ABSTRACT
In the theoretical cleavages resulting from the First International, along with the debates between Maoism and Marxism-Leninism in the second half of the 20th century, left critiques of Marxism that endeavor to better explain and describe economic and political conditions from the peripheries of the capitalist world-system emerge. From 1864 to 1972, the goal of the International Workingmen's Association, now referred to as the First International, was to unite the anti-capitalist left. Revisiting the debate of the First International is important because it demonstrates that the forms and institutions of the old society will not simply fall away: they will become entrenched, denying the possibility of genuine liberation. Several decades after the First International, the Biennio Rosso provided yet another context for debating Marxism and its left alternatives.
