other consisting of the syndicalist organizations, which are not interested in political action. The General Confederation of Labor, which is the strongest labor federation, has endorsed the war position of the party and was instrumental in forcing the Italian Government to discontinue its participation in the antiRussian campaign. The government was also forced to publicly announce that no more troops would be sent to Russia, that no munitions would be dispatched, and that no Italian steamers would be allowed to transport munitions or materials to the Russian counter-revolutionary elements. At a national conference in April, the Italian labor unions demanded the convocation of a constituent assembly for a revision of the form of government favoring the transformation of the national parliament as constituted at present into a national soviet.

"The membership of the Italian labor unions is estimated at present to be about 1,000,000, which is an increase of almost 300,000 since 1917, and an organization campaign is at present on throughout the country to enroll more workers into the unions."

(These statements are taken from the able summary published in the American Labor Year Book, 1919-1920, pp. 372-4.)

The National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party arranged for a Congress in October, 1919, at Bologna. There were four groups within the Socialist Party which prepared four distinct programs that were considered throughout Italy by the members several weeks before the meeting.

These four programs were as follows:

The first was that of the Reformists led by Turati, who was the founder of the party in Italy and had been its leader until 1918. Turati had been consistently opposed to the war but was opposed also to revolutionary direct action, and was not among those who favored the Soviet program. He wanted the party to keep co-operating with the present government in Italy with a program of conquering public power through the ballot and meanwhile securing reform measures. He was of the same type of Marxian Socialist as the German Socialists led by Kautsky.

Opposed to Turati were the Maximilists led by Serrati. This section of the party had gained control at the Congress in Rome in 1918 and had pledged themselves to absolute sympathy and co-operation with the Soviet government in Russia. Serrati himself had come from the United States where he had directed a

Socialist newspaper and the organization of an Italian Socialist Party. He was the coming man in the Italian group.

The only difference between the program of Serrati and that of Lenin was that Serrati believed the party should take part in the present government; should send as many deputies to Parliament as possible; should use the parliamentary platform for spreading Socialist ideas and keeping out pseudo Socialists. Meantime, the program of the party was to be a Soviet program, including arming of the proletariat, disarming of the bourgeoisie, and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. This was to be done while ostensibly supporting the parliamentary regime through the progressive establishment of Soviet workers' organizations throughout the country, and educating the proletariat for its coming supremacy.

A third party of Centrists was headed by Lazzari. It was a rather colorless timid party, which coalesced with the Reformists when the Congress opened, reducing the groups from four to three before it came to the voting.

The last of the parties was that of the Abstentionists, headed by the young leader named Bordiga, who was even more extreme than Serrati and the Maximilists, preaching of course abstention from parliamentary action and immediate direct action to bring about the revolution.

The voting on the three programs was:

For the Maximilists of Serrati, 48,411; for the Unitarians of Lazzari and Turati, 14,886; and for the Abstentionists of Bordiga, 3,417.

This meant an even greater triumph for the Soviet section of the Socialist Party than in the Congress of 1918.

The party had then to decide on its policy in the approaching elections; and it nominated its candidates from all three of the above groups in proportion to their voting strength, on condition that all elected candidates should follow the policy, not of their group, but of the whole party. A very characteristic and important condition was that no one could be a candidate of the party who had in any way favored or aided the late war.

It must be remembered that Serrati had taken part in the Turin uprising during the war, which was considered by the government an act of treason of the Socialist Party behind the lines, and had led to his imprisonment for eight months.

This incident also had led Premier Orlando in Parliament to

state that after the Caporetto diaster, Italy had been in worse danger from traitors behind the lines than from enemies in front, and to agree with a speech of one of the former Socialist leaders that he would be ready to shoot down any traitorous Socialist.

The pronounced Soviet character of the Congress, it was thought, might bring about disagreement with the great Italian labor organization which was largely Syndicalist. But this break did not occur and the elections were very successful from a Socialist point of view. They secured almost one-third of the membership of the Chamber of Deputies, electing 156 candidates.

On the day of the opening of the Italian Parliament, they asserted their lack of loyalty to the Royal government by remaining seated while the King ascended the throne, and by rising from their seats and shouting, "Long live Socialism," and leaving the chamber as soon as the Royal address was delivered.

This action led to disturbances and strikes throughout a large part of Italy. The Italian Socialists are as a body very levelheaded and do not expect to bring about an immediate revolution until two things have occurred:

In the first place, a very much wider education of the people and its organization in Soviet form; and in the second place, a wider international diffusion of adherence to the Soviet idea; because they feel that only as an international movement can Communism succeed.

The program of the Italian Socialist Party as declared in 1892 is retained practically intact by the present party, except for the details of Soviet organization and the preparations for direct action.

The latest development of the Socialist Soviet campaign will be given in the later chapter on the Third International.

Socialism and Labor in France *

We have already spoken of the brilliant French Utopian Socialists whose ideas were so influential with Karl Marx, though he did not acknowledge their influence upon him. The influence of Guesde at the time of the founding of the Second International has already been referred to. There were at that early time two parties in the Socialist movement, who were called the Possibilists and the Impossibilists, according as they accepted or did not accept any modifications in the present organization of society. In 1893 as many as forty Socialists were elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Even Socialists who approved of taking part in parliamentary life were for the most part opposed to having Socialist leaders accept office in the government ministries. In fact, some of the ablest Socialist leaders were read out of the party on account of accepting portfolios in the ministry. This was the case with Millerand in 1904, and with Viviani and Briand in 1906. In the first decade of the century the parliamentary Socialists advocated the dis-establishment of the Church, the secularization of education, labor legislation and the diminution of the army. The increased voting power of the party is shown by comparison of the 20,000 votes in 1885 with the 1,400,000 votes in 1914 when the Socialists had about onesixth of the total votes.

It was in 1877 that the Socialist organization began and that their organ, "L'Egalité," was started to promote Marxian ideas. Socialism was indorsed by the labor union congress at Marseilles in 1879 and soon after a Socialist Labor Party was founded, which took part without any success in the elections of 1881. Its first real political victory was in 1893, when they polled 487,000 votes and elected forty representatives. As in Italy, the Socialists gained great influence in the municipal elections, especially in those of the large cities.

In 1912, 282 cities and towns came under the control of the Socialists. In great contrast to the condition in Germany is the relation of labor to the Socialist Party in France. For a long time there was very little contact between the two radical groups. The French labor movement, being Syndicalist and not trade union in character, and relying on the general strike as a weapon,

See Addendum, Part I.

was out of sympathy with the political action of the Socialist Party. It was only the approach of the war that led to closer contact between the "Conféderation Générale du Travail" and the Socialist Party, as we shall see. Consequently, in the matter

of law-making in the interest of labor, in the matter of parliamentary influence, the labor Confederation was quite negligible before the war.

France has no large trade union organization, comparable with those of America and Great Britain. Business and labor are not organized in the same way, nor are the problems of labor considered as in these two countries largely on the basis of evolutionary processes. The struggle between employers and employees is not being abridged. The possibility of immediate and violent revolutionary action is continually in mind. The "hotair" revolutionists are not held in check by a mass of practical wage-earners. The various Syndicates composing the "Conféderation Générale du Travail" are practically at one in their policies with the Socialist Party, if one can speak of a Socialist policy in view of the many sections of the party each with different policies. At the same time the practical French character leads the Confederation to draw back at the last moment from extreme measures. The Syndicalist theory includes the class struggle and the abolition of the State as its ultimate aim and direct action through the general strike and sabotage as the means for realizing the change by which all industry shall be in the hands of the producers.

The Conféderation Générale du Travail is composed of two kinds of federations: one is the national federations of crafts and the other the departmental federations of joint local organizations. The departmental federation has for its main object propaganda, among other aims for "the general social transformation." Communications from the C. G. T. with affiliated bodies are addressed to both the national and departmental federations, most of the latter having their headquarters in local Bourse halls. These organizations have not all the character of trade unions.

The similarity between the aims of the Syndicalist leaders and those of the Socialists makes it possible for a Socialist organ to represent them both. The paper "L'Humanité," the Socialist daily, has recently been supplemented by another Socialist organ "Le Proletaire."