Basel Congress (1869)

International Workingmen's Association – Basel section banner. Photo taken at (now defunct) museum of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, USSR, Moscow

The Basel Congress of 1869 is the common name assigned to the 4th General Congress of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), commonly known as the First International. The meeting was held in the city of Basel, Switzerland from September 6 to 12, 1869 and was attended by 75 delegates, representing the socialist and labor movements of United States, England France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.[1]

The conference was mainly noted for the confrontation between the Proudhonist mutualists and the collectivist position, defended by Marx's envoy for the General Council and Bakunin both. But the Belgian socialist de Paepe played a decisive role in bringing the Belgian delegation across to the collectivist side and isolating the mainly French Proudhonists.

  1. ^ Mollin, Gabriel (1870). Rapport sur le congrès de Bâle. Paris: A. Le Chevalier. p. 37.