Bakunin, Marx, and Johann Philipp Becker

It would have been difficult TO imagine at first that one day Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876) and Karl Marx (1818–1883) would face one another as the heads of opposing tendencies of international socialism. They were nearly the same age and both emigrants who had settled in Paris between 1843 and 1844, and were part of the same group of international radicals that had congregated in Paris – a melting pot for European emigrants before 1848 – at the time. There they were introduced to one another in March 1844 and had a friendly relationship until Marx was expelled from France in January 1845. Despite some tribulations – for example, Marx's Neue Rheinische Zeitung accused Bakunin of being a Russian spy in 1848 – they continued to correspond well into the 1860s. On 3 November 1864, a last personal meeting was arranged by Marx, to which Bakunin was glad to agree for a special reason: 'I knew that he had played a major part in the foundation of the International.'

The commonly held notion that Marx was 'the main founder of the International' (the First International or International Working Men's Association), which Bakunin and many of his contemporaries believed, is a misconception. In reality, Marx had no part in the association of French and English workers that had existed since 1862 and led to the founding meeting of the International in September 1864. Marx was known to English union officials as an immigrant and scholar, and so he was present at the meeting on 28 September 1864 in London's St. Martin's Hall, to which he received an invitation at the last minute; however, he only took part in the meeting – as he himself put it two weeks later in a letter to Friedrich Engels – 'in a non-speaking capacity on the platform'. During the meeting, Marx was elected as one of two German representatives of the 32-person provisional Central Council (later General Council) of the International and wrote the 'Provisional Rules' and the 'Inaugural Address', the International's founding declaration – which Bakunin later described as 'a remarkable, serious and profound manifesto, like all those that he writes, when they are not personal polemics'.

Marx sent Bakunin the 'Inaugural Address', published a short time after their meeting in London, to Italy (where Bakunin had moved). More than once, in the following years, Marx toyed with the idea of mobilising Bakunin's support in disputes within the International in Italy. In April 1865 Marx threatened to 'get Bakunin to lay some counter-mines for Mr Mazzini in Florence', and on 1 May of the same year he declared that if the Italian immigrants in London 'don't appoint new delegates soon, as we have asked them to, Bakunin will have to arrange for some life [sic] Italians'. Finally, in September 1867 Marx praised the Italian paper Libertà e Giustizia and explained 'I assume that Bakunin is involved'.

The Alliance 'request' by Johann Philipp Becker (November 1868)

Bakunin became a member of the Geneva central section of the International in June or July 1868. However, he at first concentrated his activities on the League of Peace and Liberty (Ligue de la Paix et de la Liberté), whose founding congress he had attended a year earlier. At their second congress, from 22 to 26 September 1868 in Berne, Bakunin became completely disillusioned with the political character of the League. He introduced his collectivist ideas during the second item of the agenda at that congress: 'How does the economic or social question relate to the question of peace through freedom?' They were met with harsh criticism from several speakers. The draft of his resolution on this issue was rejected by the majority of the delegate nations with seven votes against (Spain, Sweden, Mexico, France, Germany, Switzerland, England) and four in favour (Poland, Russia, Italy, USA). On 25 September, Bakunin and 17 other congress participants quit the League after reading a letter of protest.

The International's congress, which had taken place a few days earlier in Brussels, declared to the League on 12 September 1868 that their existence next to the International was unjustified and suggested that the League's members should 'join one section or another of the International'. This is precisely what Bakunin and his friends planned on doing after leaving the League. According to his own account, Bakunin 'suggested that the social-revolutionary minority, who had left the League, all join the International while at the same time retaining their close relations'. Bakunin was referring to his contacts with various European socialists and the resulting conspiratorial web of relationships, which he had tried to form into an organisational framework between 1864 and 1867.According to Bakunin, his suggestion to join the International was unanimously agreed upon by all those present. There were, however, different opinions related to the question of forming a separate organisation, which the French and Italian participants of the meeting felt should include a secret and an official branch and remain absolutely independent of the International. There was a consensus that they should continue to work together in secret. However, Bakunin was against forming an official organisation because it 'would compete in a most undesirable way' with the International. Despite Bakunin's opposition, an official organisation called the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy (Alliance internationale de la Démocratie Socialiste) was formed and a programme and regulations were developed by the meeting's participants based on a lengthy draft by Bakunin.

Even though the Alliance claimed to be 'established entirely within the big International Working Men's Association' in their preambles, they still had to apply to the London General Council of the International for official recognition. The German socialist Johann Philipp Becker, who was part of the Central Office (bureau central) of the Alliance, was given this task. Bakunin wrote:

Citizen J. Phillippe Becker, a...