Zimmerwald Conference The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald , Switzerland , from 5 to 8 September 1915 . It was the first of three international socialist conferences convened by anti - militarist socialist parties from countries that were originally neutral during World War I . The individuals and organizations participating in this and subsequent conferences held at Kienthal and Stockholm are known jointly as the Zimmerwald movement . The Zimmerwald Conference began the unraveling of the coalition between revolutionary socialists ( the so - called Zimmerwald Left ) and reformist socialists in the Second International . History . Background . The Zimmerwald movement emerged due to the inactivity of the Bureau of the Second International following the eruption of the First World War . From the earliest days of the war the Italian Socialist Party and the Swiss Social Democratic Party had sought a meeting of the full Bureau in an effort to coordinate international socialist opinion and action with respect to the war , without success . On 19 April 1915 Italian parliamentary deputy Oddino Morgari traveled to France on behalf of the Italian Party to met with Belgian Socialist leader Emile Vandervelde , Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Bureau , and representatives of the Socialist Party of France seeking convocation of an international conference of neutral socialists . His proposals were flatly rejected by Vendervelde and the French Socialists , who had come to support the fundamental justice of the war effort and saw an international conference as a potential impediment to its completion . On 15 May 1915 , the Executive Committee of the Italian Socialist Party met in Bologna to hear Morgari ' s report . He stated that the official parties were recalcitrant , but that there were minorities in both Great Britain and France who were receptive . The party decided to call a conference of all socialist parties and workers groups who adhered to the class struggle and were willing to work against the war . A preliminary organizing conference was scheduled to be held in Berne , Switzerland on 11 July 1915 . The 11 July organizing conference was attended by Gregory Zinoviev of the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party ( Bolsheviks ) ; Pavel Axelrod of the Organization Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party ( Mensheviks ) ; Angelica Balabanoff and Oddino Morgari of the Italian Socialist Party ; Adolf Warski of the Main Presidum of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania ; Maksymilian Horwitz of the Polish Socialist Party – Left ; and Robert Grimm of the Swiss Social Democratic Party . Little concrete was decided at this preliminary meeting , though it was clear that a wide array of groups would be invited to the conference and not just the " lefts " , as defined by Zinoviev and the Bolsheviks . A second preliminary meeting was supposed to assemble that was supposed to resolve the issue , but never met . Sessions . The delegates assembled at the Volkshaus in Berne on 5 September 1915 . From there they left in four coaches for the small town of Zimmerwald some nine kilometers ( 6 miles ) away . The conference began by reading communications from people and organizations who could not be present , such as a letter from Karl Liebknecht whose name could not even be printed in the official report of the conference . Then the various delegations gave reports of the situations in their respective countries . The Germans had resorted to engaging in illegal activity , such as distributing illegal leaflets . Ledebour mentioned that Germany may be headed for revolution . In France the workers were said to be in a state of disillusionment and had been corrupted by years of anarchist and Herveist thinking . Kolarov gave an extended discussion on his party ' s resistance to the Second Balkan War . He discussed the policy of advocating fraternization in the trenches and socialist concern for socialist prisoners of war , which had prevented enmity between the Serb and Bulgarian Social Democratic parties . He also spoke about the division of the Narrow and Broad socialists in his country . A Balkan Socialist Federation had been formed by social democratic parties in Rumania , Serbia and Greece , but did not include the broads . The Italians reported that socialists had been persecuted since Italy ' s entrance into the war . This was accompanied with strikes and street demonstrations ; the Italian workers had their martyrs and wounded . Rakovsky shared an anecdote about the Rumanian foreign ministry notifying him as soon as they learned of the German parties endorsement of the declaration of war on 4 August 1914 . Finally , Roland - Holst reported on the factional activity within the Dutch movement and described the activities of the majority party under Troelstra as " disgraceful " . Chernov made the report on behalf of the Socialist Revolutionary Party . According to a hostile source , he gave a false impression of the SRs internationalism , while ignoring the fact that half of its delegation to the London Inter - Allied congress had taken a pro - war stand , while the other half abstained , that the SRs had participated in a pro - war conference with the Trudoviks and Popular Socialists or that their press was carrying patriotic articles . Pavel Axelrod gave the report for the Mensheviks and , according to the same hostile source , minimized his parties pro - war stance . Manifesto and resolutions . The first document produced by the conference was a joint declaration by the French and German delegations . This statement declared that World War I was not their war , that it was caused by the imperialist and colonial policy of all governments and advocated the restoration of Belgium and a peace without annexations or " economic incorporation " based on the self - determination of the people involved . To that end they pledged to end the policy of civil peace and renew the class struggle within their respective countries in order to force their governments to end the war . The declaration was signed by Ledebour and Hoffman for Germany and Merrheim and Bouderon for France . Lenin had been busy preparing for the conference for several months , attempting to rally " left " elements and drafting documents . He wrote a " draft declaration " which he shared with Alexandra Kollontai as early as July 1915 . Kollantai apparently criticized this draft for not distinguishing between imperialist wars , wars of national liberation and civil wars . Lenin also corresponded with Karl Radek . Both of them wrote " draft resolutions " for the Conference . Lenin criticized Radeks original draft for not criticizing the social chauvinists and opportunist s within the socialist movement or advocating means to combat them . Radek then wrote an " amended draft resolution " . Both of these drafts were presented to a caucus meeting of left wing delegates at the Volkshaus shortly before the opening of the conference . This group consisted of Lenin , Zinoviev , Radek , Berzin , Hoglund , Nerman , Platten and Borchart as well as " some others , including Trotsky " . The first eight of these became a tight knit left wing bloc during the proceedings of the conference and could sometimes expand to include up to eleven members . This caucus voted down Lenins original resolution in favor of Radeks . The draft resolution , bearing the signature of the eight above mentioned delegates , was then presented to the conference for referral to a drafting commission . However , this was refused by a vote of 19 – 12 . Trotsky , Roland - Holst , Chernov and Natanson voted in favor of the resolution . When the drafting commission met it decided only to draft a " manifesto " and not a supplementary " resolution " . Three draft manifestos were presented to it , one from the Right within the German party , one written by Leon Trotsky on behalf of the " Nashe Slovo " group and one presented by the so - called Zimmerwald Left . The commission consisted of Grimm , Ledebour , Lenin , Trotsky , Merrheim , Rakovsky , and Modigliani . The final text most closely followed Trotskys draft and was written by Trotsky and Grimm . The German delegates insisted that parliamentary demands , such as voting against war credits and withdrawal from ministries be excluded from the text . When the text was presented to the conference it met with some hostility from Chernov and Morgari . Chernov was upset that the manifesto did not explicitly denounce tsarism and said nothing about agrarian socialism , while Morgari was upset that the manifesto did not state that France did not share responsibility for the war . However these two delegates were convinced to vote for the manifesto so that it could be passed unanimously . On the motion of the French and German delegations , it was decided that each country have a delegate sign the manifesto personally . Several addenda were added to the manifesto by the delegates . A statement that the manifesto did not give complete satisfaction because it did not repudiate opportunism or advance a clear method of struggling against the war was added by Lenin , Zinoviev , Radek , Hoglund , Nerman and Berzin . It also stated that the undersigned had nevertheless endorsed the manifesto because they wish to " march side by side with the other sections of the international " and that this caveat be published with the official report . The eight delegates who introduced the Left Zimmerwald draft resolution , along with Roland - Holst and Trotsky tried to add an amendment stating that the proposal to mention war credits had to be excised from the manifesto and that Ledebours statement that the " manifesto contains all that is implied [ in such a ] proposal " . Ledebour protested that he would not sign the manifesto if that was added was included and the amendment was withdrawn . Various other documents were submitted to the conference , only one of which , a joint declaration by the three Polish parties present was included in the ISCs " Bulletin " . Finally , the delegates adopted one last document . On the motion of a French delegate it unanimously passed a resolution of sympathy for the victims of the war and of persecution by the belligerent governments . Specifically it mentioned the fate of the Poles , Belgians , Armenians and Jewish peoples , the exiled Duma members , Karl Liebknecht , Klara Zetkin , Rosa Luxemburg and Pierre Monatte . The resolution also honored the memory of Jean Jaurès ( " the first victim of the war " ) and socialists who had died in the war such as Amadeo Catanesi and Dimitrije Tucović . Establishing the ISC . At the end of the conference an International Socialist Commission , sometimes known as the International Socialist Committee was formed with a mandate to establish a " temporary secretariat " in Berne that would act as an intermediary of the affiliated groups and begin to publish a " Bulletin " containing the manifesto and proceedings of the conference . The members of the Commission were Robert Grimm , chairman , Oddino Morgari , Charles Naine and Angelica Balabanoff , who was to act as interpreter . List of delegates . From Neutral countries : From Western Allied countries : From the Russian Empire : From Germany : "