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International Workingmen's Association

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This article is about the socialist international. For the anarchist international, see International Working People's Association. For international anarcho-syndicalist union federation IWA-AIT, see IWA–AIT.
"First International" redirects here. For other uses, see First International (disambiguation).
International Workingmen's Association
AbbreviationIWA
PredecessorInternational Association
SuccessorSecond International
(not legal successor), International Working People's Association (claimed)
Formation28 September 1864; 160 years ago (1864-09-28)
FoundersGeorge Odger, Henri Tolain, Edward Spencer Beesly
DissolvedJuly 1876; 148 years ago (1876-07) [1]
Legal statusDefunct
Purpose
HeadquartersSt James's Hall, Regent Street, West End
Location
Region served
Worldwide
Membership5–8 million
Key people
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Mikhail Bakunin, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Giuseppe Garibaldi
Main organ
Congress of the First International

The International Workingmen's Association (IWA; 1864–1876), often called the First International, was a political international which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, social democratic, communist[2] and anarchist groups and trade unions that were based on the working class and class struggle. It was founded in 1864 in a workmen's meeting held in St. Martin's Hall, London. Its first congress was held in 1866 in Geneva.

In Europe, a period of harsh reaction followed the widespread Revolutions of 1848. The next major phase of revolutionary activity began almost twenty years later with the founding of the IWA in 1864. At its peak, the IWA reported having 8 million members[3] while police reported 5 million.[4] In 1872, it split in two over conflicts between statist and anarchist factions and dissolved in 1876. The Second International was founded in 1889.

St. Martin's Hall Meeting, London, 1864

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St. Martin's Hall

On 28 September an international crowd of workers gathered to welcome the French delegates in St Martin's Hall in London. Among the many European radicals were English Owenites, followers of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Louis Auguste Blanqui, Irish and Polish nationalists, Italian republicans and German socialists.[5] Included among the last-mentioned of this eclectic band was a somewhat obscure 46-year-old émigré journalist Karl Marx, who would soon come to play a decisive role in the organisation.[5] The positivist historian Edward Spencer Beesly, a professor at London University, was in the chair.[5]

The meeting unanimously decided to found an international organisation of workers. The centre was to be in London, directed by a committee of 21, which was instructed to draft a programme and constitution. Most of the British members of the committee were drawn from the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes[6] and were noted trade-union leaders like Odger, George Howell (former secretary of the London Trades Council, which itself declined affiliation to the IWA, although remaining close to it), Cyrenus Osborne Ward and Benjamin Lucraft and included Owenites and Chartists. The French members were Denoual, Victor Le Lubez and Bosquet. Italy was represented by Fontana. Other members were Louis Wolff, Johann Eccarius and at the foot of the list Marx, who participated in his individual capacity and did not speak during the meeting.[7]

This executive committee in turn selected a subcommittee to do the actual writing of the organisational programme—a group which included Marx and which met at his home about a week after the conclusion of the St. Martin's Hall assembly.[5] This subcommittee deferred the task of collective writing in favour of sole authorship by Marx and it was he who ultimately drew up the fundamental documents of the new organisation.[5]

On 5 October, the General Council was formed with co-opted additional members representing other nationalities. It was based at the headquarters of the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes at 18 Greek Street.[8]

Internal tensions

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At first, the IWA had mostly male membership, although in April 1865 it was agreed that women could become members. The initial leadership was exclusively male. At the IWA General Council meeting on 16 April 1867, a letter from the secularist speaker Harriet Law about women's rights was read and it was agreed to ask her if she would be willing to attend council meetings. On 25 June 1867, Law was admitted to the General Council and for the next five years was the only woman representative.[9]

Congresses

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Hague Congress, 1872

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Main article: Hague Congress (1872)
Karl Marx (1818–1883)

The fifth Congress of the IWA was held in early September 1872 in The Hague, the Netherlands. After the Paris Commune (1871), Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as authoritarian and argued that if a Marxist party came to power its leaders would end up as bad as the ruling class they had fought against (notably in his Statism and Anarchy). In 1874, Marx wrote some decisive notes rebutting Bakunin's affirmations on this book, referring to them as mere political rhetoric without a theory of the State and without the knowledge about social classes struggles and the economic factor.[10]

Portuguese section was one of the first to evolve into a party structure. But while debates to create a socialist party began in 1873[11] (this did come in 10 January 1875).

After 1872: two First Internationals

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Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)

The anarchist wing of the First International held a separate congress in September 1872 at St. Imier, Switzerland. The anarchists rejected the expulsion of Bakunin and Guillaume as illegitimate and repudiated The Hague Congress as unrepresentative and improperly conducted. Over two days on 15–16 September 1872 at Saint-Imier, the Anarchist St. Imier International declared itself to be the true heir of the International. The Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA formed the largest national chapter of the anarchist bloc.[12]

In the Iberian Peninsula, the conflict within the IWA was acutely felt, rapidly transforming the region into another battleground between the two factions. The General Council attempted to curb the Alliance’s influence through the new Madrid Federation and Portuguese internationalists. On the opposing side, the anarchists, who held complete control of the working-class movement in Spain, persistently tried to recruit Portuguese socialists to the Alliance.[13]

See also

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Leftist Internationals, chronologically by ideology:
United left wing
  • International Workingmen's Association, the First International (1864–1876)
Anarchist
Socialist & labour
Communist
Trotskyist
Democratic socialism
Reunification efforts
  • Fifth International, phrase referring to socialist and communist groups aspiring to create a new workers' international.

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Quint, Howard H. The Forging of American Socialism: Origins of the Modern Movement. 2nd ed. The American Heritage Series. (Indianapolis, New York & Kansas City: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1964), 13, https://archive.org/details/forgingofamerica0000quin.
  2. ^ "Dictionary of politics: selected American and foreign political and legal terms". Walter John Raymond. p. 85. Brunswick Publishing Corp. 1992. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
  3. ^ Testut, Oscar (May 29, 1871). "Association International des Travailleurs". Journal Officiel (in French): 1152.
  4. ^ Payne, Robert (1968). "Marx: A Biography". Simon and Schuster: New York. p. 372.
  5. ^ a b c d e Saul K. Padover (ed. and trans.), "Introduction: Marx's Role in the First International," in Karl Marx, The Karl Marx Library, Volume 3: On the First International. Saul K. Padover, ed. and trans. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1971; pg. xiv.
  6. ^ F. M. Leventhal, Respectable Radical: George Howell and Victorian Working Class Politics. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971; p. ???
  7. ^ José Luis Rubio, Las internacionales obreras en América. Madrid: 1971; p. 40.
  8. ^ F. M. Leventhal. Respectable Radical. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1971.
  9. ^ Fauré, Christine (4 July 2013). Political and Historical Encyclopaedia of Women. Routledge. pp. 345–346. ISBN 978-1-135-45691-7. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  10. ^ Conspectus of Bakunin’s Statism and Anarchy – Extract.
  11. ^ Lázaro, João (7 April 2023). "The First International Seen from the Periphery: The Portuguese Case (1871–1876)". Labour History Review. 88 (1): 22.
  12. ^ Woodcock, George (2004). Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements. Broadview. ISBN 9781551116297.
  13. ^ Lázaro, João. "The First International Seen from the Periphery: The Portuguese Case (1871–1876)". Labour History Review. 88: 17. Retrieved 30 July 2024.

Further reading

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Primary sources

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Secondary sources

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  • Samuel Bernstein, "The First International and the Great Powers," Science and Society, vol. 16, no. 3 (Summer 1952), pp. 247–272. In JSTOR.
  • Samuel Bernstein, The First International in America. New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1962.
  • Samuel Bernstein, "The First International on the Eve of the Paris Commune," Science and Society, vol. 5, no. 1 (Winter 1941), pp. 24–42. In JSTOR.
  • René Berthier, Social-Democracy and Anarchism: In the International Workers Association, 1864–1877. London: Merlin Press, 2015.
  • Alex Blonna, Marxism and Anarchist Collectivism in the International Workingman's Association, 1864–1872. M.A. thesis. California State University, Chico, 1977.
  • Henry Collins and Chimen Abramsky, Karl Marx and the British Labour Movement: Years of the First International. London: Macmillan, 1965.
  • Henryk Katz, The Emancipation of Labor: A History of the First International. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.
  • Roger Morgan, The German Social Democrats and the First International, 1864–1872. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1965.
  • G. M. Stekloff, History of the First International. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul (trans.). New York: International Publishers, 1928.
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