Anti-authoritarian International
[2] The resolution on the political action of the proletariat said:[3] 1st, that the destruction of all political power is the first duty of the proletariat; 2nd, that any organization of a provisional and revolutionary political power intended to bring about this destruction cannot be more than a deception and would be as dangerous for the proletariat as all the governments that exist today; 3rd, that having rejected any commitment to achieve the realization of the social revolution, the proletarians of all countries must establish, outside of all bourgeois politics, the solidarity of revolutionary action.The Congress, held on 15–16 September 1872, also approved the so-called "Pact of Friendship, Solidarity, and Mutual Defense between Free Federations" (also known as Saint-Imier Pact) in which it was said that:[4] considering that within the International there is a tendency, openly manifested at the Hague Congress by the authoritarian party, to substitute with the predominance and power of the heads of the German communist party the free development and spontaneous organization of the proletariat [...] the delegates of the Spanish, Italian, Jurassic, French and American federations, meeting at this congress establish this Pact: The delegates also proclaimed:[1] [t]hat the aspirations of the proletariat can have no other aim than the creation of an absolutely free economic organisation and federation based upon work and equality and wholly independent of any political government, and that such an organisation or federation can only come into being through the spontaneous action of the proletariat itself, through its trade societies, and through self-governing communes.In September 1873 the International held its Second Congress in Geneva (officially the Sixth General Congress since it was considered the legitimate heir to the IWA founded in London in 1864).It coincided with the Congress held by the Marxists in the same city, although theirs was a failure since only a small number of regional federations participated and the General Council could not attend due to lack of funds.[10] Regarding the convocation of the comprehensive congress in Ghent from which "a new International could result," a clandestine Spanish anarchist newspaper warned that "such a thing would be tantamount to supposing that the congress, forgetting the lofty mission entrusted to it, would occupy itself with such perfectly superfluous things as how to claim the formation of a new International, since it exists, it has its magnificent organization and its circle is wide enough to accommodate all men of good will and all workers' organizations that aspire to the complete emancipation of the proletariat."[11] The Congresses of Verviers and Ghent held between September 6 and 8, 1877, the first, and then the second, were the last of Anti-Authoritarian International since "they failed to obtain the attendance of many representatives of the workers' societies".[12] In Verviers, the radicalization of the anarchist movement was observed, increasingly inclined towards positions favorable to the use of violence under the influence of Russian populism and nihilism,[13] and which took shape in the approval of the policy of "propaganda of the deed".