International

The International is a string of international organizations, beginning in the 1860s and advocating for, at first uniting various trade unions and socialist parties for the goal of a united front against capitalism, to cooperation for international socialism, and finally working towards the goal of spreading socialism (mainly syndicalism and libertarian forms of socialism), although cracks have begun to show in the most recent international organization (the 3rd International).

### **Founded**

1864 (First International)1889 (Second International)

1922 (Third (and current) International)

### **Creators/Contributors**

(1st International): George Odger, Henri Tolain, Edward Spencer Beesly(2nd International): WIP

(3rd International): Rudolf Rocker, Antonio Soto, Alexandra Kollontai, Rosa Luxemburg, Augustin Souchy

### **Existing Countries**

(Active participants:) Germany, Peoples' Union of America, Argentina, Bolivia, Vietnam, Laos, Mexico, Central America, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Red Russia, Socialist Republic of Turkestan

# History:

## 1st International

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.

On 28 September an international crowd of workers gathered to welcome the French delegates in St. Martin’s Hall in London. Among the many European radicals were English Owenites, followers of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Louis Auguste Blanqui, Irish and Polish nationalists, Italian republicans and German socialists. Included among the last-mentioned of this eclectic band was a somewhat obscure 46-year-old émigré journalist Karl Marx, who would soon come to play a decisive role in the organisation.

The positivist historian Edward Spencer Beesly, a professor at London University, was in the chair. 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 London Trades Council, read a speech calling for international co-operation.

The meeting unanimously decided to found an international organisation of workers. The centre was to be in London, directed by a committee of 21, which was instructed to draft a programme and constitution. Most of the British members of the committee were drawn from the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes and were noted trade-union leaders like Odger, George Howell (former secretary of the London Trades Council, which itself declined affiliation to the IWA, although remaining close to it), Cyrenus Osborne Ward and Benjamin Lucraft and included 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 Marx, who participated in his individual capacity and did not speak during the meeting.

This executive committee in turn selected a subcommittee to do the actual writing of the organisational programme—a group which included Marx and which met at his home about a week after the conclusion of the St. Martin's Hall assembly. This subcommittee deferred the task of collective writing in favour of sole authorship by Marx and it was he who ultimately drew up the fundamental documents of the new organisation.

On 5 October, the General Council was formed with co-opted additional members representing other nationalities. It was based at the headquarters of the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes at 18 Greek Street. 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. Marx then set about writing the Address to the Working Classes to which was attached a simplified set of rules.

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.

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.

## 2nd International

Formed on 14 July 1889 at a Paris meeting in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued the work of the dissolved First International, though excluding the powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement and trade unions. In 1922, the Second International began to reorganise into the Labour and Socialist International

Among the Second International's famous actions were its 1889 declaration of 1 May (May Day) as International Workers' Day and its 1910 declaration of the International Women's Day, first celebrated on 19 March and then on 8 March after the main day of the women's marches in 1917 during the Russian Revolution. It initiated the international campaign for the eight-hour working day.

The International's permanent executive and information body was the International Socialist Bureau (ISB) based in Brussels and formed after the International's Paris Congress of 1900. Emile Vandervelde and Camille Huysmans of the Belgian Labour Party were its chair and secretary. Vladimir Lenin was a member from 1905.

The Second International became ineffective in 1916 during World War I because the separate national parties that composed the International did not maintain a unified front against the war, instead generally supporting their respective nations. The Secretary General of the ISB, Camille Huysmans, moved the ISB from German-occupied Brussels to The Hague in December 1914 and attempted to coordinate socialist parties from the warring states to at least July 1916. French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) leader Jean Jaurès's assassination, a few days before the beginning of the war, symbolised the failure of the antimilitarist doctrine of the Second International. At the Zimmerwald Conference in 1915, anti-war socialists attempted to maintain international unity against the social patriotism of most of the social democratic leaders.

In July 1920 at Geneva, the last congress of the Second International was held, following its functional collapse during the war. However, some European socialist parties refused to join the reorganised International and decided instead to form the International Working Union of Socialist Parties (IWUSP) (Second and a half International or Two-and-a-half International), heavily influenced by Austromarxism

## 3rd International

In March of 1922 the Third International was founded after the successful German Revolution just a few years prior. The 3I would gradually become very different from its predecessors, in the sense that the 3I, after seeing the success of German syndicalism turned towards libertarian socialism, breaking the trend of being dominated by Marxists for decades. Being that the 1920s and 1930s were quite unpredictable, and were arguably the most turbulent but most important years for socialism in general, several congresses took place, all of which served to mold the 3I to become the biggest and most influential socialist organization in the world. For example, in 1931 just after South Africa was overtaken by moderate socialists, the South African delegation heavily influenced the creation of the Anti-Colonialist League inside of the International, helping to aid African socialism and rebel movements to weaken European imperialists and colonizers.

By the late 1920s however, Marxists and communists were increasingly alienated by the syndicalists, who now dominated the organization. Although the International still tolerated non-syndicalist and non-anarchist forms of socialism and did not call itself a syndicalist organization it was clear that they were ostracized time and time again.

Nevertheless, a total of 10 congresses came and went between 1922 and 1935.

In every congress new ideas were brought forth which changed the political atmosphere of worldwide socialism. Such as the inclusion of Sylvia Pankhurst, whos ideas of strong radical leftist feminism has seen a rise of popularity, especially in the Western world.

In August 1935, a new congress was called in Managua, Central America to discuss the new politics of the Americas, but more importantly to discuss the issue of a worldwide alliance. The idea was tossed around in the 1920s after the social revolution spread to different continents, but it gained attraction in the 1930s, especially with the Peoples' Union of America, which could be a powerful new ally to any nation. During the congress, delegates from every socialist nation attended, except for South Africa, who refused to attend.

It took about a week for every socialist nation to vote on the issue, and as a result the "International Allianz" was born, consisting of the German Union, Scotland, the Russian Socialist Republic, Switzerland and the Peoples' Union of America. Other nations, such as Mexico, Haiti and Central America declined to be a part of the faction for various reasons.