Abstract
The International Workingmen’s Association (the so-called First International, 1864–1880) marked a watershed moment in the history of anarchist movements and ideas. For it was through the debates and struggles within the International regarding the proper direction of working-class movements that the principles of modern anarchism were first clearly articulated. Anarchists were at the forefront of the debates within the International regarding collective property, the family and education, the roles of the state, trade unions, cooperatives and mutual aid societies, political participation and the structure and purpose of the International itself as an organisation dedicated to the emancipation of the workers by the workers themselves. The anarchists articulated a revolutionary socialist alternative to both social democratic parliamentary politics and revolutionary dictatorship, rejecting the state as a transitional or permanent institution. After the International was split in two with the expulsion of Bakunin at the Hague Congress in 1872, the debates within the anti-authoritarian wing of the International gave expression to virtually every anarchist tendency that was to follow—from anarcho-syndicalism, to anarchist communism, communalism, insurrectionism, anti-organisationalism and illegalism—as anarchism emerged as a distinct force on the revolutionary left.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Joseph Déjacque, in Hartman and Lause (Eds), In the Sphere of Humanity: Joseph Déjacque, Slavery and the Struggle for Freedom (Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Libraries, 2012), 13.
- 2.
P.-J. Proudhon, ‘On Federalism,’ in R. Graham (Ed), Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2005), Vol. 1, 74.
- 3.
Proudhon, ‘On the Political Capacity of the Working Classes,’ ibid., 74.
- 4.
Jacques Freymond et al. (Eds), La première international: recueil de documents (Geneva: Librairie E. Droz, 1962), Vol. 1, 89–92 & 99.
- 5.
Ibid., 95–98.
- 6.
James Guillaume, L’Internationale, documents et souvenirs (1864–1878), Vol. 1 (Paris: Stock, 1905), 258, fn. 1.
- 7.
Freymond, Première International, Vol. 1, 215–221.
- 8.
Henryk Katz, The Emancipation of Labor: A History of the First International (New York: Greenwood Press, 1992), 33.
- 9.
Julian Archer, The First International in France 1864–1872: Its Origins, Theories and Impact (Lanham: University Press of America, 1997), 100.
- 10.
Freymond, Première International, Vol. 1, 151–155.
- 11.
Ibid., 252, 391.
- 12.
Ibid., 283–284.
- 13.
M. Musto (Ed), Workers Unite! The International 150 Years Later (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), 232.
- 14.
Ibid., 233.
- 15.
Bakunin, Bakunin on Anarchism, S. Dolgoff (Ed) (Montreal: Black Rose, 1980), 157.
- 16.
Bakunin, Selected Writings, A. Lehning (Ed) (New York: Grove Press, 1974), 174–175.
- 17.
Ibid., 172.
- 18.
Bakunin, ‘Program of the International Brotherhood,’ in Graham, Anarchism, 86.
- 19.
M. Schmidt and L. van der Walt, Black Flame: The Revolutionary Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism (Counter-Power Vol. 1) (Oakland: AK Press, 2009), 252.
- 20.
Bakunin, ‘Program of the International Brotherhood,’ in Graham, Anarchism, 85–86.
- 21.
Bakunin in Lehning, Selected Writings, 170.
- 22.
Bakunin, ‘Open Letter to Swiss Comrades of the International,’ in R. Cutler (Ed), From Out of the Dustbin: Bakunin’s Basic Writings 1869–1871 (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1985), 173.
- 23.
Bakunin, ‘Geneva’s Double Strike,’ in Ibid., 146.
- 24.
Bakunin, ‘Open Letter to Swiss Comrades of the International,’ Ibid., 177.
- 25.
Bakunin, ‘On Science and Authority,’ in Graham, Anarchism, 92.
- 26.
Bakunin, ‘The Organization of the International,’ Ibid., 95.
- 27.
Bakunin, ‘Geneva’s Double Strike,’ in Cutler, From out of the Dustbin, 149–150.
- 28.
Bakunin, ‘La Montagne and Mr. Coullery,’ Ibid., 93.
- 29.
Robert Graham, We Do Not Fear Anarchy, We Invoke It: The First International and the Origins of the Anarchist Movement (Oakland: AK Press, 2015), 109–111.
- 30.
J. L. Pindy, in D. Guérin (Ed), No Gods No Masters, Book One (San Francisco: AK Press, 1998), 184.
- 31.
Freymond, Première International, Vol. 2, 67.
- 32.
Graham, We Do Not Fear Anarchy, 142–143.
- 33.
Bakunin, The Political Philosophy of Bakunin: Scientific Anarchism, ed. G. P. Maximoff (New York: Free Press, 1953), 404–405.
- 34.
Bakunin, in Dolgoff, Bakunin on Anarchism, 294.
- 35.
Temma Kaplan, Anarchists of Andalusia, 1868–1903 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), 75.
- 36.
E. Schulkind (Ed), The Paris Commune: The View From the Left (New York: Grove Press, 1974), 90–91.
- 37.
Ibid., 111.
- 38.
Ibid., 191.
- 39.
Bakunin, in Lehning, Selected Writings, 198–202.
- 40.
Graham, We Do Not Fear Anarchy, 170–172.
- 41.
Guillaume, L’Internationale, Vol. 2, 236–237.
- 42.
‘The Sonvillier Circular,’ in Graham, Anarchism, 97–98.
- 43.
H. Gerth (Ed), The First International: Minutes of the Hague Congress of 1872 (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1958), 207.
- 44.
Ibid., 219.
- 45.
Bakunin, in Lehning, Selected Writings, 255.
- 46.
‘The St. Imier Congress,’ in Graham, Anarchism, 98–99.
- 47.
Ibid., 100.
- 48.
Graham, We Do Not Fear Anarchy, 199.
- 49.
David Stafford, From Anarchism to Reformism: A Study of the political activities of Paul Brousse, 1870–90 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), 290, fn. 14.
- 50.
G. Esenwien, Anarchist Ideology and the Working-Class Movement in Spain, 1868–1898 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 46.
- 51.
Kaplan, Anarchists of Andalusia, 105–107.
- 52.
George Woodcock, Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (New York: Meridian, 1962), 250.
- 53.
Ibid., 249.
- 54.
Guérin, No Gods No Masters, 191.
- 55.
Woodcock, Anarchism, 252.
- 56.
Guillaume, L’Internationale, Vol. 3, 222.
- 57.
Ibid., 224.
- 58.
Guérin, No Gods No Masters, 198–199.
- 59.
Guillaume, in Dolgoff, Bakunin on Anarchism, 361.
- 60.
Graham, We Do Not Fear Anarchy, 216–217.
- 61.
Stafford, From Anarchism, 39–40.
- 62.
P. Brousse, ‘Propaganda by the Deed,’ in Graham, Anarchism, 151.
- 63.
Ibid., 151.
- 64.
Max Nettlau, A Short History of Anarchism (London: Freedom Press, 1996), 140.
- 65.
Marie Fleming, The Anarchist Way to Socialism: Elisée Reclus and Nineteenth-Century European Anarchism (London: Croom Helm, 1979), 130.
- 66.
Caroline Cahm, Kropotkin and the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism, 1872–1886 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 48.
- 67.
Kropotkin, ‘The Anarchist Idea,’ in Guérin, No Gods No Masters, 234–235.
- 68.
Graham, We Do Not Fear Anarchy, 241–243.
- 69.
Cafiero, ‘Action,’ in Graham, Anarchism, 152.
- 70.
Malatesta, ‘The Workers’ New International,’ in D. Turcato (Ed), The Method of Freedom: an Errico Malatesta Reader (Oakland: AK Press, 2014), 328–329.
- 71.
Ibid., 329.
- 72.
Kropotkin, ‘Anarchism in the International Workingmen’s Association,’ in I. McKay (Ed), Direct Struggle Against Capital: A Peter Kropotkin Anthology (Oakland: AK Press, 2014), 170.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Graham, R. (2019). Anarchism and the First International. In: Levy, C., Adams, M.S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75619-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75620-2
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)