International, The, is a name given to several early international organizations of workers. Later, it was applied to the international Communist organization directed from Moscow. Karl Marx, a German socialist, founded the first of the workers’ internationals in 1864. The organization was called the International Workingmen’s Association, or First International. It met in Geneva, Switzerland, and other cities between 1866 and 1872. The group demanded public ownership of land and public utilities, and other reforms. The First International was dissolved in 1876.
The Second International
first met in 1889 and continued until 1914. It met again in 1920 and became the Socialist and Labour International in 1923. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 interrupted the group’s activities. In 1948, it reorganized as the Socialist International, with headquarters in London. It includes members of Socialist and Labour parties from many countries, including England, France, and the United States. This group is not connected with the Communist Party.
The Third International,
or Comintern, differed from the first two, because it was controlled by the Communist Party. Communists founded it in Russia in March 1919, and its headquarters were in Moscow at all times. Other countries charged that the Soviet government operated the Third International, but the Soviet Union denied this.
The Third International included members in almost every country. Its purpose was to promote Communist revolutions in countries outside the Soviet Union. In 1943, Moscow announced that the Comintern had been disbanded. European Communist parties set up the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) in 1947 and abolished it in 1956.
Leon Trotsky, an exiled Soviet Communist, attempted to organize a Fourth International during the 1930’s. But it attracted few followers.
See also Communism ; Marx, Karl .
