Part of the series of biographies of Mikhail Bakunin.
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.
Files
The First Socialist Schism.pdf
(12.43 MB)
Comments
I have now read this book,
I have now read this book, and thanks Craftwork, for putting it up.
I am mystified by something not mentioned in it. Given the extremely bad blood in the end between the two sides, how is it possible that the supporters of Marx and the supporters of Bakunin got together again at Ghent in 1877, as reported here:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/steklov/history-first-international/ch31.htm ?
Yes, not the IWMA (formally disbanded in Philadephia the year before), I know, but they got together all the same.
(It would be useful, by the way, to see an anarchist account of this 1877 meeting. Is there one?)
Quote: The 9th Congress of
http://www.iwa-ait.org/content/federalist-iwma-was-killed-collaborationists-reformism-0
There is a account of the
There is a account of the congress in Social-democracy & Anarchism in the International Workers' Association 1864-1877 by René Berthier(french anarcho syndiicalist) but I don't think there is a pdf of the book online