London, August 18, 1868

To conclude the preparatory work for the Brussels Congress, a meeting of the Executive Committee of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association has been set for August 22, and a plenary meeting of the General Council for August 25. As I have been entrusted with reporting for both days, I find myself unable to accept the honourable invitation to participate in the Congress of the General German Workers' Association in Hamburg.

I see with pleasure that the programme of your Congress has settled on the points which must indeed form the starting points of every serious labour movement: agitation for full political freedom, regulation of the working day, and systematic, international co-operation of the working class in the great, world-historic task which it has to solve for the whole of society. Good luck to the work!

With democratic greetings

Karl Marx