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The International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam took place from 24 August to 31 August 1907. It gathered delegates from 14 countries, among which important figures of the
anarchist movement The history of anarchism is as ambiguous as anarchism itself. Scholars find it hard to define or agree on what anarchism means, which makes outlining its history difficult. There is a range of views on anarchism and its history. Some feel anar ...
, including Errico Malatesta, Luigi Fabbri,
Benoît Broutchoux Benedict Broutchoux (7 November 1879 – 2 June 1944) was a French anarchist opposed to the reformist Émile Basly during a strike in the north of France, in 1902. Further reading * * Phil Casoar, Stéphane Callens, ''Les aventures ...
,
Pierre Monatte Pierre Monatte (15 January 188127 June 1960) was a French trade unionist, a founder of the ''Confédération générale du travail'' (CGT, Generation Confederation of Labour) at the beginning of the 20th century, and founder of its journal '' La ...
, Amédée Dunois, Emma Goldman,
Rudolf Rocker Johann Rudolf Rocker (March 25, 1873 – September 19, 1958) was a German anarchist writer and activist. He was born in Mainz to a Roman Catholic artisan family. His father died when he was a child, and his mother when he was in his teens, so he ...
,
Christiaan Cornelissen Christiaan Gerardus Cornelissen (1864–1942) was a Dutch syndicalist writer, economist, and trade unionist. Further reading Christianus Gerardus Cornelisseni* ttp://hdl.handle.net/10622/ARCH00340 Archief Christiaan Cornelissen International In ...
, et al.


Organisation of the Congress

The Belgian and Dutch anarchists were at the initiative of the congress.
Jean Maitron Jean Maitron (17 December 1910 – 16 November 1987) was a French historian specialist of the labour movement. A pioneer of such historical studies in France, he introduced it to University and gave it its archives base, by creating in 1949 the '' ...
, ''Le mouvement anarchiste en France'', tome I, Tel Gallimard (
François Maspero François Maspero (19 January 1932, in Paris – 11 April 2015, in Paris) was a French author and journalist, best known as a publisher of leftist books in the 1970s. He also worked as a translator, translating the works of Joseph Conrad, Mehdi B ...
, 1975), pp.443-445
While the Dutch took care of the material organisation of the event, the Belgians started the publication of the ''Bulletin of the Libertarian Internationale'', which had as main editor Henri Fuss. In December 1906-January 1907, they launched a memo in seven languages calling for an international meeting, which was signed by the anarchist federations of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Bohemia, London ( anarchists speaking Yiddish)– it was not signed by any
French anarchists Anarchism in France can trace its roots to thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who grew up during the Bourbon Restoration in France, Restoration and was the first self-described anarchist. French anarchists fought in the Spanish Civil War as volunte ...
. In France, the anarchist movement was divided into those who rejected the very idea of organization, and were therefore opposed to the very idea of an international organisation, and those who put all their hopes in the trade-unions, and thus "were occupied elsewhere". Only 8 French anarchists assisted the Congress, including Benoît Broutchoux, Pierre Monatte and René de Marmande.


The 1907 Amsterdam Congress

Various themes were treated during the Congress, in particular concerning the organization of the anarchist movement and
syndicalism Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of prod ...
. Other issues included
popular education Popular education is a concept grounded in notions of class, political struggle, and social transformation. The term is a translation from the Spanish educación popular or the Portuguese educação popular and rather than the English usage ...
, the role of the general strike, and
anti-militarism Antimilitarism (also spelt anti-militarism) is a doctrine that opposes war, relying heavily on a critical theory of imperialism and was an explicit goal of the First and Second International. Whereas pacifism is the doctrine that disputes (especia ...
– an International Antimilitarist Congress simultaneously took place in Amsterdam. However, the most important debate concerned the relation between anarchism and syndicalism (or
trade-union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
ism). In the end, a resolution was agreed upon, which stated that "the ideas of anarchy and organization, far from being incompatibles, as it has sometimes been pretended, complete themselves and enforce each another," and concluded on the necessary "creation of anarchist groups and on the federation of the already created groups." An Anarchist International was thereafter constituted, composed of an international bureau of 5 members (Errico Malatesta, Rudolf Rocker, Alexander Schapiro,
John Turner John Napier Wyndham Turner (June 7, 1929September 19, 2020) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Canada from June to September 1984. He served as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and leader of t ...
and Jean Wilquet), with the task of "creating international anarchist
archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
s" and to "connect anarchists from different countries." The bureau was sited in London, and a new congress envisioned for 1909. The new International, to which the French anarchists remained hostile, only edited 12 issues of an irregular bulletin. At the end of 1911, the London bureau ceased all activities.


The debate between Malatesta and Monatte

Malatesta and Monatte in particular disagreed on the issue of organization. Upholding the principles of the 1906 Charter of Amiens, which had proclaimed the ideological neutrality of trade-unions and their independence from political parties, Monatte thought that syndicalism, as understood in France, was revolutionary and would create the conditions of a social
revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
. French: "''A ce syndicalisme d'opinion qui a produit, en Russie par exemple, des syndicats anarchistes, en Belgique et en Allemagne, des syndicats chrétiens et des syndicats social-démocratiques, il appartient aux anarchistes d'opposer un syndicalisme à la manière française, un syndicalisme neutre ou, plus exactement, indépendant. De même qu'il n'y a qu'une classe ouvrière, il faut qu'il n'y ait plus, dans chaque métier et dans chaque ville, qu'une organisation ouvrière, qu'un unique syndicat. A cette condition seule, la lutte de classe - cessant d'être entravé à tout instant par les chamailleries des écoles ou des sectes rivales - pourra se développer dans toute son ampleur et donner son maximum d'effet. Le syndicalisme, a proclamé le Congrès d'Amiens en 1906, se suffit à lui-même.''" Se
Extract of Monatte's declaration
Monatte opposed this "French model" of neutrality of trade-unions to Russian anarchist trade-unions or to
Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
or German Christian or social-democrat trade-unions. On the other hand, Malatesta criticized Monatte, stating that "syndicalism was not a necessary and sufficient means of social revolution," while at the same time supporting (as Monatte) the ideological neutrality of trade-unions, in order not to divide the workers' movement.Extract of Malatesta's declaration
Malatesta thought that trade-unions were
reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...
, and could even be, at times,
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
. Along with Cornélissen, he cited as example US trade-unions, where trade-unions composed of qualified workers sometimes worked in opposition to non-qualified workers in order to defend their relatively privileged position. According to Malatesta, anarchists had to also defend this ''
Lumpenproletariat In Marxist theory, the ''Lumpenproletariat'' () is the underclass devoid of class consciousness. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coined the word in the 1840s and used it to refer to the unthinking lower strata of society exploited by reactionary ...
'' instead of only working for the improvement of labor conditions. Malatesta underlined divisions of interests inside the workers' movement itself, going so far as to criticize the notion of social class: "There is no class, at the strict sense of the word, as there are no class interests. Inside the workers' 'class' itself, there is, just as in the bourgeoisie, competition and struggle." Henceforth, he thought that workers' solidarity needed a common ideal, which could not be found in the frame of the professional trade-union. If Monatte had criticized the risk of a possible
bureaucratization The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
of the trade-unions, while asserting the necessity of maintaining permanent employees in trade-unions, Malatesta categorically denied the legitimacy for an anarchist to become such a permanent employee of a trade-union. Finally, Malatesta criticized over-idealization of the general strike, stating that the latter could not, by itself, provoke a revolution, which would necessarily have to pass, according to him, by an
armed insurrection Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
.


Legacy

According to some views, this opposition between two visions of the organization of the
workers' movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...
in trade-unions was later on merged in anarcho-syndicalism, which combined the revolutionary conception of trade-unionism with anarchist principles. However, French syndicalists Monatte and Robert Louzon continued to argue for (revolutionary) syndicalist unions independent of any political party or grouping, while Maletesta continued arguing against the syndicalist or anarcho-syndicalist conception of revolutionary unions. To him unions needed to be open to all workers open to activity to defend their conditions, and anarchists should work inside those unions to influence the broadest layer of workers, without wanting to make the unions themselves anarchist.Errico Malatesta
“Syndicalism and Anarchism”
(April/May 1925).


See also

*'' Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste'' *
International Anarchist Congresses Over the past 150 years, anarchists, anarcho-syndicalists and libertarian socialists have held many congresses, conferences and international meetings in which trade unions, other groups and individuals have participated. The First International ...


References


External links


The proceedings of the congress at the Library of Congress
*Ariane Miéville
Syndicalisme, anarchisme et anarcho-syndicalisme en débat au Congrès Anarchiste d'Amsterdam en 1907

The International Anarchist Congress, Amsterdam 1907 Pamphlet (PDF)
Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia

ttp://ienaridensnexus.blogspot.it/2011/11/il-congresso-internazionale-anarchico_30.html Il Congresso Internazionale Anarchico di Amsterdam (1907 {{DEFAULTSORT:International Anarchist Congress Of Amsterdam History of anarchism Political congresses Syndicalism Anarchism in the Netherlands 1907 in politics 1907 conferences