Karl Marx and the fight for the First International

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In the struggle for revolutionary politics today militants stand on the gains established by Karl Marx, Engels and the early leaders of the Communist movement.

Marx co-wrote the Communist Manifesto, and spelled out the detailed economic analysis of the capitalist system embodied in Capital. But, together with Engels, he also played a key role in the fight for internationalism in the construction of the First International.

RIMIN The first international arose out of the struggles of the working class in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The main movements were in Britain and France which were the most industrialised capitalist countries in the world.

Britain played a major role because it was the first country to have trade unions and a politicised working class which grew around the Chartist movement in the 1840s.

Before 1864 a number of attempts were made to set up some form of International Workers Association and were centred mainly in England; Julian Harney set up the "Society of Fraternal Democrats" in London in 1845 which became a refuge for political exiles from all over Europe.

In 1850 Ernest Jones established the "International Committee" which held mass rallies and demonstrations in Paris and London.

Finally there was the ... 4.." 33: helped Marx and Engels to write the "Communist Manifesto" in 1847.

The strengthening of capitalism in the 1840s and '50s and the suppression of workers' revolts and trade unions in Europe isolated the "leaders" from the workers; but with the economic crisis in 1857, the Italian war of Independence in 1859 and the American Civil War the working class resistance again began to gather strength.

Badly affected

Britain and France were badly affected by increased competition from the developing nations such as America, Italy, and Germany. They began to employ foreign workers as cheap labour in the textile factories and increased unemployment.

In Britain the workers reacted by demanding "one man one vote" and similar movements developed in France.

The re-awakening of the French and British working class -34 also led to the growth of internationalism which led to a meeting in London on September 28 1864 of workers and trade union delegates from America and Europe.

They agreed to draw up the constitution of an International Working Mens Association which would have its first congress in Belgium in 1865.

At first Marx played a small role in setting up the IWA but believed that "the era of revolution has now fairly opened again in Europe"

He quickly became the main intellectual leader and wrote the aims of the IWA.

The address to the first meeting in 1864 was a complete indictment of capitalism as much as the "Communist Manifesto" itself.

It pointed out that in the preceding twenty years capitalist production and economic expansion had increased all over the globe as never before, yet the misery and poverty of the working class had remained the same.

The new industry and banks which the capitalists had set up had sharpened the big difference between the workers and the bosses.

Throughout the 1850s, when workers came under attack, they won victories with the passing in Parliament of the "Ten Hour Bill" which meant that workers only had to work ten hours per day and also the setting up of the cooperative movement which gave workers cheap food and clothing.

The speech to the first meeting added that the capitalist class would continue to use their economic and political privileges to maintain ... 58.3 their power and that the job the working • class was "capture political power"

The workers, said Marx:

"possess one element of success-numbers. But numbers are weighty in the scales only when they are united in an organisation and lead towards a conscious aim"

Basically, the alms of the International were the same as those in the Communist ị) Only the working class can achieve its own emancipation.

il) Class rule has to be abolished.

ili) Capitalism is a system of boss against workers and therefore the overthrow of capitalism is the aim to which all movements must strive.

iv) The working class revolution is neither local nor national, but international.

This thus laid the basis for an international workers' movement, based on communist internationalism.

Marxism was thought of as a theoretical tool rather than a guide to working class action by liberals and some sections of bosses in the 1850s/60s.

Proudhon

The First International had not a majority of Marxists, but of middle class liberals, social reformists and nationalists (social chauvanists).

One leading brand of liberal socialism was expressed by the supporters of Pierre Joseph Proudhon who did not believe in smashing private property but in tinkering with the economic system and setting up co-operative societies.

The Proudhonists disapproved of the main methods of working class struggle: the trade unions, strikes, factory occupations, demonstrations and political action.

Marx's biggest battles

with Mikhail Bakunin.

Working class

Marxism bases itself on the industrial working class as the decisive force in capitalist society, while Bakunin wanted a movement dominated by the peasants, the middle class, dispossessed workers and backward, capitalist workers.

Bakunin became the 'father' of modern Anarchism-which reflecting the ideology of the middle class, is against all forms of authority and organisation, no matter if it is a workers' state or a fascist state.

Marx, however, was in favour of a workers" state where political and economic power is in the hands of the workers.

To set up these states there must be national, local and international communist parties.

The First International represented a milestone in the history of the working class movement. It also represented the political battles which had to be fought ahead.

The battles between Marxism, Proudhon and Bakunin brought into the open the differences between those who represented the liberal minded middle class and those who believed in a perspective of the working class overthrowing the lotten trade union demonstration in London in 1867 capitalist system.

At the same time Marx was forced to combat the narrow trade union militancy of many of the British representatives. Despite the political weakness of the First International, it was able to bring tens of thousands of workers onto the streets of London in 1866 in favour of 'one man, one vote' The IWA was able to stimulate the trade unions into greater contact with the working class by involving itself in the political and social life of the class.

In the late 1860s the IWA supported the workers' uprisings throughout Europe, including the Paris Commune of 1871.

All subsequent struggles for revolutionary internationalism nave therefore stood on the shoulders of the gains embodied in the First International.

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INDUSTRIAL NEWS 1980

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