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International Workingmen's Association

The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation 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.

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.

Abbreviation

IWA

Second International
(not legal successor)

28 September 1864 (1864-09-28)

July 1876 (1876-07) [1]

Defunct

Worldwide

5–8 million

Congress of the First International

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.

Origins[edit]

Following the January Uprising in Poland in 1863, French and British workers started to discuss developing a closer working relationship. Henri Tolain, Joseph Perrachon and Charles Limousin visited London in July 1863, attending a meeting in St. James's Hall in honour of the Polish uprising. They discussed the need for an international organisation, which would amongst other things prevent the import of foreign workers to break strikes. In September 1864, French and British delegates again met in London, this time to set up an organization for sharing labor information across borders.

Internal tensions[edit]

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]


Due to the wide variety of philosophies present in the First International, there was conflict from the start. The first objections to Marx's influence came from the mutualists, who opposed communism and statism. However, shortly after Mikhail Bakunin and his followers (called collectivists while in the International) joined in 1868, the First International became polarised into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads. Perhaps the clearest differences between the groups emerged over their proposed strategies for achieving their visions of socialism. The anarchists grouped around Bakunin favoured (in Peter Kropotkin's words) "direct economical struggle against capitalism, without interfering in the political parliamentary agitation". Marxist thinking at that time focused on parliamentary activity. For example, when the new German Empire of 1871 introduced male suffrage, many German socialists became active in the Marxist Social Democratic Party of Germany.

anthem

The Internationale

Group of Narodnik Socialists

Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, vols. I/20-22: new edition of the minutes of the General Council of the International.

International Working Men's Association, London: Westminster Printing Co., n.d. [1868].

Resolutions of the Congress of Geneva, 1866, and the Congress of Brussels, 1868.

Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1964.

The General Council of the First International. 1864–1866. The London Conference, 1865. Minutes.

Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1964.

The General Council of the First International. 1866–1868. Minutes.

Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1966.

The General Council of the First International. 1868–1870. Minutes.

Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1967.

The General Council of the First International. 1870–1871. Minutes.

Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1968.

The General Council of the First International. 1871–1872. Minutes

Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1976.

The Hague Congress of the First International, September 2–7, 1872. Minutes and Documents.

Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1978.

The Hague Congress of the First International, September 2–7, 1872. Reports and Letters.

at Marxists.org

History of the International Workingmen's Association

Archived 2021-03-08 at the Wayback Machine

Libertarian Communist Library

Karl Marx's Inaugural Address of the International Working Men’s Association

by Boris Nicolaevsky

Secret Societies and the First International