The International Working Men's Association, later known as “The First International”, was founded in London on the 28th September 1864 by British and French trade-union leaders who realised that international monopoly capital would drive down wages from one country to another unless resisted by organized labour. Karl Marx was elected to the General Council and rapidly became a dominant figure. The movement alarmed the bourgeois classes of Europe and North America but was in reality less effective than it was in the propaganda of the capitalist press, being divided by national interests and conditions, and ideologically and variously divided between those who favoured social reform, those who favoured outright revolution, …
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Foundation of “The First International”". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 February 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1657, accessed 23 November 2024.]
