page_title: First International Syndicalist Congress
section_title: Invitations
hierarchical_section_title: First International Syndicalist Congress / Invitations
context_page_description: The First International Syndicalist Congress was a meeting of European and Latin American syndicalist organizations at Holborn Town Hall in London from September 27 to October 2, 1913. Upon a proposal by the Dutch National Labor Secretariat and the British Industrial Syndicalist Education League, most European syndicalist groups, both trade unions and advocacy groups, agreed to congregate at a meeting in London. The only exception was the biggest syndicalist organization worldwide, the French General Confederation of Labor. Nevertheless, the congress was held with organizations from twelve countries participating. It was marked by heated debate and constant disagreements over both tactics and principles. Yet, it succeeded in creating the International Syndicalist Information Bureau as a vehicle of exchange and solidarity between the various organizations and the Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste as a means of communication. It would be viewed as a success by almost all who participated.
context_section_description: In February 1913, the British Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL) and the NAS independently published very similar invitations to an international syndicalist congress. Both criticized the existing labor internationals, especially the reformist social democratic International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centers (ISNTUC), from which, according to the Dutch group, "all revolutionary propaganda [...] is excluded systematically." Likewise, its political counterpart, the Second International, was attacked by the British as a "body that exacts a pledge of parliamentarism and is composed of glib-tongued politicians who promise to do things for us, but cannot even if they wanted." Furthermore, the syndicalists lamented the lack of an international syndicalist organization. The British proposal called for the congress to be held in London, while the Dutch left this question open and called for suggestions for the site of the meeting.
  The invitations were immediately received warmly by numerous syndicalists, including the Free Association of German Trade Unions (Freie Vereinigung deutscher Gewerkschaften in German, FVdG), Pierre Ramus's  journal Wohlstand für Alle from Austria, the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (SAC), the Spanish periodical Tierra y Libertad, the Italian Syndicalist Union (Unione Sindacale Italiana in Italian, USI), the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in the United States, and the Syndicalist League of North America. Christiaan Cornelissen, editor of the Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste and a prominent anarchist in Paris, also welcomed the idea, but considered the May date proposed by ISEL too soon, as the decentralized decision-making employed by syndicalists required more time for preparation.
caption: Christiaan Cornelissen
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