‘No effective tool during wartime, but an effective tool for peace’: the Second International and the Great War

The outbreak of World War One evidently impacted forms of internationalism, from the European peace movement to cultural exchanges in academia and the arts. The significant challenges for socialist internationalism are well known, as reflected in the considerable literature on the controversial stance of the German SPD. This paper reconsiders the practical and political problems faced by the Second International. The International Socialist Bureau was based in Brussels; shortly before the conflagration of 1914, it had even organised an international anti-war meeting in the Belgian capital. The subsequent attack on Belgium forced activists to consider their stance on war, the military and nationhood. The paper explores the attitudes of prominent Belgian figures such as Emile Vandervelde, Louis De Brouckère and Louis Bertrand. It also traces the efforts of the International’s secretary, Camille Huysmans, in keeping transnational exchanges alive during the war, underscored by his move to the neutral Netherlands.

As a whole, the paper considers the spaces and vehicles through which transnational communication could be maintained at a time of war. It also asks the question how far wartime cooperation set the basis for a revived, but reconfigured international socialist movement. Thus, the contribution illustrates the complex relationship between socialism, nationalism and internationalism.