International Workers' Association

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The International Workers' Association (IAA), later known as the First International , was founded in London in 1864 . The IAA was the first international union of workers' societies which, according to the provisional statutes, “pursue the same goal, namely: the protection, the progress and the complete emancipation of the working class ”.

history

Karl Marx, member of the General Council of the IAA

After the founding congress of the IAA on September 28, 1864, the seat of the IAA was initially in London in St. Martin's Hall in London. At the fifth congress, the Hague Congress, in September 1872 it was decided to move the seat to New York.

In contrast to later Internationals, the members of the first consisted of a large number of politically divergent groups that linked different concepts of socialism. Although in fact relatively ineffective, “the International” was seen by many opponents as the cause of the strengthening of the labor movement in many countries and the emergence of the Paris Commune of 1871. Shortly after its formation, the organization was overshadowed by fierce trench warfare, especially between the direction of Karl Marx , co-author of the Communist Manifesto and main theorist of communism, on the one hand, and the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin on the other. While Marx advocated an organization of the still-to-be-formed workers' parties in the individual states under the centralized leadership of the International, Bakunin, according to the ideas of anarchism, was in favor of strict non-domination and against any form of centralized leadership. This fundamental conflict ultimately contributed to the split in the IAA.

While the Marxian position had already prevailed at the London Conference in 1871, where only the sections invited by the General Council were represented, the Hague Congress of 1872 decided on centralist structural reforms and a political realignment of the organization. In addition, were Bakunin and James Guillaume expelled from the International. The Jura Federation led by them held a counter-congress in Saint-Imier ( Swiss Jura ) a week later , which classified the establishment of the Hague Congress as illegitimate, did not recognize its decisions and decided to continue the International on a federal basis. In the period that followed, all active state federations joined, mainly because they rejected the increasing power of the General Council. From then on there were two organizations that claimed the name of the IAA for themselves: on the one hand the national federations from Belgium, England, Holland, Italy and Spain (also known as the anti-authoritarian international ), on the other hand the General Council and individual, predominantly German-speaking local sections. The latter officially dissolved in 1876 under Friedrich Adolph Sorge , while the anti-authoritarian IAA, albeit in dissolution from the mid-1870s, continued to operate until the beginning of the 1880s.

In 1889 the International Workers' Congress met in Paris and founded the Second International , which later became the Socialist International, which is still in existence today . From 1919 to 1943, the Communist International existed in Moscow as the so-called Third International . Furthermore, the anarcho-syndicalist International Workers' Association , which still exists today, was founded in Berlin in 1922 , following the tradition of the First International.

The battle song Die Internationale, composed by Eugène Pottier in 1871 (set to music by Pierre Degeyter , translated very freely and less radically into German by Emil Luckhardt around 1910 ) refers to the IAA and the Paris Commune of 1871.

Congresses and conferences

Inaugural Conference (London, September 25-29, 1864)

Almost 2000 participants from 13 European countries and the USA founded the IAA on September 28, 1864 in St. Martin's Hall in London . The leading body was the General Council, whose presidium included Karl Marx . He had been invited by the London German Workers 'Education Association and formulated the most important declarations and addresses, such as the famous inaugural address of the International Workers' Association . Johann Georg Eccarius was invited to the founding meeting as another German representative. In addition to Marx and Eccarius, Carl Heinrich Pfänder , Friedrich Leßner , Georg Lochner and Karl Kaub were among their general councilors.

Follow-up Conference (London, September 25-28, 1865)
I. Congress (Geneva, September 3-8, 1866)

During the Geneva Congress in 1866, Proudhon's supporters dominated the discussions. Six Blanquists from Paris also took part in the congress, but they were excluded from the International. An important decision at this event was the requirement for an eight-hour day .

II Congress (Lausanne, September 2-8, 1867)

The Lausanne Congress of the International took place from September 2 to 8, 1867. Marx was absent as he was working on the final corrections to Das Kapital . The congress was attended by 64 delegates from Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland.

III. Congress (Brussels, 6-13 September 1868)

The decisions of the Geneva Congress based on Marx received increasing attention. The Brussels Congress of the IAA from September 8-13, 1868, confirmed Marx's tactics. The IAA Congress in Brussels showed that the positions represented by Marx and his colleagues continued to prevail.

IV Congress (Basel, September 6-11, 1869)

The Basel Congress took place from September 6th to 11th, 1869. According to Stekloff, there were 75 delegates from Great Britain, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and the United States of America. The conference was mainly characterized by the confrontation between the positions of Proudhon's mutualists and the collectivist-anarchist position of Bakunin with his followers on the one hand and Karl Marx's positions on the other. The latter received major headwinds for the first time. A motion by the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin on the question of inheritance law found greater approval than Marx's counter-motion. In addition, in an open discussion, the position that the unions should organize production after the wage system had been abolished and replace the old political system with a representation of work was widely accepted. Such a "revolutionary program of federal trade unions stood in stark contrast to the ideas of Marx and Engels, who actually worked towards centralizing the IAA and bringing it onto a party-political line."

(Canceled) 5th Congress (Mainz, September 1870)

For September 1870 the 5th Congress in Mainz was invited. However, the Congress was canceled by Marx's General Council due to the Franco-Prussian War and was adjourned indefinitely. The war came in handy for Marx because he was concerned that the congress might have resulted in a majority for the federalists or anarchists, as he expressed in a letter to Johann Philipp Becker . Although according to the statutes of the IAA a congress had to take place annually, the General Council did not invite to one for 1871 either, but only to an exclusive conference in London. With this breach of the statutes, the course was set for the division of the International.

London Conference (September 17-23, 1871)

The second, private conference of the IAA took place in London with 13 members of the General Council and 23 delegates from Belgium, Germany, France, England, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the USA. Only selected sections were invited by the General Council. In a resolution the ILO expressed its solidarity with the Paris Commune and pointed out that the “constitution of the working class as a political party is essential for the triumph of the social revolution and its ultimate goal - the abolition of classes”. Internally, naming rules for the General Council, the federal councils of the countries and the local sections were decided. The name General Council should only be granted to the same, the federal councils should be named after the individual countries and the sections after their place names. The conference ruled out names such as mutalists, collectivists, communists, etc., considered sectarian. At the conference it was also decided that the General Council should no longer assume the function of the Regional Council of the British Federation. Instead, a separate English federal council with new local sections was formed. For France, lively workshop agitation and the dissemination of pamphlets were recommended. The IAA declined any responsibility for Sergei Nechayev's conspiracy . The ideological conflict between anarchists and Marxists - Bakunin's supporters on the one hand and Marx's supporters - was also significant . It was also decided to move the headquarters from 1872 to New York.

5th Congress (The Hague, September 2-7, 1872)

After the Paris Commune (1871), Bakunin characterized Marx's ideas as authoritarian, saying that if a Marxist party of the working class came to power, in the end, in his view, it would be just as bad as the rule of the capitalist class, against which they had fought. In 1872 the conflict culminated in the First International with a final break between the two groups as a result of the Hague Congress. This struggle is often cited as the origin of the long-running conflict between anarchists and Marxists. Three resolutions in particular should prove to be conflictual: 1. The expulsion of Bakunin and Guillaume. 2. The expansion of the powers of the General Council. 3. The strategic determination to commit the sections to building national parties.

Section 12 of the US IAA around William West and Victoria Woodhull , which had already been suspended , was excluded. She was accused of being too committed to women's emancipation. In his speech, Marx criticized secondary concerns that the section did not see itself as a workers' organization.

Counter-Congress of Saint-Imier (September 15-16, 1872)

The Italian national federation called for the counter-congress, which boycotted the Hague congress because it was based on what it considered to be illegitimate decisions of the London conference. 15 delegates followed the call, including from the Spanish, Italian and Swiss national federations as well as from individual sections from France and the USA. The delegates did not recognize the decisions of The Hague and passed resolutions that rejected the power of the General Council, underlined the federalist character of the ILO and rejected the partisan strategy in favor of economic, trade union action. In the period that followed, the national federations from Belgium, Holland and England joined the so-called anti-authoritarian faction. At first this was not purely anarchist, but rather saw itself as "federalist" or "social revolutionary". The English Federal Council, for example, was not against the political action, but rejected the centralization and power of the General Council. The latter, in turn, finally excluded the named state federations from the IAA because they did not recognize the resolutions. By 1873, the organization was split into two IAA.

VI. Congress - anti-authoritarian (Geneva, September 1-6, 1873)

The anti-authoritarian faction held its congress - officially as VI. Designated the IAA Congress - in September 1873 in Switzerland. There were 27 delegates who represented the national federations from Italy, Spain, England, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. In a first resolution, the delegates decided to abolish the General Council and partially restored the statutes of 1866. Every year a different regional federation should take over the federal office of the International and be charged with correspondence, statistics and the organization of the next congress. Finally, on the last day of the congress, the delegates sent a conciliatory address to the Congress of the General Council, which was to hold its congress two days later in Geneva.

VI. Congress - General Council (Geneva, September 8-13, 1873)

Also as VI. The Congress of the IAA was organized by the General Council in Geneva. There were 28 delegates, exclusively from Switzerland, Germany and Austria, who did not represent any national federations, at most local individual sections. After the congress, the organizer of the congress, Johann Philipp Becker, spoke of delegates who had "sprung from the ground" and who were supposed to ensure “a majority for the right side”. Among other things, the so-called Perret faction should be outvoted, which was looking for reconciliation with the Bakunists. Marx himself described the Congress as a "fiasco" and declared the International to have practically failed.

VII Congress - anti-authoritarian (Brussels, 7-13 September 1874)

17 delegates from Belgium, Germany, England, France, Spain and Switzerland were present in Brussels. The Italian federations did not find themselves in a position to send a delegation. At this point in time, the anti-authoritarian faction was not yet purely anarchist. The English delegate ( Johann Georg Eccarius , a communist and former companion of Marx in the General Council) and the German delegates (two Lassalians) spoke out in favor of conquering political power, while the Belgian, Spanish and Swiss delegates in particular were anti-parliamentary Preferred strategy. Accordingly, the congress passed a resolution that left it up to the national federations to what extent they would make use of "political action".

The 8th Congress was initially set for 1875 in Barcelona, ​​but did not take place due to organizational problems.

Philadelphia Conference - General Council (July 15, 1876)

Ten members of the General Council and 14 delegates from North America attended the meeting of the parliamentary group around the General Council. There was no delegate from Europe. In the report of the General Council it was stated that the organization did not actually exist and that no membership fees had been received for a long time. As a consequence, it was decided to dissolve the organization for an indefinite period. Thus only the anti-authoritarian parliamentary group existed as the IAA.

VIII Congress - anti-authoritarian (Bern, October 26-29, 1876)

A total of 28 delegates were present in Bern, representing the federations from Belgium, France, Holland, Italy and Switzerland. There were also a number of delegated observers such as Julius Vahlteich, a Social Democratic member of the Reichstag . Among other things, it was decided to hold a general socialist congress in Ghent next year.

IX. Congress - anti-authoritarian (Verviers, September 6-8, 1877)

At the congress, which was to be the last official of the IAA, 20 delegates attended, among others from Spain, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. The majority of the delegates traveled straight to the Socialist Congress in Ghent after the congress. A congress planned for next year in Switzerland no longer took place.

World Socialist Congress (Ghent, September 9-12, 1877)

The Ghent Congress, initiated by the 8th IAA Congress in Bern, represents the last attempt to reach an agreement, especially between anarchists and social democrats, albeit not an official IAA congress. However, the delegates found that the two strategic approaches were incompatible and decided by mutual agreement to go their separate ways. The plan of some Social Democrats to restore a Marxist International initially did not go beyond a declaration of intent.

International Socialist Revolutionary Congress in London (July 14-19, 1881)

In the run-up to this congress, it was initially unclear whether this was an official congress of the (anti-authoritarian) IAA. Ultimately, it was carried out as an open congress of anarchists, at which delegates from IAA local sections and national federations, such as the Spanish, were still present. As the last meeting of IAA delegates, this congress marks the final end of the IAA, especially since "propaganda of the deed" was decided there as the decisive strategy of the anarchist movement and thus for a while replaced the union approach of the IAA, which was represented by anarchists.

literature

  • Fabrice Bensimon / Quentin Deluermoz / Jeanne Moisand (eds.): 'Arise Ye Wretched of the Earth'. The First International in a Global Perspective. Brill, Leiden 2018. Free Download: https://brill.com/abstract/title/33815
  • Rolf Hecker : On the history of the publication of the General Council minutes of the International Workers' Association , in: Year Book for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Volume III / 2014.
  • Helmut Hirsch : Rise and Fall of the First International . In: the same: thinker and fighter. Collected contributions to the history of the labor movement . European Publishing House, Frankfurt a. M. 1955, pp. 129-148.
  • Richard Sperl (ed.): Karl Marx and the founding of the I. International. Documents and materials . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1964 contains letters to Karl Marx on the foundation of the IAA, for the first time in German
  • The First International in Germany (1864–1872). Documents and materials. Editors Rolf Dlubek , Evgenija Stepanova, Irene Bach, Ursula Hermann, Erich Kundel, Vera Morosova, Olga Senekina, Richard Sperl. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1964.
  • Chimen Abramsky , Henry Collins: Karl Marx and the British labor movement: Years of the first International . London: Macmillan 1965
  • The General Council of the First International. 1864-1866. The London Conference. Minutes . Second printing. Progress Publishers, Moscow 1974.
  • The General Council of the First International. 1866-1868 . Lawrence & Wishart / Progress Publishers, London / Moscow o. J.
  • The General Council of the First International. 1868-1870 . Lawrence & Wishart / Progress Publishers, London / Moscow o. J.
  • The General Council of the First International. 1870-1871 . Lawrence & Wishart / Progress Publishers, London / Moscow o. J.
  • The General Council of the First International. 1871-1872 . Lawrence & Wishart / Progress Publishers, London / Moscow o. J.
  • The Hague Congress of the First International. September 2-7, 1872. Minutes and Documents. Translated by Richard Dixon and Alex Miller. Designed by Vladimir Yeryomin . Progress Publishers, Moscow 1976.
  • Julius Braunthal: History of the International . Volume 1. Berlin and Bonn 1978.
  • The First International 1864–1870. Part I . Progreß Publishing House, Moscow 1981.
  • The First International 1870–1876. Part 2 . Progreß publishing house, Moscow 1981 (with bibliography)
  • Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: Marx Engels Complete Edition .
    • Volume I / 20: Works, Articles, Drafts September 1864 to September 1867 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-320-00012-8 .
    • Volume I / 21: Works, Articles, Drafts September 1867 to March 1871 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-05-004588-7 .
  • Antje Schrupp : Not a Marxist and not an anarchist either. Women in the First International. Ulrike Helmer Verlag, Königstein / Taunus 1999, ISBN 3-89741-022-2 .
  • GM Stekloff: History of The First International . Martin Lawrence, London 1928.
  • Pierre Ramus , H. Zoccoli: The First International 1864 . Anarchist Texts No. 17, Libertad Verlag, Berlin 1979.
  • General statutes and administrative regulations of the International Workers' Association. Verlag der Expedition des "Volksstaat", Leipzig 1871. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • Holger Marcks: At war with Bakunin. Karl Marx and the split in the First International, in: Beatrix Bouvier & Rainer Auts (eds.), Karl Marx 1818-1883. Life - Work - Time (companion volume to the large state exhibition on Marx in Trier), Stuttgart: Theiss, 2018, pp. 316-324.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Provisional statutes of the International Workers' Association . In: Marx-Engels works. Volume 16, p. 15.
  2. ^ The minutes of the General Council were published from 1964 on the 100th anniversary of the IAA, cf. Documents of the First International. The General Council of the First international 1864-1872, Minutes , 5 vol., Moscow 1962-1968. For the history of the publication cf. Rolf Hecker: On the history of the publication of the General Council minutes of the International Workers' Association , in: Year Book for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Volume III / 2014.
  3. ^ Karl Marx: Inaugural address of the International Workers' Association (October 1864) In: Marx-Engels-Werke. Volume 16, p. 5 ff.
  4. ^ A picture of the delegates is printed in: Wilhelm Liebknecht : From the fourth international workers' congress in Basel in 1969 . In: Supplement to “ Wahren Jacob ” No. 184, 1893, pp. 1527–1530. Digitized
  5. ^ GM Stekloff: History of the First International. Chapter 10: The Basle Coongress
  6. ↑ Holger Marcks: At war with Bakunin. Karl Marx and the split in the First International . In: Beatrix Bouvier & Rainer Auts (eds.): Karl Marx 1818-1883. Life - work - time . Theiss, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-8062-3702-3 , pp. 319 .
  7. ^ Letter from Karl Marx to Johann Philipp Becker, 2.8.1870 . In: MEW . tape 33 , p. 128-130 .
  8. ^ A b c Franz Mehring: Karl Marx. History of his life (1918). Arbeiterpresse, Essen 2001, ISBN 3-88634-075-9 , p. 446 ff.
  9. ↑ a b c The International Workers' Association. Small Chronicle of the First International (1862–1878) geschichtevonunten.de , June 15, 2008.
  10. ↑ Antje Schrupp: Not a Marxist and also not an anarchist. Women in the First International. Ulrike Helmer Verlag, Königstein im Taunus 1999, ISBN 3-89741-022-2 . S. 195, 235f, (Dissertation University of Frankfurt a. M. , 1999)
  11. ^ GM Stekloff: History of the First International. Part 2, Chapter 4: The End of the Marxist International