International Workingmen's Association
For the anarcho-syndicalist group, see International Workers Association.The
International Workingmen's Association (IWA), sometimes called the
First International, was an international
socialist organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different
left-wing political groups and
trade union organizations that were based on the
working class and
class struggle. It was founded in
1864 in a workmen's meeting held in Saint Martin's Hall, London. Its first congress was held in
1866 in
Geneva. A significant decision at that event was the adoption of the 8-hour work day as one of the Association's fundamental demands.
In Europe, a period of harsh reaction followed the widespread
revolutionary activity of 1848. The next major phase of revolutionary activity began almost twenty years later with the founding of the IWA in 1864.
Following the suppression of the
January Uprising in
Poland,
1863 French and British workers started discussing with each other, to discuss developing a closer working relationship. Tolain, Perrachon, and Limousin visited London in July
1863, attending a meeting held in St. James' Hall in honour of the Polish uprising. Here there was discussion of the need for an international organisation, which would, amongst other things, preventthe import of foreign workers to break strikes. In September, 1864, some French delegates again visited London with the concrete aim of setting up a special committee for the exchange of information upon matters of interest to the workers of all lands. On
September 28, a great international meeting for the reception of the French delegates. took place in St. Martin's Hall, and the
positivist, Professor
Edward Spencer Beesly, was in the chair. In his speech, pilloried the violent proceedings of the governments and referred to their flagrant breaches of
international law and advocated a union of the workers of the world for the realisation of justice on earth.
George Odger, (Secretary of the
General Trades Council) read a speech calling for international co-operation, to which Tolain responded. The meeting unanimously decided to found an international organisation of workers. The centre was to be in London, with a committee of twenty-one elected members. It was instructed to draft rules and constitution. Most of the British members of the committee were noted trade-union leaders like Odger,
George Howell, Osborne, and Lucraft including some sometime
Robert 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,
Karl Marx.
On
October 5 the General Council was formed, with co-opted additional members representing other nationalities. Different groups offered proposals for the organisation: Louis Wolff (
{{Mazzini}}'s secretary) offered a proposal based on the rules and constitution of the Italian Workingmen's Association (a Mazzinist organisation) and {{John Weston}}, an Owenite, also tabled a programme. Wolff left for Italy, and Lubez, rewrote it in a way which appalled Marx. Through deft manipulation of the sub-committee, Marx was left with all the papers, and set about wroting the
Address to the Working Classes, to which were attached a simplified set of rules.
The International Workingmen's Association, at its founding, was an alliance of diverse groups, including French
Mutualists,
Blanquists, English
Owenites, Italian
republicans, followers of
Mazzini, and other socialists of various persuasions. Over its short life it grew into a major movement, with local federations in many countries developing strong bases of working class
activism.
Karl Marx was a constant, and leading, figure from the start - he was elected to every succeeding General Council of the association.
Due to the wide variety of philosophies present in the First International, there was conflict from the start. The first objections to Marx's 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
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 became the first country to introduce
manhood suffrage, many German socialists became active in the Marxist
Social Democratic Party of Germany.
The Lausanne Congress of the International was held on September 2-8, 1867. Marx was unable to attendas he was working on the final proofs of
Das Capital. The Congress was attended by 64 delegates from
Great Britain,
France,
Germany,
Belgium,
Italy and
Switzerland. The reports delivered recorded the increased influence of the International on the working classes in various different countries. The Proudhonist delegates, primarily from France, influenced the orientation of the International's activity and its programmatic principles. Despite the efforts of the General Council's delegates, they succeeded in revising the resolutions of the Geneva Congress, passing a number of their resolutions, in particular on
cooperation and
credit,
However, the Congress confirmed the Geneva Congress resolutions on the economic struggle and strikes and passed a resolution on political freedom which emphasised that the social emancipation of workers was inseparable from political liberation. The Proudhonists also failed to seize the leadership of the International, as the Congress re-elected the General Council in its former composition and retained
London as its seat.
However, the Lausanne Congress ignored the General Council's resolution and, resolved officially, to take part in the Congress of the
League of Peace and Freedom. However, this Congress was attended by several General Council and some other International members and failed to resolve its political differences.
The Brussels Congress of the International in 1868, approved Marx's tactics in regard to the League, opposing official affiliation to the League but calling upon the working class to combine efforts with all progressive anti-military forces.
After the
Paris Commune (1871), Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as
authoritarian, and predicted 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 1872, the conflict in the First International climaxed with a final split between the two groups at the
Hague Congress. This clash is often cited as the origin of the long-running
conflict between anarchists and Marxists. From then on, the
authoritarian and
libertarian currents of socialism had distinct organisations, at various points including rival
'internationals'.In
1872, the organization was relocated to
New York City. The First International disbanded 4 years later, at the
1876 Philadelphia conference. Attempts to revive the organization over the next five years failed. However, the
Second International was established in
1889 as its successor. Meanwhile, the anarchists continued to consider that they were unfairly ejected from the IWA, and finally decided to refound it themselves in a congress held at
Berlin in
1922 as the
International Workers Association.
*
Second International and
Socialist International*
Third International (Comintern)*
Fourth International and
Trotskyist internationalsThe Internationale*
International Workers Association*
List of left-wing internationals*
Victor Considérant (
utopian socialist, member of the International)
*
International Worker's Association official site
*
History of the International Workingmen's Association, at
Marxists.org*
Libertarian Communist Library International Working Mens Association (IWMA) Archive
