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The Economic Dimension

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International Concerns of European Social Democrats

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Abstract

The economic dimension of the internationalism of the Social Democrats of Europe had its origins in their struggle to ensure the end of exploitation and to promote distributive justice on a global plane through solidarity. The focus of the Socialist parties in the beginning was trained largely on the economic problems of the working class both nationally and internationally. In the General Statutes of the International Working Men’s Association (First Socialist International) Karl Marx stated that the ‘economic emancipation of the working class’ was ‘the greatest end to which every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means’.1 He envisaged the Socialist International as a ‘centre of relations and planned cooperation between the workers associations in different lands’, and as such an instrument of transnational solidarity among the Socialist parties all over the world.

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Notes

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    B. Vivekanandan (Professor of Western European Studies)

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  1. B. Vivekanandan
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© 1997 B. Vivekanandan

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Vivekanandan, B. (1997). The Economic Dimension. In: International Concerns of European Social Democrats. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25773-7_2

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