The International Workingmen's Association, sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing political groups and trade union organizations which were based on the working class. It was founded in 1864 in a workmen meeting held in Saint Martin's Hall, London. Its first congress was held in 1866 in Geneve.
Originally, the organization contained British trade unionists, anarchists, French socialists and Italian republicans, and it was led by Karl Marx. Some time later, disputes between Marx and Mikhail Bakunin, the most prominent anarchist in the International, led to a split between the Marxists and the Anarchists, in which Bakunin's followers were ejected from the International. 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.
The First International was largely considered to be a major factor leading to the creation of the Paris Commune of 1871. Although this idea is disputed, Marx did write a defense of the Commune.
The International Working Men's Association (IWMA), later to be known as the FirstInternational, was founded on 28 September 1864 at St Martin's Hall in London.
Often the supposed "broad and loose nature" of the FirstInternational, which contained anarchists, Marxists and trade unionists committed to neither current, is contrasted favourably to the Communist International founded by Lenin and the Bolsheviks and constructed on democratic centralist lines.
The International by its practice and its struggle had laid the basis for the theory of a democratic centralist international with an international programme, discipline and goal.
The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), sometimes called the FirstInternational, was an internationalsocialist 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.
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.
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