THE GENERAL COUNCIL  MEETING OF  OCTOBER  17, 1871
TO CITIZEN MEMBERS OF  THE FRENCH  SECTION OF  1871
Citizens,
Considering the following articles of the administrative
resolutions voted on by the Basle Congress: Article 4.
“Every new section or society which comes into existence
and wishes to join the International must immediately
notify the General Council of its adherence.”
Article 5. “The General Council is entitled to accept or
to refuse the affiliation of every new society or group,
etc.”452
The General Council confirms the Rules of the French
Section of 1871 with the following modifications:
I. That in Article 2 the words “justify his means of
existence" be erased and that it should simply be said: to
be admitted as member of the section a person must present
guarantees of morality, etc.
Article 9 of the General Rules states:
“Everybody who acknowledges and defends the principles of the International Working Men’s Association is
eligible to become a member. Every branch is responsible
for the integrity of the members it admits.”1™3

In dubious cases a section may well take information
about means of existence as “guarantee of morality”, while
in other cases, like those of refugees, workers on strike,
etc., absence of means of existence may well be a guarantee
of morality. But to ask candidates to justify their means
of existence as a general condition to be admitted to the
International, would be a bourgeois innovation contrary
to the spirit and letter of the General Rules.
II. (1) Considering that Article 4 of the General Rules
states:
“The Congress elects the members of the General Council
with power to add to their number”454; that consequently
the General Rules only recognise two ways of election for
General Council members: either their election by the
Congress, or their co-option by the General Council; that
the following passage of Article 11 of the Rules of the
French Section of 1871: “One or several delegates shall
be sent to the General Council” ... is therefore contrary
to the General Rules which give no branch, section, group
or federation the right to send delegates to the General
Council.
That Article 12 of the Regulations prescribes: “Every
section is at liberty to make Rules and Bye-Laws for its
local administration, suitable to the peculiar circumstances
of the different countries. But these Bye-Laws must not
contain anything contrary to the General Rules and Regulations."'155
For these reasons:
The General Council cannot admit the above-mentioned
paragraph of the Rules of the “French Section of 1871”.
(2) It is quite true that the different sections existing
in London had been invited to send delegates to the
General Council which, so as not to violate the General
Rules, has always proceeded in the following manner:
It has first determined the number of delegates to be
sent to the General Council by each section, reserving itself

the right to accept or refuse them depending on whether
it considered them able to fulfil the general functions
allotted them. These delegates became members of the
General Council not by virtue of the fact that they were
delegated by their sections but by virtue of the right of
co-opting new members accorded to the Council by the
General Rules.
Having acted up to the decision taken by the last Conference both as the General Council of the International
Working Men’s Association and as the Central Council for
England, the Council in London thought it useful to admit,
besides the members that it co-opted directly, members
originally delegated by their respective sections.
It would have been a big mistake to identify the electoral
procedure of the General Council of the International
Working Men’s Association with that of the Paris Federal
Council which was not even a national Council nominated
by a national Congress like, for example, the Brussels
Federal Council or that of Madrid.
The Paris Federal Council being only a delegation of
the Paris sections, the delegates of these sections could well
be invested with an imperative mandate with a council
where they had to defend the interests of their section.
The General Council’s electoral procedure is, on the contrary, defined by the General Rules and its members would
not accept any other imperative mandate than that of the
General Rules and General Regulations.
(3) The General Council is ready to admit two delegates
from the “French Section of 1871” on the terms prescribed
by the General Rules and never contested by the other
sections existing in London.
III. In Article 11 of the Rules of the “French Section of
1871”,this paragraph appears:
“Every member of the section should not accept any delegation to
the General Council other than that of his section.”

Interpreted literally, this paragraph could be accepted
since it says only that a member of the “French Section
of 1871” should not present himself to the General Council
as delegate from another section.
But if we take into consideration the paragraph that
precedes it, Article 11 means nothing else but completely
changing the General Council’s composition and making
out of it, contrary to Article 3 of the General Rules, a delegation of London sections where the influence of local
groups would be substituted for that of the whole International Working Men’s Association.
The meaning of the paragraph in Article 11 from the
Rules of the “French Section of 1871” is clearly confirmed
by the obligation which it imposes for opting between the
title of member of the Section and the function of member
of the General Council.
For these reasons the General Council cannot admit the
above-mentioned paragraph since it is contrary to the
General Rules and deprives it of its right to recruit forces
everywhere in the general interest of the International
Working Men’s Association.
IV. The General Council is sure that the “French Section
of 1871” will understand the necessity for the proposed
modifications and will not hesitate to bring its Rules into
conformity with the letter and spirit of the General Rules
and Regulations and that it will thereby forestall any
discord which, in the present circumstances, could only
hinder the progress of the International Working Men’s
Association.
Greetings and equality.
In the name and by order of the General Council, the
Corresponding Secretary for France,
AUGUSTE  SERRAILLIER