Zimmerwald Conference

The Zimmerwald Conference, held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 to 8, 1915, was the first of three international conferences convened by anti-militarist socialists in response to the outbreak of World War I and the resulting virtual collapse of the Second International. A total of 42 individuals and 11 organizations participated.^[1] Those participating in this and later conferences at Kienthal and Stockholm are known as the Zimmerwald movement. The Zimmerwald Conference began the final unraveling of the coalition within the Second International between revolutionary socialists, known as the "Zimmerwald Left" supporting Vladimir Lenin's line, and reformist socialists.

The conference issued a manifesto which denounced the war, blaming it on reactionary capitalist governments, and called for working-class unity and for a peace without annexations or reparations. It also established the International Socialist Commission to work for an end to the hostilities. Lenin opposed the majority, criticizing the adoption of peace as the overriding goal. He instead argued for the fighting to be transformed into socialist revolutions, and for the foundation of a new international, which was realized in the Russian October Revolution of 1917 and in the Comintern, founded 1919.