No left organization in the world combines venerable history with total irrelevance like the Socialist International (SI). It can trace its lineage to the International Workingmen’s Association, which counted Mikhail Bakunin and Karl Marx as members. Yet the SI is now helmed by former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, who administered brutal austerity in his country.

It went from an organization that struggled for mass suffrage to one that for decades included Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party in its ranks.

Formed in 1864, the International Workingmen’s Association (also known as the First International) fell apart a decade later with a fatal split between Marxists and anarchists. The Socialist International, an amalgamation of socialist parties also called the Second International, was established in 1889. For two decades, its member parties briskly expanded.