From International to Transnational Party: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

The First International or International Working Men’s Association (IWMA) ran from 1864 to 1876. As was always to be the case with transnational endeavours, its creation was a response to developments within the nation states of Europe, which were trying to establish or consolidating their political identity, while at the same time industrialising (Anderson, 2002). The rising bourgeoisie that ran these states found intellectual backing from a Romantic intelligentsia for whom the nation state was a core element of ideology and who talked up the historical founding myths of the modern nation and sought to propagate its language and culture. The subordinate classes were still largely peasant, but the dynamic element within them was the workers. In this early stage of industrialisation, the skilled worker or artisan was prominent, as the era of large factories with a mass semi-skilled proletariat was, in most states, only about to dawn. Such men were confident of their skills, often well read and geographically mobile; boundaries did not mean much to them. Garibaldi could be seen as an exemplar of the IWMA activist (Anderson, 2002: 11). The type of international organisation they created was very much a reflection of their status.

A European party cannot be more than what its members makeof it.

Thomas Jansen, 2006.

At present we cannot say with confidence that European political parties really exist.

John Palmer, 2006.