The International Working Union of Socialist Parties (IWUSP; also known as the 2½ International or the Vienna International; german: Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialistischer Parteien, IASP) was a

political international A political international is a transnational organization of political parties having similar ideology or political orientation (e.g. communism, socialism, and Islamism). The international works together on points of agreement to co-ordinate acti ...

for the co-operation of

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

parties.

History

The IWUSP was founded on February 27, 1921, at a conference in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, by ten parties, including the

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was establis ...

(USPD), the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was fou ...

(SFIO), the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse worki ...

(ILP), the

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz; SP; rm, Partida Socialdemocrata da la Svizra) or Swiss Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste suisse, it, Partito Socialista Svizzero; PS), is a polit ...

(SPS), the

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

(SPÖ), and the Federation of Romanian Socialist Parties (FPSR, created by splinter groups of the

Socialist Party of Romania The Socialist Party of Romania ( ro, Partidul Socialist din România, commonly known as ''Partidul Socialist'', PS) was a Romanian socialist political party, created on December 11, 1918 by members of the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSDR ...

). In April 1921, it was joined by the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in go ...

. The

Maximalist In the arts, maximalism, a reaction against minimalism, is an aesthetic of excess. The philosophy can be summarized as "more is more", contrasting with the minimalist motto "less is more". Literature The term ''maximalism'' is sometimes associat ...

faction of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892 ...

(PSI) also joined.

Members

The secretary of the IWUSP was the Austrian Friedrich Adler of the SPÖ; other prominent members were

Otto Bauer Otto Bauer (5 September 1881 – 4 July 1938) was one of the founders and leading thinkers of the left-socialist Austromarxists who sought a middle ground between social democracy and revolutionary socialism. He was a member of the Austrian Parl ...

and

Julius Martov Julius Martov or L. Martov (Ма́ртов; born Yuliy Osipovich Tsederbaum; 24 November 1873 – 4 April 1923) was a politician and revolutionary who became the leader of the Mensheviks in early 20th-century Russia. He was arguably the close ...

. The group was heavily influenced by

Austromarxism Austromarxism (also stylised as Austro-Marxism) was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner, Max Adler and Rudolf Hilferding, members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria in Austria-Hunga ...

. It published ''Nachrichten der Internationalen Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialistischer Parteien'' ("News of the IWUSP").

Poale Zion Poale Zion (also spelled Poalei Tziyon or Poaley Syjon, meaning "Workers of Zion") was a movement of Marxist–Zionist Jewish workers founded in various cities of Poland, Europe and the Russian Empire in about the turn of the 20th century afte ...

(

labour Zionist Labor Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת סוֹצְיָאלִיסְטִית, ) or socialist Zionism ( he, תְּנוּעָת הָעַבוֹדָה, label=none, translit=Tnuʽat haʽavoda) refers to the left-wing, socialist variation of Zionism. ...

) leaders

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the na ...

and

Shlomo Kaplansky Shlomo Kaplansky ( he, שלמה קפלנסקי; born 7 March 1884 in Białystok - died 7 December 1950 in Haifa) was a Labour Zionist politician, who served as the secretary of the World Union of Poalei Zion. During the 1920s he was a leading adv ...

were active in the movement behind the Two and a Half International.

Ideology

The founders of the IWUSP were parties that saw neither the

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...

Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second Internatio ...

nor the

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

and pro-

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Third International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

as alternatives for affiliation. The IWUSP criticized the other two Internationals for what it perceived to be

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

tism, and advocated that more consideration should be given to the particularities of the political situation in each country. It worked for the unification of the Second and Third Internationals. From April 2 to April 5 1922 the

Conference of the Three Internationals The Conference of the Three Internationals took place in Berlin between 2–6 April 1922. The three internationals were the Berne International, the International Working Union of Socialist Parties (also known as the Vienna International or the 2½ ...

was held in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

with delegations from the three different international bodies to discuss a merger, but unity was not achieved and the Comintern withdrew from the talks.

Dissolution

In Germany on September 24, 1922, the USPD, one of the main components of the IWUSP, merged with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), a member of the

Berne International The Berne International was a Socialist International formed in Berne, Switzerland 3–9 February 1919. Its goal was to re-establish the Second International. However it did not support world revolution and rejected involvement with the Commun ...

. Discouraged by the intransigent position of the Third International, the Second International and the IWUSP merged to form the

Labour and Socialist International The Labour and Socialist International (LSI; german: Sozialistische Arbeiter-Internationale, label= German, SAI) was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a ...

(LSI) at a joint congress in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

in May 1923. Some, such as the FPSR, refused to join the new body. In the 1930s, a similar effort was made to create an international between the reformism of the Second and the

Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the the ...

of the Third, as the

London Bureau The International Revolutionary Marxist Centre was an international association of left-socialist parties. The member-parties rejected both mainstream social democracy and the Third International. Organizational history The International was for ...

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in so ...

socialist parties. Sometimes called the "Three-and-a-Half International", it involved many of the same parties.

References

External links

Archive of the International Working Union of Socialist Parties
* ttps://archive.org/details/TheSecondAndThirdInternationalsAndTheViennaUnion ''The Second and Third Internationals and the Vienna Union'' The proceedings of the Berlin conference {{Authority control Socialism History of socialism Left-wing internationals Political parties established in 1921 1923 disestablishments