Labor and democratic movement. History of Germany Democratic and socialist movement

The French bourgeois revolution made a huge impression in England.

Whig leader Fox praised it as "the greatest and most beneficial event that ever happened in the world." The greatest English writers - Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Coleridge, Sheridan - enthusiastically welcomed the revolution.

True, already in 1790 the pamphlet “Reflections on the Revolution” appeared in England, which became the banner for all enemies of revolutionary France. The pamphlet was written by the former Whig Burke, who called the revolution a “satanic work” that threatened the death of the entire European civilization.

But Burke’s pamphlet caused violent protests and gave rise to a whole literature, including the book “The Rights of Man” by American Revolutionary participant Thomas Paine, which sold in a few years in a circulation then unprecedented for England - about a million copies. In addition to Payne, the publicist Price, the famous chemist, the writer Godwin and others also spoke out in defense of the French Revolution. Burke's ideas were also condemned by a significant part of the Whigs, who resumed their agitation for electoral reform.

The most important feature of the democratic movement in England in the 90s was the widespread participation in it of the lower ranks of the people and, above all, the workers. Along with the societies created by the Whigs, and often in opposition to them, new centers of the movement arose - not for liberal electoral reform, but for a decisive, radical democratization of the entire political system of England. The most important was the London Corresponding Society, which was formed at the beginning of 1792 and had a number of branches.

Its chairman was shoemaker Thomas Hardy. The mass agitation started by the society and the sending of delegations to France seriously alarmed the English government, headed since 1783 by William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806). Already at the end of 1792, repressions began; in particular, T. Payne, elected a member of the French Convention, was convicted in absentia.

In the war with France that began in February 1793, Pitt showed himself to be the most determined and ardent enemy of the revolution. “We must be prepared for a long war,” he said, “an irreconcilable war, right up to the extermination of this scourge of humanity.” In accordance with this, the Pitt government waged a bitter struggle against the democratic movement within the country.

The “British Convention of People's Delegates, united to achieve universal suffrage and annual parliaments,” which met in Edinburgh in November 1793, was dispersed, and its leaders were exiled to Australia for 14 years.

But democratic agitation continued to intensify. Burke believed that of the 400 thousand people interested in politics in England, at least 80 thousand should be classified as “decisive Jacobins.” The London Corresponding Society announced the convening of a new Convention. Then Pitt achieved a temporary repeal of the law on “personal rights” (the so-called Habeas corpus act).

The leaders of the Correspondent Society, led by Hardy, were arrested and put on trial. The court did not dare, however, to support the accusation. The day of Hardy's acquittal was celebrated by English democrats for half a century after that.

In 1795, there was a wave of food riots: flour warehouses, grain ships, etc. were seized. In October, on the eve of the parliamentary session, the London Corresponding Society organized huge rallies.

On the opening day of parliament, about 200 thousand Londoners took to the streets of the capital. Pitt was booed. Stones were thrown at the royal carriage; it was surrounded by a crowd shouting “Bread! Peace! Pitt responded with “seditious assembly” laws that effectively abolished freedom of assembly and the press.

In subsequent years, dissatisfaction with the Pitt government did not diminish. The successes of the French armies and the collapse of the first coalition, as well as the worsening food situation, increasing tax oppression and other internal difficulties made the government increasingly unpopular.

In 1797 there was hardly a single county where petitions were not filed demanding an end to the war and Pitt's resignation.

• Thirty Years' War
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Democratic and socialist movement

The Democratic Party was formed on the basis of the radical opposition movement. The main principle for the democrats was the principle of popular sovereignty and majority rule. There is one sovereignty, it is indivisible and resides in the people. Only a republic embodies the idea of ​​popular sovereignty, and not a monarchy, no matter how limited it may be.

In addition, the Democrats emphasized the principle of equality. They did not seek the complete abolition of social inequality, but wanted to limit it through tax legislation, inheritance laws and free access to education.

They valued equality above freedom; in the event of a conflict between them, democrats preferred equality and, unlike liberals, did not see this as a threat to freedom.

Democrats put a different meaning than liberals into the concept of “people.” For them, people are small people, dependent and oppressed. This understanding of the people and the principle of popular sovereignty among the democrats resulted in the demand for universal suffrage.

Democrats opposed not only the existing system, but also against the bourgeoisie - both the “bourgeoisie of wealth” (large owners) and the “bourgeoisie of education” (academicians, doctors, lawyers). They criticized the liberals for pinning all their expectations on parliament. The democratic movement had two components.

One of them was the radical intelligentsia - philosophers, writers, poets, publicists (Arnold Ruge, Joseph Bauer, Johann Jacobi). The second were representatives of the lower strata of the population from those areas of Germany that were in particularly distressed conditions, as well as areas with emerging large-scale industry and large cities.

Radicalism was represented to the greatest extent in Baden. The proximity to France and Switzerland also played a role here. In the democratic movement of the 1840s. Badeners Friedrich Hecker and Gustav Struve left a big mark.

In the 1830-1840s. The socialist movement is born in Germany. Its appearance is associated with the social changes that accompanied the birth of large-scale industry: the ruin of crafts, the marginalization of the population, the change or loss of social prospects. The Industrial Revolution posed many questions that socialist theory tried to answer.

The working class was placed at the center of her projects for a new social order. It was a theory about workers and for workers. Socialists called freedom, equality and fraternity the most important human rights. They opposed everything conservative, against the feudal system and the monarchy, and in this respect they can be called supporters of the liberal movement.

But socialists at the same time opposed liberalism, the bourgeoisie and “bourgeois privileges.” Anti-capitalism brought them closer to the radicals, but, unlike the democrats, they did not advocate restriction, but rather the destruction of private property, primarily the means of production.

The most conscious and mobile part of the working class in Germany in the 1830-1840s. there were artisans. It was from their organizations that arose in exile that the first socialist unions were formed (“Union of the Just”, “Union of Communists”).

The leading figure of early German socialism was Wilhelm Weitling, an itinerant apprentice craftsman, the only non-intellectual among the early theorists of socialism. Weitling owned several works, including “Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom,” which became, in fact, the program documents of the “Union of the Just.”

Weitling's ideal was egalitarian communism, the transition to which occurs as a result of revolution. A revolution, according to Weitling, can only be carried out by the most disadvantaged and desperate, especially the lumpen of big cities. In a heated debate with Weitling and other socialists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels began to develop their theory.

Thus, in the decade preceding the revolution, the first phase of the consolidation of political forces around several centers ended, which resulted in the first, still organizationally amorphous, but already ideologically formed political parties.

Cooperation in newspapers, correspondence, and personal meetings of opposition leaders accelerated the process of developing programs. It was first formulated by the democrats at a people's meeting in Offenburg (Baden) in September 1847. Although many of the program's formulations were vague, it was an attempt to take into account the interests of the lower strata of society and relieve growing social tensions.

In October 1847, at the congress in Geppenheim, the program of the liberal party was adopted. Its main points included the introduction of a constitution and the creation of a single union state with a single government and parliament. With these programs the Democratic and Liberal parties entered the revolution.

The first revolutionary events in France (1789) generated enthusiasm among the advanced part of English society.

Whig majority and their leader Charles Fox assessed the storming of the Bastille as “the greatest and most beneficial event that has ever happened in the world.” Famous English and Scottish writers and poets also welcomed the revolution: R. Burns, R. Sheridan, U. Wordsworth, S. Coleridge, who wrote the freedom-loving poem “The Taking of the Bastille,” etc.

He was an ardent opponent of the French Revolution Edmund Burke one of the former Whig leaders. In 1790, he wrote a pamphlet, “Reflections on the French Revolution,” in which he called the revolution a “satanic work.” Over the next few years, this book was read throughout Europe. Burke contrasted the doctrine of natural human rights with the wisdom of centuries, and with projects of rational reconstruction - a warning about the high price of revolutionary changes. He predicted civil war, anarchy and despotism and was the first to draw attention to the large-scale conflict of ideologies that had begun. However, Burke's political views aroused criticism, including from friends in the party, and in 1791 he stopped political activities. Burke's work evoked a sharp rebuke from T. Paine, a participant in the War of Independence in North America and the French Revolution, who defended the idea of ​​the sovereignty of the people and their right to a revolutionary uprising.

Writer W. Godwin With his novel “Caleb Williams,” he marked the transition from enlightenment to the social orientation of the work of romantic writers. His treatise “Discourse on Political Justice” influenced the views of the great utopian, one of the first social reformers

XIX century R. Owen, who sought to improve the situation of workers and implement the idea of ​​labor communes.

Since the 1790s, the grassroots began to take wide part in the democratic movement. So, at the beginning of 1792 it was created London Corresponding Society, which was headed by a shoemaker Thomas Hardy politician, fighter for parliamentary reform. The society set as its goal the achievement of suffrage for the entire male population. The mass agitation started by the Society and the sending of a delegation to France seriously alarmed the British government, led by William Pitt Jr. and already at the end of 1792, repressions began against supporters of the democratic movement, which intensified in 1793, when the war between England and revolutionary France began.

In 1793, the British Convention of the People's Legates, which had gathered in Edinburgh and united to achieve universal suffrage and annual parliaments, was dispersed, and its leaders were exiled to Australia.

William Pitt Jr

The leaders of the London Corresponding Society were arrested and put on trial, although the court acquitted its leaders - T. Hardy and others. The laws adopted by the government on seditious meetings actually abolished freedom of speech in the country.

Despite the counter-revolutionary measures taken, dissatisfaction with the U. government grew in the country. Pitta, which spread to the navy. The sailors' revolt was suppressed (1797). The leader of the uprising is a sailor Richard Parker was executed by court order.

In 1798, all members of the London Corresponding Society were arrested. The leaders of the United Irishmen were also arrested, and an armed uprising in some areas of Ireland was also brutally suppressed.

But it was not repression that helped consolidate the English nation, but the war with France, which began in 1793. The fear of invasion from France united the nation. In the fall of 1799, the English parliament passed a law that prohibited the activities of trade unions, political societies and associations in England (valid until 1834).

• At his spinning mill near Glasgow, Robert Owen organized a model village for workers, the working day was reduced to 10.5 hours, the work of children under 10 years of age was prohibited, and shops with cheap goods were opened.

The “pseudo-republic” formed in 1902 not only did not meet, but also contradicted the interests of the absolute majority of the Cuban people. Many prominent public and political figures in Cuba understood this. The famous philosopher Enrique José Varona, criticizing conservatives for their admiration for the United States, wrote: “They ask others for an effective medicine, but I think that it would be reasonable to look for it in the vital forces of our social organism. If there are no such forces or they are so insignificant that they are not able to force us to recover, then no political potion will save us.” Of course, the people who fought for their national liberation for several centuries had such forces. Among them, first of all, it is necessary to name the working class, whose struggle, in its objective-historical content, coincided with the national ones and, despite the ideological and organizational weakness noted above, influenced political life.

At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. the formation of the class consciousness of the Cuban proletariat was influenced by anarchism, reformism and Marxism. Reformist tendencies were inherent primarily in the Socialist Party of Cuba, formed on March 29, 1899.

The first parties on the island did not, as a rule, represent established political organizations of any one class; they sought to attract the most diverse sectors of society to their side, which made them amorphous and short-lived, and program documents vague and contradictory.

The Socialist Party was such an organization. In the manifesto “To the People of Cuba,” party founder Diego Vicente Tejera and his associates called for a fight to alleviate the plight of workers, and drew the attention of legislators to the “monstrous relationship between labor and capital.” However, elements of the liberal bourgeoisie who found themselves in the leadership of the party did not share such radicalism. Tejera and some other leaders of the Socialist Party did not see concrete ways to liberate themselves from capitalist exploitation. After existing for several months, the party disbanded.

On September 8, 1899, anarchists Enrique Mesonier and Enrique Cracci formed the General League of Cuban Workers, guided in its activities by the following principles:

1) all Cuban workers must enjoy the same benefits and guarantees as foreign workers in the various enterprises of the country;

2) to facilitate in every possible way the involvement of Cuban emigrants in the workshops, whose return to their homeland is becoming increasingly necessary;

3) launch a campaign in defense of the moral rights and material interests of Cuban women workers;

4) do everything possible to give employment to all the orphans wandering on our streets, whether they are the children of independence fighters or not;

5) be ready to fight against any subversive elements seeking in any way to slow down the successful development of the Cuban Republic.

Despite the frank economism of the League’s basic demands, its activities had a number of positive aspects, and the most important of them was the awakening of the broad proletarian masses of the island to the struggle to improve their situation. At the same time, anarcho-syndicalist tendencies in the activities of this organization significantly hampered the development of the labor movement, adversely affecting its organizational cohesion and discipline, dooming workers to oblivion of political demands. The denial by anarcho-syndicalists of the role of the peasantry in the revolutionary movement significantly narrowed the social base of the struggle on a national scale.

A certain amount of disorientation introduced by anarchists into the labor movement did not prevent the Cuban proletariat from demonstrating its class solidarity during the first American occupation of the island. Builders, tobacco workers, railway stokers, bakery workers, printers, etc. went on strike. In a number of cases, the demands of the strikers - an increase in wages and a reduction in working hours - were satisfied.

The workers' hopes that their situation would improve with the proclamation of the republic

didn't come true. As a result, less than two months after T. Estrada Palma assumed the presidency, unrest began in various parts of the country. They took on a special scale in November

1902, when the first general strike in Cuban history occurred. Havana, Cienfuegos and Cruces became centers of the strike movement. Barricades have appeared on some streets across the country. The strikers demanded: the establishment of an 8-hour working day, higher wages, and granting Cuban teenagers equal rights with Spanish ones when hiring. The army and police brutally suppressed this national uprising of the proletariat, and the General League of Cuban Workers announced its dissolution.

It is known that a labor movement that develops independently, without leadership from the proletarian party, inevitably leads to trade unionism, to a purely economic struggle.

In Cuba, Carlos Baliño (1848 - 1926), the first Cuban Marxist, a prominent figure in the Cuban communist and labor movement in Cuba, devoted a lot of strength and energy to the creation of such a party. Returning from the USA in 1902, the following year he founded the Socialist Propaganda Club in Havana - the first Marxist circle on the island; in 1905 he published the brochure “The Truth about Socialism”, in which he outlined the most important tenets of Marxism.

In 1904, the Cuban Workers' Party was formed, which was reformist in nature. C. Baliño joined its ranks in order to, relying on the proletarian core, fight for a new party. In 1905 this goal seemed to have been achieved. In the adopted program documents, based on the principles of Marxism, for the first time in the history of the island's labor movement, the question of the proletariat seizing power in the country and the destruction of private ownership of the means of production was raised, and the party itself began to be called the Workers' Socialist Party of the Island of Cuba.

The party was outlawed. The difficulties of the illegal struggle were soon added to by acute contradictions between C. Baliño and the leadership of the Socialist Union of the International, which joined the party in 1906 - organizations consisting of Spanish socialists living in Cuba and adhering to anarcho-syndicalist views.

Of course, given the general weakness at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the political movement of the proletariat in Cuba, the ideas of scientific socialism were close and understandable only to a small number of workers. This circumstance, along with the irreconcilable ideological and political struggle between supporters of Marxism and anarchism, as well as the chauvinism introduced by the Spaniards from the Socialist Union of the International, were the main reasons that the Workers' Socialist Party of the island of Cuba was unable to become a unifying and leading center expressing the class interests of the entire proletariat .

With the outbreak of the First World War, the European socialist parties of the Second International found themselves in a deep crisis, which also gripped the socialist parties of Latin America, mainly created in the image and likeness of German Social Democracy and using the Erfurt Program as a model for their program documents. The Workers' Socialist Party of the island of Cuba did not escape this fate and found itself on the verge of collapse. At the same time, individual detachments of this party, for example in the city of Manzanillo, enjoyed significant influence and authority among the workers. Years of struggle against anarchism enriched C. Baliño and his associates with experience in working with the masses and contributed to the spread of Marxism. In turn, some anarchist leaders, in particular

A. Lopez, in the crucible of class battles, overcame their class delusions and switched to the position of scientific socialism.

In 1907, 2,048,980 people lived in Cuba. 43.9% was urban population, and in 20 cities the number of residents exceeded 8 thousand; 355 thousand people lived in Havana and its environs. A characteristic phenomenon of the first six years of the republic's existence was a high level of immigration. An average of 35 thousand people arrived on the island annually, of which 82% were Spaniards and 5% were from the United States. According to the 1907 census, the detachment of factory workers numbered 126 thousand, 135 thousand were employed in trade and transport, and 375 thousand in agriculture, fishing and mining.

In 1906-1908 A significant step in the development of the labor movement was the creation of large trade unions, such as the Union of Tobacco Workers, the Union of Bricklayers and Apprentices, the Cuban League of Railway Workers and Employees (in Camagüey), and the United Railway Workers (in Havana).

An important link in the development of the consciousness of the Cuban proletariat was the movement of solidarity with Russian class brothers during the revolution of 1905-1907. Much work was done to explain the goals and objectives of the struggle of Russian workers by C. Baligno, who published a number of articles about events in Russia in the newspaper La Vos Obrera. “The hearts of millions of socialists in all parts of the world,” he wrote in 1905, “are today in the small towns of Russia, where a grandiose labor movement of a revolutionary nature is gaining strength.

Along with the revolutionary events in Russia during this period, the pages of the Cuban press paid much attention to the demands of the world progressive intelligentsia for the release of the great proletarian writer A.M. from the tsarist prison. Gorky. Prominent figures of Cuban culture made a similar demand to the Russian consul in Havana, and the leadership of the Association of Cuban Journalists sent a letter to the tsarist government in which they protested against the arrest of the writer. One of the influential Havana magazines, El Figaro, published an article about the life and work of A.M. Gorky, who noted first of all “the greatness of his soul and the rare beauty of his talent.”

The heroic example of Russian workers gave new impetus to the strike movement in Cuba. Many workers, as noted above, opposed the occupation of Cuba by American troops. In addition, tobacco workers, railway workers, loaders, carters, and food workers went on strike, putting forward mainly economic demands.

It is characteristic that the American occupation authorities, trying to break up the strike wave, repeatedly recruited strikebreakers brought from the United States to work in some sectors of the Cuban economy, for example, in railway transport. The immigration of cheap labor from China, Haiti, and Jamaica, stimulated in every possible way by the owners of foreign companies, helped them maintain low wages and, if necessary, resort to lockouts. Under such conditions, the scattered actions of Cuban workers rarely led to even partial success.

As already noted, racial discrimination was not eliminated with the formation of the republic. Moreover, the control established by the United States over Cuba led to increased persecution of people of color. This caused a massive protest among blacks and mulattoes. In 1908, the Independent Colored People's Union was formed, later called the Independent Colored People's Party. Of course, it cannot be considered a political party, since it was based on the principle of race.

This organization, which included a large number of workers, had significant forces due to the fact that it included yesterday’s fighters of the National Liberation Army, led by General Evaristo Estenos. The “Colored Party” was supported by 12 more generals, 30 colonels and hundreds of junior officers, and the number of its members was about 60 thousand people. The goals of the “party”’s struggle were quite progressive in nature: the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, the abolition of the death penalty, free university education, the provision of greater benefits to Cubans compared to foreigners when hiring, the distribution of public lands among peasants, an 8-hour working day, the creation workers' tribunals, which would become the main arbiters in resolving emerging problems between capitalists and workers.

Such radicalism among the colored population seriously worried the Cuban bourgeoisie. The Senate outlawed the "Colored Party." In response to this, on May 20, 1912, she took up arms against the government. An uprising that affected mainly the province of Oriente and part of the province

Las Villas was brutally suppressed.

The struggle between labor and capital gradually deepened and intensified. The first workers' congress during the years of the republic, held in Havana in August, could have become an important milestone in its history, but was not

1914. Its originality lay in the fact that it was actually prepared and organized by the government of Menocal, who was thus trying to bring the proletarian movement in the country under its control.

Travel expenses and expenses for the stay of more than 1,300 delegates in Havana were borne by the government, and Justice Minister Cristobal de la Guardia, who opened the congress, called on Cuban workers to strive for the standard of living achieved by most civilized nations, but “without causing too much damage bourgeois class."

The work of this “strange” (as defined by the Cuban historian S. Aguirre) congress took place in the mainstream of bourgeois reformism; The Menocal government attempted to bribe the leaders of the largest trade unions and create “yellow” trade unions. At the meetings of the congress, the speeches of almost all speakers (with rare exceptions) were of a conciliatory nature, which was influenced primarily by the system of selecting delegates, many of whom had nothing to do with the working class.

At the same time, the workers who attended the congress did not comply with the “scenario” provided for by government officials and criticized the high cost and against the oblivion of the ideals of H. Marti, they said that colonial orders were preserved in Cuba and that, despite the constitution of 1901 ., “everything remains as it was before. The Congress did not make any decisions on the labor issue and limited itself to only a resolution against war and German militarism.

The First World War increased the demand for Cuban sugar. However, a significant influx of foreign currency into the country did not improve the situation of workers. Food prices (mainly imported from abroad) rose sharply during the war years, and wages were frozen, which led to an intensification of class struggle during this period.

A new wave of strikes arose. Sugar workers were at the forefront of the struggle. Of particular note is the strike in the Guantanamo and Cruces areas. Their courage and determination to fight to the bitter end (they put forward demands of an economic nature) forced the government to send 1,500 soldiers to the eastern provinces to intimidate the workers and restore order during the safra of 1915. But the punitive bayonets did not sway the workers, unrest in these zones continued throughout 1915

Literally the entire island was covered with the words from the manifesto of the workers of Cruces: “We, the workers, produce everything we need for life, and all crimes are committed against us. Our life is an eternal hell that never ends and never disappears. From the moment of birth until death we drag out a miserable existence. Why are we doomed to this suffering and this poverty while next to us in orgies they are burning away what we desperately need? Why do those who produce nothing have mountains of everything, but we, the workers, do not have the most essential things? Why do we tolerate such injustice and endure this pain?

The manifesto called for the unity of all workers on the island. Thus, the harsh school of life and the inexorable laws of class struggle opened the workers’ eyes to the possibility of liberation from the shackles of capital through the unification of the efforts of the proletariat on a national scale. But on the way to this unity, the working class of Cuba still had to go through many trials.

The weakness of the labor movement during this period was the underestimation of the peasants’ struggle for their rights. The peasants' struggle was primarily against displacement from their occupied lands. Depriving the Guajiro of the basis of his existence - land - has become an integral part of the “agrarian policy” of the Cuban government since the birth of the “pseudo-republic”. As more and more latifundias, owned by foreign companies, emerged in Cuba, an increasing number of Cuban peasants became bankrupt and tried to defend their rights. But the Guajiros' protests were even more scattered and spontaneous than the workers' movement.

The class battles of the first 15 years of the republic’s existence did not bring tangible successes to the revolutionary democratic forces of Cuban society. Nevertheless, they had enormous historical significance, since they marked the beginning of the struggle of the Cuban people to resolve the main contradiction of “independent” Cuba, the contradiction between the interests of the Cuban nation, on the one hand, and American imperialism and its allies on the island - latifundists, sugar refiners and representatives of the trade the bourgeoisie associated with import and export operations, on the other. The struggle to destroy this contradiction became the dominant feature of Cuban history until the victory of the revolution in 1959.

MASS DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENTS are a complex social phenomenon associated with the struggle of various social strata and groups for peace and democracy, for nature protection, for equality, for social progress, and for solving other problems of our time.

After the Second World War, mass social movements rose to a new level of development. They became especially widespread in the 70s and 80s. A number of them arose outside the framework of political parties, reflecting the crisis of political parties as an institution of a democratic society.

Leading social movements spoke out in defense of peace, democracy and social progress, against all manifestations of reaction and neo-fascism. Social movements of our time make a great contribution to protecting the environment, defending civil rights and freedoms, and fighting for the participation of workers in the management of enterprises and the state. Social movements provide broad support to the fair demands of women, youth, and national minorities.

The leading role in many movements belonged to workers. However, in recent decades the social composition of many social movements has expanded significantly. Some of them include representatives from all social strata of modern Western societies.

Communists. The communists played an important role in the victory over fascism. The heroic struggle on the fronts and behind enemy lines, active participation in the Resistance movement in the countries of Europe enslaved by the fascists increased the authority of communist parties in the world. Their influence and numbers have increased significantly. If in 1939 there were 61 communist parties in the world, numbering about 4 million, then by the end of 1945, communist parties existed in 76 countries, which united 20 million people. In the first post-war years, the number of communists grew even more. In 1950, there were 81 parties operating in the world, and the number of communists grew to 75 million people.

From 1945 to 1947, communists were part of the coalition governments of France, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Finland. Their representatives were elected to the parliaments of most Western European countries. In the period from 1944 to 1949, communist parties became ruling in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe and in a number of Asian countries, and later in Cuba.

During the war years (1943) the Comintern was dissolved. However, the dependence of the Communist Parties on the CPSU remained. New tasks required strengthening the international ties of the planet's communists. In September 1947, a meeting of representatives of the Communist Parties of the USSR, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, France and Italy took place in Poland. At the meeting, information reports were heard on the activities of the parties represented at the meeting. The issue of the international situation was also discussed. The adopted Declaration set the fundamental tasks of the struggle for peace, democracy, national sovereignty, and the unity of all anti-imperialist forces before the Communist Parties. To coordinate the activities of the Communist parties and exchange work experience, it was decided to create an Information Bureau and organize the publication of a printed organ. At meetings held in June 1948 in Romania and November 1949 in Hungary, documents were adopted on the defense of peace and the need to strengthen the unity of the working class and communists.

Serious disagreements between the CPSU and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Stalin's pressure on other communist parties led to exclusion from the Information Bureau of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. After 1949, the Information Bureau did not meet. Subsequently, relations between the Communist Parties began to be carried out in the form of bilateral and multilateral meetings and international meetings on a voluntary basis.

In 1957 and 1966, international meetings of representatives of communist parties were held in Moscow. The most pressing problems of the communist movement, democracy, peace and social progress were reflected in the documents adopted at the meetings. However, in subsequent years, dangerous trends and discrepancies began to appear associated with the departure of the leadership of the Communist Party of China from Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.

In the 60s, there was a significant deterioration in relations between the CPSU and the Communist Party of China, between the CPC and other communist parties. The gap between the CPC and the CPSU had a serious impact on the unity of the ICM. Some communist parties switched to Maoist positions, and in others Maoist groups appeared. An acute crisis in the ICD arose in connection with the entry of troops of the Warsaw Pact states into Czechoslovakia. 24 Communist Parties, including Italian and French, condemned the military intervention. After this, it was difficult to convene the Conference of Communist and Workers' Parties in July 1969. Disagreements continued to intensify. Five communist parties refused to sign the final document of the Conference, four parties, including the Italian and Australian, agreed to sign only one section, some signed the document with reservations.

In 1977, the General Secretaries of the influential communist parties of Western Europe - Italian (E. Berlinguer), French (J. Marchais) and Spanish (S. Carrillo) adopted a declaration against the ICM's orientation towards the Soviet model of socialism. The new movement was called “Eurocommunism”. "Eurocommunists

“advocated for a peaceful path of development of countries towards socialism. The USCP has been criticized for its lack of democracy and violation of human rights. Countries of “real socialism” were condemned for subordinating the state to the party. "Eurocommunists" expressed the opinion that the Soviet Union had lost its revolutionary role.

The new trend was supported by many communist parties, including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Japan. Some parties - Australia, Greece, Spain, Finland, Sweden - split. As a result, two or even three communist parties were formed in these countries.

In recent decades, the discrepancy between the ideological and political orientation of communist parties and real social development has increased. This led to a crisis in the views, policies and organization of the communist parties. Most of all, it affected those parties that were in power and were responsible for the development of their countries. The collapse of “real socialism” in the countries of Eastern Europe and the departure from the scene of the CPSU made it obvious that there was a need for a serious revision of the traditional views, policies and organization of communist parties, and for them to develop a new ideological and political orientation that would correspond to the profound changes taking place in the world.

Socialists and Social Democrats. Socialist International. In 1951 At the congress in Frankfurt am Main, the Socialist International (SI) was founded, which proclaimed itself the successor of the RSI, which existed from 1923 to 1940. The leading role in the creation of the SI was played by British Labor, the SPD, and the socialist parties of Belgium, Italy, and France. At first, it included 34 socialist and social democratic parties, numbering about 10 million people.

The program declaration “Goals and Objectives of Democratic Socialism” put forward the goal: gradually, without class struggle, revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat, to achieve the transformation of capitalism into socialism. The peaceful evolutionary process was opposed to the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of class struggle. The declaration declared that the main threat to peace was the policy of the USSR. The creation of the SI and its strategy in the first post-war decades intensified the confrontation between the two branches of the international labor movement - social democratic and communist.

In the late 50s and especially in the 60s and early 70s, social democracy significantly expanded mass support for its policies. This was facilitated by objective circumstances that favored the implementation of a policy of social maneuvering. The expansion of the Socialist International's membership was important. The entry into its ranks of socialist parties from countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America led to the strengthening of positive trends in it. The Declaration “The World Today – a Socialist Perspective”, adopted in 1962, recognized the need for peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems and called for international detente and disarmament. Subsequently, the SI increasingly advocated strengthening peace and universal security.

In the 70s, the SI continued to adhere to the ideology and principles of “democratic socialism”. More attention began to be paid to the problems of the socio-economic situation of workers. The SI spoke out more actively and more constructively for peace and disarmament, supported W. Brandt's new “Eastern Policy”, Soviet-American agreements on arms limitation and reduction, for strengthening detente, and against the Cold War.

In the 1980s, the Social Democrats faced certain difficulties. The number of some parties has been reduced. In leading Western countries (England, Germany) they were defeated in the elections and lost power to the neoconservatives. The difficulties of the 1980s were caused by a number of factors. The contradictory consequences of scientific and technological progress and economic growth became more acute. Economic and other global problems have worsened. It was not possible to stop unemployment, and in a number of countries it assumed alarming proportions. An active offensive was carried out by neoconservative forces. On many issues of concern, the SI developed a new strategy and tactics, which were reflected in the program documents of the Social Democratic parties and in the Declaration of Principles of the Socialist International, adopted in 1989.

The ultimate goal proclaimed by social democrats is to achieve social democracy, i.e. in ensuring all social rights of workers (rights to work, education, rest, treatment, housing, social security), in eliminating all forms of oppression, discrimination, exploitation of man by man, in guaranteeing all conditions for the free development of each individual as a condition for the free development of the entire society .

The goals of democratic socialism must be achieved, social democratic parties emphasize, by peaceful, democratic means, through the gradual evolution of society, through reforms and class cooperation. In the post-war years, Social Democrats were in power in a number of countries (Austria, England, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Finland).

Despite the fact that they often made concessions to the bourgeoisie and big capital, an objective assessment of their activities indicates that, first of all, they reflected and defended the interests of the working people. Their contribution is significant to the defense of democracy, the formation and development of the state, welfare, to improving the financial situation of workers, to the advancement of their countries on the path of social progress, to the establishment of universal peace and international security, to improving relations between the West and the East, to solving complex problems " third world."

In 1992, the 19th SI Congress took place. It took place in Berlin. The French socialist Pierre Mauroy was elected chairman. New socialist and social democratic parties have emerged in a number of countries, including in the independent states of the CIS.

The parties of the Socialist International are represented by large factions in the parliaments of many Western countries.

On November 8–9, 1999, the XXI Congress of the Socialist International took place in Paris. The congress was attended by 1,200 delegates representing 143 parties from 100 countries. The importance of the congress is also evidenced by the fact that among the delegates were the President of Argentina and eleven prime ministers.

ministers. In the unanimously adopted declaration, among many important provisions reflecting the modern problems of the world, special attention was paid to the need to “give social change to the processes of globalization,” “improve representative democracy,” and protect “the balance between rights and responsibilities.”

Despite the fact that in recent decades the “neoconservative wave” has intensified in leading Western countries, social democracy has had and is having a noticeable influence on political and social life in the Western world. Private enterprise remains regulated, democracy remains universal. Social rights of workers are ensured by the state.

Trade unions. In the post-war years, the role of trade unions, the most massive organization of wage workers, increased. By the beginning of the 90s, trade unions united in international organizations alone numbered over 315 million people. Already in the 50s and 60s, millions of members of the WFTU, created at the 1st World Trade Union Congress in Paris in September 1945, actively advocated for improving the financial situation of workers. Much attention was paid to the fight against unemployment, the development of the social insurance system, and upholding the rights of trade unions. An important place in the activities of trade unions was occupied by issues related to the struggle of the popular masses for the prohibition of atomic weapons, the cessation of wars and regional conflicts, and the strengthening of universal security.

The WFTU enjoyed constant support from the national

liberation movement. The World Trade Union Congresses in Vienna (1953), in Leipzig (1957), in Moscow (1961) were devoted to the development of strategy and tactics of the international trade union movement, the restoration of the unity of trade unions, the struggle for the vital rights of workers, for peace and national independence of workers: in Vienna (1953), in Leipzig (1957). .), in Warsaw (1965), in Budapest (1969). They played an important role in raising the authority and growing influence of the WFTU in the international trade union movement.

At the World Congress in Budapest (1969), the “Orientation Document for Trade Union Action” was approved. This document oriented workers to achieve the elimination of the economic and political domination of monopolies, the creation of democratic institutions of power, and ensuring the active participation of the working class in economic management. The focus was also on issues of unity in the international trade union movement. In the 70s and 80s, the WFTU continued to pay primary attention to the problems of reducing armaments and strengthening peace, ending the arms race, supported the peoples of Indochina, Africa, Latin America, who in different years in individual countries fought to strengthen their independence, for democratic freedoms. Issues of unity of action occupied an important place. The WFTU called on other international trade union centers to take joint action in defense of the interests of workers, the fight against unemployment, and to resist monopoly capital. The World Trade Union Congresses and Conferences that took place during this period showed all the diversity of forms of struggle of the WFTU in defending the fundamental interests of workers.

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) plays an important role in the international trade union movement. It includes trade unions in industrial and some developing countries. To better coordinate the activities of its member trade unions, the ICFTU created regional organizations: Asia-Pacific, Inter-American, African. As part of the ICFTU, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) was created in 1973. The ICFTU began to speak out more energetically in support of the socio-economic demands of the working people, for the strengthening of peace and disarmament, and against specific acts of aggression. She welcomed the democratic revolutions in the countries of Eastern Europe, perestroika in the USSR, supported the efforts of the international community to help them, and began to more actively advocate an end to regional military conflicts.

In the post-war years, trade unions influenced by the church intensified their activities in Western countries. In 1968, the International Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ICTU) changed its name. The XII Congress of the ICLP decided to call the organization the World Confederation of Labor (CGT). The CGT defends human rights and trade union freedoms, fights to improve the situation of the population in the “third world”, calls for the activation of women in public life; calls for the fight against all types of exploitation and discrimination. An important place is given to global problems of our time, especially environmental ones. The CGT supported the changes that took place in Eastern Europe and welcomes positive changes in international relations.

Trade unions, being the most massive organizations of the labor movement, contributed to its significant successes and social progress in general.

In the early 90s, the world trade union movement numbered, according to various estimates, 500–600 million people, which amounted to 40–50% of the army of hired labor. They do not cover the entire mass of hired workers in developed Western countries, including those predominantly employed in traditional sectors of material production.

The crisis state of trade unions in modern conditions is associated with the inadequacy of their activities to the profound changes that have occurred in the nature of work and the structure of employment in leading Western countries, under the influence of the industrial and industrial sector. Trade unions are trying to change their strategy and tactics, defend the interests of workers more broadly, pay more attention to global problems, and strengthen cooperation with other mass democratic movements.

Other mass social movements. In the post-war years, almost all countries experienced an exodus from traditional political parties and trade unions. Disillusioned members of these organizations sought to gain more freedom and did not want to put up with rigid ideological guidelines. This was especially true for student youth. Many different groups emerged, uniting on a voluntary basis into movements that were not bound by either strict discipline or a common ideology.

In the context of crisis phenomena in the socio-economic and political spheres in the 70s, new movements arose that embraced people of different social classes, different ages and political views.

Mass social movements in the 70s and 80s had different directions. The most widespread and had a significant impact on the socio-political life of the Western world were environmental and anti-war movements.

Representatives of the environmental movement in many countries actively oppose over-industrialization and irrational exploitation of natural resources. Particular attention is paid to problems related to the danger of the environmental crisis escalating into an environmental disaster, which could lead to the death of human civilization. In this regard, the environmental movement advocates a ban on nuclear weapons testing, limitation and cessation of military activities, and disarmament. The environmental movement views disarmament and the associated conversion of military production as the most important potential source of additional resources, material and intellectual, for solving environmental problems. Among mass social movements, environmental movements are the most organized and developed in theoretical and practical terms. They created their own “green” political parties and international organizations (Greenpeace) in many countries, and a single faction in the European Parliament. The “green” movement supports active cooperation within the UN and many non-governmental organizations.

Among the mass movements in Western countries, the anti-war movement occupies an important place. Even during the Second World War, it consolidated on a democratic anti-fascist basis, which in the post-war period became the basis of a mass movement of peace supporters. At the II World Congress in Warsaw (1950), the World Peace Council (WPC) was established, which organized a campaign to sign the Stockholm Proclamation, which qualified atomic war as a crime against humanity. In the mid-50s, anti-nuclear pacifism became widespread in Western countries. In the second half of the 50s, mass anti-nuclear organizations or their coalitions were created in many Western countries. In the early 70s, the movement against the Vietnam War gained particular momentum. In the second half of the 70s and early 80s, participants in the anti-war movement actively opposed the neutron bomb and the deployment of American and Soviet medium-range missiles in Europe.

In the 60s and 70s, the women's movement intensified. In line with the youth rebellion, a neo-feminist movement arose, speaking from the position of the latest concepts of a “mixed” rather than a “sexually divided” society, and “social consciousness of the sexes”, overcoming “violence against women”. Representatives of the women's movement in Western countries actively oppose men's monopoly on power in society, and for equal representation of women in all spheres of activity and all social institutions.

In recent decades, women's civic activity has increased. They have an increasing influence on politics, are elected to the parliaments of many countries, and occupy high government positions. Women's interest in global problems of our time has increased. Women actively participate in the anti-war movement. All this speaks to the emerging trend of increasing the role of women in the life of their countries and the transformation of the women's movement into an influential force in modern democracy.

At the turn of the 60s, a youth protest movement (hippies) arose in the United States and other Western countries. This movement arose as a reaction to the specific features of modern bureaucracy and totalitarianism, to the desire to put all spheres of an individual’s life under bureaucratic control, the contradiction between democratic ideology and totalitarian practice, and the growing depersonalization of the bureaucratic structure. The hippie style and slogans became quite widespread in the 70s and 80s, having a strong influence on the value world of the West. Many counterculture ideals have become an integral part of mass consciousness. The hipster generation launched a passion for rock music, which has now become an essential element of traditional culture.

In a number of Western countries in the 60s – 80s, extremism developed, which is traditionally divided into “left” and “right”. Left extremists usually appeal to the ideas of Marxism -

Leninism and other leftist views (anarchism, left radicalism), declaring themselves the most consistent fighters “for the cause of the proletariat”, “the working masses”. They criticized capitalism for social inequality, suppression of the individual, and exploitation. Socialism is for bureaucratization, oblivion of the principles of “class struggle” (“Red Army Faction” in Germany, “Red Brigades” in Italy). Right-wing extremists denounce the vices of bourgeois society from extremely conservative positions for the decline of morals, drug addiction, selfishness, consumerism and “mass culture”, lack of “order”

", the dominance of plutocracy. Both right-wing and left-wing extremism are characterized by anti-communism (“Italian Social Movement” in Italy, Republican and National

democratic parties in Germany, various right-wing radical and openly fascist groups and parties in the USA). Some of the “left” extremist organizations are illegal, wage guerrilla warfare, and commit terrorist acts.

In the 60s and 70s, movements such as the “New Left” and “New Right” also developed in the Western world. Representatives of the “New Left” (mainly students and some of the intelligentsia) were distinguished by their various criticisms of all contemporary forms of socio-political structure and organization of economic life from the standpoint of extreme radicalism (including terrorism) and anarchism. The “New Right” (mainly the intelligentsia, technocrats and some other privileged sections of developed Western countries) relied on the ideology of neoconservatism.

Modern mass social movements are a vital part of the democratic process. Their priorities are the ideas of peace, democracy, social progress, and the salvation of human civilization. Social movements overwhelmingly support nonviolent action, believing that humane goals cannot be achieved through inhumane means.

In the 90s of the twentieth century, a critical attitude towards modern processes of globalization developed in the minds of the broad masses. Subsequently, it grew into powerful resistance especially to economic globalization, from which the most developed countries of the West benefit. Occupying advanced positions in the global economy and the latest technologies, they protect their interests by pursuing a policy of double standards. At the same time, the economic, social and other costs of globalization are weighing heavily on the weak economies of developing countries and on the poorest social strata of the population even in developed countries.

Under these conditions, a new social movement directed against the policy of globalization began to be called “anti-globalist.” Transnational in scope and character, it includes representatives of a wide variety of protest movements, who are united by their rejection of the deepest socio-economic inequalities of the modern world.

Geopolitics and globalization

See previous

Recently, the anti-globalization movement has become quite widespread, as a reaction to the process of globalization. This term appeared only in 1983. It was first used in America to refer to the merger of markets for individual products produced in different countries.

Most political scientists believe that globalization is a process associated with the breakdown of national-state borders. As a result, state borders become more transparent for the international division of labor, media, business, shadow economy, politics, and so on. An example of globalization in politics is the permanent meetings of the G20 (G20) and the G8 (G8). Anti-globalization actions are usually held at the same time as the G8 and G20 summits. Of all the mass movements, anti-globalists are the most scandalous.

Participants in the anti-globalization movement note that globalization has exacerbated a number of problems:

1_Uneven development of globalization processes. They believe that some countries have been thrown to the margins of globalization.

2_Contradictions between universal human and state, corporate interests.

3_Widening gap between rich and poor countries.

4_Exacerbation of contradictions between TNCs (transnational corporations) and national states.

5_Contradictions between globalization and the desire for identity, for self-determination of peoples, the desire to preserve their own culture, language, customs and traditions.

Anti-globalism is not developed in Russia.

Global problems of the world

The global problems of our time are a set of socio-natural problems, the solution of which determines the social progress of mankind and the preservation of civilization. These problems are characterized by dynamism, arise as an objective factor in the development of society and require the united efforts of all humanity to be solved. Global problems are interconnected, cover all aspects of people's lives and affect all countries of the world.

The term appeared in the 1960s. thanks to the activities of the Club of Rome

List of global problems

· preventing thermonuclear war and ensuring peace for all peoples, preventing the proliferation of nuclear technologies and radioactive pollution of the environment unauthorized by the world community;

· regulation of rapid population growth;

· prevention of catastrophic environmental pollution and reduction of biodiversity;

· providing humanity with resources;

· bridging the development gap between rich and poor countries, eliminating poverty, hunger and illiteracy;

· ozone holes;

· the problem of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and AIDS.

Global problems are a consequence of the confrontation between natural nature and human culture, as well as the inconsistency or incompatibility of multidirectional trends in the development of human culture itself. Natural nature exists on the principle of negative feedback (see biotic regulation of the environment), while human culture exists on the principle of positive feedback.

Attempts to solve

Demographic transition - the natural end of the population explosion of the 1960s

Nuclear disarmament

Energy saving

Montreal Protocol (1989) - combating ozone holes

Kyoto Protocol (1997) - combating global warming.

Scientific prizes for successful radical life extension of mammals (mice) and their rejuvenation.