the disintegration of the Second International correctly stress the impact of World War I. But they emphasise also that its failure began in the years before 1914:x war merely exposed the 'hollowness of its pre tensions to override the national loyalties of workers'.2 Whether inter nationalism is seen as an empty delusion or as a promising experiment ended prematurely by war, there is general agreement that in the years before 1914 the gap between internationalist aspirations and the national experiences of constituent elements widened steadily until with the onset of war nationalism obliterated the fragile 'bond of brotherhood' on which the Second International depended.3 Explanations of the gap have concentrated on imperialism, militarism, chauvinism and patriotism. Strangely they have neglected racism. If the experience of one of its constituent organisations, the Victorian Socialist Party (vsp) is any guide, racism was important in the steady erosion of internationalism : the vsp failed not only in its intention to persuade the Australian working class and its institutions to oppose racism but also to hold its own members to such a position. Racism, not war, crippled the internationalist pretensions of the vsp. Initially the vsp, founded in 1905, was unique among Australian political organisations for its explicit opposition to racism. Racial tolerance was re garded as an essential component of the internationalism which set it apart from the orthodox labour movement.4 Most obviously this reflected the personal convictions of the Party's early leaders, especially Tom Mann who argued that Australia's isolation had intensified British racial insularity and produced a labour movement materially successful but lacking worthy