London, 19 April 1870

Dear Paul-Laurent,"

I shall have you proposed by Dupont on Tuesday next.™?

Meanwhile I call your attention to the presence in your
committee* of Robin, Bakunine’s agent who, at Geneva, did all in
his power to discredit the General Council (he attacked it publicly in
the Egalité)*°’ and to prepare la dictature de Bakounine sur
UAssoctation Internationale.” He has been expressly sent to Paris
there to act in the same sense. Hence this fellow must be closely
watched without becoming aware of having a surveillant at his
side.°”

In order de vous mettre au courant’ I must give you a succinct
review of Bakunine’s intrigue.

Bakunine does not belong to the International but for about 1'/s
years. C’est un nouveau venu* At the Berne Congress (September
1868) of the Ligue de la Paix et de la Liberté ‘271 (he was one of the
executive committee of this International middle-class Association
founded in opposition to the proletarian International) he played
one of the mountebank parts he delights in. He proposed a series
of propositions, stupid in themselves, but affecting an aim of
swaggering radicalism calculated to frighten les crétins bourgeois?
In that way, being outvoted by the majority, he made his noisy
exit from the League and had this great event triumphantly
announced in the European press. He understands la réclame
almost as well as Victor Hugo qui, comme Heine dit, n’est pas
simplement égoiste, mais Hugoiste."

Then he entered our Association—its Geneva branche Romande!
His first step was a conspiracy. He founded [l’Alliance de la
Démocratie Socialiste. The Programme of that society?’ was nothing
else but the series of resolutions proposed by Bakunine on the
Berne Peace League Congress The organisation was that of a
sect with its head-center at Geneva, constituting itself as an

a the Paris Federal Council - > Bakunin’s dictatorship in the International Association - © to acquaint you with the matter - 4 a novice - © Here and below Marx
erroneously wrote ‘Lausanne’. - f League of Peace and Freedom - 8 publicity h who, as Heine put it, is not merely an egoist but Hugoist. - } Romance
branch - i [M.] Bakounine, ‘Discours de Bakounine au deuxiéme congreés de la paix, a
Berne’, Kolokol, No. 14-15, 1 December 1868 (see also this volume, p. 200).

International Association which was to have General Congresses of
its own, which was to form an independent international body,
and, at the same time, to be an integral member of our
Internationale. In one word, our Association was by this interloping secret society by and by to be converted into an instrument du
Russe* Bakounine. The pretext was, that this new society was
founded for the special purpose ‘a faire la propagande théoretique’.”
Very funny indeed, considering that Bakunine and his acolytes
know nothing of theory. But Bakunine’s programme was ‘the
theory’. It consisted, in fact, of 3 points.

1) That the first requirement of the social Revolution was— the
abolition of inheritance, vieillerie St Simoniste,°** dont le charlatan et
lignoramus Bakunine se faisait Véditeur responsable.‘ It is evident: If
you have had the power to make the social Revolution in one day,
par décret plébiscitaire,’ you would abolish at once landed property
and capital, and would therefore have no occasion at all to occupy
yourselves with le droit d/héritage On the other hand, if you have
not that power (and it is of course foolish to suppose such a
power), the proclamation of the abolition of inheritance would be
not a serious act, but a foolish menace, rallying the whole
peasantry and the whole small middle-class round the reaction.
Suppose f.i. that the Yankees had not had the power to abolish
slavery by the sword. What an imbecility it would have been to
proclaim the abolition of inheritance in slaves! The whole thing rests
on a superannuated idealism, which considers the actual jurisprudence as the basis of our economical state, instead of seeing that
our economical state is the basis and source of our jurisprudence!
As to Bakounine, all he wanted was to improvise a programme of
his own making. Voila tout. C’était un programme d’occasion:'

2) Légalité des différentes classes. To suppose on the one hand
the continued existence of classes, and on the other hand the égalité
of the members belonging to them, this blunder shows you at once
the shameless ignorance and superficiality of that fellow who made
it his ‘special mission’ to enlighten us on ‘theory’.

3) The working class must not occupy itself with politics. They
must only organise themselves by trades-unions. One fine day, by
means of the Internationale they will supplant the place of all
existing states. You see what a caricature he has made of my
doctrines! As the transformation of the existing States into

4 of the Russian- to carry on theoretical propaganda -‘¢ old St Simonist
rubbish, of which Bakunin, a charlatan and ignoramus, was the responsible
publisher - 4 by plebiscite - © right of inheritance - f That’s all. This was a makeshift
programme. - § Equality of different classes.

Associations is our last end, we must allow the governments, these
great trade-unions of the ruling classes, to do as they like, because
to occupy ourselves with them is to acknowledge them. Why! In
the same way the old socialists said: You must not occupy
yourselves with the wages question, because you want to abolish
wages labour, and to struggle with the capitalist about the rate of
wages is to acknowledge the wages system! The ass has not even
seen that every class movement as a class movement, is necessarily
and was always a political movement.

This then is the whole theoretical baggage of Mahomet-
Bakunine, 2 Mahomet without a Koran.

His conspiracy he went secretly on with. He had some affiliates in
Spain and Italy, a few dupes at Paris and Geneva. Good old Becker
was foolish enough to allow himself to be put forward somewhat
in a leading character by Bakunine. He regrets his blunder at
present.

The General Council was only informed and called upon to
sanction the statutes of the ‘Alliance’ after Bakounine considered
that concern as fait accompli. However he was mistaken. In an
elaborate document the General Council declared the ‘Alliance’ to
be an instrument of disorganisation, and rejected every connexion
with it. (I shall send you the document.)*

A few months later, the Comité Directeur of the ‘Alliance’
addressed a letter to the General Council to the effect: The great
men were willing to dissolve their organisation and merge it into
the Internationale, but on the other hand, we were to declare
categorically, Oui ou Non!,” whether we sanctioned their principles? If not, there would be a public secession on their part, and
we would be responsible for such a misfortune‘!

We answered that the General Council was not the Pope, that
we allowed every section to have its own theoretical views of the
real movement, always supposed that nothing directly opposite to
our Rules was put forward. We hinted in a delicate way that we
considered their ‘theory’ to be a sham. We insisted that ‘l’égalité des
classes’* be changed for ‘l’abolition des classes’,“ what they did.*"' We
requested them to give us the dénombrement' of their members,
what they have never complied with. (You will also get this second
document.)

Thus the Alhance was nominally dissolved. In fact, it continued
to form an imperium in imperio. Its branches had no connexion at
all with the General Council, but that of conspiring against it. It acted
under Bakunine’s dictatorship. He prepared everything to
frapper son grand coup au Congres de Bale.* On the one side, he
made the Geneva Committee” propose la question d’héritage. We
accepted the challenge. On the other side, he conspired
everywhere to discredit us and to have the seat of the General
Council transferred from London to Geneva. At that congress, ce
saltimbanque figurait comme ‘délégué de Naples et de Lyon’< (at that
latter place, Albert Richard, otherwise a very active and wellmeaning youngster, is his acolyte). Where the fellow got the
money for all his secret machinations, travels, missions of agents
etc. remains to this moment a secret. Poor like a church mouse, he
has never in his life earned a farthing by his own work.

At the Congress he was baffled. After the Congress he
commenced to attack us publicly by his private moniteur, Le
Progrés (de Locle), edited by his valet James Guillaume, a Swiss
schoolmaster, and by the Egalité (de Genéve).°” We allowed this to
go on for some time, and then sent a missive to the Federal
Council of Geneva. (This document—copy of it—is in the hands
of Varlin.) But before our circular arrived, the Federal Council of
Geneva, never friendly to Bakunine and the Alliance, had broken
loose from him. Robin et Co. were expulsed from the Editorship
of the Egalité. The Federal Council of the Swiss Romand Section
made his pronunciamento against the intrigues of the Alliance and its
Muscovite dictator.

Meanwhile Bakounine had left Geneva to reside at Tessin. His
circumstances were changed. Herzen died suddenly. Bakounine,
who had attacked him fiercely during the latter times (probably
because he found Herzen’s purse shut against him), all at once
became the fiery apologist of Herzen in the French etc. press.”
Why? Because Herzen (although a millionaire) received annually
for his Cloche and ‘propagande Russe’ a rather large sum from the
Panslavistes démocrates in Russia.’ Although a fierce enemy de

UVhéritage Bakounine wanted to inherit Herzen’s position and
salary. He succeeded by his panegyrics of the dead man. He had
the Cloche, the subvention etc. transferred to himself.

On the other hand there had grown up at Geneva a colony of
Russian émigrés,”*’ enemies of Bakunine, because they knew the

4 to deal a decisive blow at the Basle Congress - > the Federal Committee of Romance
Switzerland - © this charlatan acted as the ‘delegate of Naples and Lyons’

mere personal ambition of this very mediocre man (although an
accomplished intriguer) and because they knew that in his ‘Russian’
writings he propagates doctrines quite contrary to the principles of
the Internationale.

The late Swiss Romand Congress at La Chaux de Fonds (5 April
this year) was seized upon by Bakunine and his moutons* to bring
about an open split.°° The Congress was split into two Congresses,
on the one hand a Congress of Bakunites, proclaiming abstention
from all politics, representing about 600 men; on the other hand
the Congress of the Federal Comité of Geneva, representing 2,000
men. Outine (c'est un des jeunes Russes) dénonga publiquement les
intrigues de Bakounine.” His men have constituted themselves as a
‘Federal Central Council’ pour la Suisse Romande,” and have
founded their own organ La Solidarité, edited by Bakounine’s valet
de chambre, James Guillaume. The ‘principle’ of that paper is
‘Bakounine’. Both parties have appealed to the General Council.

Thus this damned Muscovite has succeeded to call forth a great
public scandal within our ranks, to make his personality a
watchword, to infect our Working Men’s Association with the
poison of sectarianism, and to paralyse our action by secret
intrigue.

He hopes to be strongly represented at our next Congress. To
direct to himself the attention of Paris, he has opened a
correspondence with the Marseillaise. But we have spoken with
Flourens, who will put a stop to this.

You are now sufficiently informed to counteract Bakounine’s
movements within our Paris branches.

My thanks to Laurent for her letter.’ Another time try to find
an envelope for your missives which is not so easily opened.

Apropos. Look whether you possess still the article of the
Queen’s Messenger on Lord Clanricarde.* We want it here and can get
it from nowhere else.

Yours
Old Nick