Bee-Hive, No. 359, August 29, 1868 (for the record of Marx’s speech in 
substantiating this resolution see this volume, p. 387). 

At the Brussels Congress this resolution was moved by Eccarius and read in 
the report of the commission on reducing the working day on September 12, 
1868. 

It was published in English in the reports of the Congress sittings in The 
Times, No. 26232, September 17, 1868 and in the pamphlet The International 
Working Men's Association. Resolutions of the Congress of Geneva, 1866, and the 
Congress of Brussels, 1868 published in London in 1869; in French it was 
published in a special supplement to Le Peuple Belge, No. 399, September 18, 
La Cigale, No. 38, September 20 and La Tribune du Peuple, No. 10, 
November 8, 1868. p. Il 

The Fourth Annual Report of the General Council (the first report was submitted 
to the London Conference of the International in September 1865) was written 
by Marx (approved by the General Council on September 1, 1868) for the 
Third Congress of the International held in Brussels on September 6-13, 1868. 

The Brussels Congress was attended by nearly 100 delegates representing 
workers from Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and 
Spain. Marx, who took an active part in the preparations for the Congress, was 
absent. However, he helped the General Council representatives there, since he 
was kept informed almost daily by Friedrich Lessner. The French text of the 
report drawn up by Marx was read at the Congress by Dupont on September 7. 

The Congress adopted an important resolution on the necessity for 
transferring railways, mineral resources, collieries and mines, woods and arable 
land into public property. This resolution showed that most of the French and 
Belgian Proudhonists had become supporters of collectivism, and it marked the 
victory of proletarian socialism over petty-bourgeois reformism within the 
International. The Congress also adopted the resolutions (drawn up by Marx) 
on the eight-hour working day, on the use of machinery under capitalism and 
on the attitude towards the congress of the bourgeois-pacifist League of Peace 
and Freedom (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 204), and a resolution, moved by 
Lessner for the German delegates, recommending the workers of all countries 
to study Marx’s Capital and secure its translation from German into other 
languages. 

The fourth annual report was included in the official French edition of the 
minutes of the Brussels Congress— Troisieéme congrés de l’Association Inter- 
nationale des Travailleurs. Compte rendu officiel. Supplement to Le Peuple Belge, 
September 8, 1868 and reprinted in La Liberté, No. 64, September 13, 1868. 
The English text, written by Marx, was published in Eccarius’ correspondence 

454 Notes 

“International Working Men’s Congress” in The Times, No. 26225, September 
9, 1868 and reprinted in The Bee-Hive, No. 361, September 12, 1868. The 
German text of the report, also written by Marx, was printed in Der 
Social-Demokrat, No. 106, September 11, the Demokratisches Wochenbiatt, No. 38 
(supplement), September 12 and Hermann, No. 506, September 12, 1868. The 
report was also published in a number of newspapers and books in Germany, 
Britain, Belgium, Switzerland and France. Abridged translations appeared in 
Russian and Flemish. 

In this volume the annual report is reproduced fromi The Times and 
checked with the handwritten copy in German made by Mrs. Marx and slightly 
differing from the English text. The main discrepancies are indicated in foot- 
notes. p- 12 

Jules Gottraux, a Swiss-born subject of Great Britain and a member of the 
International, was detained by the French police on the French-Swiss frontier 
on September 30, 1866 when he was returning to London from his trip to 
Switzerland. The police confiscated letters, printed matter, and other material 
entrusted to him by the International’s leaders in Geneva to be handed over to 
the General Council. The documents seized included the preliminary report on 
the work of the Geneva Congress which had been drawn up by Council 
member Frederick Card and published in Geneva as a pamphlet in French. 
(Later, this gave rise to a rumour that the French authorities had confiscated 
the Congress minutes, which in reality had by that time been brought to 
London by Hermaun Jung.) The General Council lodged a complaint with the 
French Minister of Home Affairs about this irregularity and demanded the 
return of the seized documents. When he refused to reply to the complaint, 
written by Fox on the Council’s instructions, the General Council decided to use 
the fact publicly to expose the regime of the Second Empire (see also the 
record of Marx’s speech at the General Council meeting of November 27, 1866, 
present edition, Vol. 20, p. 414). At the beginning of December the Council 
approached the British Foreign Secretary, asking him to make a corresponding 
demarche to the French Government, which forced the French authorities to 
return, on December 21, the materials taken from Gottraux. Fox wrote a 
special article on the actions of the Bonapartist authorities. It was published in 
The Commonwealth on January 12, 1867 and in The Working Man on 
February 1, 1867. 

p. 12 
The strike of weavers and spinners in Roubaix in March 1867 was caused by 
the dismissal of a great number of workers following the introduction of 
machinery. . 

A strike of dyers in Amiens in July 1867 was supported by the workers in 
other trades. 

In February 1867 the bronze-workers of Paris refused to dissolve their 
credit society on their employers’ demand and went on strike. Thanks to the 
General Council (it discussed the matter at its meetings of March 5, 12, 19 and 
26, and April 2 and 9, 1867), the Paris workers received financial aid from the 
British trade unions. The strike ended in the victory for the bronze-workers— 
they managed to save their organisation. 

In March and April 1868, 3,000 building workers went on strike in Geneva. 
They demanded the reduction of the working day to 10 hours, higher wages 
and pay by the hour for pay by the day. They were joined by workers in other 
trades. The aid from the workers of Switzerland, Britain, France and Germany 
helped the Geneva builders to win the strike. p12 

Notes 455 

Marx refers to the Mémoire of the Paris Section for the Geneva Congress, 
containing a detailed exposition of Proudhonist views on the main issues of the 
workers’ struggle. It was supported by the Lyons and Rouen sections and read 
as the report of the French delegates at the congress on September 4. The full 
text of the Mémoire was published in Brussels in September 1866 under the 
title Congres de Genéve. Mémoire des délégués frangais. p. 12 

In December 1867 the homes of the Executive Committee members of the 
Paris Secon of the International were searched. This was followed by an 
investigation and then the first trial against the International in France. The case 
was heard on March 6 and 20, 1868. Among the documents seized by the police 
during the searches was a letter of November 23, 1867 from Dupont, the 
Corresponding Secretary for France, to a member of the Paris Section, André 
Murat, in which the French members of the International were informed of the 
campaign organised in defence of the imprisoned Fenians (see Note 1). The 
French authorities tricd to use this letter to incriminate the International in the 
organisation of the Fenian conspiracy. 

‘The court declared the Paris Section dissolved and fined the Committee 
members. p. 13 

In France, according to Article 291 of the Criminal Code and the Law of April 
10, 1834, any society with a membership exceeding 20 had to be sanctioned by 
the respective authorities. p. 14 

In the spring of 1868, the workers of the Charleroi coalfield declared a strike, 
in reply to the mine-owners’ reduction of production to four days a week and 
lowering of wages by ten per cent. In the bloody clashes between the miners 
and police troops, twenty-two people were arrested and put on trial. 

The Brussels Central Section launched a broad campaign in support of the 
strikers both in Belgium and abroad. It organised meetings of protest and gave 
wide coverage of the events in the columns of La Tribune du Peuple, La Liberté 
and other newspapers. On April 12, 1868 it issued a manifesto to the workers 
of Belgium and other countries (see La Tribune du Peuple, No. 4, April 19, 
1868). The section maintained regular ties with the General Council of the 
International. The Council discussed the Charleroi events at its meetings of 
April 21, May 12 and June 2, 1868 and organised aid to the strikers. The 
Brussels Section set up a special committee to brief lawyers for the defence of 
the detainees. The lawyers managed to swing public opinion in favour of the 
accused, and on August 15 they were acquitted by the jury. This led to a rise in 
membership of the International in Belgium. p. 14 

See Note 5. p. 14 

At Mentana, on November 3, 1867, the French army, jointly with the Pope’s 
hired guards, defeated Garibaldi, who had undertaken a new campaign against 
Rome to liberate the city from the French and annex it to the Italian state. 

p. 15 

Marx refers to the reactionary Prussian law on associations adopted on 
March I1, 1850. p. 15 

From November 1865 until the formation of the Eisenach Party in 1869, the 
Central Committee of German sections in Switzerland headed by Johann 
Philipp Becker was an organising centre for sections uniting German workers 
not only in Switzerland but also in Germany, Austria, the United States and 
countries where German émigré workers lived. Becker’s activities, in particular 

456 Notes 

his Vorbote (on the significance of this monthly see Mrs. Marx’s letter to Becker 
of January 29, 1866, present edition, Vol. 42), did much to spread the ideas of 
the International among the German workers at a time when conditions for 
establishing an organisation in Germany itself were still lacking. p- 15 

The reference is to the general congress of the General Association of German 

Workers held in Hamburg on August 22-26, 1868 (see Note 9). The resolution 

adopted was published in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 102, September 2, 1868. 
p. 15 

Marx refers to the Nuremberg Congress of the Union of German Workers’ 
Associations, led by Bebel, which was held from September 5 to 7, 1868. The 
General Council’s official representative, Georg Eccarius, was present (see Marx’s 
letter to Engels of July 29, 1868, present edition, Vol. 43). By 69 votes against 46 
the Congress resolved to join the International Working Men’s Association and 
elected a committee of 16 to carry out this resolution (see Protokoll tiber den 5. 
Vereinstag der deutschen Arbeitervereine am 5. und 7. September 1868 zu Nurnberg, 
Leipzig, 1868, S. 19). On September 22 the General Council approved this 
committee as the Executive Committee of the International Working Men’s 
Association for Germany. 

The Nuremberg Congress also resolved to organise trade unions and heard 
Liebknecht’s report on armament, in which he demanded the abolition of 
standing armies. 

The Union of German Workers’ Associations was founded at a congress of 
German workers’ educational societies in Frankfurt am Main on June 7, 1863, 
in opposition to the Lassallean General Association of German Workers. 
Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel took an active part in its activity. 

p. 15 
The decision to affiliate to the International adopted by the delegate meeting 
of 50 German workers’ educational societies in Switzerland, held in Neuenburg 
(Neuchatel) on August 9-10, 1868, was announced in Der Vorbote, No. 8, 
August 1868. p. 16 

The National Labour Union was founded in the USA at a congress in Baltimore 
in August 1866, with the active participation of William Sylvis, a prominent 
leader in the American labour movement. In a letter to Ludwig Kugelmann on 
October 9, 1866, Marx wrote with satisfaction about the Baltimore congress: 
“...Most of the demands I had put up for Geneva were put up there too, by the 
correct instinct of the workers” (see present edition, Vol. 42). The 
Labour Union established contacts with the International Working Men’s 
Association in October 1866, but its delegate to the next congress of the 
International, Richard Trevellick, elected by the Union’s congress in Chicago in 
August 1867, was unable to come to Lausanne. At the last sessions of the Basle 
Congress of the International (September 1869) Andrew Cameron was the 
National Labour Union delegate. At the Union’s congress in Cincinnati in 
August 1870, Cameron reported on his participation in the International’s 
Congress, and the Union adopted a resolution on its adherence to the 
principles of the International Association and its intention to join it. The 
resolution was not implemented, however. Its leaders soon became involved in 
utopian projects of money reform. In 1870 and 1871, many trade unions 
withdrew, and in 1872 the Union virtually ceased to exist. p. 16 

On June 25, 1868 the American Congress passed a law introducing an 
eight-hour working day for all government enterprises and federal institutions. 
p. 17 

Notes 457 

28 The Schiller Institute, founded in Manchester in November 1859 in connection 

3¢ 

3 

So 

i 

us 

with the centenary of Schiller’s birth, was conceived as a cultural and social 
centre of the citys German colony. At first Engels was critical of the society, 
notorious for its tendency to formalism and pedantry, and kept aloof from it. 
But after certain amendments were made in the Rules, he became a member 
of its Directorate in 1864, and later President of the Institute, devoting much 
time to it and exercising a considerable influence on its activities. 

In September 1868, while Engels was away from Manchester, the 
Directorate invited Karl Vogt, who was connected with Bonapartist circles 
and cast aspersions on proletarian revolutionaries, to give a lecture in the 
society. In view of this Engels held that his political reputation would be 
compromised if he remained President and wrote this letter to the Directorate. 
On October 2 the secretary, Davisson, on behalf of the Directorate approached 
Engels asking him to revise his decision but Engels refused. In April 1870 
Engels was again elected member of the Directorate, but he did not take an 
active part in its work. p. 18 

Engels refers to the difficulties experienced by the Schiller Institute in building 
new premises. p-. 18 

Engels wrote this article on learning about the police ban, on September 16, 
1868, on the General Association of German Workers centred in Leipzig, and 
on its local branch in Berlin. On October 10, however, a group of Lassalleans 
headed by Schweitzer restored the Association under the same name and 
transferred its seat to Berlin. The new Rules of the Association published in 
Der Social-Demokrat, No. 119, October 11, 1868, said that the Association would 
abide by Prussian laws and act in a peaceful, legal way. Adapting itself to 
Prussian law, the leaders of the Association dissolved its local branches. Marx and 
Engels sharply criticised Schweitzer’s manoeuvres in the letters they exchanged in 
September and October. The same criticism is contained in Marx’s letter to 
Schweitzer of October 13, 1868 (see present edition, Vol. 43) and in this article by 
Engels. In it Engels develops the views he set out in 1865 in “The Prussian Military 
Question and the German Workers’ Party” (see present edition, Vol. 20), which he 
quotes extensively. In his letter to Engels dated September 29, 1868, Marx wrote 
that this article helped to undermine the Lassallean positions (present edition, Vol. 
43). p. 20 

The reference is to the “liberal” course announced by Prince William of Prussia 
(King of Prussia from 1861) when he became regent in October 1858. He made 
the Manteuffel Ministry resign and called the moderate liberals to power. The 
bourgeois press dubbed this the policy of the “New Era’. It was, in fact, solely 
intended to strengthen the position of the Prussian monarchy and Junkers. 
This soon became clear to the representatives of the liberal opposition whose 
hopes had been deceived and who refused to approve the government project 
of a military reform. The constitutional conflict that ensued and Bismarck’s 
advance to power in September 1862 put an end to the “New Era”. 

p- 20 
Engels means the general congress of the General Association of German 
Workers held in Hamburg (see Note 9). p. 23 

Engels wrote this postscript on the advice of Marx who, in his letter to Engels 
of September 25, 1868 (see present edition, Vol. 43) drew his attention to 
Becker’s pamphlet Enthüllungen tiber das tragische Lebensende Ferdinand Lassalle’s, 
Schleiz, 1868. p. 24 

458 Notes 

oo 
wr 

In his will Lassalle recommended Bernhard Becker as his heir to the post of 
President of the General Association of German Workers. On the title page of 
his Enthüllungen tiber das tragische Lebensende Ferdinand Lassalle’s (Schleiz, 1868), 
Becker calls himself “heir by Lassalle’s will’. 

At a meeting of the Association’s Hamburg branch on March 22, 1865, 
Becker slandered the International Working Men’s Association and also Marx, 
Engels and Liebknecht (see Der Social-Demokrat, No. 39, supplement, March 26, 
1865). Marx exposed this slander in his article ““The President of Mankind” 
(see present edition, Vol. 20). The Berlin branch, expressing the growing 
discontent of the rank-and-file members of the General Association with 
Becker, resolved to expel him and recommended other organisations to follow 
suit. Similar meetings were held in many other branches. In June 1865 Becker 
was compelled provisionally to delegate his presidential powers to his deputy 
Fritzsche and he completely renounced them the following November. 

p. 24 

Under the influence of Sophie von Hatzfeldt a small group of Lassalleans split 
away from the General Association of German Workers and in 1867 formed the 
Lassallean General Association of German Workers. This Association, whose 
president was first Férsterling and later Mende, had little impact on the workers 
and in 1872 virtually ceased to exist. p. 24 

At its meeting of September 29, 1868 the General Council of the International 
Working Men’s Association discussed, among other things, Hirsch’s statement 
that all the principal trade unions of England had withdrawn from the 
Association. To refute this slander Marx wrote this item for the Demokratisches 
Wochenblatt (see his letter to Engels of October 4, 1868, present edition, 
Vol. 43). The editors presumably made changes in the first paragraph. 

This item was first published in English in The General Council of the First 
International. 1868-1870, Moscow, 1966. ps 25 

The General Council of the International Working Men’s Association jointly 

‘with the English trade unions organised financial support for the workers on 

strike. 

During the strike of the Paris bronze-workers in February-March 1867 (see 
Note 14), the General Council published in The International Courier, March 13, 
1867, an address to the English workers calling on them to give material help 
to the strikers. The trade unions of shoemakers, tailors, cabinet-makers and 
others sent several hundred pounds sterling to France through the General 
Council. 

In connection with the shooting of the Belgian miners and iron-workers of 
Marchienne (February 1867), the General Council published an appeal “To the 
Miners and Iron-Workers of Great Britain” (The International Courier, March 
13, 1867) urging them to support the victims of this brutal action. The 
bereaved families received financial assistance. 

During the strike and lock-out of the Geneva building workers in 
March-April 1868 (see Note 14) the General Council guaranteed monthly aid 
from England amounting to 40,000 francs. The money was sent to Geneva by 
trade unions of carpenters and joiners, weavers, book-binders and others. 

p. 25 
This refers to the London Trades Council elected at a conference of trade union 
delegates held in London in May 1860. The Council headed the London trade 
unions numbering many thousand members, and was fairly influential among 
the British workers. 

Notes 459 

In the first half of the 1860s it headed the British workers’ campaign 
against intervention in the USA, in defence of Poland and Italy, and later for 
the legalisation of the trade unions. The leaders of the following large trade 
unions played a major role in the Council: the Amalgamated Society of 
Carpenters and Joiners (Robert Applegarth), the Shoemakers’ Society (George 
Odger), the Operative Bricklayers’ Society (Edwin Coulson and George Howell) 
and the Amalgamated Engineers (William Allan). All of them, except Allan, 
were members of the General Council of the International Working Men’s 
Association. . 

The General Council did its best to draw into the International the broad 
mass of British workers and endeavoured, on the one hand, to get the local 
trade union organisations affiliated to it and, on the other, to induce the 
London Trades Council to join the International as a British section. “The 
London Council of the English Trade Unions (its secretary is our president, 
Odger) is deliberating at the present moment as to whether it should declare 
itself to be the British Section of the International Association. If it does so, 
government of the working-class here will in a certain sense pass into our 
hands, and we shall be able to give the movement a good ‘push on’,” wrote 
Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann on October 13, 1866 (see present edition, Vol. 42). 

On the initiative of the English members of the General Council, the London 
Trades Council discussed the question of joining the International at its meetings 
in the autumn of 1866. 

After the repeated deferment of the question, which was due to the 
struggle between the reformist leaders of the London Council who opposed 
affiliation and local trade unionists, it was finally decided at the Council 
meetings of January 9 and 14, 1867, to co-operate with the International 
Association “for the furtherance of all questions affecting the interests of 
labour; at the same time continuing the London Trades Council as a distinct 
and independent body as before” (The Times, No. 25708, January 15, 1867). 
This decision was discussed by the General Council of the International on 
January 15, 1867, after which the London Trades Council continued to 
maintain its contact with the International through those of its members who 
were also members of the General Council. p. 26 

In the spring of 1865 the Central (General) Council of the International 
initiated, and participated in, the setting up of a Reform League in London as 
a political centre of the mass movement for the second election reform. The 
League’s leading bodies—the Council and Executive Committee—included the 
General Council members, mainly trade union leaders. ‘The League’s pro- 
gramme was drafted under Marx’s influence. Unlike the bourgeois parties, 
which confined their demands to household suffrage, the League advanced the 
demand for manhood suffrage. This revived Chartist slogan won it the support of 
the trade unions, hitherto indifferent to politics. The League had branches in all 
big industrial cities. The vacillations of the radicals in its leadership, however, and 
the conciliation of the trade union leaders prevented the League from following 
the line charted by the General Council of the International. The British 
bourgeoisie succeeded in splitting the movement, and a moderate reform was 
carried out in 1867 which granted franchise only to the petty bourgeoisie and the 
upper layers of the working class. p. 26 

The National Reform League was founded in London in 1849 by Bronterre 
O’Brien and other Chartist leaders. Its objective was to campaign for universal 
suffrage and social reforms. In 1866 the League became affiliated to the 

460 Notes 

4 

_ 

International. Its leaders Alfred Walton and George Milner became members 
of the General Council and took part in several congresses of the International. 

p. 26 
In 1863 Edgar Bauer, a German journalist and former Young Hegelian, began 
working for the Prussian Press Department. p. 27 

Marx wrote this item at the request of Collet Dobson Collet, the publisher of 
The Diplomatic Review (see Marx’s letters to Engels of November 14 and 23, 
1868, present edition, Vol. 43). The editor was David Urquhart, a journalist 
and former diplomat. In the early 1820s Urquhart published The Portfolio, a 
collection of diplomatic documents and papers relating to the diplomacy of 
European powers, including documents exposing the diplomatic activity of 
Palmerston, who virtually directed Britain’s foreign policy for many years. 

In 1853, in a series of articles enutled Lord Palmerston Marx used, along 
with other documents, some of those published by Urquhart. Later, some of 
Marx’s articles were reprinted in Urquhart’s journal The Free Press. At the same 
time, Marx sharply criticised Urquhart for his anti-democratic views and 
emphasised the principal difference between his own stand as a proletarian 
revolutionary and the Urquhartites’ reactionary position. 

When publishing this item by Marx, the editors of The Diplomatic Review 
prefaced it with a note recommending Marx as the author of Revelations of the 
Diplomatic History of the 18th Century (see present edition, Vol. 15) and of 
Capital. p-. 28 

The Bank Charter Act (An Act to Regulate the Issue of Banknotes, and for 
Giving to the Governor and Company of the Bank of England Certain 
Privileges for a Limited Period) was introduced by Robert Peel on July 19, 
1844. It provided for the division of the Bank of England into two separate 
departments, each with its own cash account—the Banking Department, 
dealing exclusively with credit operations, and the Issue Department, issuing 
banknotes. The Act limited the number of banknotes in circulation and 
guaranteed them with definite gold and silver reserves which could not be used 
for the credit operations of the Banking Department. Further issues . of 
banknotes were allowed only in the event of a corresponding increase in the 
precious metal reserves. The issue of banknotes by provincial banks was 
stopped. The Act was suspended several times by the government itself, in 
particular during the monetary crises of 1847 and 1857. 

The crisis of 1866 in England was particularly manifest in the sphere of 
credit. In May 1866, when the financial panic reached its climax and the Bank 
of England was in danger of bankruptcy, its Board received a letter, signed by 
the Prime Minister Russel and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gladstone, 
sanctioning the suspension of the 1844 Act (see The Times, No. 25497, May 14, 
1866); this allowed the Bank to extend credit operations and somewhat mitigate 
the financial panic in the country. 

Marx analysed the Act of 1844 and its significance in a number of articles 
for the New-York Daily Tribune: “The Vienna Note.—The United States and 
Europe.—Letters from Shumla.—Peel’s Bank Act” (see present edition, 
Vol. 12), “The Bank Act of 1844 and the Monetary Crisis in England”, “The 
British Revulsion” (Vol. 15), “The English Bank Act of 1844” (Vol. 16), etc. A 
detailed description of the Act was given by Marx in Capital, Vol. III 
(Chapter XXXIV). p. 28 

Marx means the first two occasions when the Bank Act of 1844 was 
suspended—the letters from Prime Minister Russell and Chancellor of the 

Notes 461 

Exchequer Wood, dated October 25, 1847, to the Governor and Devuty- 
Governor of the Bank of England (in: Report from the Secret Committee of the 
House of Lords appointed to inquire into the causes of the distress..., London 1848), and 
from Prime Minister Palmerston and Chancellor of the Exchequer Lewis of 
November 12, 1857, to the Governor and Deputy-Governor of the Bank of 
England (in: The Times, No. 22837, November 13, 1857). p. 28 

Marx refers to the congress of representatives of France, Britain, Austria, 
Russia, Sardinia, Prussia and Turkey in Paris, where a peace treaty was signed 

_ on March 30, 1856, putting an end to the Crimean War, 1853-56. Marx here 

a7 

alludes to the fact that Clarendon, the head of the British delegation, failed to 
carry out the plans of British diplomacy to the full because of Anglo-French 
contradictions and a noticeable rapprochement between France and Russia. 

p. 29 

The articles headed “Money Market and City Intelligence’ (The Times, 
Nos. 25539 and 25579, July 2 and August 17, 1866) voiced alarm about the 
flow of English capital abroad, mainly to France, and about the consequent fall 
in the discount rate of the Bank of England. p: 29 

The agreement on another 5-per cent Anglo-Dutch loan to Russia was 
concluded on November 4, 1866, to cover her foreign payments, particularly 
her debts. p. 29 

At its meeting of October 6, 1868, the General Council of the International 
Association decided to publish the resolutions of the Geneva Congress (1866), 
adopted after the Council’s report (K. Marx, “Instructions for the Delegates of 
the Provisional General Council. The Different Questions”, present edition, 
Vol. 20), as well as those of the Brussels Congress (1868). Eccarius did the 
preliminary work, while Marx prepared the text for the press and checked the 
translation. Marx wrote the preamble ‘to this publication between the end of 
October and November 3, 1868 (see his letter to Engels of February 24, 1869, 
present edition, Vol. 43) and it was first published in The Bee-Hive Newspaper, 
No. 371, November 21, 1868. Section I of this publication, including Marx’s 
preamble, was approved at the General Council meeting of November 3, 1868. 
Subsequently, the publication was incorporated into a pamphlet, The Interna- 
tional Working Men’s Association. Resolutions of the Congress of Geneva, 1866, and 
the Congress of Brussels, 1868, London [1869]. p. 31 

The Geneva Congress resolutions, which Marx selected for inclusion in the 
publication of those of the Brussels Congress (1868), dealt with the role of the 
International in the proletariat’s economic struggle, the eight-hour working 
day, protection of child and female labour, the organisation of co-operative 
production and the tasks of the trade unions (points 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the 
“Instructions for the Delegates of the Provisional General Council. The 
Different Questions” —see present edition, Vol. 20). p. 31 

The reason for Marx’s statement to the German Workers’ Educational Society in 
London was the Society’s attitude towards the Lassallean Berlin Congress of 
1868 and towards the workers’ organisation founded by Bebel and Liebknecht 
at the Nuremberg Congress (see Note 24). On November 23, 1868 Marx wrote 
to Engels: “Imported from Paris and Germany, the Lassalleans, who are in 
secret contact with Schweitzer, took advantage of the absence of Lessner 
because of his wife’s illness to obtain a vote of confidence in Schweitzer against 
the Nuremberg people” (see present edition, Vol. 43). Subsequently, Marx 
supported Lessner in his struggle against the Lassallean elements in the Society. 

462 Notes 

The German Workers’ Educational Society in London was founded in 1840 by 
German worker refugees, members of the League of the Just. After the 
founding of the Communist League in 1847, representatives of its local 
communities played the leading role in the Society, which had branches in 
various working-class districts in London. In 1847 Marx and in 1849-50 Engels 
took an active part in the Society's work, but in September 1850 they 
temporarily withdrew because the Willich-Schapper sectarian-adventurist group 
had increased its influence in the Society. In the late 1850s, when Marx’s 
followers (Georg Eccarius, Friedrich Lessner, Karl Schapper, who had renounced 
his sectarian views, and others) prevailed again, Marx and Engels resumed their 
activities in the Educational Society. When the International Working Men’s 
Association was established, the Society became its German section in London. 
Many of its members—Eccarius, Kaub, Lessner, Lochner, Bolleter and 
others—were on the General (Central) Council of the International and played 
a prominent role in its activity. The Society existed until 1918, when it was 
closed by the British Government. p. 32 

On September 26, 1868, a General Congress of German Workers took place in 
Berlin, convened by Schweitzer and Fritzsche, as Reichstag deputies, by consent 
of the Hamburg general congress of the General Association of German 
Workers (see Note 9). The congress was attended by 206 delegates representing 
over 142,000 workers, mainly from the towns of North Germany. The workers’ 
associations affiliated to the Nuremberg organisation headed by Bebel and 
Liebknecht, were denied representation at this congress. The Berlin congress 
set up several trade unions on the pattern of the sectarian Lassallean 
organisation. These unions formed a general union headed by Schweitzer 
which was completely subordinate to the General Association of German 
Workers. ' 

Marx severely criticised Schweitzer for the organisation of the congress, 
which led to a split among workers’ trade unions in Germany, and for the 
Rules it adopted (see Der Social-Demokrat, No. 112, supplement, September 25, 
1868) which ran counter to the aims and character of the trade union 
movement (see Engels’ letter to Marx of October 22, 1868, present edition, 

Vol. 43). p. 32 
Marx refers to the Nuremberg Congress of the Union of German Workers’ 
Associations headed by Bebel (see Note 24). p. 32 

Marx means his letter of October 13, 1868 (see present edition, Vol. 43) in 
reply to Schweitzer’s letters of September 15 and October 8, 1868. p. 33 

The Democratic Workers’ Association (Demokratischer Arbeiterverein) was founded in 
October 1868 as a result of the split in the Berlin Workers’ Association. 
Wilhelm Eichhoff, who was in constant contact with Marx and was the General 
Council’s Berlin correspondent, played a great part in establishing the 
Democratic Association. On his proposal, the newly formed Association joined 
the Nuremberg organisation of workers’ associations headed by Bebel and 
Liebknecht and adopted its programme, which was based on the principles of 
the International. It maintained ties with the Berlin Section of the Internation- 
al, and almost all its members were also members of the International. To 
emphasise its proletarian character, two workers— Wilcke and Kammerer— 
were elected its Presidents. 

The Democratic Workers’ Association actively opposed the Lassalleans. 
Wilhelm Liebknecht used to speak at its meetings. In 1869 it joined the 
Social-Democratic Workers’ Party set up at the Eisenach Congress. p. 33 

Notes 463 

55 This circular letter was written by Marx on December 22, 1868, in connection 
with the discussion of the admission of the Alliance to the International at the 
General Council on December 15 and 22. 

The International Alliance of Socialist Democracy (L’Alliance internationale de la 
démocratie socialiste) was founded by Mikhail Bakunin in Geneva in October 
1868. Besides Bakunin, members of its Provisional Committee were Brosset, 
Duval, Guétat, Perron, Zagorsky and Johann Philipp Becker. In 1868 the 
Alliance published in Geneva leaflets in French and German containing its 
Programme and Rules. Becker, who shortly afterwards broke with Bakunin, 
sent the Alliance’s Programme and Rules to the General Council on November 
29. Both these documents were read out at its meeting on December 15, 1868, 
and the Council spoke against the admission of the Alliance to the International 
Working Men’s Association. Marx thought that it was “against our Rules to 
admit another international association into our society” (this was written in the 
margin of the Minute Book on December 22 when the Minutes of December 15 
were confirmed). On the same day, December 15, Marx forwarded the 
Alliance’s Programme with his own remarks (see this volume, pp. 207-11) to 
Engels asking for his comments. Engels wholly shared Marx’s opinion and 
noted that the admission of the Alliance to the IWMA would create “a state 
within the state’’ (see Marx’s letters to Engels of December 15 and 19 and the 
latter’s answer of December 18, 1868, present edition, Vol. 43). 

The draft reply to the Alliance was written by Marx, who took into account 
Engels’ remarks, and adopted by the General Council meeting on December 22 as 
a circular letter. 

This circular letter, sent out to all the sections of the International as a 
confidential communication, was first published in Geneva in 1872 in K. Marx 
and F. Engels, Les prétendues scissions dans l’Internationale. Circulaire privée du 
Conseil Général de l’Association Internationale des Travailleurs (see present edition, 
Vol. 23), and reprinted in Le Courrier de France, June 1872 and Le Radical, 
No. 175, June 23, 1872. The text of the circular letter has been preserved in 
several manuscripts slightly differing in reading (two of them are Marx’s 
manuscripts: one for December 22, 1868, and the other appended to his letter 
to Jung of August 6, 1870; two hand-written copies: one made by Jung, and 
the other by Dupont and Engels). 

In English the circular letter was first published in The General Council of the 
First International. 1868-1870, Moscow, 1966. p. 34 

56 The League of Peace and Freedom was a pacifist organisation set up in 1867 with 
the active participation of Victor Hugo, Giuseppe Garibaldi and _ other 
democrats. Voicing the anti-militarist sentiments of the masses, the League’s 
leaders did not disclose the social sources of wars and often confined 
anti-militarist activity to mere declarations. At the General Council meeting of 
August 13, 1867, Marx spoke against the International’s official participation in 
the League’s Inaugural Congress, since this would mean solidarity with its 
bourgeois programme; but he recommended that some members of the 
International should attend the Congress on their own in order to make it 
adopt revolutionary-democratic decisions (see present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 426- 
27, and Marx’s letter to Engels of September 4, 1867, Vol. 42). 

Marx’s tactics against the League of Peace and Freedom were fully 
approved by the Brussels Congress of the International in 1868, which opposed 
official affiliation to the League but was in favour of the united action of the 
working class with all the progressive anti-war forces. p. 35 

464 Notes 

At the General Council meeting of December 15, 1868 Dupont proposed that a 
short report on the activity of the IWMA since the Brussels Congress should be 
drawn*up and published. Jung was instructed to draw up the resumé and Marx 
expressed his willingness to help. The resumé contains chiefly the material of 
the General Council meetings of November 3 and 24, December 22, 1868 and 
January 5, 1869 and includes Marx’s reports. The resolution moved by Marx 
and Applegarth, probably on Marx’s initiative, was not entered in the Minute 
Book. That is probably why Marx decided to include it in this resumé. 

p. 37 
The reference is to a letter from the Saxon miners of Lugau, Nieder- 
Wurschnitz and Oelsnitz, dated November 15, 1868, informing the General 
Council of their decision to join the International. The letter was read by Marx 
at the meeting of November 24, 1868. p. 37 

Marx refers to the Democratic Workers’ Association (see Note 54), the 
formation of which he had announced at the General Council meeting of 
November 3, 1868. The facts cited by Marx were mentioned in a letter from 
Liebknecht that was read out to the General Council on December 22, 1868. 

p. 37 

‘These data were given by Vandenhouten in his letter to Bernard of December 
19, 1868 and read at the General Council meeting of December 22, 1868. 
p. 37 

The strike of the Basle ribbon weavers broke out on November 9, 1868. A 
detailed description of the Swiss workers’ economic struggle in the winter of 
1868-69 was given by Marx in the Report of the General Council to the Fourth 
Annual Congress of the International Working Men’s Association (see this 
volume, pp. 68-70). The reports about this strike and the lockout in Rouen’s 
cotton industry (Nord department) were made in the General Council on 
January 5, 1869. p:. 37 

In response to the General Council’s resolution, the Paris bronze-workers, on 
Marx’s proposal, sent the Rouen weavers the £20 advanced to them by the 
Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners of Britain. A letter from Rouen read out at 
the General Council meeting on January 26, 1869 thanked the Council for the 
support it had given the locked-out workers. p. 38 

Engels made out this report at Marx’s request on the basis of material sent in 
by the Saxon miners from Lugau, Nieder-Wirschnitz and Oelsnitz. The miners 
informed the General Council and Marx personally of their desire to join the 
International (see Note 58). On February 13, 1869 Marx wrote to Engels that 
the Lugau miners were the first in Germany ‘to enter into direct contact with 
the International Working Men’s Association and that it was necessary to give 
them public support (see present edition, Vol. 43). 

Marx highly praised Engels’ report, which was written in English. “Thanks 
a lot for the report. It is perfectly clear,” he wrote to Engels on February 24. 
The report was read by Marx to the General Council on February 23, and it 
resolved to have it published in English and in German translation. An 
abridged version appeared in a report of the General Council meeting in The 
Bee-Hive, No. 385, February 27, 1869 (see this volume, pp. 389-90). Other 
English newspapers to which Marx applied, including The Times, The Daily 
News and The Morning Advertiser, refused to publish the document. Marx 
himself translated Engels’ manuscript into German (see his letter to Engels of 
March 2, 1869), and it was published in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 33, March 17, 

Notes 465 

Demokratisches Wochenblatt, No. 12 (supplement), March 20, and Zukunft, 
Nos. 67 and 68, March 20 and 21, 1869. The English original has not been 

preserved. 
The report was published in English in full for the first time in The General 
Council of the First International. 1868-1870, Moscow, 1966. p. 39 

This expression was used by the Prussian Minister of the Interior, von Rochow. 
In his letter of January 15, 1838 to the citizens of Elbing who had expressed 
their dissatisfaction at the expulsion of seven opposition professors from 
Gottingen University, Rochow wrote: “It behoves a loyal subject to exhibit due 
obedience to his King and Sovereign...; it does not behove him to apply the 
measure of his limited understanding to the actions of the head of the State.” 

p. 43 

Having received the General Council’s letter of December 22, 1868 in which it 
refused to admit the Alliance of Socialist Democracy to the International as an 
independent international organisation (see this volume, pp. 34-36), the 
Alliance’s Central Bureau again applied to the General Council on February 27, 
1869, declaring its readiness to dissolve its international organisation provided 
the General Council approved its programme and admitted its individual local 
sections to the International (see Marx’s letter to Engels of March 5 and Engels’ 
reply of March 7, 1869, present edition, Vol. 43). 

This letter is the General Council’s reply to the second application of the 
Alliance. It was written by Marx who obtained Engels’ agreement to it by 
quoting it almost verbatim in his letter of March 5, 1869. It was accepted 
unanimously by the General Council on March 9 and confidentially sent out to 
all sections of the International. The document was first published in the 
pamphlet by Marx and Engels, Les prétendues scissions dans I’Internationale 
(Geneva, 1872) and reprinted in Le Courrier de France, June 24, 1872 and Le 
copies with minor differences in reading: two rough copies by Marx in English 
and French, Marx’s fair copy in French, and a copy in French in an unknown 
hand with corrections made by Marx. 

This document was first published in English in The General Council of the 
First International. 1868-1870, Moscow, 1966.