IWA–AIT

Desde sus inicios, la IWA adoptó una postura antimilitarista, reflejando la abrumadora actitud anarquista surgida tras la Primera Guerra Mundial , según la cual la clase trabajadora no debía involucrarse en las luchas de poder entre las clases dominantes , y mucho menos morir por ellas. Incluyó el compromiso con el antimilitarismo entre sus principios fundamentales y, en 1926, fundó la Coalición Internacional Antimilitarista para promover el desarme y recopilar información sobre la producción bélica. ^{[ 4 ]}

La IWA también afirma que los sindicalistas reconocen la violencia como una defensa aceptable contra la violencia de las clases dominantes, la cual debe ejercerse mediante la formación de una milicia popular democrática en lugar de una jerarquía militar tradicional. Esto se ha planteado como una alternativa al modelo de dictadura del proletariado. ^{[ 4 ]}

La Primera Internacional ( Asociación Internacional de Trabajadores ; IWMA) tenía como objetivo unir a una variedad de diferentes grupos políticos socialistas , comunistas ^{[ 5 ]} y anarquistas de izquierda y sindicatos laborales que se basaban en la clase trabajadora y la lucha de clases .

Su escisión impulsó varios intentos de crear internacionales específicamente anarquistas, en particular la Internacional Anarquista de Saint-Imier (1872-1881) y la Internacional Negra (1881-1887). Sin embargo, la fuerte represión de la Comuna de París en Francia , así como en España e Italia, junto con el auge de la propaganda de la acción dentro del movimiento anarquista y una corriente dominante de la socialdemocracia en la izquierda europea, impidieron que se iniciaran iniciativas serias para establecer una internacional anarcosindicalista hasta principios del siglo XX. ^{[ 1 ] [ 6 ]}

Sin embargo, tras el fin de la guerra, con el resurgimiento del movimiento obrero después de la Revolución de Octubre y la posterior Guerra Civil Rusa , se formó lo que se convertiría en la moderna AIT, que se autodenominó la "verdadera heredera" de la internacional original. ^{[ 7 ]}

The success of the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1918 resulted in a wave of syndicalist successes worldwide, including the struggle of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in the USA alongside the creation of mass anarchist unions across Latin America and huge syndicalist-led strikes in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, where it was noted that "neutral (economic, but not political) syndicalism had been swept away."^[1]

For many in this new revolutionary wave, Russia seemed to offer a successful alternative to social democratic reformism, so when in 1919 the Bolshevik Party issued an appeal for all workers to join it in building a new Red International it was met with great interest. Almost all of the syndicalist unions attended the 1920 congress of the Bolsheviks’ international of communists, the Comintern, which unions in France and Italy joined immediately.^[6] In contrast, attempts to organize a conference of anarchists in February 1919 in Copenhagen had seen only the Scandinavians able to attend.^[1]

The final formation of this new international, then known as the International Workingmen's Association, took place at an illegal conference in Berlin in December 1922, marking an irrevocable break between the international syndicalist movement and the Bolsheviks.^[1]

Signatories to the founding statement of the International Workingmen's Association included groups from around the world. The single largest anarcho-syndicalist union at the time, the CNT in Spain, was unable to attend when their delegates were arrested on the way to the conference, though they did join the following year, bringing 600,000 members into the international. Despite the CNT's absence, the international represented well over 1 million workers at its inauguration:^[6]

• The Italian Syndicalist Union (USI): 500,000 members
• The Regional Federation of Argentine Workers (FORA): 200,000
• The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) in Portugal: 150,000
• The Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD): 120,000
• The Committee for the Defense of Syndicalism (CDS) in France: 100,000
• The Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (SAC): 32,000
• The General Confederation of Workers (CGT) in Mexico: 30,000
• The National Labor Secretariat (NAS) in the Netherlands: 22,500
• The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Chile: 20,000
• The Norwegian Syndicalist Federation (NSF) in Norway: 20,000
• The Union for Syndicalist Propaganda in Denmark: 600

The biggest syndicalist union in the US, the IWW, considered joining but eventually ruled out affiliation in 1936, citing the IWA's policies on religious and political affiliation.^[8]

In Argentina, the FORA had already begun a process of decline by the time it joined the IWA, having split in 1915 into pro and anti-Bolshevik factions. From 1922, the anarchist movement there lost most of its membership, exacerbated by further splits, most notably around the Severino Di Giovanni affair. It was crushed by General Uriburu's military coup in 1930.^[9]

Portugal's CGT was driven underground after an unsuccessful attempt to break the newly installed President of Portugal, Gomes da Costa, with a general strike in 1927 which led to nearly 100 deaths. It survived underground with 15–20,000 members until January 1934, when it called a general revolutionary strike, which failed, against plans to replace trade unions with corporations. It was able to continue in a much reduced state until World War II, but was effectively finished as a fighting union. Massive government repression repeated such defeats around the world, as anarcho-syndicalist unions were destroyed in Peru, Brazil, Columbia, Japan, Cuba, Bulgaria, Paraguay and Bolivia. By the end of the 1930s legal anarcho-syndicalist trade unions existed only in Chile, Bolivia, Sweden and Uruguay.^[1]

At the tenth congress in 1958, the SAC's response to its pressures led it into a clash with the rest of the international. It withdrew from the IWA following its failure to amend the body's statutes to allow it to stand in municipal elections and amid concerns over its integration with the state over distribution of unemployment benefits.^[4]

In the early 2000s, the organisation Priama akcia (English: Direct action) was established in Slovakia and became the Slovak section of the IWA. It has published the journal Žerme bohatých (English: Let's eat the rich), which has reported on strike actions and trade union struggles in both Slovakia and the rest of the world.^[10]

A principios del siglo XXI, la AIT atravesaba una crisis interna. Este proceso culminó en 2016 con la expulsión de la CNT (España), la USI (Italia) y la FAU (Alemania), que en conjunto representaban entre el 80 % y el 90 % de los miembros activos de la AIT. En 2018, las secciones expulsadas de la AIT fundaron una nueva organización internacional: la Confederación Internacional del Trabajo ( CIT ). ^{[ 11 ]} Junto con la CNT, la USI y la FAU, otras organizaciones afiliadas incluían la Administración Regional Norteamericana de la IWW , FORA (Argentina), ESE (Grecia) e IP (Polonia). ^{[ 12 ]} En el momento de su fundación, la CIT contaba con más de 10 000 miembros, ubicados tanto en Europa como en América; en contraste, para 2020, la membresía de la AIT se había reducido a menos de 1000 miembros activos, la mayoría ubicados en Europa. ^{[ 11 ]}