International Workingmen's Association

The International Workingmen's Association was an international group of socialists. Originally, it contained socialists of all kinds, including libertarian socialists (known by various names, including anarchists, anarcho-communists and Bakuninists) as well as the more authoritarian Marxists and social democrats.

Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 First International 1.1 The Schism 2 Second International 3 Third International 4 Fourth International

First International

The Schism

The First International was split into two after Mikhail Bakunin, the foremost anarchist, and Karl Marx differed on both principles and practical courses of action.

Second International

The Second International is a collection of moderate leftist political parties. For example, the British Labour Party and the German Social Democrats are affiliated to it.

Third International

The Third International was the Communist International. Commonly referred to as Comintern, it was created at the behest of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for the express purpose of establishing Communist Parties in countries across the world. The first Communist International meeting was held in Moscow on March 2, 1917.

Fourth International

The Fourth International was created in 1938 by Leon Trotsky. It represents the Trotskyite strain of Communist though, particularly Trotsky's ideas of Permanent Revolution.