Hague Congress (1872) - History of The Conference

History of The Conference

The background to the congress lay in the failure of the Paris Commune in June of the previous year, and in the different lessons drawn from it by the two most prominent members of the International, Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin. Marx, in his pamphlet The Civil War in France, believed that the major lesson from the Commune was that it was essential for the proletariat to take control of the State and thus the International had to become a true political party of the proletariat. On the other hand, Bakunin saw the most important element of the Commune as being the Parisian workers' rejection of the State in all its forms and continued to call for a revolutionary alliance of workers and peasants in a decentralized organization.

In September 1871, the General Council of the International, headed by Marx, held a conference in London at which a series of resolutions were passed, including one (sometimes known as Resolution No.9) which stated: "That this constitution of the working class into a political party is indispensable in order to ensure the triumph of the social revolution and its ultimate end — the abolition of classes." This was seen by many to imply a major change of direction to the content of the International's General Rules.

The resolution caused a great deal of consternation in many sections of the International, particularly in Italy, French-speaking Switzerland and Spain, as it was seen as a measure which would eliminate the autonomy of local sections and turn the General Council into a centralized political office. The Conference itself was considered irregular by these sections, who believed that decisions of this nature could only have been decided at a regular congress of the International.

In June 1872, a Congress was convened for 2 September 1872 in The Hague, the agenda for which was to concern a general revision of the organization's General Rules.