Although Marx’s fame today largely derives from his work as a theoretician, Marx was always involved in political organising. This session will explore the role Marx played in forging a socialist movement across Europe, through an organisation known as the International Workingmen’s Association, or the First International. As the key leader of its General Council, Marx sought to unite a wide variety of currents in the international labour movement – including English trade unionists, French Proudhonists and anarchists - on the principles of solidarity and internationalism. This was a body riven with political debates and factionalism. But despite its political challenges, the First International made important practical and political contributions to the workers’ movement, including to the world’s first workers’ revolution, the Paris Commune.