anarchists. Karl Marx was a leading figure of the International and a member of its General Council. Four years later, in 1868, Mikhail Bakunin joined the First International with his collectivist anarchist associates who advocated for the collectivisation of property and revolutionary overthrow of the state. Bakunin corresponded with other members of the International seeking to establish a loose brotherhood of revolutionaries who would ensure that the coming revolution would not take an authoritative course, in sharp contrast with other currents that were seeking to get a firm grasp on state power. Bakunin's energy and writings about a great variety of subjects, such as education and gender equality, helped to increase his influence within the IWA. His main line was that the International should try to promote a revolution without aiming to create a mere government of "experts". Workers should seek to emancipate their class with direct actions, using cooperatives, mutual credit, and strikes but avoid participation in bourgeois politics. At first, the collectivists worked with the Marxists to push the First International in a more revolutionary socialist direction. Subsequently, the International became polarised into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads. Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as centralist. Because of this, he predicted if a Marxist party came to power, its leaders would simply take the place of the ruling class they had fought against. Followers of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the mutualists, also opposed Marx's state socialism, advocating political abstentionism and small property holdings. Meanwhile, an uprising after the Franco-Prussian War led to the creation of the Paris Commune in March 1871. Anarchists had a prominent role in the Commune, next to Blanquists and to a lesser extent Marxists. The uprising was greatly influenced by anarchists and had a great impact on anarchist history. Radical socialist views, like Proudhonian federalism, were implemented to a small extent. Most importantly the workers proved they could run their own services and factories. After the defeat of the Commune, anarchists like Eugène Varlin, Louise Michel, and Élisée Reclus were shot or imprisoned. Socialist ideas were persecuted in France for a decade. Leading members of the International who survived the bloody suppression of the Commune fled to Switzerland where the Anarchist St. Imier International would later be formed. In 1872, the conflict between Marxists and anarchists climaxed. Marx had, since 1871, proposed the creation of a political party, which anarchists found to be