IWMA
Articles by and about the International Working Men's Association (IWMA) or First International and its members.
IWMA - further reading guide
Libcom's guide to further reading on the International Working Men's Association (IWMA), or First International.
*On The First International - Marx
*The First Four Internationals - George Novack
Anarchism - Marx/Engels/Lenin
The History of Socialist Thought, vol. 2 - G.D.H. Cole
A Short History of The European Working Class - Abendroth
Collected Works - Marx/Engels
Karl Marx: Man and Fighter - Nicolaievsky
Karl Marx - Otto Ruhle
*Karl Marx - Franz Mehring
Covelli, Emilio aka Mephistopheles, 1846 -1915
A short biography of pioneering Italian anarchist-communist Emilio Covelli.
Born in Trani into a family of wealthy aristocrats on 5th August 1846 Emilio was a classmate of Carlo Cafiero in Molfetta.
He studied for a law degree at the University of Naples in 1868 and then continued to study in Germany at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin. Here, according to Cafiero, he “tore off his bourgeois hide” and moved towards socialism.
Claramunt, Teresa, 1862- 1931
One of the founders of the Spanish anarchist movement, an ‘organic intellectual’ and one of its most distinguished women activists
“The Louise Michel of Spain"
- Emma Goldman, in a 1937 letter to Ethel Mannin.
Montels, Jules, 1843-1916
A short biography of anarchist, Paris Communard and tutor to Leo Tolstoy's children, Jules Montels.
Jules Montels was born in France at Gignac in the Herault department, on 25th March 1843. As a young boy he experienced the uprising in 1851 against the coup of Louis Napoleon, which was followed by savage repression. These left bitter memories for him.
Alérini, Charles, 1842-1877+
A short biography of French anarchist revolutionary and First International activist, Charles Alérini.
Charles Alérini was born at Bastia, Corsica, on 20 March 1842.
He became a teacher and taught first at the lycée of Marseilles and then at the College of Barcelonnette in southern France.
Bastelica, André, 1845-1884
A short biography of First International member, brilliant agitator and organiser of the Marseilles working class, André Bastelica.
Born at Bastia in Corsica on 28th November 1845, Bastelica was from an early age, extremely curious. He was an autodidact par excellence, like so many other workers found in the revolutionary movement. An anarchist even before the term had been properly applied, he started his working life as a shop assistant and then as a typesetter.
Pindy, Jean Louis, 1840-1917
A short biography of Jean Louis Pindy: Paris Communard, anarchist and inventor of the Paindy.
“Authority, in whatever hands it is placed, is always pernicious to the advancement of humanity” Pindy, writing in La Revue Blanche.
Jean Louis Pindy was born on June 3rd at Brest in western France. A carpenter-joiner, he became a member of the Brest section of the First International in 1867.
Dumartheray, Francois, 1842-1931
A short biography of possibly the founder of anarchist communism, Francois Dumartheray of France.
Francois Dumartheray was born at Collonges, Haute-Savoie in the Savoy on 27th January 1842.
A member of a utopian Icarian group in Lyons, he was one of those who fled to Geneva after the events of 1871.
He became a member of the L’Avenir group, along with Antoine Perrare, composed mostly of workers who had their roots in the Cabetian strand of communism in Lyons.
The philosophical roots of the Marx-Bakunin conflict - Ann Robertson
Article about political differences between Bakunin and Marx, which correlated to the anarchist-Marxist split in the First International.
The author is biased in favour of Marx's views, but fails to give credit for Bakunin's influence on Marx (such as forcing him to clarify his views on the state) or those instances where Bakunin had more insight than Marx (such as on the evolution and counter-revolutionary nature of Social Democracy).
Secret Societies and the First International - Boris I. Nicolaevsky
The influence of a radical-democratic offshoot of freemasonry on the formation of the First International.
"B. I. Nicolaevsky was Curator of the Menshevik collection at the Hoover Institution. An active member of the Russian Social Democratic Party, he became Director of the Moscow Marx-Engels Institute after the revolution of 1917. Deported from Russia in 1922, he later became Director of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam."
Originally published in "The Revolutionary Internationals, 1864-1943"; ed. Milorad M. Drachovitch, Stanford University Press, 1966.
