The Saint-Imier Congress, held from 15 to 16 September 1872 in the eponymous town, was a congress led by the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), better known as the First International. It is one of the foundational events in the history of the labour movement, often considered the birth of the anarchist movement.
Following the International’s founding, numerous factions gathered within it, notably the Bakuninists or anti-authoritarians, comprising anarchists, collectivists, and anti-authoritarian socialists, who constituted the majority of the organisation, and the Marxists and Blanquists, who were allied and controlled the IWA's General Council. While these groups began as allies within the organisation, personal and theoretical conflicts arose between them, crystallised in the growing opposition between Mikhail Bakunin and Karl Marx. The two increasingly opposed movements were on the verge of rupture at the Hague Congress, where Marx, controlling its management, engineered the expulsion of Bakunin and James Guillaume, one of his Swiss allies.
This decision marked a break between the two movements, and the Bakuninists, caught off guard and pressed for time, decided to organise a counter-congress in Saint-Imier. They were joined by about fifteen delegates and decided to invalidate the decisions taken at The Hague and to refound the International based on statutes ensuring the autonomy and freedom of the federations composing it. The greater part of the International joined this reorganisation, without the Marxists and their Blanquist allies. Historiographically, it is called the Anti-authoritarian International to distinguish it from the unified International that preceded it and the parallel Marxist International.
The Saint-Imier Congress is often considered the or one of the foundations of the anarchist movement and has received various tributes over time, one of the most recent being the organisation of Anarchy 2023, a large-scale anarchist gathering, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the congress.
History
Context
Foundation of the First International and conflicts
The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), or the First International, was a workers' association founded in London in 1864. It is a fundamental organization in the history of the workers' movement, quickly bringing together many figures linked to its history, such as Karl Marx, James Guillaume, Friedrich Engels, Errico Malatesta, and Carlo Cafiero. Different political movements were represented, ranging from Marxism to anarchism, as well as more moderate socialists and Proudhonists.
During the congresses held by the organization, central points of anarchism, Marxism, syndicalism, and socialism were debated, and the IWA served as an important theoretical and practical foundation for the birth of the workers' movement. Gradually, two main tendencies emerged within the organization: a Marxist tendency, gathered around Karl Marx and his allies, and an anti-authoritarian, anarchist and collectivist tendency, which also brought together moderate socialists and other groups, and which crystallized around Mikhail Bakunin and his allies, a large part of whom would become the anarchist movement. Bakunin, a Russian revolutionary with prestige in revolutionary groups, joined the IWA in Geneva in 1868 and actively participated in the founding of several groups of the International, such as the Jura Federation.
Initially, these two factions were allied within the IWA. Bakunin sought to have Marx's Das Kapital published in Russia, and Cafiero translated it into Italian, but gradually, theoretical and personal conflicts began to oppose the two groups. Numerous theoretical and practical points separated them: Bakunin believed that criminals, sex workers, prisoners, beggars, and other marginalized groups could be revolutionary forces, while Marx held an 'abysmal scorn' for them, according to historian Hans Gerth. Furthermore, unlike the Marxists, who thought that to achieve communism—where all goods are commonly owned—it would be necessary to retain the State for a certain period, a supposedly transitional phase designated as the dictatorship of the proletariat, Bakunin estimated that this transitional phase was highly problematic and would lead toward dictatorship.
These theoretical and personal conflicts devolved into an organizational one: Marx and his allies, such as Engels and his son-in-law, Paul Lafargue, wanted the International to be a centralized organization controlled by the General Council that they dominated. On the other hand, the Bakuninists wished to stick to the organization's initial statutes, which gave strong autonomy to the national or regional federations and made the General Council merely a coordinating body between the different federations. They did not accept the statutory changes desired by Marx and demanded a congress. They viewed this move by Marx as highly problematic, and numerous federations were on the verge of breaking with him and the party he was constituting inside the First International.
These conflicts were amplified by the 'race for membership' that the two movements undertook to gather maximum support in the workers' movement. The Bakuninists managed to establish a very strong foothold in Spain (whose federation adopted explicitly Bakuninist lines), Italy, Switzerland, and France (where the International was banned). Overall, it is estimated that a majority of the AIT's federations and militants supported Bakunin in his conflict with the General Council constituted by the Marxists, with the Spanish federation alone forming a large part of the organization's membership at this point.
The Rimini and Hague Congresses
With the next International Congress approaching, and these conflicts expected to be a major and decisive debate, the Italian Federation, which was frankly aligned with Bakunin and included figures like Carlo Cafiero, Andrea Costa, and Errico Malatesta, called for a national congress in the early summer of 1872 to decide on their federation's path. While preparing for this congress, they learned that the Marxist General Council had chosen The Hague as the meeting place. This was a strategic choice intended to prevent strong participation from the Bakuninist federations. Bakunin himself was sought by the police in France and Germany for his participation in the Communes and could not travel to The Hague. The maneuver was also intended to move the central location of the International—until then situated in Switzerland, where several previous congresses had taken place—toward areas less controlled by the anarchists and their allies.
In this context, while Bakunin and the Jura Federation (composed of figures like James Guillaume) ultimately chose to accept the congress location and sought to gather as many delegates as possible to attend (made difficult by the fact that their bases of support were in Spain, Italy, and France, where the International was banned), the Italian Federation met in Rimini. Given the new developments, the Italian delegates—who were confronted with the congress location (deemed particularly un-neutral by the Bakuninists) and the strong-arm addition of the declaration that considerably strengthened the powers and prerogatives of the Marxist General Council—voted for the break with the General Council. The Italian Federation decided to call for a congress of delegates from the socialist, anarchist, and other anti-authoritarian federations to meet in Neuchâtel to exclude Marx and his allies from the organization and revert to the International's original statutes.
According to James Guillaume, following the Italian Federation's decision to exclude Marx and immediately convene an anti-authoritarian congress in Switzerland, Bakunin and he negotiated with them to ask them to delay the congress until after the Hague Congress—which was accepted. They advocated for a strategy of conciliation, supporting the sending of as many delegates as possible to the Hague Congress anyway, despite the organization being under the control of the Marxists.
Unfortunately for them, the Hague Congress, which they attended without the support of the absent Italian delegates, was organised by Marx and his allies. They ensured they had the majority through several relatively debatable procedures, such as the fact that some of their delegates did not have legal mandates or were unverifiable—they also attempted to prevent the Spanish Federation, by far the largest in terms of members, from participating. Bakunin could not attend: he was therefore replaced by James Guillaume and Adhémar Schwitzguébel, two Swiss who represented him and the Jura Federation. The Congress, whose every decision aligned with Marxist positions, voted for the exclusion of Bakunin and Guillaume from the International—it failed to vote for Schwitzguébel’s exclusion, who protested by declaring he was in solidarity with the other two and should be excluded as well. The Hague Congress concluded on 7 September 1872.
The Saint-Imier Congress
A crucial moment to 'save' the First International in the face of internal conflicts and preparatory congress
The exclusion of Bakunin and Guillaume at The Hague put the Bakuninists in a clear difficulty—if they let the situation unfold without action, it would amount to adopting the Marxist vision: even though the majority of the First International's federations leaned toward Bakunin. The Jura Federation then decided to 'fall back' on the plan proposed by the Italian Federation in Rimini: to organise an anti-authoritarian congress in Switzerland and regain control of the International. Given the critical situation, the congress had to open as quickly as possible, so as not to let time elapse between The Hague and the upcoming congress.
It was decided to convene the congress in Saint-Imier, a town in the Swiss Mittelland region. The congress was set to open on 15 September 1872, about a week after the closing of the Hague Congress. This speed of execution after The Hague explains the low number of delegates, as the Bakuninists, anti-authoritarians, and anarchists assembled their forces in haste.
On the morning of the 15th, a Jura Federation congress adopted two resolutions: accepting the holding of the international congress later that day; rejecting the exclusion of Bakunin and Guillaume concerning the proceedings of the Hague Congress; and confirming that the Jura Federation accepted the initiative launched by the Italian Federation to convene the Saint-Imier Congress in order to reform the International without the authoritarians, i.e., the Marxists and Blanquists. This preparatory congress was composed of the following delegates: Mikhail Bakunin (Sonvillier), Charles Besnay (Neuchâtel), Fritz Chautems (Engravers and Guillocheurs of Le Locle), Édouard Collier (La Chaux-de-Fonds), François Delacoste (La Chaux-de-Fonds), Ali Eberhardt (Saint-Imier), Justin Guerber (Sonvillier), James Guillaume (Neuchâtel), Adolphe Herter (Engravers and Guillocheurs of Courtelary), Waldemar Holstein (Slavs of Zurich), Paul Humbert (Engravers and Guillocheurs of Le Locle), Paul Junet (Engravers and Guillocheurs of Courtelary), Georges Lachat (Moutier), Zemphiri Rouleff (Slavs of Zurich), Samuel Schneider (Saint-Imier), Léon Schwitzguébel (Bienne).Furthermore, the Jura Federation decided that Guillaume and Adhémar Schwitzguébel would be the Federation's delegates during the upcoming Congress.
Delegates and organization