ABSTRACT

The emergence of Socialist parties in South and South-East Asia after the Second World War posed the question of establishing an international organization to serve as their common forum. The Socialist parties in Asia, however, had not been created by the Socialist International, but had arisen out of their peoples' struggle for national freedom and independence against their domination by the European colonial powers. The Socialist International, as its secretary recorded in his report to the third congress, considered this conference to be the most momentous event in the contemporary history of international Socialism. The founding of such an international organization had been a suggestion of the Socialist Party of India. The declaration of principles outlines briefly the origins of modern Socialism as a protest against capitalism and the capitalist order of society and the split of the Socialist movement in two—Communism and democratic Socialism.