Previous Internationals
There have been many previous international workers' organisations, and the call for a Fifth International presupposes the recognition of four in particular, all of which regarded themselves as the successor to the previous ones:
- The "First International", known as the "International Workingmen's Association", founded in London in 1864.
- The "Second International", was founded in 1889 after the expulsion of Anarchists from the First International and its subsequent dissolution in 1916.
- The "Third International", known as the Communist International or "Comintern", was founded by Vladimir Lenin in 1919, after the failure of the Second International at the start of World War I, and was dissolved in 1943.
- The "Fourth International" was founded in 1938 by Leon Trotsky, in opposition to Stalinism. Trotsky considered Comintern to be irreformable and to have crossed over to counter-revolution under the control of a bureaucratic elite in the Soviet Union. Although it still exists, the fragmentation of Trotskyism has similarly resulted in the subject of this article.
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