Organized by the New York Social Revolutionary Club and American delegates to the London congress three months earlier, the meeting was called to gather social revolutionaries who believed in action outside of electoral politics.
All socialists with this aim were invited to apply to August Spies of Chicago's Arbeiter-Zeitung newspaper, who served as the congress's secretary.
Many German emigres attended, mostly representing East Coast and Midwest cities.
[1] Key figures in the congress included Justus Schwab, Albert Parsons, and August Spies.
Resolutions addressed the British government in Ireland, the populists in Russia, and militant positions against private property, against wage slavery, for insurrectionary propaganda by the deed, and for the resolutions of the London congress.