International Socialism and the Question of Peace: The Stockholm Conference of 1917

Abstract

During the summer of I 9 I 7, the city of Stockholm became the focal point of attempts to convene a conference of the parties and groups of the international labour movement to debate and define their positions on the war and peace aims. The projected conference aroused great hopes throughout the world, and became the symbol of the desire for peace in a war-torn Europe. As is well known, the conference never took place, and the euphoria of the summer soon faded. This essay will seek to examine the motives and divisions of the promoters of the idea, and will also try to establish the significance of this conference manque'e in the history of international socialism.' Inevitably, the socialist initiative was fated to become linked to the manceuvres of the belligerent powers, and recent research has shown that there was a much greater degree of collusion between the socialists supporting the national war effort and their governments than was assumed by Arno Mayer. Useful though Mayer's concept of the 'forces of movement' is, it does tend to gloss over the real differences within national labour movements, and between the parties of the opposing sides.2 The Stockholm initiative was in fact dogged from the outset by divisions within the ranks of the socialists themselves. The immediate impetus was provided by the February revolution in Russia and the Petrograd Soviet's proclamation 'To the peoples of the entire world' of 27 March, which invited the peoples of Europe to take common decisive action in favour of peace. The initiative for an international socialist conference was taken by Dutch and Scandinavian socialists, and was the culmination of a series of attempts by the 'northern neutrals' to promote a revival of international socialist contacts.3 The Dutch-Scandinavian Committee set up in