International Workers’ Association Congress (1922)

Mon Dec 25, 1922

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On this day in 1922, the founding congress for the International Workers’ Association, a federation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions, began illegally in Berlin, Germany.

Delegations representing roughly two million workers from all over the world attended, including the Argentine Workers Regional Organization (FORA), the Chilean Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Free Workers Union of Germany (FAUD), the Italian Syndicalist Union, and the General Confederation of Workers in Portugal. The congress lasted until January 2nd, and was punctuated by police raids and arrests.

The congress was decidedly anti-Soviet and anti-social democracy in character, with “delegates accusing Bolshevism of suppressing revolution in Russia and creating a new state-capitalist system” according to historian Vadim Damier. The delegates of this congress also voted in favor of forming the IWA, which still exists today.