International Anarchist Congresses

Over the past 150 years, anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists have held many congresses, conferences and international meetings in which organizations, trade unions, groups and individuals with libertarian views have participated.

The First International

The original International Workingmen's Association (IWMA), often known today as the First International, grouped together workers' societies of various socialist tendencies, including Mutualists, Blanquists, Owenites and republicans, though the most prominent were undoubtedly the Collectivists, grouped around Mikhail Bakunin and the Communists, led by Karl Marx. Towards the end of the First International, the Collectivists adopted Communist positions, but differed from the Marxists in their absolute rejection of authority, both within the International and in their strategic vision for the social revolution, which must immediately abolish the State and not, as with the Marxists, use it in order to gradually establish a communist society.

In these early years of the international socialist movement, the IWMA held 5 congresses attended by both these latter tendencies, at which the differences between the various ideologies clearly emerged. After the 5th Congress, the movement split, with the anarchist communists establishing an anti-authoritarian International. The IWMA was dissolved after its 6th Congress.

Conferences and Congresses of the IWMA

The first anarchist congresses

After the Hague Congress (1872), which saw the expulsion of the anarchists Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume, it was decided to hold a Congress of the anti-authoritarian Sections and Federations of the International in St. Imier, Switzerland. The Congress was attended by delegates of the International federations in Italy, Spain, Belgium, the United States, France and French-speaking Switzerland. It should be remembered that many sections of the International around this time had membership figures running into the thousands and tens of thousands.

This congress was not considered by the anarchists as the first of a new international organization, but rather the continuation of the old International. It rejected the modifications to the General Rules of the IWMA that had been decided at the London Conference (1871) and the Hague Congress (1872).

Congresses of the Anti-authoritarian IWMA

After 1877, the anti-authoritarian International continued to function in certain areas (such as Spain, Tuscany and Switzerland) on a local level. A number of local or regional congresses were held, including an important congress of the Jura Federation (Switzerland) in September 1880 which was attended by a number of international delegates and observers. It was at this congress that the anarchist movement adopted anarchist communism as its goal.

Other Anarchist congresses until 1922

There were various other unsuccessful attempts to call international congresses, in Geneva (1882), Paris (1889), Chicago (1890) and again Paris (1900). A number of anarchists also attended the World Socialist Congress, which took place in Ghent (Belgium) from 9–15 September 1877. The Second International was set up in 1889, and many anarchists participated in it. Although they were expelled from the 3rd Congress, the 4th Congress in London in 1896 saw a continuation of the clash between libertarian and authoritarian socialism, with a number of anarchists, such as Malatesta and Cornelissen, in attendance.

The rebirth of the IWA

Following the First World War and the Russian Revolution, anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists once again sought to rebuild the IWA. Initially intending to join with other revolutionary syndicalist organizations in the Bolshevik-led Profintern, libertarian unions became increasingly worried about the authoritarianism of the Bolsheviks and the subordination of Profintern to the Comintern. So, after two conferences in Berlin, the first from 16–21 December 1920 and the second from 16–18 June 1922, the new International Workingmen's Association (later to be known as the International Workers' Association) was born at its first congress in December 1922.

The IWA still exists today.

Congresses of the IWA

Post-World War II Anarchist Congresses

Anarchists continued to hold specifically anarchist congresses and conferences after the war, mostly focused on theoretical/ideological discussion. The objective was often the same: to create an international organization which would group together the various non-syndicalist anarchist organizations, i.e. those that were not already members of the IWA.

A stable international organization was finally established in 1968 at a congress in Carrara, Italy - the International of Anarchist Federations (IFA), which still exists today.

International Anarchist Congresses & Conferences

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Historia de la AIT
  2. ↑ El 22 Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores (AIT)
  3. ↑ Informe del secretariado al XXIII congreso de la AIT
  4. ↑ Crónica: XXIV Congreso de la AIT
  5. ↑ Report of IWA`s XXV Congress in Valencia
  6. ↑ Naissance du réseau libertaire mondial
  7. ↑ International Libertarian Solidarity (S.I.L.)
  8. ↑ Brazil: information from FAG
  9. ↑ Meeting of European Anarkismo groups in Paris
  10. ↑ Conference of European Anarkismo organizations in London
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