When workers took control of the city of St Louis in July 1877, it was historically significant for a number of reasons.

The stunning action constituted the first general strike in US history. It was the only time a major US city was ruled by a communist party. And it single-handedly dispelled the myth that workers in the United States are inherently allergic to class politics or contemptuous of radical “Old War” doctrines. In fact, the general strike and St Louis Commune of 1877 were launched by class-conscious workers directly influenced by the socialist movements of their European brethren.

St Louis’s ruling class saw perfectly clearly the class nature of the strike and its relationship to European socialism — in particular, the Paris Commune of 1871 and the First International, led by Karl Marx. On July 27, 1877, the Missouri Republican screamed, “The Internationalists have taken control of the strike, same as the communists who took control of Paris.”

It is therefore impossible to understand the events of July 1877 without looking across the Atlantic. What occurred in St Louis that explosive month was an outgrowth of the upheavals, organizations, and revolutions of the international workers’ movement.

The European Roots of the St Louis Commune

In 1848 and 1849, German and French workers rebelled against their countries’ monarchies and the wrenching changes brought on by capitalism. They were joined by the rising bourgeoisie — the new middle class of factory owners, business leaders, and merchants who also sought an to end the power of kings, aristocracies, and the church, and the establishment of more democratic republics with civil rights for ordinary people.

This alliance was tenuous, however: a fundamental economic conflict existed between the new owners of the means of production and those who worked for them — wage earners who owned nothing and had only their labor to sell. Ultimately, the bourgeois leaders decided that they had more to fear from the working class than they did from a reformed monarchy. While the 1848 revolutions produced some liberal reforms, the revolutionary democratic dreams of workers were dashed.

In the wake of the revolutions, scores of radical workers — primarily from Germany, France, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire — emigrated to the US, where many found a new home in St Louis, an originally French city with a large German population. They licked their wounds and bided their time.