TO THE EDITOR OF DER  VOLKSSTAAT
Paris-Journal, one of the most successful organs of the
Paris police press, published in its March 14 issue an article
under the sensational heading “Le Grand Chef de l’Internationale” (“Grand Chef” is probably the French translation of Stieber’s “Hauptchef”370).
“He is, as is known,” the article begins, “a German and, what is
even worse, a Prussian. His name is Karl Marx, he lives in Berlin, etc.
Well now! This Karl Marx is dissatisfied with the behaviour of French
members of the International. This alone is typical of him. He finds
that they are always dabbling too much in politics and not enough in
social questions. That is his conviction, and he has just formulated it
very precisely in a letter to his brother and friend, Citizen Serraillier,
one of the Paris high priests of the International. Karl Marx requests
the French members of the International, particularly the Parisians,
not to lose sight of the fact that their society has one single aim: organisation of labour and the future of the workers’ societies. But they
are disorganising labour instead of organising it, and he believes that
the delinquents must again be called to respect the Association’s Rules.
We declare that we shall use the chance to publish this remarkable
letter of Mr. Karl Marx as soon as it has been communicated to members of the International.”
In its March 19 issue, Paris-Journal actually did print
the letter allegedly signed by me, which was immediately
reprinted by the whole reactionary Paris press, and then
found its way into the London papers. Meanwhile, Paris-
Journal had found out that I live in London, not in Berlin.
So, this time it dated the letter from London, contrary to
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484 APPENDIX
its first announcement. This delayed correction suffers,
however, from the fault that it makes me correspond with
my friend Serraillier, who lives in London, by a roundabout
route via Paris. The letter, as I have already explained in
the Times*,  is a blatant forgery from start to finish.
* See p. 163 of the present volume.—Ed.
** See p. 158 of the present volume.—Ed.
The same Paris-Journal and other Paris organs of the
“good press” spread the rumour that the Paris Federal
Council of the International had taken a decision outside
its competency about the expulsion of Germans from the
International Working Men’s Association. The London
dailies hastily seized on this welcome piece of news and
maliciously began to write in their leaders about the finally
accomplished suicide of the International. Unfortunately,
the Times today carries the following announcement from
the General Council of the International Working Men’s
Association** :
“A statement has gone the round of the English press
that the Paris members of the International Working Men’s
Association had so far joined the so-called Anti-German
League, as to declare all Germans to be henceforth excluded
from the International. This statement is the reverse of fact.
Neither the Federal Council of our Association in Paris,
nor any of the Paris sections represented by that Council
have ever passed any such resolution. The so-called AntiGerman League, as far as it exists at all, is the exclusive
work of the upper and middle classes; it was started by the
Jockey Club, and kept up by the adhesions of the Academy,
of the Stock Exchange, of some bankers and manufacturers,
etc. The working class had nothing whatever to do with it.
“The object of these calumnies is evident. A short time
before the outbreak of the late war, the International was
made the general scapegoat for all untoward events. This
is now repeated over again. While the Swiss and the

APPENDIX 485
Russian press accuse it of having created the late outrages
upon Germans at Zurich, French papers, such as the
Courrier de Lyon, Courrier de la Gironde, the Paris Liberte,
etc., tell of certain secret meetings of Internationals having
taken place at Geneva and Berne, the Prussian Ambassador
in the chair, in which meetings a plan was concocted to
hand over Lyons to the United Prussians and Internationals
for the sake of common plunder.”
This was the General Council’s explanation. It is in the
nature of things that highly-placed people and the ruling
classes of the old society, which can only hold onto their
power and the exploitation of the producing mass of people
by national battles and conflicts, recognise their common
enemy in the International Working Men’s Association. To
destroy it, all means are fair.
London, March 23, 1871
KARL  MARX,
Secretary to the General Council
of the International Working Men’s Association
for Germany
Translated from the German