International definition of International in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

International, any of a succession of international socialist and Communist organizations of the 19th and 20th cent.

The First International

The First International was founded in London in 1864 as the International Workingmen's Association. Karl Marx Marx, Karl, 1818–83, German social philosopher, the chief theorist of modern socialism and communism .

Early Life

Marx's father, a lawyer, converted from Judaism to Lutheranism in 1824.
..... Click the link for more information. was a key figure in inspiring its creation and was later chosen as its leader. Its goal was to unite all workers for the purpose of achieving political power along the lines set down by Marx and Friedrich Engels Engels, Friedrich (frē`drĭkh ĕng`əls)
..... Click the link for more information. in the Communist Manifesto (1848). Marx viewed the International as a vehicle for revolution, but it played only a minor role in the revolutionary Commune of Paris Commune of Paris, insurrectionary governments in Paris formed during (1792) the French Revolution and at the end (1871) of the Franco-Prussian War . In the French Revolution, the Revolutionary commune, representing urban workers, tradespeople, and radical bourgeois,
..... Click the link for more information. (1871). Power struggles within the organization greatly weakened it, and the clash between Marx and the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin Bakunin, Mikhail (mēkhəyēl` bək
..... Click the link for more information. led to its complete disintegration (1876).

The Second International

By 1889, socialist parties had been founded in numerous European nations and the need for another International was felt. The Second, or Socialist, International, was founded in that year at a Paris congress, and it later set up permanent headquarters in Belgium, with Emile Vandervelde Vandervelde, Émile (āmēl` vändĕrvĕl`də), 1866–1938, Belgian statesman and Socialist leader.
..... Click the link for more information. as its president. This International was predominantly political in character, and the German and Russian Social Democratic parties were its most important elements. Its early leaders included Engels, August Bebel Bebel, August (ou`g
..... Click the link for more information. , Karl Kautsky Kautsky, Karl Johann (kärl yō`hän kout`skē), 1854–1938, German-Austrian socialist, b. Prague.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov Plekhanov, Georgi Valentinovich (gāôr`gē vəlyĭntyē`nəvĭch plyĭkhä`nəf)
..... Click the link for more information. .

Despite the ideological schisms that plagued socialism socialism, general term for the political and economic theory that advocates a system of collective or government ownership and management of the means of production and distribution of goods.
..... Click the link for more information. during this period, the Second International did much to advance labor legislation and strengthen the democratic socialist movement. It failed, however, in what was perhaps its primary concern—the prevention of war. On the outbreak (1914) of World War I nearly all the socialist parties supported their individual governments, and the Second International collapsed.

The Third International (Comintern)

After the victory of Communism communism, fundamentally, a system of social organization in which property (especially real property and the means of production) is held in common. Thus, the ejido system of the indigenous people of Mexico and the property-and-work system of the Inca were both
..... Click the link for more information. in the Russian Revolution (1917), a Third, or Communist, International was created (1919). Under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich (lĕn`ĭn, Rus.
..... Click the link for more information. , this Communist International, or Comintern Comintern (kəmĭntārn`) [acronym for Communist International], name given to the Third International , founded at Moscow in 1919.
..... Click the link for more information. , hoped to foster world revolution. The Comintern was not generally acceptable to socialist labor groups, however, and was dissolved in 1943.

After World War II, the Comintern was replaced (1947) by the Communist Information Bureau, or Cominform Cominform (kŏm`ĭnfôrm) [acronym for Communist Information Bureau], information agency organized in 1947 and dissolved in 1956.
..... Click the link for more information. , which aided the seizure of power by the Communists in Czechoslovakia. Because of world political pressures the Cominform lost its influence and power after 1948 and became a vehicle for Soviet propaganda. It was disbanded in 1956.

The Socialist International

After World War I, the Second International was revived (1919) by moderate socialists, and a Vienna, or Two-and-a-Half, International was formed (1921) from splinter leftist groups that spurned both the Second International and the Comintern. In 1923 the Second and Vienna internationals merged to form the Labor and Socialist International, which lasted until the beginning of World War II. After the war this International was continued under the name of the Socialist International, and it exists today. Among its tenets are support for internationally integrated economic systems and civil rights and opposition to left-wing and right-wing totalitarianism and all forms of exploitation and enslavement.

Bibliography

See J. Joll, The Second International, 1889–1914 (1955); M. M. Drachkovitch, ed., The Revolutionary Internationals, 1864–1943 (1966); J. Braunthal, History of the International (2 vol., 1967). See also bibliographies under communism and socialism.