“Arise Ye Wretched of the Earth”. The First International in a Global Perspective. Ed. by Fabrice Bensimon, Quentin Deluermoz, and Jeanne Moisand. [Studies in Global Social History, Vol. 29.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2018. xiv, 404 pp. Ill. € 140.00; $168.00. (E-book: Open Access). - Nicolas Delalande. La lutte et l'entraide. L’âge des solidarités ouvrières. [L'univers historique.] Editions du Seuil, Paris2019. 361 pp. € 24.00.

Abstract

DELALANDE, NICOLAS. La lutte et l'entraide. L'âge des solidarités ouvrières. [L'univers historique.] Editions du Seuil, Paris .  pp. € .. For those who do not know, the citation in the title of the volume by Fabrice Bensimon et al. is an English translation of the first phrase of "The Internationale", written by the French Internationalist and Communard Eugène Poitiers just after the crushing of the Paris Commune in . While the song clearly refers to the International Workingmen's Association (IWMA), or First International, founded in , it later became the official anthem of the Socialist or Second International, founded in . Clearly, by choosing this song, the latter wanted to stress continuity with its predecessor. Labour internationalists of all sorts have referred to the First International as progenitor, but, however right they may have been, it is important to stress its unique character and the discontinuities in organizing internationally. The First International was not a federation of national socialist parties like the Second, nor was it a unified and centralized "world party" like the Third oron a much smaller scale − the Fourth International. Unlike these, and even more unlike today's highly institutionalized international NGOs, the First International was a bottom-up, grassroots combination of local sections, trade unions, and individuals, coordinated by a General Council in London to stimulate and support organizations of the working class internationally, be it exclusively in Europe and the Americas. This insight also guides Bensimon et al.,