Program and Regulations of the International Alliance of the Socialist Democracy

Preamble

The socialist minority of the League of Peace and Freedom having separated from the League following the vote of the majority of the Berne Congress, which formally pronounced against the fundamental principle of all the workers’ associations; — that of the economic and social equality of classes and individuals has, thereby, subscribed to the principles proclaimed by the Congrès des Travailleurs held at Geneva, Lausanne and Brussels. Several members of that minority, belonging to different nations, have proposed to us the organization of a new International Alliance of the Socialist Democracy, merged entirely in the great International Workingmen’s Association; but giving itself for special mission to study the political and philosophical questions on the basis of that same principle of the universal and real equality of all the human beings on the earth.

Convinced, from our side, of the utility of such an enterprise, which will give to the sincere socialist democrats of Europe and America the means of discussing and affirming their ideas, beyond all pressure on the part of that false socialism that the bourgeois democracy finds useful to show off today, we have thought we should take, in concert with these friends, the initiative of that new organization.

Consequently, we have constituted ourselves as the central section of the International Alliance of the Socialist Democracy, and we publish today its Program and Regulations.

Program of the Internationale Alliance of the Socialist Democracy.

1. The Alliance declares itself atheist; it desires the abolition of the cults, the substitution of science for faith, and human justice for divine justice.

2. It desires above all the political, economic and social equalization of the classes and of the individuals of both sexes, commencing with the abolition of the right of inheritance, in order that in the future the enjoyment be equal to the production of each, and that, in accordance with the decision taken by the last Congress of the workers at Brussels, the earth, the instruments of labor, like all other capital, becoming the collective property of the entire society, can only be utilized by the laborers, that is by the agricultural and industrial associations.

3. It desires for all the children of both sexes, from their entry into life, equality of the means of development, of upkeep, education and instruction in all the degrees of science, industry and the arts, convinced that that equality, at first only economic and social, will have as a result to bring about a greater and greater natural equality of individuals, making all the artificial inequalities, historical products of a social organization as false as iniquitous, disappear.

4. Enemy of all despotism, recognizing no other political for than the republican form, and absolutely rejecting every reactionary alliance, it also rejects all political action which does not have for its immediate and direct aim the triumph of the cause of the laborers against Capital.

5. It recognizes that all the political and authoritarian States presently existing, reducing themselves more and more to the simple administrative functions of the public services in their respective countries, should disappear in the universal union of the free Associations, both agricultural and industrial.

6. The social question can only find its definitive and real solution on the basis of the international or universal solidarity of the laborers of all nations, the Alliance rejects all politics founded on so-called patriotism and on the rivalry of nations.

7. It desires the universal Association of all the local Associations by Liberty.

Regulations

1. The International Alliance of the Socialist Democracy is established as a branch of the International Workingmen’s Association.

2. The founding members provisionally organize a Central Bureau of the Alliance at Geneva.

3. The founding members belonging to a single country constitute the National Bureau of that country.

4. The mission of the national bureaus is to establish in all the localities some local groups of the Alliance of the Socialist Democracy which through the intermediary of their respective National Bureaus, will demand of the Central Bureau of the Alliance their admission in the International Workingmen’s Association.

5. All the local groups will form their bureaus according to the adopted by the local sections of the International Workingmen’s Association.

6. All the members of the Alliance commit to pay a dues of ten centimes per month – half of which will be retained for its own needs by each national group, and the other half will be deposited in the fund of the Central Bureau of the Alliance for its general needs.
   In the countries where that figure will be judged too high, the National Bureaus, in concert with the Central Bureau, could reduce it.

7. At the annual Congress of the laborers the delegation of the branch of the Alliance of the Socialist Democracy will hold its sessions public and apart.