In Spain the International was originally founded as a mere 
appendix to Bakounine’s secret society, the Alliance, to which it 
was to serve as a kind of recruiting ground and at the same time 
as the lever by which to control the whole proletarian movement. 
You will see by and by that their Alliance intends openly to restore 
the Spanish International, at the present time, to this same 
subordinate position. 

In consequence of this dependance, the special doctrines of the 
Alliance: immediate abolition of the state, anarchy, anti- 
authoritarism, abstention from all political action etc. were 
preached in Spain as the doctrines of the International. At the same 
time, every prominent member of the International was at once 
received into the secret organization and made to believe that this 
system of controlling the public association by the secret society 
existed everywhere and was a matter of course. 

This took place in 1869 and the first man who introduced the 
International into Spain, along with the Alliance, was the Italian 
Fanelli who now, in spite of his abstentional convictions, is a 
member of the Italian parliament. In June 1870 took place the 
first Congress of the Spanish International at Barcelona and here 
the plan of organization was adopted which, afterwards fully 
developed by the Conference of Valencia (September 1871),?"" is 
now in force and has given the most excellent results. 

As everywhere else, the part taken by (and also that ascribed to) 
our Association in the revolution of the Paris Commune, brought 
the International into prominence in Spain also. This prominence 
and the first attempted Government prosecutions following 
immediately afterwards, swelled our ranks in Spain very much. 

Report to the G.C. upon Situation in Spain, Portugal and Italy 289 

Still, at the time of the Valencia Conference there existed only 13 
local federations in Spain, besides single isolated Sections in 
various places. 

The Conference of Valencia had left the Federal Council in 
Madrid where it had been placed by the Barcelona Congress, and 
had left its composition much the same as before; one important 
individual however, Tomas Gonzalez Morago (delegate at the 
Hague) had not been reelected. When, during the first Govern- 
ment prosecutions in June 1871, the Federal Council had for a 
time to seek a refuge in Lisbon, Morago abandoned his post at the 
moment of danger and this was the cause of his exclusion from 
the new Federal Council. From that moment began the secret war, 
which ended in an open split. 

Immediately after the Valencia Conference, the Conference of 
London (September 1871) took place.?!? The Spaniards sent a 
delegate, Anselmo Lorenzo, who for the first time brought the 
news back to Spain that the secret “Alliance” was not an 
understood thing throughout our Association and that on the 
contrary the General Council and the majority of the Federations 
were directly opposed to the Alliance, as far as its existence was 
then known. 

Shortly afterwards Sagasta began his prosecutions against the 
International which he declared was outside the law.?!? Morago, 
then still member of the Local Council of Madrid, again deserted 
his post and resigned. But the government threats were not 
followed up by any serious action; the right of public meeting was 
indeed denied to the International, but the sections and councils 
continued to hold their meetings undisturbed. The only effect of 
this government interference was an immense increase in the 
number of adherents to the International. At the Congress of 
Saragossa, April 1872,?* the Association numbered 70 local 
federations regularly constituted, while in 100 other localities the 
work of organization and propaganda was actively pursued. There 
were moreover 8 Trades organized in Unions all over the country 
and under the control of the International, and the great union of 
all the mill-hands in Spain (mechanics, spinners and weavers) was 
upon the point of being constituted. 

In the interval the secret war within the International had been 
carried on and it now commenced to take another and more 
important turn. The personal spite of Morago (who exercised 
great local influence in Madrid, his repeated desertions notwith- 
standing) against the members of the new Federal Council 
appointed at Valencia, was no longer the sole motive power of this 

war. The resolutions of the London Conference on the public 
branch of the Alliance and on the political action of the working 
class had aroused the fury of the leaders of the secret Alliance, 
and especially of the men in the higher degrees of secret initiation 
who received their instructions direct from Bakounine, and of 
whom Morago was one. This fury was expressed in the Sonvillier 
circular of the Jura Federation demanding the immediate convoca- 
tion of an extraordinary Congress. In this question, the Federal 
Council of Spain, in accordance with many of the sections, 
hesitated to take part against the General Council and the London 
Conference, and this constituted a new crime. Moreover in 
January 1872 Paul Lafargue came to Madrid, and having entered 
into friendly relations with the members of the Federal Council, 
soon convinced them, by numerous facts, that the whole Jurassian 
affair was an intrigue, based upon calumny, to disorganize the 
International. From that moment their fate was doomed. The 
members of the Federal Council being at the same time editors of 
the Emancipacion, the Local Council picked a quarrel with that 
paper and then had them expelled from the Local Federation of 
Madrid. This expulsion was annulled by the Congress of 
Saragossa, but the immediate end was attained: to render the 
continuance of the Federal Council at Madrid impossible by 
personal squabbles. The Federal Council was indeed removed to 
Valencia and its composition entirely changed. Of the members of 
the previous Council, who were reelected, Mora declined at once 
and Lorenzo resigned very soon on the account of differences 
which ensued. The members who remained, were mostly members 
of the secret Alliance.” 

After the Congress of Saragossa the split between the men of 
the Alliance and those who preferred the International to the 
Alliance became more and more apparent. At last, on June 2d 
1872, the members of the previous Federal Council (Mesa, Mora, 
Pauly, Pagés and others), who formed at the same time the 
majority of the Madrid section of the Alliance, issued a circular to 
all the sections of the same secret Society, announcing their 
dissolution as such section and inviting them to follow their 
example.” The next day, they were under a false pretence, and 
by an open breach of the rules, expelled from the Local 
Federation of the Madrid International. Out of 130 members only 

a Then follows the sentence crossed out in the manuscript: “As the 
International Congress of September 1872 approached, the manoeuvres of the 
Alliance to secure to itself a majority at the Congress, became more evident.” — Ed. 

Report to the G.C. upon Situation in Spain, Portugal and Italy 291 

15 had been present at this vote. They then formed a new 
Federation,* but the Federal Council refused to recognise them; 
the General Council, upon application, recognised them without 
consulting the Spanish Federal Council, and this act was sanc- 
tioned by the Congress at the Hague. 

The reason why the late General Council did not consult the 
Spanish Council on this occasion, was this. The General Council, 
having at last received sufficient evidence of the existence and 
action of the Alliance in Spain and of the fact that a majority, if 
not all, of the members of the Spanish Council belonged to it, had 
written to that council, demanding explications and informations 
regarding the secret society.” In its reply, dated 3d August 1872, 
the Spanish Council openly took sides with the Alliance, stating 
moreover that the Alliance was dissolved. To refer to a Council 
which, in a collision between the International and a secret society 
within its ranks, had already taken the part of that secret society, 
would have evidently been more than superfluous, and the Hague 
Congress has fully sanctioned the action of the General Council.