Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

275THE QUESTION OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIESAT THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST CONGRESSIN COPENHAGENIn the present article I intend to confine myself toan account of the transactions of the Congress on thequestion indicated in the heading and to a description ofthe trends of socialist thought which came into conflictthere.Prior to the Congress three draft resolutions on co-operativesocieties were published. The Belgian draft (in No. 5of the Periodical Bulletin of the International SocialistBureau, which is issued irregularly in the three officiallanguages of the International Congresses) begins by warningsocialist workers against the doctrine of those whoregard co-operative societies as something self-sufficient,a sort of means for the solution of the social question. Then,admitting that the working class is extremely interested inutilising the co-operative societies as a weapon in theirclass struggle, the draft resolution of the Belgian partypoints out the direct advantages of co-operative societies(combating commercial exploitation, improving the workingconditions of persons in the employ of the suppliers,etc.) and expresses the desire for “organic, closer and closerties” to be established between the socialist parties and theco-operative societies.The draft resolution submitted by the majority of theFrench Socialist Party is drawn up in the Jaurès spirit.The co-operative societies are exalted to the skies and areput forward—exactly in the style of the bourgeois reformers—as a “necessary” element of “social reformation”. There arevague phrases about converting the co-operatives from