Geneva Congress (1866)

Last updated

Geneva Congress
Native name Congrès de Genève
Date3–8 September 1866 (1866-09-03 1866-09-08)
Location Geneva
Also known as1st General Congress
Type Congress
Organised by International Workingmen's Association
OutcomeAdoption of the eight-hour day as a goal for the IWA

The Geneva Congress of 1866 is the common name assigned to the 1st General Congress of the International Workingmen's Association, held in Geneva, Switzerland from 3 to 8 September 1866. The gathering was attended by 46 regular and 14 fraternal delegates from a total of five countries. The Geneva Congress is best remembered for its watershed decision to make universal establishment of the 8-hour working day a main goal of the International Socialist movement.

Contents

History

Background

The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), commonly known as the First International, was an international association of trade unionist and socialist political activists which attempted to coordinate labor activities across national boundaries. The organization is remembered for the active participation of many pioneer leaders of the modern socialist and anarchist movements, including Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin. Membership in the IWA was numerically small, its funding inadequate, and its institutional life short — lasting a mere 8 years from its establishment in 1864 until its termination at the Hague Congress of 1872. [1]

Establishment of the IWA was related to ongoing efforts to coordinate the activities of the trade union movements in Great Britain and France, a project begun in connection with the 1862 London World's Fair. [2] Economic crisis had led the imperial French government to concede the right to French workers to elect a delegation of 750 to the London exhibition. [2] While in London certain members of this delegation headed by Henri Tolain (1828-1897) established contact with British trade union leaders and opened the door for a formal meeting in London the following summer in support of the Polish uprising of 1863. [3]

Convocation

The 1st General Congress of the International Workingmen's Association was convened in Geneva, Switzerland on 3 September 1866. [4] The gathering remained in session for six days, adjourning sine die on 8 September. [4]

The convention was attended by 46 regular delegates, including 6 members of the General Council and representing 22 sections of the IWA. [4] Of these, 20 represented 13 sections in Switzerland, 17 represented 4 sections in France, and 3 represented 4 sections in Germany. [4] In addition, 14 fraternal delegates were in attendance, 11 of whom represented affiliated organizations, such as Swiss trade unions and educational societies. [4]

Activities

The International Workingmen's Association took up the demand for an eight-hour day at its Congress in Geneva, declaring "The legal limitation of the working day is a preliminary condition without which all further attempts at improvements and emancipation of the working class must prove abortive", and "The Congress proposes eight hours as the legal limit of the working day." Karl Marx saw it as of vital importance to the workers' health, writing in Das Kapital (1867): "By extending the working day, therefore, capitalist production...not only produces a deterioration of human labour power by robbing it of its normal moral and physical conditions of development and activity, but also produces the premature exhaustion and death of this labour power itself." [5]

Related Research Articles

The International Workers' Association – Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores (IWA–AIT) is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions and initiatives.

The General German Workers' Association was a German political party founded on 23 May 1863 in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony by Ferdinand Lassalle. It was the first organized mass working-class party in European history.

The Hague Congress was the fifth congress of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), held from 2–7 September 1872 in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The Anarchist International of St. Imier was an international workers' organization formed in 1872 after the split in the First International between the anarchists and the Marxists. This followed the 'expulsions' of Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume from the First International at the Hague Congress. It attracted some affiliates of the First International, repudiated the Hague resolutions, and adopted a Bakuninist programme, and lasted until 1877.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Alliance of Socialist Democracy</span>

The International Alliance of Socialist Democracy was an organisation founded by Mikhail Bakunin along with 79 other members on October 28, 1868, as an organisation within the International Workingmen's Association (IWA). The establishment of the Alliance as a section of the IWA was not accepted by the general council of the IWA because, according to the IWA statutes, international organisations were not allowed to join, since the IWA already fulfilled the role of an international organisation. The Alliance dissolved shortly afterwards and the former members instead joined their respective national sections of the IWA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">League of Peace and Freedom</span>

The Ligue internationale de la paix was created after a public opinion campaign against a war between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia over Luxembourg. The Luxembourg crisis was peacefully resolved in 1867 by the Treaty of London but in 1870 the Franco-Prussian War could not be prevented so the league dissolved and refounded as the 'Société française pour l'arbitrage entre nations' in the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Tolain</span> French socialist (1828–1897)

Henri Louis Tolain, was a leading member of the French trade union and socialist movement and a founding member of the First International and follower of Proudhon.

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

Internationalism is a political principle that advocates greater political or economic cooperation among states and nations. It is associated with other political movements and ideologies, but can also reflect a doctrine, belief system, or movement in itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Working People's Association</span> International Political party (1881–87)

The International Working People's Association (IWPA), sometimes known as the "Black International," was an international anarchist political organization established in 1881 at a convention held in London, England. In America the group is best remembered as the political organization uniting Albert Parsons, August Spies, and other anarchist leaders prosecuted in the wake of the 1886 Haymarket bombing in Chicago.

The International Workingmen's Association in the United States of America took the form of a loose network of about 35 frequently discordant local "sections," each professing allegiance to the London-based IWA, commonly known as the "First International." These sections were divided geographically and by the language spoken by their members, frequently new immigrants to America, including those who spoke German, French, Czech, as well as Irish and "American" English-language groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second International</span> Organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed in 1889

The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings 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. While the international had initially declared its opposition to all warfare between European powers, most of the major European parties ultimately chose to support their respective states in World War I. After splitting into pro-Allied, pro-Central Powers, and antimilitarist factions, the international ceased to function. After the war, the remaining factions of the international went on to found the Labour and Socialist International, the International Working Union of Socialist Parties, and the Communist International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Workingmen's Association</span> (First International) intergovernmental socialist organisation (1864–1876)

The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups and trade unions that were based on the working class and class struggle. It was founded in 1864 in a workmen's meeting held in St. Martin's Hall, London. Its first congress was held in 1866 in Geneva.

The Lausanne Congress of 1867 is the common name assigned to the 2nd General Congress of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), generally known as the First International. The meeting was held in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland from September 2 to 8, 1867. It was attended by 71 delegates, representing the socialist and labor movements of Switzerland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Belgium.

The Cercle des prolétaires positivistes was an organisation of working class positivists who advocated revolution were affiliated to the First International, i.e. the International Workingmen's Association (IWA). The Parisian Circle sent Gabriel Mollin as their delegate to the Basle Congress of the IWA. Subsequently, referred to as the 'Society of Positivist Proletarians', they applied for admission to the IWA. The General Council replied they must alter the constitution as regards their understanding of capital and join as proletarians rather than as positivists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basel Congress (1869)</span> 4th Congress of the International Workingmens Association (IWA)

The Basel Congress of 1869 is the common name assigned to the 4th General Congress of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), commonly known as the First International. The meeting was held in the city of Basel, Switzerland from September 6 to 12, 1869 and was attended by 75 delegates, representing the socialist and labor movements of United States, England France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.

Hermann Jung was a Swiss watchmaker who was active as a socialist in the International Workingmen's Association IWA. Jung participated in the revolution of 1848/49 in Germany and then emigrated to London. Here he became involved with the IWA. He was corresponding secretary for Switzerland in 1864–1872. He presided over the congresses of the IWA held in Geneva, Brussels, Basle and London. He was a member of the British Federal Council. Originally he followed of Marx, but after 1872 he joined the British Federal Council and the leaders of the British trade unions in opposing centralisation. He was not involved in the labour movement after 1877.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA</span>

The Spanish Regional Federation of the International Workingmen's Association, known by its Spanish abbreviation FRE-AIT, was the Spanish chapter of the socialist working class organization commonly known today as the First International. The FRE-AIT was active between 1870 and 1881 and was influential not only in the labour movement of Spain, but also in the emerging global anarchist school of thought.

Anarchism in Switzerland appeared, as a political current, within the Jura Federation of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), under the influence of Mikhail Bakunin and Swiss libertarian activists such as James Guillaume and Adhémar Schwitzguébel. Swiss anarchism subsequently evolved alongside the nascent social democratic movement and participated in the local opposition to fascism during the interwar period. The contemporary Swiss anarchist movement then grew into a number of militant groups, libertarian socialist organizations and squats.

Anarchism in Austria first developed from the anarchist segments of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), eventually growing into a nationwide anarcho-syndicalist movement that reached its height during the 1920s. Following the institution of fascism in Austria and the subsequent war, the anarchist movement was slow to recover, eventually reconstituting anarcho-syndicalism by the 1990s.

References

  1. Braunthal 1967, p. 85.
  2. 1 2 Braunthal 1967, p. 88.
  3. Braunthal 1967, p. 89.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Steklov 1968, p. 79.
  5. Marx, Karl (1867). Das Kapital. p. 376.

Bibliography

Further reading