The close understanding of the workers, of the proletarians of every country, is necessary as well to beat back the forces of aggression and war as to prepare by a concerted action the general triumph of Socialism. The international agreement of the militant proletarians of every country will prepare the triumph of a free humanity, where the differences of classes will have disappeared, and the difference of nations, instead of being a principle of strife and hatred, will be a principle of brotherly emulation in the universal progress of mankind.
It is in this sense and for these reasons that the Socialist party has formulated in its congresses the rule and aim of its action--international understanding of the workers; political and economic organization of the proletariat as a class party for the conquest of government and the socialization of the means of production and exchange; that is to say, the transformation of capitalist society into a collectivist or communist society.
The Socialist party, rejecting the policy of all or nothing, has a program of reforms whose realization it pursues forthwith.
(1) _Democratization of Public Authorities_
1. Universal direct suffrage, without distinction of sex, in every election.
2. Reduction of time of residence. Votes to be cast for lists, with proportional representation, in every election.
3. Legislative measures to secure the freedom and secrecy of the vote.
4. Popular right of initiative and referendum.
5. Abolition of the Senate and Presidency of the Republic. The powers at present belonging to the President of the Republic and the Cabinet to devolve on an executive council appointed by the Parliament.
6. Legal regulation of the legislator's mandate, to be revocable by the vote of any absolute majority of his constituents on the register.
7. Admission of women to all public functions.
8. Absolute freedom of the press, and of assembly guaranteed only by the common law. Abrogation of all exceptional laws on the press. Freedom of civil associations.
9. Full administrative autonomy of the departments and communes, under no reservations but that of the laws guaranteeing the republican, democratic, and secular character of the State.