or Socialist International
(1889–1914) Federation of socialist political parties and trade unions that greatly influenced the European labour movement while supporting parliamentary democracy and opposing anarchism .
Unlike the centralized First International , it was a loose federation that met in a number of cities at various intervals. By 1912 it represented the socialist parties of all European countries, the U.S., Canada, and Japan, with a membership of about nine million. It reaffirmed Marxist doctrine, but its main concern became the prevention of a general European war. When that failed, the International ended in 1914.