First and Second Internationals: History, Impact, and Legacy
The First International (IWA)
The First International: The International Workers' Association (IWA) was created in London by delegates from British and French workers' associations, as well as Italian and German political figures. A General Council, headed by Marx, wrote a statute outlining its basic principles. Early congresses of the IWA approved measures affecting the working class.
The Paris Commune
Commune of Paris: The International became involved with concerns and political and military tensions between France and Germany. Workers revolted against the war and the creation of a conservative government, but Paris refused to accept the new government and initiated a revolution. Consequently, the government relocated to Versailles. Elections were held to establish the Paris Commune: a popular, republican, democratic, and social government. The Commune implemented reforms concerning the labor movement and its democracy.
The Crisis of the IWA
The confrontation between Bakunin and Marx led to a crisis within the IWA. The Hague Conference concluded with Marxists deciding to form a national labor party as a new form of organization. Bakunin and his followers rejected this resolution, were expelled, and formed the anti-authoritarian International, which lasted until 1881.
The Second International
The Second International: Founded in Paris in 1889, this organization was ideologically homogeneous, incorporating only socialist parties. Resolutions adopted at the founding congress called for laws protecting workers and urged workers to join socialist parties. The Second International established symbols of the labor movement, such as the anthem and the May Day celebration, commemorating workers arrested and executed in Chicago.
Great Debates within the Second International
The great debates: The International addressed problems affecting the socialist movement, condemning revisionism and allowing socialist presence in bourgeois governments only in extreme cases. Colonialism was also debated. One sector denounced it as capitalist exploitation and advocated for fighting it to enhance socialist revolution in the colonies.
Crisis and Division of the Socialist Movement
When World War I began, most socialist parties abandoned their pacifist and revolutionary principles. Crisis and Division of socialist movement: Two opposing conceptions of the socialist movement emerged: revolutionary and reformist. Three groups formed within the parties: patriots who supported the war and national defense, moderate pacifists against the war who defended neutrality, and revolutionaries who sought to transform the war into a proletarian revolution. The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, fractured the unity of the socialist movement. The Russian Revolution forced socialists to take different positions. The communist split led to the organization of a new International and affected all social groups.