150 years of the International Working Men’s Association

On 28 September 1864 the International Working Men’s Association, the First International, was founded in the St. Martin’s Hall in London. It aimed at uniting workers’ societies internationally to realize their common goal of the emancipation of the working class. A representative committee of worker’s societies came together to this end and committed to the protection, advancement, and complete emancipation of all workers. In his Inaugural Address Marx emphasized that under wrong preconditions technological progress and the internationalization of trade will not overcome global misery, but rather will exacerbate social and class antagonisms. 150 years later people still suffer exploitation, inequality and a lack of freedom. The writings of Marx have not lost a single bit of their truth and urgency today. The reading of the preliminary statutes of the International Working Men’s Association, written in 1864, in this film is to seen in the same context. People themselves have to fight for their economic emancipation; their struggle remains an international one.