The International Workingmen's Association, 1866

A warning

Some time ago the London journeymen tailors formed
a general association 120 to uphold their demands against the London master
tailors, who are mostly big capitalists. It was a question not only of
bringing wages into line with the increased prices of means of subsistence,
but also of putting an end to the exceedingly harsh treatment of the workers
in this branch of industry. The masters sought to frustrate this plan by
recruiting journeymen tailors, chiefly in Belgium, France and Switzerland.
Thereupon the secretaries of the Central Council of the International Working
Men's Association published in Belgian, French and Swiss newspapers a warning
which was a complete success. The London masters' maneuver was foiled;
they had to surrender and meet their workers' just demands.

Defeated in England, the masters are now trying to take counter-measures,
starting in Scotland. The fact is that, as a result of the London
events, they had to agree, initially, to a 15 per cent. wage rise in Edinburgh
as well. But secretly they sent agents to Germany to recruit journeymen
tailors, particularly in the Hanover and Mecklenburg areas, for importation
to Edinburgh. The first group has already been shipped off. The purpose
of this importation is the same as that of the importation of Indian COOLIES
to Jamaica, namely, perpetuation of slavery. If the Edinburgh masters
succeeded, through the import of German labour, in nullifying the concessions
they had already made, it would inevitably lead to repercussions in England.
No one would suffer more than the German workers themselves, who
constitute in Great Britain a larger number than the workers of all the
other Continental nations. And the newly-imported workers, being completely
helpless in a strange land, would soon sink to the level of pariahs.

Furthermore, it is a point of honour with the German workers to
prove to other countries that they, like their brothers in France, Belgium
and Switzerland, know how to defend the common interests of their class
and will not become obedient mercenaries of capital in its struggle
against labour.

On behalf of the Central Council

of the International Working Men's Association,

Karl Marx

London, May 4, 1866

German journeymen tailors who wish to know more about conditions
in Britain are requested to address their letters to the German branch
committee of the London Tailors' Association, c/o Albert F. Haufe,
Crown Public House, Hedden Court, Regent Street, London.

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