First Socialist Schism

Wolfgang Eckhardt

Description

The First Socialist Schism chronicles the conflicts in the International Working Men’s Association (the First International, 1864–1877), which represents an important milestone in the history of political ideas and socialist theory. In defending their autonomy, federations in the International became aware of what separated them from the social democratic movement that relied on the establishment of national labor parties and the conquest of political power. This can be seen as a decisive moment in the history of political ideas: the split between centralist party politics and the federalist grassroots movement. The separate movements in the International—which would later develop into social democracy, communism, and anarchism—found their greatest advocates in Mikhail Bakunin and Karl Marx. However, the significance of this alleged clash of titans is largely a modern invention. It was not the rivalry between two arch-enemies or a personal vendetta based on mutual resentment that made the conflict between Bakunin and Marx so important but rather that it heralded the first socialist schism between parliamentary party politics aiming to conquer political power and social-revolutionary concepts.

Instead of focusing exclusively on what Marx and Bakunin said, many other contributions to this debate are examined, making this the first reconstruction of a dispute that gripped the entire organization. This book also provides the first detailed account of the International’s Congress of The Hague (September, 1872); including the background, the sequence of events, and international reaction. The book sets new standards when it comes to source material, taking into account documents from numerous archives and libraries that have previously gone unnoticed or were completely unknown.

Sujets

• Mijaíl Bakunin
• Mikhail Bakunin
• Historiography
• Marx

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781629633084
• Langue: English

Extrait

The First Socialist Schism: Bakunin vs. Marx in the International Working Men s Association
Wolfgang Eckhardt 2016
This edition published in 2016 by PM Press
ISBN: 978-1-62963-042-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014908069
Cover: John Yates/Stealworks.com
Layout: Jonathan Rowland
PM Press
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Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan www.thomsonshore.com
This book has been made possible in part by a generous donation from the Anarchist Archives Project.
I am profoundly grateful to J rg Asseyer, Gianluca Falanga, Valerii Nikolaevich Fomichev, Frank Hartz, Gabriel Kuhn, Lore Naumann, Felipe Orob n Mart nez, Werner Portmann, Michael Ryan, Andrea Stei, Hanno Strau , and Michael Volk for their support and to the translators named above for their excellent job creating this English edition of my book.
Contents
1 Bakunin, Marx, and Johann Philipp Becker
The Alliance request by Johann Philipp Becker (November 1868)
The Alliance joins the International (February-July 1869)
Becker s position paper on the question of organisation (July 1869)
2 The International in Geneva and in the Jura Region
The International in Jura (February-May 1869)
3 The Basel Congress of the International
Bakunin s manuscript To the Citizen Editors of the R veil (October 1869)
Bakunin s first strategy: attack not Marx but his associates
4 Marx s communications concerning Bakunin
Bakunin s defence by Eug ne Hins (January 1870)
The Confidential Communication to German social democrats (March 1870)
5 The Romance Federation split
La Chaux-de-Fonds Congress (April 1870)
Marx s third communication regarding Bakunin (April 1870)
The General Council s decision (June 1870)
The international response and the International s next congress (April-August 1870)
6 Fixing the International s course
Bakunin s second strategy: cautious criticism of Marx
Paul Robin, the congress question, and the disbanding of the Geneva Alliance section (summer 1871)
Marx and pluralism within the International
7 The London Conference
The London Conference s decision on the Swiss conflict (resolutions nos. 16 and 17)
The Nechaev trial (resolution no. 14 of the London Conference)
Constitution of the working class into a political party (resolution no. 9 of the London Conference)
8 The Sonvillier Circular
Reaction of the Belgian Federation of the International (November-December 1871)
Engels article about the Sonvillier Circular and the declarations in support of the London Conference from Saxony and Geneva
9 The International in Italy
Reaction of the International in Italy (until January 1872)
Engels letter to Theodor Cuno in Milan of 24 January 1872
Bakunin s Italian manuscripts (end of 1871 to beginning of 1872)
10 The International in Spain
The International in Madrid and the founding congress of the Spanish Federation in Barcelona (1869-1870)
Slow reaction of the Spanish International to the Sonvillier Circular (November 1871-early 1872)
Paul Lafargue goes to Spain
11 Lafargue s activities in Spain
Lafargue and the Emancipaci n s contact with the Republican Party (January to March 1872)
The Saragossa Congress (4-11 April 1872) and Lafargue s reports in the Libert
Bakunin s letters to Mora and Lorenzo (April-May 1872)
12 The Belgian rules project and the Fictitious Splits
Fictitious Splits in the International by Marx and Engels
Bakunin s third strategy: open criticism of Marx
Debate over the Belgian rules project and the second Belgian federal congress (14 July 1872)
Cafiero s reckoning with Engels (12-19 June 1872)
13 Convening the Congress of The Hague
Boycott or participation?
14 The factional divide in the Spanish International
The Alianza fracas
Engels attacks against the Alianza (July-August 1872)
The Spanish delegate elections and the New Madrid Federation before the Congress of The Hague
15 The eve of the Congress of The Hague
The opposition
Delegate mandates from the United States and Germany
The French and General Council delegate mandates
16 The Congress of The Hague: the mandate commission and the commission to investigate the Alliance
The verification of the mandates
The voting procedure and the commission to investigate the Alliance
The story behind Bakunin s translation of Capital
17 The revisions to the Rules, the transfer of the General Council and the Minority Declaration
The debate concerning the transfer of the General Council and resolution no. 9 of the London Conference
Constitution of the minority and the final meeting of the Congress of The Hague
18 The Congresses of St. Imier, Brussels, and C rdoba
The downfall of the Congress of The Hague s majority
The Brussels Congress (December 1872)
The C rdoba Congress (December 1872)
Bakunin and the Congress of The Hague
19 The Geneva Congresses and the disastrous New York General Council
Reactions in Belgium, Spain, and Italy
The split of the English International
The congress of the federations (1-6 September 1873)
The General Council s congress (8-13 September 1873)
20 Politics and historical narratives
The pamphlet L Alliance
The M moire of the Jura Federation
Epilogue
Bibliography
Notes
Index
C HAPTER 1
Bakunin, Marx, and Johann Philipp Becker
I T WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFICULT TO imagine at first that one day Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) and Karl Marx (1818-1883) would face one another as the heads of opposing tendencies of international socialism. They were nearly the same age and both emigrants who had settled in Paris between 1843 and 1844, and were part of the same group of international radicals that had congregated in Paris - a melting pot for European emigrants before 1848 - at the time. There they were introduced to one another in March 1844 and had a friendly relationship until Marx was expelled from France in January 1845. Despite some tribulations - for example, Marx s Neue Rheinische Zeitung accused Bakunin of being a Russian spy in 1848 - they continued to correspond well into the 1860s. 1 On 3 November 1864, a last personal meeting was arranged by Marx, 2 to which Bakunin was glad to agree for a special reason: I knew that he had played a major part in the foundation of the International. 3
The commonly held notion that Marx was the main founder of the International 4 (the First International or International Working Men s Association), which Bakunin and many of his contemporaries believed, is a misconception. In reality, Marx had no part in the association of French and English workers that had existed since 1862 and led to the founding meeting of the International in September 1864. Marx was known to English union officials as an immigrant and scholar, and so he was present at the meeting on 28 September 1864 in London s St. Martin s Hall, to which he received an invitation at the last minute; 5 however, he only took part in the meeting - as he himself put it two weeks later in a letter to Friedrich Engels - in a non-speaking capacity on the platform . 6 During the meeting, Marx was elected as one of two German representatives of the 32-person provisional Central Council (later General Council) of the International and wrote the Provisional Rules 7 and the Inaugural Address , 8 the International s founding declaration - which Bakunin later described as a remarkable, serious and profound manifesto, like all those that he writes, when they are not personal polemics . 9
Marx sent Bakunin the Inaugural Address , published a short time after their meeting in London, to Italy (where Bakunin had moved). 10 More than once, in the following years, Marx toyed with the idea of mobilising Bakunin s support in disputes within the International in Italy. In April 1865 Marx threatened to get Bakunin to lay some counter-mines for Mr Mazzini in Florence , 11 and on 1 May of the same year he declared that if the Italian immigrants in London don t appoint new delegates soon, as we have asked them to, Bakunin will have to arrange for some life [ sic ] Italians . 12 Finally, in September 1867 Marx praised the Italian paper Libert e Giustizia and explained I assume that Bakunin is involved . 13
The Alliance request by Johann Philipp Becker (November 1868)
Bakunin became a member of the Geneva central section of the International in June or July 1868. 14 However, he at first concentrated his activities on the League of Peace and Liberty ( Ligue de la Paix et de la Libert ), whose founding congress he had attended a year earlier. 15 At their second congress, from 22 to 26 September 1868 in Berne, Bakunin became completely disillusioned with the political character of the League. He introduced his collectivist ideas during the second item of the agenda at that congress: How does the economic or social question relate to the question of peace through freedom? 16 They were met with harsh criticism from several speakers. The draft of his resolution on this issue 17 was rejected by the majority of the delegate nations with seven votes against (Spain, Sweden, Mexico, France, Germany, Switzerland, England) and four in favour (Poland, Russia, Italy, USA). 18 On 25 September, Bakunin and 17 other congress participants quit the League after reading a letter