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.
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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.
The First International was an organization that aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing groups and trade unions that were based on the working class and class struggle. Anarchists participated in the First International until their expulsion in the Hague Congress.
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, including the Jura Federation, in St. Imier, Switzerland. The Congress was attended by delegates of the International federations in Italy, Spain, the United States, France and French-speaking Switzerland. [1] : 32–34
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). [1] : 32–34
A number of local or regional congresses were held after the end of the Anti-authoritarian IWMA, including an important congress of the Jura Federation 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. [1] : 42 In addition, anarchists were present at other meetings, such as the Le Havre Congress in 1880, which passed a motion that adopted "libertarian communism as the ultimate objective." [1] : 46 However, in the last two decades of the 20th century, anarchists tended towards individualism and autonomy, emphasizing propaganda of the deed and suspicious of federalism as the first step on a slippery slope towards authoritarianism. International congresses ceased accordingly. [1] : 52–59
Anarchist communism is a political ideology and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retention of personal property and collectively-owned items, goods, and services. It supports social ownership of property and the distribution of resources "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, social anarchist, and collectivist anarchist traditions. Bakunin's prestige as a revolutionary also made him one of the most famous ideologues in Europe, gaining substantial influence among radicals throughout Russia and Europe.
According to different scholars, the history of anarchism either goes back to ancient and prehistoric ideologies and social structures, or begins in the 19th century as a formal movement. As scholars and anarchist philosophers have held a range of views on what anarchism means, it is difficult to outline its history unambiguously. Some feel anarchism is a distinct, well-defined movement stemming from 19th-century class conflict, while others identify anarchist traits long before the earliest civilisations existed.
Luigi Galleani was an Italian insurrectionary anarchist best known for his advocacy of "propaganda of the deed", a strategy of political assassinations and violent attacks.
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 Jura Federation represented the anarchist, Bakuninist faction of the First International during the anti-statist split from the organization. Jura, a Swiss area, was known for its watchmaker artisans in La Chaux-de-Fonds, who shared anti-state, egalitarian views on work and social emancipation. The Jura Federation formed between international socialist congresses in 1869 and 1871. When the First International's General Council, led by Marxists, suppressed the Bakuninists, the Jura Federation organized an international of the disaffected federations at the 1872 St. Imier Congress. The congress disavowed the General Council's authoritarian consolidation of power and planning as an affront to the International's loose, federalist founding to support workers' emancipation. Members of the First International agreed and even statists joined the anti-statists' resulting Anti-authoritarian International, but by 1876, the alliance had mostly dissolved. While in decline, the Jura Federation remained the home of Bakuninists whose figures engaged on a two-decade debate on the merits of propaganda of the deed. The egalitarian relations of the Jura Federation had played an important role in Peter Kropotkin's adoption of anarchism, who became the anarchist standard-bearer after Bakunin.
The Anti-Authoritarian International 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.
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.
Anarchism in France can trace its roots to thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who grew up during the Restoration and was the first self-described anarchist. French anarchists fought in the Spanish Civil War as volunteers in the International Brigades. According to journalist Brian Doherty, "The number of people who subscribed to the anarchist movement's many publications was in the tens of thousands in France alone."
Paul Louis Marie Brousse was a French socialist, leader of the possibilistes group and active in the Jura Federation anti-authoritarian section of the International Working Men's Association (IWMA).
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to anarchism:
Francesco Saverio Merlino was an Italian lawyer, anarchist activist and theorist of libertarian socialism.
Alexander "Sanya" Moiseyevich Schapiro or Shapiro was a Russian anarcho-syndicalist activist. Born in southern Russia, Schapiro left Russia at an early age and spent most of his early activist years in London.
Adhémar Schwitzguébel (1844–1895) was a Swiss anarchist and trade unionist. Associated with the libertarian socialist faction of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), he co-founded its Jura Federation and participated in the splinter organisation that became the Anti-Authoritarian International. Schwitzguébel became active in the establishment of workers' organisations in Switzerland, establishing the first trade union of watchmakers in the country before his death from stomach cancer.
Marie Le Compte was an American journal editor and anarchist who was active during the early 1880s.
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, social democratic, 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 St. Imier Congress was a meeting of the Jura Federation and anti-authoritarian apostates of the First International in September 1872.
Anarchism spread into Belgium as Communards took refuge in Brussels with the fall of the Paris Commune. Most Belgian members in the First International joined the anarchist Jura Federation after the socialist schism. Belgian anarchists also organized the 1886 Walloon uprising, the Libertarian Communist Group, and several Bruxellois newspapers at the turn of the century. Apart from new publications, the movement dissipated through the internecine antimilitarism in the interwar period. Several groups emerged mid-century for social justice and anti-fascism.
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.
The International Social Revolutionary Congress was an anarchist meeting in London between 14 and 20 July 1881, with the aim of founding a new International organization for anti-authoritiarian socialism.