# Hague Congress (1872)

Part of a series on :
Anarchism :
Glossary
History
Outline :
Schools of thought
Black
Feminist
Green
Primitivist
Social ecology
Total liberation
Individualist
Egoist
Market
Philosophical
Mutualist
Queer
Religious
Christian
Jewish
Social
Collectivist
Parecon
Communist
Magonism
Without adjectives
Methodology
Counter-economics
Illegalism
Insurrectionary
Pacifist
Platformism
Relationship
Syndicalist
Synthesis :
Theory
Practice
Anarchy
Anarchist Black Cross
Anarchist criminology
Anationalism
Anti-authoritarianism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-militarism
Affinity group
Autonomous social center
Black bloc
Classless society
Class struggle
Consensus decision-making
Conscientious objector
Critique of work
Decentralization
Deep ecology
Direct action
Free love
Freethought
Horizontalidad
Individualism
Law
Mutual aid
Participatory politics
Permanent autonomous zone
Prefigurative politics
Proletarian internationalism
Propaganda of the deed
Refusal of work
Revolution
Rewilding
Sabotage
Security culture
Self-ownership
Social ecology
Sociocracy
Somatherapy
Spontaneous order
Squatting
Temporary autonomous zone
Union of egoists
Voluntary association
Workers' council :
People
Alston
Armand
Ba
Bakunin
Berkman
Bonanno
Bookchin
Bourdin
Chomsky
Cleyre
Day
Durruti
Ellul
Ervin
Faure
Fauset MacDonald
Ferrer
Feyerabend
Giovanni
Godwin
Goldman
González Prada
Graeber
Guillaume
He-Yin
Kanno
Kōtoku
Kropotkin
Landauer
Liu
Magón
Makhno
Maksimov
Malatesta
Mett
Michel
Most
Parsons
Pi i Margall
Pouget
Proudhon
Raichō
Reclus
Rocker
Santillán
Spooner
Stirner
Thoreau
Tolstoy
Tucker
Volin
Ward
Warren
Yarchuk
Zerzan :
Issues
Animal rights
Capitalism
Education
Love and sex
Nationalism
Religion
Violence :
History
French Revolution
Revolutions of 1848
Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA
Paris Commune
Hague Congress
Cantonal rebellion
Haymarket affair
International Conference of Rome
Trial of the Thirty
International Conference of Rome
Ferrer movement
Strandzha Commune
Congress of Amsterdam
Tragic Week
High Treason Incident
Manifesto of the Sixteen
German Revolution of 1918–1919
Bavarian Soviet Republic
1919 United States bombings
Biennio Rosso
Kronstadt rebellion
Makhnovshchina
Amakasu Incident
Alt Llobregat insurrection
Anarchist insurrection of January 1933
Anarchist insurrection of December 1933
Spanish Revolution of 1936
Barcelona May Days
Red inverted triangle
Labadie Collection
Provo
May 1968
Kate Sharpley Library
Carnival Against Capital
1999 Seattle WTO protests
Really Really Free Market
Occupy movement :
Culture
A las Barricadas
Anarchist bookfair
Anarcho-punk
Anarchy in the U.K.
Arts
DIY ethic
Escuela Moderna
Films
Freeganism
Infoshop
Independent Media Center
The Internationale
Jewish anarchism
Lifestylism
May Day
"No gods, no masters"
Popular education
"Property is theft!"
Radical cheerleading
Radical environmentalism
Self-managed social center
Symbolism :
Economics
Communization
Cooperative
Cost the limit of price
Decentralized planned economy
Free association
General strike
Gift economy
Give-away shop
Labour voucher
Market socialism
Mutual bank
Mutual credit
Social ownership
Wage slavery
Workers' self-management :
By region
Africa
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
French Guiana
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Korea
Latvia
Malaysia
Mexico
Monaco
Mongolia
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Norway
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Timor-Leste
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam :
Lists
Anarcho-punk bands
Books
Fictional characters
Films
Jewish anarchists
Musicians
Periodicals :
Related topics
Anti-corporatism
Anti-consumerism
Anti-fascism
Anti-globalization
Anti-statism
Anti-war movement
Autarchism
Autonomism
Communism
Definition of anarchism and libertarianism
Dual Power
Labour movement
Left communism
Left-libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarian socialism
Marxism
Relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Stirner
Situationist International
Socialism
Spontaneous order :
Anarchism portal
Politics portal :
vte :
The Hague Congress was the fifth congress of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), held from 2–7 September 1872 in The Hague, the Netherlands.
The motions at the Hague Congress precipitated the organization's decline. With a third of the International's delegates not attending, the Marx-aligned delegates voted to expel Mikhail Bakunin and move the General Council from London to New York.
The 1872 Hague Congress was a Congress of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) held in The Hague from 2 to 7 September 1872. A total of 65 delegates from 15 “regional” organizations attended. At this congress, a split occurred between the Marxists and the Bakuninists. The latter held a separate Congress a week later in Saint-Imier (Switzerland), where they formed their own International.

## Development

As Josep Termes noted, "the Congress took place in a tense atmosphere, with the two most important factions openly at odds: the authoritarian (Marxist) and the federalist (Anarchist)." The first incident arose over the rejection of a proposal by the delegations of the Spanish Federation, the Belgian Federation, and the Jura Federation to have voting by federation. This led the Spanish and Jura delegates to declare "that they would not take part in any vote and would attend the sessions only to protest against the majority’s maneuver."
By a broad majority—29 votes in favor, 5 against, and 8 abstentions—the congress ratified the Marxist theses approved at previous congresses concerning "the formation of the proletariat into a political party" and the link between economic and political struggle. The Bakuninist delegate James Guillaume commented: "The majority wants to conquer political power; the minority wants to destroy political power..."
A five-member commission was named to give a ruling on the question of Bakunin’s International Alliance of Socialist Democracy, formally disbanded but believed by the General Council to still be operating within the International. The commission proposed expelling Bakunin and Guillaume, but, regarding the four Spanish delegates, it recommended absolving them "in view of their formal statements that they are not part of the 'Alliance'." The ruling was approved by the Congress, prompting some delegates—the four Spanish delegates, five Belgians, two Dutch, one American, and two members of the Jura Federation—to sign a statement read by the delegate from The Hague section expressing their disagreement. The statement "noted that they would maintain administrative relations with the General Council but at the same time establish direct relations with all the Regional Federations; they pledged to uphold the autonomy of the federations if the General Council tried to direct them; they decided to abide by the statutes approved at the Geneva congress, without accepting subsequent modifications."
Those in disagreement decided to gather in Saint-Imier (Switzerland) to hold a separate congress—attended by fifteen delegates, including the four Spaniards, Bakunin, Guillaume, Giuseppe Fanelli, Errico Malatesta, Cafiero, and Costa— where they rejected the expulsion of Bakunin and Guillaume, did not recognize the General Council appointed in The Hague, and adopted a resolution reflecting Bakuninist principles, contrary to the stance supported by the International, by insisting that "the destruction of all political power is the proletariat’s first duty... All so-called provisional and revolutionary political power... can only be a deception." Thus arose the International of Saint-Imier, thereby consummating the Bakuninist split from the First International.
The conference had an effect on Spanish left wing politics. Representing the Federación Regional Española (Spanish Regional Federation), four delegates—all Bakuninists—attended the Hague Congress: Farga Pellicer, Morago, N. Alonso Marselau (a former republican clergyman who would eventually join the ranks of Carlism), and Alerini (a refugee from the Paris Commune). Representing the Marxist Nueva Federación Madrileña [es] were Paul Lafargue—who would not return to Spain—and José Mesa y Leompart [es], editor of the newspaper La Emancipación [es].