Notes of the Sittings of the London Conference

[Conference Meeting September 17]

Jung President

Hales English—Rochat French—Engels Secretary for the editing and translation of the resolutions.

1) Fondeville to be admitted with consultative voice only. 5

2) To meet at 1 in the day and at 8 in the evening (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday)

3) To enforce the Resolution of the Congress of Basel reducing the speaking time to 5 minutes.

4) Commission of 5 to be appointed to report on the Swiss difference on Wednesday Evening. Marx. McDonnell. Verrycken. Vaillant. Eccarius.

5) Commission of 6 to fix Order of the day. Lorenzo, Mottershead, Frankel. I

I[2]| Conference Meeting 18 September 2 o’clock.

Serraillier president. Mottershead English Secretary.
French minutes read and unanimously adopted. Roblin called. Martin 2nd Secretary
De Paepe Report of Commission on order of the day.
1) The Report of General Council to be presented when ready and the debate to be interrupted for it. Engels for financial Report
2) The Order of the day of the Committee adopted otherwise.
Financial Control Committee appointed Lorenzo, Coenen, Fluse and Perret.
Marx to commence at once with the proposals of the General Council for organization—adopted.
1) Names of Councils and Sections (but Committee or Council)
2) Printing of the Rules in 3 languages

286

Friedrich Engels: Notes of the Sittings of the London Conference.
Second page of the manuscript

Friedrich Engels: Notes of the Sittings of the London Conference.
Third page of the manuscript

Notes of the Sittings of the London Conference

Meeting 19 September 2.30 afternoon

Serraillier presides. Minutes read and adopted.
The Belgians: Cohn to give an account of his mission in Belgium.
Engels: that Hales write this to him and call on him to appear.
adopted
3) Marx—female sections and mixed sections—unanimously
4) Marx—Statistics, adopted unanimously.
Outine. Every branch to have a Statistical Committee and that the secretary of that Committee be paid (this to be recommended) adopted against 1 vote.
Outine. Motion d’ordre. Abstentions to be motived in writing and inserted in the minutes
De Paepe and Frankel—federal Councils to send once a year a statistical report, adopted
Herman and Fluse to fix the time of year when the statistical Reports

shall be made. Marx proposes 1st of August.|

I[3]I Meeting 19th 9 o’clock. Evening, 256 High Holborn

Communications by Hales and Engels.
Marx: 5) Delegates of the General Council right of admission to sittings, adopted

6) Advance payment before recognition.
In Belgium everyone pays the federal council 20 centimes, 10 for himself and 10 for

London. Referred to Commission.

Engels: Spanish proposal concerning organization.

Meeting 20 September 3 o’clock. Blue Post

Outine’s proposal on the Spanish proposal. Adopted.
Reading of the received General proposals
Marx: that all merely general proposals shall be taken only at the end of the whole order of the day. Adopted.
Bastelica: to refer such to a Committee (Frankel, Serraillier and De Paepe). Adopted.
Engels: To determine the order of the 4 Propositions.
Marx: 1) Delahaye. 2) Vaillant. 3) De Paepe and Verrycken 4) Outine.
Becker .—Adopted.
1) Delahaye’s Proposition. Against Frankel etc

289

Friedrich Engels

Evening Meeting.

Jung Chair.
Proposal of Committee on getting in money. Adopted
Save the 6th Article.
Proposition Vaillant, xxxxxx Serraillier and Frankel,
adjourned—J

[4]| Meeting 22 September 6 Evening 6 o’clock.

Serraillier chair. Proposition Vaillant and Outine, Frankel—Serraillier
Proposition Bastelica—Proposition Perret’s
— These adopted.—
—Belgian Proposition concerning Cohn—postponed till tomorrow—
— Marx Report on the Swiss split.
Ks 1. Alliance adopted 2.3 Ditto.

Meeting 23 September 11.35.

Serraillier President — on the minutes Serraillier that the letter be rejected. —

Vaillant — Engels: that the letter be withdrawn or go to the General Council

adopted

Financial Report. Adopted and better book-keeping demanded.

Proposition Verrycken. Reduced at his request and withdrawn for the Congress.

Other Proposition Verrycken—De Paepe Ks 1 adopted N°2 do.

Outine — first obtain information before admission to General Council.

Outine and Engels concerning secretaries.

De Paepe: Approval of the admission of the Communards

Afternoon.

Becker’s Proposition 1.2.4. Order of the day.

3. the General Council shall issue a circular and prepare for the sections reports on the rural population for the Congress.
Marx. Resolution of the General Council on special organisations

290

Notes of the Sittings of the London Conference

1) English Federal Council. Unanimous.
2) Organisation in the suppressed countries,
a France. Resolution Outine adopted

b. Italy — Resolution Marx, adopted
c. Russia — Resolution Marx and Utin adopted
d. Spain — Resolution Lorenzo. Order of the day and his assent

e. Germany. Vote of thanks Utin and Rochat.
General decision of the General Council (secret societies) adopted
Marx: Manifesto adopted. Translation German and French,
to be sent off at once in German and French —
Russian question: 1) that Utin translates and sends in to the General Council, which decides on publication. ||[5]| That the General Council shall publish of the resolutions of the Conference what it wishes.
That the General Council has the right to convene a conference or congress
That Herman pursues Cohn.]

291

Friedrich Engels
Minutes of the Meeting of the Commission
on Swiss Affairs, 18 September 1871

Meeting of the Commission
on Swiss Affairs.

18 September, at Marx’s.
Engels is appointed Secretary. Verrycken is appointed chairman.

Marx: The dispute originates with the formation of the Alliance of Socialist Democracy at Geneva, founded by Bakunin and others. He reads the two communications made to the Alliance by the General Council in 1868 and March 1869, in the second of which the dissolution of the Alliance, and the communication of the census of its sections and of their numerical strength, is laid down as a condition of their admission into the International. These conditions have never been fulfilled, the Alliance has never really dissolved, it has always maintained a sort of organisation. The organ of the Geneva sections, L’Égalité, on 11 December ’69, blamed the General Council for not having done its duty in not replying to its articles, to which the General Council replied that it was not its duty to meddle in newspaper polemics but that it was ready to answer requests and complaints made by the Romande Federal Council, and this circular was communicated to all the Sections; all of them approved the conduct of the General Council. The Swiss Council disavowed L’Égalité, with whose editorial board it was in dissension; the editors were changed, and from then on the organ of the adherents of the Alliance was Le Progrès and later La Solidarité. Then came the Congress of Le Locle, at which the two parties, the Romande Federation of Geneva and that of the mountains (the Alliance), came to an open separation. The General Council left things as they were, only it forbade the new council to set itself up as a Romande Council alongside the other. Guillaume, who had preached abstention from all politics, contrary to our Rules, at the moment when war broke out, published a proclamation demanding, in the name of the International, the formation of an army to aid France, which is even more contrary to our Rules.

292

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20

25

Friedrich Engels: Minutes of the Meeting
of the Commission on Swiss Affairs of 18 September 1871.
First page of the manuscript

10

15

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30

35

Minutes of the Commission on Swiss Affairs of 18 September 1871

Robin has to leave: the article in L’Égalité pointed to articles of the Rules and congress resolutions which the General Council had not observed; there were complaints that nothing was heard from the General Council because the Geneva Council communicated nothing, and so this article appeared. The differences between the editorial board of L’Égalité and the Romande Council were due to local circumstances. I myself tried to conciliate when I was in Geneva, and I have continued the same role here. But I found that in Geneva the committee was everything and the general assembly was nothing, and that offended me. As to the Mountain Sections, Guillaume complains that Jung did not reply to his letters; Jung, to whom I spoke of this, told me that he reproaches Guillaume with the same. It is certain that many letters at that time went astray. On arriving here I still believed a fusion of the two parties possible, I see now that this is impossible, and I am quite content that these two parties exist independently. Then comes the question of the legal status of the Alliance in our association. The Neuchâtel people received two letters from Jung and Eccarius which attest that the Alliance has been admitted into the International, letters recognised as authentic by the General Council. Then on the eve of the Conference I received a letter from Guillaume which I handed to Jung. This is what I have had to do in this affair. If no conciliation is possible, I think the two parties could live peaceably side by side, but I do not believe that the Council or the Conference would have the right to expel sections without having heard them; and I myself have no mandate to represent them. Besides, the Alliance is dissolved and the basis of the quarrel has disappeared with it.

Perret. The split occurred over questions of principle and not over details. Bakunin, Perron and Robin attempted to set up a dictatorship in the editorial board of L’Égalité, and that was the cause. They wanted to drive out the editor Waehry. We tried to conciliate, but in vain. Forced to resign from the editorial board, they published a manifesto at Neuchâtel against the Federal Committee, printed at Neuchâtel at Guillaume’s. Then they had protests inserted in the Journal de Genève, reproduced by the reactionary press. In the protest they published on 16 January 1870 they put the names of Dutoit and Becker without their permission, and both protested against this.

Outine. The affair dates from Robin’s arrival, when he got into touch with Bakunin. This was shortly before the Basel Congress. The attempt was made to form the Alliance, which was twice refused admission to the International. Already at the time of the elections for the congress elements of a split were visible. Bakunin called the Geneva workers reactionary bourgeois. After the congress ||[2]|| Robin made himself complete master of the paper, inserting whatever he liked, without conforming to the regulations. In the paper he called himself ambassador of the

295

Belgian Sections to the Federal Council. At that time I was translating English and German articles for the newspaper, on condition that no one spoke to me about Bakunin. One day Robin arrived with a long list of grievances against the General Council and asked for my signature, which I refused. During my absence in Berne, against his promise and without my knowledge, he placed a long article against the General Council in the foreign section of the newspaper. Subsequently he denounced Waehry to me as an intriguer, almost a spy; and they wanted to expel him from the editorial committee—one of our best men. He asked for my help and offered me a place in the editorial board; he would show the federal committee that they could not do without him and Perron, and that they would be given full power. I was for them at the time, I defended them in the Central Section, but it decided against them; and the newspaper appeared without them and without me. Then Robin tried to persuade me not to give them the translation of documents relating to the Waldenburg strike, because if they were not supported, the newspaper would be ruined; that is what opened my eyes to these men, and I continued to write for the newspaper. Besides, Robin, in my translations, made changes affecting the meaning according to his own ideas. Later he asked me not to oppose the transfer of both the newspaper and the Central Committee to the mountains; I indignantly refused to mix myself up in these intrigues. Then he told me that it was necessary to dissolve and reorganise all those reactionary sections in Geneva that did not want the great Bakunin. This same Bakunin wrote me a letter, which I have, in which he tells me that I could do whatever I wanted in Russia but that he did not want me to meddle in the International, which was his own domain. — In Geneva it has since been resolved that 1) the Journal remain in Geneva, 2) the Central Committee as well, 3) and that the Alliance never be admitted. Then came the Congress of La Chaux-de-Fonds; then the Progrès preached political abstention, something that would ruin the International in Geneva, where political action is everything for us. At the congress, the Guillaume party demanded the admission of the delegates of the Alliance, which was not admitted for us; we asked for adjournment because it was a difficult matter and would cost us time; they insisted; we declared that we would be obliged to withdraw if the Alliance were admitted, having an imperative mandate on this point. We were in the minority and we withdrew. The majority was fabricated by all sorts of intrigues. The others had blank mandates, which they gave to those who promised to vote for their proposals. (In parentheses: the Petersburg trial has revealed that Bakunin and Nechayev recounted everything they knew about conspiracies in Russia to a Russian spy who came to Bakunin’s with Nechayev.) We continued the congress among ourselves; and on our return, the entire International of Geneva unanimously supported us, so much so that we even had to defend our adversaries against the indignation of our members.

Bastelica asks whether in 1870 the cessation of a strike in Geneva was attributed to the workers’ not wanting to continue it on the day of a Swiss national holiday.

Outine declares that this was put about by the Grutli society and repeated by the reactionary newspapers and by Guillaume, but it was at the beginning of the strike, which continued and was only ended by the war of 1870. The International had nothing to do with this whole proposition, which it never appropriated. Guillaume later repeated the calumny of the Journal de Genève that the International had taken the side of the radicals, when it had done exactly the opposite.

Bastelica says that Robin told him that Grosselin had said in a meeting that he was not a communist, and in fact that he was a bourgeois.

Perret and Outine say that Grosselin is one of the best among them, although they do not share all his opinions.

Marx says that, first of all, Bakunin is not a communist himself, and that he has not been a collectivist for a long time; besides, no one in the International is asked for a certificate of Communism. What must be cleared up are the accusations brought against the Bakunin party of having tried to falsify mandates for the Basle congress.

Jung. After the conflict he was in more or less continual contact with Guillaume. He gives an account of his correspondence with Guillaume and of his conversations with him at congresses. As for Bakunin, up to the Berne Congress (of peace) he was not in the International; after that congress, where his more or less Proudhonian proposal was rejected, he did not join it but formed a new association—the Alliance. That is what I said to Guillaume, and he was unable to answer me.

Bastelica, at Marx’s request: The relations of the Marseilles Committee with the Alliance are limited to a brochure addressed to us by the Alliance and to a letter that I received from Bakunin (in September 1870, when he was being prosecuted), (to Vaillant). We have received no other advice from Bakunin on international politics; only during the war Bakunin told me that in France the policy of abstention should cease because the French people found themselves in an extraordinary situation, and he was so much immersed in the political movement that we did not even share his views.

Outine: This was logical; he has always engaged in politics, but he does not want the workers to do so because they are “stupid, bourgeois and reactionary”. The Lyons affair, which we witnessed at close quarters, and the part he played in it, is the best proof; we shall return to it. I ask that Bastelica explain his letter in the Solidarité, in which he approves the action of the secessionists.

Bastelica. It was in the middle of the plebiscitary period, we had our hands full of work; from Lyons and Neuchâtel they asked me for a few words of sympathy, and I hastily wrote a few pencilled lines—eight or ten—to Richard, saying: you can communicate this to Guillaume. That letter was not intended for publicity.

Lorenzo (on Outine’s question) recalls that this conflict took place, but that he could not pay much attention to it. If anything has been published as an act of the Spanish Internationals in this question, he does not recollect it; it is possible that it was an act of the Barcelona men.

Perret notes that immediately after the split of La Chaux-de-Fonds there was an organised agitation against the Geneva people to isolate them; letters were written, among others to Aubry, to that effect; nobody, from Brussels, from Paris, from Spain, ever replied to their letters; only the General Council was left to them.

Marx. The same isolation was attempted for the General Council; it was attempted everywhere it could be; in Paris, in Spain and in Italy.

Lorenzo. As far as Madrid is concerned I may affirm that much time passed in Spain after the foundation of the International in Spain, before even the name of Bakunin alone was known, and there has never been any influence of the Alliance in his country. Besides, Fanelli (friend of Bakunin) was the founder of the International in Spain, especially in Barcelona.

Marx. Schily was present in Paris when Spanish delegates arrived there who, while calling themselves Internationalists, posed as the special representatives of the Alliance.

Outine: Fanelli was sent by Bakunin to do quite other things, but he did not do them; he founded Sections of the International.

After an interval of 10 minutes.

Outine knows that Robin wrote to Guillaume that there would be a conference, and Robin therefore has no right to say that they were not informed. Malon said a week ago Friday before witnesses that Guillaume & Co. proposed to him to represent them at the Conference.

He then gives details of the events that have occurred during the last two years in Switzerland. The grand policy of Guillaume & Co. was to separate the building workers—foreigners, Savoyards, and very ignorant—from the factory workers—Swiss citizens—and to base themselves on the building workers, but this failed. That would have been the surest way to sink the International in Geneva. During the last strike Guillaume demanded that they should not bother with such trifles, but take up the rifle and make a revolution.

After 4 September Guillaume launched his manifesto “to arms”; we replied immediately in the Égalité. But that manifesto of Guillaume served as a pretext to cease publication of the Solidarité, which had become necessary for financial reasons, under the pretext of government prosecutions that never existed. — In September Bakunin, Richard, etc. lost everything in Lyons. After the revolution of 18 March the people of Lyons declared to us that since the September affair the International had become impossible in Lyons, because the actions of Bakunin & Co. were regarded as those of the International. Around 30 April, the day of the elections in France, the Lyons people requested military men, whom we found in Switzerland, but at the decisive moment Albert Leblanc, Oserov and Joukowsky declared that the International was a set of reactionaries; they even fabricated resolutions with the signatures of influential men without their consent, and they ruined the whole popular movement. So that the people of Lyons came to say that the International was paid by Bismarck and by Bonaparte, and that they must be finished off after finishing off the Versaillais. — After the fall of the Commune it was we who did everything to safeguard the right of asylum, the Alliance did nothing, not a single meeting, nothing but phrases. Finally, the Alliance dissolves at the very moment that the Conference has to decide on its position vis-à-vis the International.

Friedrich Engels
Proposals of the General Council
adopted by the Conference

Proposals of the General Council Adopted by the Conference.

1) In order to avoid any misunderstanding, the resolution of the Basle Congress shall be strictly observed, according to which the central councils of the various countries, where the Association is regularly organised, shall designate themselves as Federal Councils or Committees for their respective countries, and the local sections or committees shall designate themselves as sections or committees of their respective localities.

2) The Conference instructs the General Council to publish a new edition of the rules, with an authentic translation in French and German, printed facing the English text. All translations into other languages must, before their publication, be approved by the General Council.

3) The Conference, on the proposal of the General Council, recommends the formation of women’s sections among the working women. It is understood that this in no way affects the existence of mixed sections of both sexes.

4) The Conference invites the General Council to put into force Article 5 of the Rules, ordering a general statistics of the working class, and the resolutions of the Geneva Congress to that same effect. Workers’ societies or branches that refuse to give the requested information shall be brought to the notice of the General Council, which shall decide on the matter.

5) All delegates appointed by the General Council for special missions shall have the right to attend and be heard at all meetings of federal councils, district or local committees, and local branches, without, however, having the right to vote.

6) After the close of the Conference, no branch shall be considered by the General Council and the Federal Councils as belonging to the Association until it has paid to the General Council its subscription of 10 centimes per head for the current year.

|300

Friedrich Engels

Document for the report on the finances of the General Council

Receipts

September — end November
December
less balance

1871
January

February
less balance and
deposit funds
March
less balance

April
less deposit funds

May
less deposit and balance

June
Less balance and

deposit funds

July
Less balance 6. 1.1.
deficit -.10.5½

August
less deposit funds
Donation and Interest

Expenditure
ought to be in hand
Is in hand

Deficit

£11. 86
» -.17.6

£ 6.5.7 1/2
5.12.7/2
- 2.14.67, ..

£15. 1.-
» 12. -.-

£ 6. 3.2/2
. 4.17.8½
- 7. 5.7½

£ 7.18.8½

+ 6.11.6½
-.13. 2.4

1870/71

£ 3. 3.7

£23. 6.1½

£15. 9.2

Expenditure
£ 13. 4.7 September—end November £12. 7.1
December £ 11. 86
„10.11.- less balance … 4.13.8 … 6.14.10-
-. 1.- January £ 4.14.8
less balance 12.7½ » 4. 2,-
February £ 6. 5.7½
less balance » 2.14.6½ .. 3.11.1
0.13.-
March £ 3. 3.7 » 3. 3.7
-. 9.0½
April £15. 1.-
3. 1.- less owing to the
treasurer 5/-. ">
: 1. 2.8½
Balance 17/8½ i .. 13.18.3½
May £ 6. 3.2½
1. 5.6 less balance » 1. 5.7½ 4.17.7
June £23. 6.1½
balance … 6. 11 » 17. 5.-½
… 16. -.6
July … 7.18.8½
1.7½
August £15. 9.2
. 2. 6.10 less dis £ —.10.5
»40. 2.4 balance » 4.18.5 … 5. 8.10 . 10. -.4
£89. 2.- £83.18.7
..83.18.7
£. 5,35
£ 4.18.5
5/-.(

301

Friedrich Engels

Summary of the financial administration of the General Council
from 1 September 1869 to 31 August 1870

Summary of the financial administration
of the General Council
from 1 September 1869 to 31 August 1870.

Receipts.

Balance from last year, in hand

Contributions from societies:

a.

302

English:

Dayworking Bookbinders (bookbinders)

Helvetia Swiss society
in London

Tailors

Branch No. 1 Bricklayers — masons
Arbeiter-Bildungsverein
German Society London
Cigar makers of London
Elastic Webmakers (elastic weavers)
Boot Closers 6 months
Shoemakers of Kent
Alliance Cabinet Makers
(cabinet makers)

National Reform League
(political society)

West End Cabinet makers
(cabinet makers)

£ 2—-—
—.11.-—
-—.10.-—
-—. 2.6
»—. 4.—
« 2.18.—
»—. 5.—
»—. 3. 6
»—. 2. 6
» 2.—.—

2. 6
» 10.-

£15.—.1½

10

15

5

10

15

Summary of the financial administration of the General Council from 1 Sept. 1869 to 31 Aug. 1870

Tailors’ society,
on account »—.10.—

Tottenham Court Road
Branch (section) »—. 5.— «10.14.—
b. foreign: Saint Etienne and Lyon,
Sections £ 6. 7.—
Belgian, in two remittances «11.17. 8
Paris, sections » 4.—.— » 22. 4. 8
Sale of publications « 6.11.11
Individual contributions »24.13. 3½

£79. 4.—
Expenditure

Secretary's salary 51 weeks
at 15/- £38. 5.—
Rent of meeting room » 9. 9.—
Printing expenses » 18. 7.—
Petty expenses, postage of letters,
newspapers etc » 11.16.11 »77.17.11

Balance to carry forward £ 1. 6. 1

Approved by the Commission appointed by
the London Conference. 22 September 1871
H. Perret Anselmo Lorenzo

Pierre Fluse de Verviers Ph.Coenen|

303

1.
2:

304

Friedrich Engels

Financial administration of the General Council
for the year from 1 September 1870 to 31 August 1871

Financial administration of the General Council
for the year
from 1 September 1870 to 31 August 1871

Receipts.

Balance from last year
Contributions from branches and societies
a. England. Bookbinders of London
Masons ditto
Tailors 2nd half-year
1870
West End Boot
Closers, 1870
General Council of
Carpenters Aug. 69/70
b. Foreign. Amsterdam Section
New York Central Council

. Sale of publications
. Individual contributions

. Sums remitted to the Council for
special purposes

a. Contribution from the gilders
(London) for the strike of the
cigar makers of Antwerp

b) Various contributions for the
proscribed of the Commune

£ 1.10.—
» 1.—.—

» —.10.-
»—. 3. 6
» 3.—.—
£—. 8.—
15. d.
£ 1.—.—
« 12.—.—

Total Receipts

£ 1. 6. 1
» 6. 3. 6
» 2. 8.—
» 3. 0. 8
» 63. 3. 9
» 13.—.—
£89.2.—

10

15

10

15

Financial administration of the General Council for the year from 1 Sept. 1870 to 31 Aug. 1871

Expenditure.

1. Secretary's salary
37 weeks at 15/—
15 ditto at 10/-
2. Printing expenses
3. Rent of premises
4. Missions to Paris Sept. 1870
and March 1871
5. Relief for the proscribed of the
Commune
6. Sums received and applied
to special purposes
a. Remitted to the Antwerp Cigar
Makers (strike)
b. Refugees of the
Commune

7. Petty expenses, postage
of letters, newspapers etc

Expenditure.

£27.15.—
» 7.10.—

£ 1.—.—
» 12.—.—
» 7.19. 1

£35.5.—
» 4.15. 6
« 9. 9.—
» 6.—.—
» 7.10.—
» 13.—.—

Balance

Deficit

Balance in the hands of the Treasurer

Debts to be paid:
1. 6 months’ rent

2. Printing expenses

£ 6. 6.—
„26

Approved by the Commission appointed by the
London Conference. 22 September 1871

H. Perret

Anselmo Lorenzo

Pierre Fluse de Verviers
of Antwerp and Holland.

Ph. Coenen

«83.18. 7
£ 5.3.5
"—e 5.—
£ 4.18. 5

305

Karl Marx
Notes on the Vaillant resolution
(Extract from Marx's notes at the London Conference)

/Vaillant resolution.

1) Lorenzo. Is not a question of organization, but a question of
principle.
Outine.

2) Bastelica. Appoint deputies, make the 4 September — make the 18 March.
(Abstention has produced the 4 September and 18 March.) {Tolain and
Fribourg.)
(Against the Deputies etc | Castiau. Potter.)
Question of organization.

4) At a moment when all governments are persecuting the International, the proletarians of the International must oppose it — i.e., take political action.

5) Class power as a class is their political power.

3) February revolution. 10 hours’ bill.

6) Frankel and Vaillant. \

306

Friedrich Engels
On the Political Action of the Working Class.
Speech outline for the sitting of the London Conference
of 21 September 1871

1) Lorenzo question of principle — that settled

2)

2)

3)

4)

3)

4)

Abstention impossible. Newspaper politics is also politics; all abstentionist papers attack the government. Only question is how and how far to meddle in politics. This depends on circumstances and cannot be prescribed.
Abstention absurd; one is supposed to abstain because bad people might be elected — hence no subscription because the treasurer might abscond. Hence no newspaper because the editor might sell himself just as well as the deputy.

Political liberties — especially freedom of association, assembly and the press — our means of agitation; is it immaterial whether these are taken from us or not? And should we not defend ourselves when they are attacked?

Abstention preached because otherwise one recognises the existing state of things. The existing state of things exists and does not give a damn about our recognition. If we use the means that the existing state of things gives us to protest against the existing state of things, is that recognition?

Abstention impossible. The workers’ party exists as a political party and wants to act politically, and to preach abstention to it means to ruin the International. The mere observation of the conditions, of political oppression for social ends forces the workers into politics; the preachers of abstention drive them into the arms of the bourgeois politicians. After the Commune, which placed the political action of the workers on the order of the day, abstention impossible.

We want the abolition of classes. The only means is political power in the hands of the proletariat — and we are to make no politics? All abstentionists call themselves revolutionaries. — Revolution is the supreme act of politics, and whoever wants it must also want the means that prepare the revolution, educate the workers for it, and see to it that he is not cheated again the next day by Favre and Pyat. All that matters is what kind of politics — exclusively proletarian politics, not as the tail of the bourgeoisie. \

307

Friedrich Engels
Sur l'action politique de la classe ouvrière
Handwritten note of the speech delivered at the sitting of
21 September 1871 of the London Conference

| Cit. Engels. Absolute abstention in political matters is impossible; therefore all abstentionist newspapers do engage in politics. It is only a question of how they do it, and what kind. Moreover, for us abstention is impossible. The workers’ party already exists as a political party in most countries. It is not for us to ruin it by preaching abstention. The experience of present-day life and the political oppression imposed on them by existing governments, for ends be they political or social, compels the workers to concern themselves with politics, whether they like it or not. To preach abstention to them would be to push them into the arms of bourgeois politics. Especially on the morrow of the Paris Commune, which placed the political action of the proletariat on the order of the day, abstention is quite impossible.

We want the abolition of classes. What is the means of achieving it? The political domination of the proletariat. And when this is agreed on all hands we are asked not to meddle in politics! All abstentionists call themselves revolutionaries, and even revolutionaries par excellence. But revolution is the supreme act of politics; whoever wants it must want the means, political action, which prepares it, which gives the workers the education for the revolution, without which the workers, the day after the struggle, will always be the dupes of the Favres and the Pyats. But the politics that must be carried on is workers’ politics; the workers’ party must be constituted not as the tail of some bourgeois party, but as an independent party which has its own goal, its own politics. — |

| Political liberties, the rights of assembly and association and the freedom of the press, these are our weapons, and should we fold our arms and abstain if people want to take them away from us? It is said that every political act implies recognition of the existing state of things. But when this state of things gives us means to protest against it, to use these means is not to recognise the existing state of things. |

308

Friedrich Engels: Über die politische Aktion der Arbeiterklasse.
Rededisposition für die Sitzung der Londoner Konferenz am 21. September 1871

Friedrich Engels

Draft of the resolution of the London Conference
`
concerning the letter from Paul Robin to the Conference

/Considering that the letter addressed to the Conference by cit. Robin contains assertions which are not in accordance with the facts and constitute an attack on the honour of the Commission appointed by the Conference and on that of the Conference itself;

That the Conference cannot therefore accept this letter;

The Conference invites cit. Robin to withdraw this letter, warning him that otherwise the incident will be referred to the General Council, which will decide upon it, L

311

Karl Marx

Complement to a proposal by André Bastelica

| In accordance with the resolutions adopted by the conference on a similar subject
We propose
That the General Council be also charged with having translated, into the various languages, all resolutions adopted at the various congresses or conferences apart from the rules.
Bastelica
Marx
| It is understood that the resolutions of the Congresses which relate to the rules shall be inserted in the rules.

General propositions |

312

Karl Marx
Resolution of the Conference of Delegates
of the International Working Men's Association
concerning the dispute between the federations
in Romance Switzerland
L'Égalité. No. 20,
21 October 1871

[...] II. Dispute between the federations in French-speaking Switzerland.

As to this dispute:

1° The Conference must, at the outset, consider the objections raised by the Federal Committee of the societies of the mountains that do not belong to the Romande Federation (See the letter of 4 September addressed to the Conference by the Federal Committee of this section):

First objection:

“The General Congress, it is said, regularly convened, can alone be competent to judge a matter as grave as that of the split in the Romande Federation.”

Considering:

That when differences arise between the societies or branches of a national group, or between groups of different nationalities, the General Council shall have the right to decide upon the dispute, subject to appeal to the next Congress which shall decide definitively (See Art. VII of the resolutions of the Basle Congress);

That according to Resolution VI of the Basle Congress the General Council also has the right to suspend a section of the International until the next Congress;

That these rights of the General Council have been recognised, albeit only in theory, by the Federal Committee of the dissident branches of the mountains: because citizen Robin, on various occasions, solicited the General Council, in the name of this Committee, to take a definitive resolution on this question (See the minutes of the General Council);

That the rights of the Conference, if they are not equal to those of a General Congress, are, in any case, superior to those of the General Council;

That, in fact, it is not the Federal Committee of the Romande Federation, but rather the Federal Committee of the dissident branches of the mountains which,

315

through the intermediary of citizen Robin, requested the convocation of a Conference to judge this dispute definitively (See the minutes of the General Council of 25 July 1871).

For these reasons:

As to the first objection, the Conference overrules it.

Second objection:

“It would be, it is said, contrary to the most elementary equity to pronounce against a federation which has not been afforded the means of defence… We learn today (4 September 1871) indirectly, that an extraordinary Conference is convened in London for 17 September. It was the duty of the General Council to notify all regional groups of it, we do not know why it kept silent towards us.”

Considering:

That the General Council had instructed all its secretaries to give notice of the convocation of a conference to the sections of the respective countries which they represent;

That citizen Jung, corresponding secretary for Switzerland, did not notify the Committee of the Jura branches for the following reasons:

In flagrant violation of the decision of the General Council of 29 June 1870, this Committee, as it still does in its last letter addressed to the Conference, continues to designate itself as the Committee of the Romande Federation.

This Committee had the right to appeal the decision of the General Council to a future Congress, but it did not have the right to treat the decision of the General Council as null and void.

Consequently, it did not legally exist vis-à-vis the General Council, and citizen Jung had no right to recognise it by directly inviting it to send delegates to the Conference;

Citizen Jung received from this Committee no replies to questions put in the name of the General Council; since the admission of citizen Robin to the General Council the requests of the aforesaid Committee have always been communicated to the General Council through the intermediary of citizen Robin, and never through the corresponding secretary for Switzerland.

Considering further:

That in the name of the aforesaid Committee, citizen Robin had asked that the dispute be referred first to the General Council and then, upon the General Council’s refusal, to a Conference; that the General Council and its corresponding secretary for Switzerland were therefore well founded in supposing that citizen Robin would inform his correspondents of the convocation of a conference, demanded by themselves;

316

Resolution relative to the dispute between the federations in French-speaking Switzerland

That the commission of inquiry appointed by the Conference to study the Swiss dispute has heard citizen Robin as a witness; that all the documents communicated to the General Council by the two parties have been submitted to this commission of inquiry; that it is impossible to admit that the aforesaid Committee was only informed on 4 September of the convocation of the conference, seeing that already in the course of August it had offered to citizen M... to send him as a delegate to the Conference;

For these reasons:

As to the second objection, the Conference overrules it.

Third objection:

“A decision – it is said – annulling the rights of our Federation would have the most disastrous results, as regards the existence of the International in our region.”

Considering:

That no one has asked that the rights of the aforesaid federation be annulled,

The Conference overrules the objection.

2) The Conference approves the decision of the General Council of 29 June 1870.

Considering at the same time the persecutions to which the International is exposed, the Conference appeals to the spirit of solidarity and union, which more than ever must animate the workers;

It counsels the brave workers of the mountain sections to rally to the sections of the Romande Federation. In the event that this union cannot be achieved, it decrees that the Federation of the mountain sections shall call itself: Jura Federation.

It gives notice that henceforth the General Council shall be obliged to denounce and publicly disavow all newspapers calling themselves organs of the International which, following the example set by Le Progrès and La Solidarité, would discuss in their columns, before the bourgeois public, questions to be treated exclusively within the bosom of the local committees, the federal committees and the General Council, or in the private and administrative sittings of congresses, whether federal or general.

London, 26 September, 1871.
True copy:

The corresponding secretary for Switzerland,
H. Jung.

319

Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels
Resolutions of the delegates of the Conference
of the International Working Men’s Association
Assembled in London, from 17 to 23 September 1871

(Circular published by
the General Council of the Association)

Resolutions
adopted by the Conference of delegates
of the International Working Men’s Association,
assembled in London, from 17 to 23 September 1871.

I.
Composition of the General Council.

The Conference recommends the General Council to limit the number of members it co-opts, and to avoid these co-options being made too exclusively from among citizens belonging to a single nationality.

II.
Names of the national or regional councils, of branches,
sections, local groups and of their respective committees.

1. – In conformity with the resolution adopted by the Basle Congress (1869), the central councils of the various countries where the International Working Men’s Association is regularly organised shall in future designate themselves under the name of Federal Councils, or Federal Committees, adding the names of their respective countries, the designation of General Council being reserved for the Central Council of the International.

2. – Local branches, sections or groups and their committees shall in future designate and constitute themselves simply and exclusively as branches, sections, groups and committees of the International Working Men’s Association, adding the names of their respective localities.

325

Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels

3. – Henceforth it shall be forbidden for branches, sections and groups to designate themselves by sectarian names, such as, for example, the names of positivist, mutualist, collectivist, communist, etc. branches, or to form separatist groups under the name of “sections of propaganda”, etc., assigning themselves special missions outside the common end pursued by all the groups of the International.

4. – It is, however, well understood that resolution No. 2 does not apply to the Resistance Societies (Trades’ Unions) affiliated to the International.

III.
Delegates to the General Council.

All delegates of the General Council, entrusted with special missions, shall have the right to attend and be heard at all meetings of the Federal Councils or Committees, of the district or local committees, and of the local branches, without, however, having the right to vote.

IV.
Subscription of 10 c. per member to be paid to the General Council.

1. – The General Council shall have uniform stamps printed representing the value of 10 centimes each, of which it shall annually send the number requested to the federal councils or committees.

2. – The federal councils or committees shall forward to the local committees, or, failing these, to the sections within their area, the number of stamps corresponding to the number of members composing them.

3. – These stamps shall then be affixed to a sheet of the membership booklet provided for this purpose, or on the copy of the statutes with which every member of the association must be furnished.

4. – By the first of March the Federal Councils of the various countries or regions shall be obliged to send to the General Council the amount of the stamps used and the balance of the stamps remaining in their possession.

5. – These stamps, representing the value of the individual subscriptions, shall bear the figure of the current year.

326

Resolutions of the delegates of the Conference of the I.W.M.A.

V.
Formation of women’s sections.

The Conference recommends the formation of women’s sections within the working class. It is well understood that this resolution in no way prejudices the existence, and in no way excludes the formation, of sections composed of workers of both sexes.

VI.
General statistics of the working class.

1. – The Conference invites the General Council to put into effect Article V of the original statutes relating to the general statistics of the working class, and to apply the resolutions adopted by the Geneva Congress (1866) to the same end.

2. – Each local section is obliged to have within it a special statistical committee, which shall always be ready, to the extent of its means, to answer the questions which may be addressed to it by the Federal Council or Committee of the country or by the General Council of the International. All sections are recommended to remunerate the secretaries of the statistical committees, given the importance and general utility of their work for the working class.

Resolutions of the Delegates of the Conference of the I.W.M.A.

3. — Every year on the first of August the Federal Councils or Committees shall forward the collected documents to the General Council, which will prepare a summary to be submitted to the Congresses or Conferences held in the month of September.

4. — The refusal by a resistance society or an international branch to furnish the requested information shall be brought to the knowledge of the General Council, which will have to rule on the matter.

VII.
International relations of the resistance societies.

The General Council is invited to support, as in the past, the growing tendency of the resistance societies of one country to establish relations with the resistance societies of the same trade in all other countries. The effectiveness of its function as an international intermediary between the national resistance societies will essentially depend on the assistance which these societies themselves give to the general labour statistics pursued by the International. The offices of the resistance societies of all countries are invited to send their addresses to the General Council.

VIII.
Agricultural producers.

1.— The conference invites the General Council and the federal councils or committees to prepare, for the next congress, reports on the means of securing the adherence of the agricultural producers to the movement of the industrial proletariat.

2. — In the meantime, the federal councils or committees of the various countries are invited to send delegates into the countryside to organize public meetings there, carry on propaganda for the International, and found agricultural sections.

IX.
The political action of the working class.

Considering the preamble to the original Statutes, which says: “The economic emancipation of the workers is the great end to which every political movement must be subordinated as a means”;

Considering the Inaugural Address of the International Working Men’s Association (1864), which says: “The lords of the land and the lords of capital will always use their political privileges to defend and perpetuate their economic monopolies. Far from promoting the emancipation of labour, they will continue to oppose it the greatest possible obstacles… The conquest of political power has therefore become the great duty of the working class;”

Considering the Resolution of the Lausanne Congress (1867) to this effect: “The social emancipation of the workers is inseparable from their political emancipation;”

Considering the Declaration of the General Council on the pretended plot of the French Internationals on the eve of the plebiscite (1870), in which it is said: “According to the tenor of our statutes, certainly all our sections in England, on the continent and in America, have the special mission not only to serve as centres for the militant organization of the working class, but also to support, in their respective countries, every political movement tending to the accomplishment of our final goal: — the economic emancipation of the working class;”

Whereas unfaithful translations of the original Statutes have given rise to false interpretations which have been harmful to the development and action of the International Working Men’s Association;

In presence of an unbridled reaction which violently stifles every effort at emancipation on the part of the workers, and seeks to maintain by brute force the distinction of classes and the resulting political domination of the possessing classes;

Considering moreover:

That, against this collective power of the possessing classes, the proletariat cannot act as a class except by constituting itself into a political party, distinct from, and opposed to, all old parties formed by the possessing classes;

That this constitution of the proletariat into a political party is indispensable to ensure the triumph of the social revolution and of its ultimate end — the abolition of classes;

That the combination of the working-class forces already achieved by the economic struggles must also serve as a lever in the hands of this class in its struggle against the political power of its exploiters —

The Conference reminds the members of the International:

That in the militant state of the working class, its economic movement and its political action are indissolubly united.

X.
General resolution concerning the countries where the regular organization of the International is hampered by the governments.

In countries where the regular organization of the International Working Men’s Association has momentarily become impracticable owing to governmental intervention, the Association and its local groups may constitute themselves under various denominations, but any constitution of an international section in the form of a secret society is and remains formally forbidden.

XI.
Resolutions relative to France.

1.— The Conference expresses its firm conviction that all prosecutions will only redouble the energy of the adherents of the International and that the branches will continue to organize themselves, if not by great centres, at least by workshops and federations of workshops corresponding through their delegates.

2. — In consequence, the Conference invites all branches to continue without relaxation the propaganda of the principles of our Association in France and to introduce there the largest possible number of copies of all the publications and of the Statutes of the International.

XII.
Resolution relative to England.

The Conference invites the General Council to advise the English branches in London to form a Federal Committee for London, which, after having established relations with the provincial branches and the affiliated resistance societies, and after having received their adherence, shall be recognised by the General Council as the English Federal Council.

XIII.
Special votes of the Conference.

1. — The Conference approves the addition of the refugees of the Paris Commune whom the General Council has admitted into its midst.

2. — The Conference declares that the German workers did their duty during the Franco-German war.

3. — The Conference fraternally thanks the members of the Spanish Federation for their work on the organization of the International, which proves once more their devotion to the common cause.

4. — The General Council shall immediately make the formal declaration that the International Working Men’s Association is absolutely foreign to the so-called Netchaieff conspiracy, which has fraudulently usurped and exploited the name of the International.

XIV.
Instruction to Citizen Outine.

Citizen Outine is invited to publish in the journal L’Égalité (Geneva) a summary of the Netchaieff trial according to the Russian newspapers and to communicate the manuscript before publication to the General Council.

XV.
Convocation of the next Congress.

The Conference leaves it to the discretion of the General Council to fix, according to events, the date and the seat of the next congress or of the conference that would replace it.

XVI.
Alliance of Socialist Democracy.

Considering:

That the “Alliance of Socialist Democracy” has declared itself dissolved (see the letter to the General Council dated Geneva, 10 August 1871, signed by Citizen Joukowsky, secretary of the Alliance);

That in its sitting of 18 September (see No. II of this circular) the conference decided that all existing organizations of the International Working Men’s Association shall, in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the General Statutes, henceforth be obliged to call themselves and to constitute themselves simply and exclusively, as branches, sections, etc., of the International Working Men’s Association, with the names of their respective localities appended; that it shall therefore be forbidden to existing branches and societies to continue to designate themselves by sectarian names, that is to say, as mutualist, positivist, collectivist, communist groups, etc.;

That it shall also no longer be permitted to any branch or society already admitted to continue to form a separatist group under the designation of “propaganda section,” “Alliance of Socialist Democracy,” etc., giving themselves special missions outside the common aim pursued by the mass of the militant proletariat united in the International Working Men’s Association;

That in future the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association shall interpret and apply in this sense the administrative resolution of the Basel Congress, Art. V.: “The General Council has the right to admit or to refuse the affiliation of any new society or group, subject to appeal to the next congress;”

The Conference declares the incident of the “Alliance of Socialist Democracy” closed.

XVII.
Dispute between the two federations of Romance Switzerland.

1.— This article rejects the demurrers which the Federal Committee of the mountain sections raised against the competence of the conference. (The article will be printed in extenso in L’Égalité of Geneva.)

2. — The Conference:

Approves the decision of the General Council of 29 June 1870;

Nevertheless, considering the prosecutions to which the International is subjected, the Conference appeals to the spirit of solidarity and union which more than ever must animate the workers. It advises the brave workers of the mountain sections to rally to the sections of the Romance Federation. In the event that this union cannot be effected, it decides that the federation of the dissident sections shall in future be called the “Jura Federation”. It gives notice that henceforth the General Council will be bound to denounce and publicly disavow all newspapers calling themselves organs of the International which, following the example set by the Progrès and the Solidarité, would discuss in their columns, before the bourgeois public, questions that ought to be discussed only within the local committees, the Federal Committees, and the General Council, or in the private and administrative sittings of the congresses, whether federal or general.

Note.
The resolutions of the Conference which are not intended for publication shall be communicated to the federal councils of the various countries by the corresponding secretaries of the General Council.

By order and in the name of the Conference,
THE GENERAL COUNCIL:

R. Applegarth, M. J. Boon, Fred. Bradnick, G. H. Buttery, Delahaye, Eugene Dupont (in delegation), W. Hales, G. Harris, Hurliman, Jules Johannard, Fred. Lessner, Lochner, Ch. Longuet, C. Martin, Z. Maurice, Henry Mayo, George Milner, Charles Murray, Pfander, John Roach, Rühl, Sadler, Cowell Stepney, Alf. Taylor, W. Townshend, E. Vaillant, John Weston.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARIES:

A. Serraillier, .... for France.
Hermann Jung, .... for Switzerland.
Karl Marx, .... Germany and Russia.
Walery Wroblewski, .... Poland.
F. Engels, .... Italy and Spain.
T. Mottershead .... Denmark.
A. Herman, .... Belgium.
Ch. Rochat, .... Holland.
J. P. MacDonnell, .... Ireland.
J. G. Eccarius, .... United States.
Le Moussu, .... for the French branches of the United States.
Leo Frankel, .... Austria and Hungary.

F. ENGELS, President of the sitting.   HERMANN JUNG, Treasurer.
JOHN HALES, General Secretary.

256, High Holborn, W. C., London, 17 October 1871.

I.
Composition of General Council.

The Conference invites the General Council to limit the number of those
members whom it adds to itself, and to take care that such adjunctions be
not made too exclusively from citizens belonging to the same nationality.

II.
Designations of National Councils, etc.

1—In conformity with a Resolution of the Congress of Basel (1869), the
Central Councils of the various countries where the International is
regularly organised, shall designate themselves henceforth as Federal
Councils or Federal Committees with the names of their respective coun-
tries attached, the designation of General Council being reserved for the
Central Council of the International Working Men's Association.

2.—All local branches, sections, groups and their committees are hence-
forth to designate and constitute themselves simply and exclusively as
branches, sections, groups and committees of the International Working
Men's Association with the names of their respective localities attached.

3.—Consequently, no branches, sections, or groups will henceforth be
allowed to designate themselves by sectarian names such as Positivists,
Mutualists, Collectivists, Communists, etc., or to form separatist bodies
under the name of sections of propaganda etc., pretending to accomplish
special missions, distinct from the common purposes of the Association.

4.—Resolutions 1 and 2 do not, however, apply to affiliated Trades’
Unions.

III.
Delegates of the General Council.

All delegates appointed to distinct missions by the General Council shall
have the right to attend, and be heard at, all meetings of Federal Councils,
or Committees, district and local Committees and branches, without, how-
ever, being entitled to vote thereat.

IV.
Contribution of 1d. per member to the General Council.

1—The General Council shall cause to be printed adhesive stamps re-
presenting the value of one penny each, which will be annually supplied, in
the numbers to be asked for, to the Federal Councils or Committees.

2.—The Federal Councils or Committees shall provide the local Com-
mittees, or, in their absence, their respective sections, with the number of
stamps corresponding to the number of their members.

3.—These stamps are to be affixed to a special sheet of the livret or to
the rules which every member is held to possess.

4.—On the 1st of March of each year, the Federal Councils or Committees
of the different countries shall forward to the General Council the amount
of the stamps disposed of, and return the unsold stamps remaining on
hand.

5.—These stamps, representing the value of the individual contributions,
shall bear the date of the current year.

V.
Formation of Working Women's branches.

The Conference recommends the formation of female branches among the
working class. It is, however, understood that this resolution does not at
all interfere with the existence or formation of branches composed of both
sexes.

VI.
General Statistics of the Working Class.

1.—The Conference invites the General Council to enforce art. 5 of the
original rules relating to a general statistics of the working class, and the
resolutions of the Geneva Congress, 1866, on the same subject.

2.—Every local branch is bound to appoint a special committee of sta-
tistics, so as to be always ready, within the limits of its means, to answer
any questions which may be addressed to it by the Federal Council or
Committee of its country, or by the General Council. It is recommended to
all branches to remunerate the secretaries of the committees of statistics,
considering the general benefit the working class will derive from their
labour.

3.—On the first of August of each year the Federal Councils or Committees
will transmit the materials collected in their respective countries to the
General Council which, in its turn, will have to elaborate them into a general
report, to be laid before the Congresses or Conferences annually held in
the month of September.

4.—Trades' Unions and international branches refusing to give the infor-
mation required, shall be reported to the General Council which will take
action thereupon.

VII.
International Relations of Trades’ Unions.

The General Council is invited to assist, as has been done hitherto, the
growing tendency of the Trades' Unions of the different countries to enter
into relations with the Unions of the same trade in all other countries. The
efficiency of its action as the international agent of communication between
the national Trades' societies will essentially depend upon the assistance
given by these same societies to the General Labour Statistics pursued by
the International.

The boards of Trades' Unions of all countries are invited to keep the
General Council informed of the directions of their respective offices.

VIII.
Agricultural Producers.

1.—The Conference invites the General Council and the Federal Councils
or Committees to prepare, for the next Congress, reports on the means of
securing the adhesion of the agricultural producers to the movement of
the industrial proletariat.

2.—Meanwhile, the Federal Councils or Committees are invited to send
agitators to the rural districts, there to organize public meetings, to propagate
the principles of the International and to found rural branches.

IX.
Political Action of the Working Class.

Considering the following passage of the preamble to the rules: "The
economical emancipation of the working classes is the great end to which
every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means;"

That the Inaugural Address of the International Working Men's Asso-
ciation (1864) states: "The lords of land and the lords of capital will always
use their political privileges for the defence and perpetuation of their
economical monopolies. So far from promoting, they will continue to lay
every possible impediment in the way of the emancipation of labour... To
conquer political power has therefore become the great duty of the working
classes;"

That the Congress of Lausanne (1867) has passed this resolution: "The
social emancipation of the workmen is inseparable from their political
emancipation;"

That the declaration of the General Council relative to the pretended plot
of the French Internationals on the eve of the plebiscite (1870) says: "Cer-
tainly by the tenor of our statutes, all our branches in England, on the
Continent, and in America have the special mission not only to serve as
centres for the militant organisation of the working class, but also to
support, in their respective countries, every political movement tending
towards the accomplishment of our ultimate end—the economical emanci-
pation of the working class;"

That false translations of the original statutes have given rise to various
interpretations which were mischievous to the development and action of
the International Working Men's Association;

In presence of an unbridled reaction which violently crushes every
effort at emancipation on the part of the working men, and pretends to
maintain by brute force the distinction of classes and the political domination
of the propertied classes resulting from it;

Considering, that against this collective power of the propertied classes
the working class cannot act, as a class, except by constituting itself into
a political party, distinct from, and opposed to, all old parties formed by the
propertied classes;

That this constitution of the working class into a political party is
indispensable in order to insure the triumph of the social Revolution and
its ultimate end—the abolition of classes;

That the combination of forces which the working class has already
effected by its economical struggles ought at the same time to serve as a
lever for its struggles against the political power of landlords and capi-
talists—

The Conference recalls to the members of the International:
That in the militant state of the working class, its economical movement
and its political action are indissolubly united.

X.
General Resolution as to the countries where the regular organisation
of the International is interfered with by the Governments.

In those countries where the regular organisation of the International may
for the moment have become impracticable in consequence of govern-
ment interference, the Association, and its local groups, may be reformed
under various other names, but all secret societies properly so called are
and remain formally excluded.

XI.
Resolutions relating to France.

1—The Conference expresses its firm conviction that all persecutions
will only double the energy of the adherents of the International, and that
the branches will continue to organize themselves, if not by great centres,
at least by workshops and federations of workshops corresponding with
each other by their delegates.

2.—Consequently, the Conference invites all branches vigorously to
persist in the propaganda of our principles in France and to import into their
country as many copies as possible of the publications and statutes of the
International.

XII.
Resolution relating to England.

The Conference invites the General Council to call upon the English bran-
ches in London to form a Federal Committee for London which, after its
recognition by the provincial branches and affiliated societies, shall be
recognised, by the General Council, as the Federal Council for England.

XIII.
Special votes of the Conference.

1—The Conference approves of the adjunction of the members of the
Paris Commune whom the General Council has added to its number.

2.—The Conference declares that German working men have done their
duty during the Franco-German war.

3.—The Conference fraternally thanks the members of the Spanish Feder-
ation for the memorandum presented by them on the organisation of the
International by which they have once more proved their devotion to our
common work.

4.—The General Council shall immediately publish a declaration to the
effect that the International Working Men's Association is utterly foreign
to the so-called conspiracy of Netschayeff who has fraudulently usurped
its name.

XIV.
Instruction to citizen Outine.

Citizen Outine is invited to publish in the journal l'Egalité a succinct report,
from the Russian papers, of the Netschayeff trial. Before publication, his
report will be submitted to the General Council.

XV.
Convocation of next Congress.

The Conference leaves it to the discretion of the General Council to fix,
according to events, the day and place of meeting of the next Congress or
Conference.

XVI.
Alliance de la Démocratie socialiste.
(The Alliance of Socialist Democracy.)

Considering that the "Alliance de la Démocratie socialiste" has declared
itself dissolved (see letter to the General Council d. d. Geneva, 10th August
1871 signed by citizen N. Joukowsky, secretary to the "Alliance"),

That in its sitting of the 18th September (see this circular) the
Conference has decided that all existing organisations of the International
shall, in conformity with the letter and the spirit of the general rules,
henceforth designate and constitute themselves simply and exclusively as
branches, sections, federations, etc., of the International Working Men's
Association with the names of their respective localities attached;

Resolutions of the Delegates’ Conference
of the International Working Men’s Association,
held in London from 17 to 23 September 1871

Compiled on the basis of the French
and the English editions

 I. Composition of the General Council.

The Conference requests the General Council to limit the number of members whom it co‑opts itself, and to take care that they do not belong too exclusively to one and the same nationality.

 II. Designations of the national councils, local branches, sections,
groups and their committees.

1) In accordance with the resolution of the Basel Congress, 1869, the central councils of the countries in which the International is regularly organised shall in future designate themselves as Federal Councils or Federal Committees, adding the names of their respective countries. The designation General Council is reserved to the central council of the International Working Men’s Association.

2) All local branches, sections, groups and their committees shall in future simply and exclusively designate and constitute themselves as branches etc. etc. of the International Working Men’s Association, adding the names of their respective localities.

3) Accordingly, branches, groups and their committees are henceforth forbidden to assume sectarian names, e.g. the names: Positivists, Mutualists, Collectivists, Communists, etc., or to form separatist bodies which, under designations such as sections of propaganda, etc., ascribe to themselves a special mission distinct from the common purposes of the Association.

4) Articles 1 and 2 do not, however, apply to the trade unions allied with the International.

 III. Delegates of the General Council.

All delegates appointed by the General Council for definite missions shall have the right to attend the meetings of the Federal Councils or Committees, of the district and local committees and branches, and to be heard there, but without the right to vote.

 IV. Contribution of one penny (groschen) per member
to the General Council.

1) The General Council shall have printed adhesive stamps, each representing the value of one penny, and shall send them annually, in the required quantity, to the Federal Councils or Committees.

2) The Federal Councils or Committees shall forward to the local committees, and, in their absence, to the local branches, a number of stamps corresponding to the number of their members.

3) These stamps are then to be affixed to the copy of the Rules which every member is required to possess.

4) On 1 March of each year the Federal Councils or Committees of the various countries shall transmit the proceeds from the stamps sold to the General Council, and at the same time return the unsold stamps.

5) These stamps, which represent the value of the individual contributions, bear the date of the current year.

 V. Formation of female sections.

The Conference recommends the formation of female branches within the working class. It is self‑evident that this resolution is not directed against the composition of branches consisting of both working men and working women.

 VI. General statistics of the working class.
1) The Conference instructs the General Council to put into force Article 5 of the original Rules, in so far as it relates to a general statistics of the working class, as well as the resolutions of the Geneva Congress (1866) on the same subject.

2) Every local group is obliged to appoint a special statistical committee, so that it may always, as far as its means allow, be prepared to answer questions put by the Federal Council of its country or by the General Council. The Conference recommends to all groups that the secretaries of the statistical committees be granted a remuneration, considering the general usefulness of their work for the working class.

3) On 1 August of each year the Federal Councils or Committees shall forward the material collected in their respective countries to the General Council. The latter shall, in its turn, work it up into a general report which is to be submitted to the congresses or conferences held annually in September.

4) Trade unions and international branches which refuse the information requested shall be reported to the General Council for further decision.

 VII. International relations of the trade unions.

The growing tendency of the trade unions of every country to establish relations with the unions of the same trade in all other countries will be supported, as hitherto, by the General Council. Its action as international intermediary between the national trade unions depends essentially upon the assistance which these societies themselves lend to the work of a general labour statistics undertaken by the International.

The executive bodies of the trade unions of all countries are requested to keep the General Council informed of the addresses of their respective business premises.

 VIII. Agricultural labourers.

1) The Conference requests the General Council and the Federal Councils or Committees to prepare, for the next congress, reports on the appropriate means of securing the adherence of the agricultural labourers to the movement of the industrial proletariat.

2) In the meantime, the Federal Councils or Committees are requested to send delegates into the rural districts in order to hold public meetings there, to propagate the principles of the International and to found rural branches.

 IX. Political action of the working class.

Considering,

That the preamble to the Rules states: “The economic emancipation of the working class is the great end to which every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means”;

That the Inaugural Address of the International Working Men’s Association (1864) declares: “The lords of the land and the lords of capital will always use their political privileges for the defence and perpetuation of their economic monopolies. So far from furthering the political emancipation of labour, they will continue to lay every possible impediment in its way. ... The conquest of political power has therefore become the great duty of the working class”;

That the Lausanne Congress (1867) declared: “The social emancipation of the worker is inseparable from his political emancipation”;

That the declaration of the General Council concerning the alleged plot of the French Internationals, on the eve of the plebiscite (1870), contains the following passage: “By the wording of our Rules all our branches in England, on the Continent and in America have unquestionably the express task, not only to serve as centres for the militant organisation of the working class, but likewise to support, in their respective countries, every political movement serving the attainment of our final end — the economic emancipation of the working class”;

That false translations of the original Rules have given rise to misinterpretations which have been detrimental to the development and effectiveness of the International Working Men’s Association;

Considering further:

That the International stands face to face with an unbridled reaction which shamelessly crushes every emancipation‑striving of the workers and seeks to perpetuate, by brute force, the class distinction and the political rule of the possessing classes founded upon it;

That the working class can act against this collective power of the possessing classes only as a class, by constituting itself as a distinct political party, in opposition to all the old party‑formations of the possessing classes;

That this constitution of the working class as a political party is indispensable for the triumph of the social revolution and of its final end — the abolition of the classes;

That the combination of individual forces, which the working class has already to a certain point achieved through its economic struggles, must likewise serve as a lever for its struggle against the political power of its exploiters; —

For these reasons the Conference reminds all members of the International:

That in the struggling condition of the working class, its economic movement and its political activity are inseparably connected.

X. General Resolution concerning the countries
where the regular organisation of the International
is prevented by the governments.

In the countries where the regular organisation of the International is at present impracticable in consequence of government interference, the Association, or its local groups, may reconstitute themselves under any other names. All properly so-called secret societies are and remain, however, formally excluded.

XI. Resolutions on France.

1) The Conference expresses its firm conviction that all persecutions only double the energy of the adherents of the International, and that the branches will continue to organise themselves, if not in large centres, at least by workshops and combinations of workshops, which will put themselves in communication with each other by their delegates.

2) The Conference therefore calls upon all branches to continue tirelessly in the propagation of our principles in France, and to introduce into their country the greatest possible number of printed works and the statutes of the International.

XII. Resolution on England.

The General Council will ask the English sections in London to form a Federal Committee for London. As soon as it is recognised by the branches in the provinces and by the affiliated trade unions, the General Council will confirm it as the Federal Council for England.

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XIII. Special Resolutions of the Conference.

1) The Conference approves the addition of the refugees of the Commune whom the General Council has taken into its midst.

2) The Conference declares that the German workers fulfilled their duty during the Franco-German war.

3) The Conference thanks the members of the Spanish Federation for the presentation of their memorandum on the organisation of the International, which affords a further proof of their zeal for our common work.

4) The General Council will immediately publish a formal declaration to the effect that the International Working Men’s Association has absolutely nothing to do with the so-called conspiracy of Nechayev, who has fraudulently usurped and exploited its name.

XIV. Instruction for the Delegate Outine.

The delegate Outine is requested to publish a concise report on the Nechayev trial, from Russian sources, in the Geneva *Egalité*. This report is to be communicated to the General Council before publication.

XV. Convocation of the Next Congress.

The Conference leaves to the decision of the General Council, according to events, the fixing of the time and place of the next Congress, or of the conference that may take its place.

XVI. Alliance de la Démocratie Socialiste.

Considering,

That the Alliance de la Démocratie Socialiste has declared itself dissolved (see the letter of the Secretary of the Alliance N. Joukowsky, to the General Council, dated 10 August 1871);

That the Conference in its sitting of 18 September (See No. II of this circular) resolved that all existing organisations of the International, in conformity with the letter and spirit of the general statutes, shall henceforth designate themselves simply and exclusively as branches, sections, federations, etc., of the International Working Men’s Association, with the addition of the name of their respective localities;

That therefore existing branches and societies are henceforth not permitted to adopt sectarian names, such as Positivists, Mutualists, Collectivists, Communists, etc., or to form separate bodies which, under the name of propaganda sections, etc., claim a special mission distinct from the common aims of the International;

That the General Council shall in future interpret and apply Art.V. of the Basle administrative Congress resolutions, to the effect: “The General Council has the right to admit or refuse the affiliation of a new section or group, subject to appeal to the next Congress” — in this sense; —

The Conference declares the question of the Alliance de la Démocratie Socialiste settled.

XVII. Split in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

1) The various objections of the Federal Committee of the Jura sections against the competence of the Conference are declared inadmissible. (The above is only a résumé of Art. 1, which is printed verbatim in the Geneva “Egalité”.)

2) The Conference approves the resolution of the General Council of 29 June 1870.

Moreover, considering the persecutions to which the International is at present subjected, the Conference appeals to the spirit of solidarity and unity which now more than ever should permeate the workers. It advises the brave workers of the Jura sections to rejoin the sections of the Romance Federations. Should this reunion not be practicable, it decides that the federation of the seceded sections shall adopt the name: Federation of the Jura (Fédération Jurassienne). It further announces that henceforth the General Council will be bound publicly to denounce and disavow all so-called organs of the International which, following the example of the *Progrès* and the *Solidarité*, discuss in their columns before the bourgeois public questions that are only suitable for debate in the local and federal committees, in the General Council, or in the closed administrative sessions of federal or general congresses.

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Note.

The resolutions of the Conference not intended for publicity will be communicated to the Federal Councils of the various countries by the corresponding secretaries of the General Council.

On behalf and in the name of the Conference, the General Council:

R. Applegarth, M. J. Boon, Fred. Bradnick, G. H. Buttery, Delahaye, Eugène Dupont (absent as emissary), William Hales, G. Harris, Hurlimann, Jules Johannard, Fred. Lessner, Lochner, Harriet Law, Charles Longuet, Constant Martin, Zévy Maurice, Henry Mayo, George Milner, Charles Murray, Pfänder, John Roach, Rühl, Sadler, Cowell Stepney, Alfred Taylor, W. Townshend, E. Vaillant, John Weston.

Corresponding Secretaries:

Alfred Herman, for Belgium. — Th. Mottershead, for Denmark. — Karl Marx, for Germany and Russia. — A. Serraillier, for France. — Ch. Rochat, for Holland. — J. P. MacDonnell, for Ireland. — Friedrich Engels, for Italy and Spain. — Leo Frankel, for Austria and Hungary. — Walery Wroblewski, for Poland. — Hermann Jung, for Switzerland. — J. G. Eccarius, for the United States. — C. Le Moussu, for the French sections of the United States.

F. Engels, Chairman. — Hermann Jung, Treasurer.
John Haies, General Secretary.

256 High Holborn, W.C, London, 17 October 1871.

For authentication of the translation:
The Secretary for Germany: Karl Marx.

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Karl Marx
To the Editors of “Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly”
Covering letter to the letter

from Jenny Marx to “Woodhull ô Claflin’s Weekly”

Woodhull G Claflin’s Weekly.
Nr.23/75, 21.Oktober 1871

London. N. W., September 23, 1871.

Mesdames: I have the honor to send you, for insertion in your Weekly—if you judge the contribution sufficiently interesting for your readers—a short relation of my daughter Jenny on the persecutions she and her sisters, during their stay at Bagnères de Luchon (Pyrenees), had to undergo at the hands of the French Government. This tragico-comical episode seems to me characteristic of the Republic-Thiers.

The news of my death was concocted at Paris by the Avenir Liberal, a Bonapartist paper.

Since Sunday last a private Conference of the delegates of the International Workingmen’s Association is sitting at London. The proceedings will terminate to-day.

With my best thanks for the highly-interesting papers you had the kindness to send me,

I have the honor, Mesdames, to remain,
Yours most sincerely,
KARL MARX.

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Karl Marx
General Rules and Administrative Regulations
of the International Working Men’s Association

Official edition, revised by the General Council

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 General Rules of the
International Working Men’s Association.

Considering,

That the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves; that the struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class-rule;

That the economical subjection of the man of labour to the monopolizer of the means of labour, that is the sources of life, lies at the bottom of servitude in all its forms, of all social misery, mental degradation, and political dependence;

That the economical emancipation of the working classes is therefore the great end to which every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means;

That all efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from the want of solidarity between the manifold divisions of labour in each country, and from the absence of a fraternal bond of union between the working classes of different countries;

That the emancipation of labour is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution on the concurrence, practical and theoretical, of the most advanced countries;

That the present revival of the working classes in the most industrious countries of Europe, while it raises a new hope, gives solemn warning against a relapse into the old errors, and calls for the immediate combination of the still disconnected movements;

For these Reasons—

The International Working Men’s Association has been founded.

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It declares:

That all societies and individuals adhering to it will acknowledge truth, justice, and morality, as the basis of their conduct towards each other and towards all men, without regard to colour, creed, or nationality;

 That it acknowledges no rights without duties, no duties without rights;

And in this spirit the following rules have been drawn up.

1. This Association is established to afford a central medium of communication and co-operation between Working Men’s Societies existing in different countries and aiming at the same end; viz., the protection, advancement, and complete emancipation of the working classes.

2. The name of the Society shall be “The International Working Men’s Association.”

3. There shall annually meet a General Working Men’s Congress, consisting of delegates of the branches of the Association. The Congress will have to proclaim the common aspirations of the working class, take the measures required for the successful working of the International Association, and appoint the General Council of the Society.

4. Each Congress appoints the time and place of meeting for the next Congress. The delegates assemble at the appointed time and place without any special invitation. The General Council may, in case of need, change the place, but has no power to postpone the time of meeting. The Congress appoints the seat and elects the members of the General Council annually. The General Council thus elected shall have power to add to the number of its members.

On its annual meetings, the General Congress shall receive a public account of the annual transactions of the General Council. The latter may, in cases of emergency, convoke the General Congress before the regular yearly term.

5. The General Council shall consist of working men from the different
countries represented in the International Association. It shall from its
own members elect the officers necessary for the transaction of business,
such as a treasurer, a general secretary, corresponding secretaries for the
different countries, etc.

6. The General Council shall form an international agency between the
different national and local groups of the Association, so that the working
men in one country be constantly informed of the movements of their
class in every other country: that an inquiry into the social state of the
different countries of Europe be made simultaneously, and under a common
direction; that the questions of general interest mooted in one society be
ventilated by all; and that when immediate practical steps should be

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needed—as, for instance, in case of international quarrels—the action of the
associated societies be simultaneous and uniform. Whenever it seems
opportune, the General Council shall take the initiative of proposals to be laid
before the different national or local societies. To facilitate the commu-
nications, the General Council shall publish periodical reports.

7. Since the success of the working men's movement in each country
cannot be secured but by the power of union and combination, while, on
the other hand, the usefulness of the International General Council must
greatly depend on the circumstance whether it has to deal with a few natio-
nal centres of working men's associations, or with a great | number of
small and disconnected local societies; the members of the International
Association shall use their utmost efforts to combine the disconnected
working men's societies of their respective countries into national bodies,
represented by central national organs. It is self-understood, however,
that the appliance of this rule will depend upon the peculiar laws of each
country, and that, apart from legal obstacles, no independent local society
shall be precluded from directly corresponding with the General Council.

8. Every section has the right to appoint its own secretary corresponding
with the General Council.

9. 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.

10. Each member of the International Association, on removing his
domicile from one country to another, will receive the fraternal support of
the Associated Working Men.

11. While united in a perpetual bond of fraternal co-operation, the working
men's societies joining the International Association will preserve their
existent organisations intact.

12. The present rules may be revised by each Congress, provided that
two-thirds of the delegates present are in favour of such revision.

13. Everything not provided for in the present rules will be supplied by
special regulations, subject to the revision of every Congress.

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