London, 19 January 1872 

My dear Toole,’ 

We were delighted to get your letter of the 7th. As for Morago, 
you may be sure that Bakunin is at the bottom of it. As private 
correspondents, these men are assiduous beyond belief; and if he 
[were] a member of the Alliance, they would certainly have 
bombarded him with letters and blandishments. At any rate, the fact 
that they have resolved to place all these questions before a Spanish 
Congress *” is a victory for ourselves, since: 

1) it is a negative, albeit indirect, reply to the demand that a 
Congress of the International be immediately convened; 

2) we have always found that, as soon as the workers 
themselves, as a body, consider these questions, their natural 
common sense and their innate feeling of solidarity invariably 
enable them speedily to smell out such personal machinations. For 
working men, the International represents a great acquisition 
which they have no intention at all of relinquishing; for the 
aforesaid doctrinaire intriguers, it represents no more than an 
arena for petty squabbles of a personal and sectarian kind. 

In our reply we shall endeavour to make the maximum use of 
your observations; however, we cannot limit ourselves to what 
might best suit the Spaniards. The sorely assailed Swiss want just 
the opposite. However, I hope that we shall be able to write in 
such a way as to satisfy all our friends on the main points. 

There have been requests from several quarters for a new 
impression of the Poverty of Philosophy, for which a new introduc- 
tion would, of course, be required, and I hope that Moor will 
attend to this as soon as his work on the second edition of 
Capital is completed; if, in the meantime, Mesa were to do the 
Spanish translation, he would probably get the text of the 
introduction in good time. But I cannot promise anything; you 
can imagine the amount of unexpected work that constantly 
devolves on Moor. He has entered into an agreement with 

Lachatre °°; the contract contained one or two quite inadmissible 

a Paul Lafargue’s nickname 

clauses. No doubt Jenny or Tussy will write, either to you or to 
Laura, and enlarge on the matter. 

Now for the news. 

1) Over here the French section of 187 a section which had 
never been accepted as such because of its refusal to delete utterly 
incredible things from its rules, has completely disintegrated —at 
the very moment when it was bringing out a long metaphysical 
declaration against the General Council, signed by 35 citizens.’ 
The election of Vésinier as secretary has caused Theisz, Avrial 8&8 
Co. to resign (for the second time!). The Vésinier clique next 
demanded the expulsion of Vermersch, a worthy rival to Vésinier, 
both as a private individual and as a man of politics. There 
followed another split, thus creating three rumps. This is group 
autonomy at its most extreme. 

On the other hand we have over here a French section of 60 
members,”” an Italian section and a Polish one, aside from the old 
German section.*?” The calumnies in the Berlin Neuer Social- 
Demokrat were the work of some of Schweitzer’s hoodlums who had 
wormed their way into that section; they have just been 
expelled.”°—The British Federal Council is now functioning and 
its propaganda is proving very successful; we are especially 
anxious to build up support outside the old semi-bourgeois 
political societies and the old trades unions, which are incapable of 
seeing beyond their trades. In Manchester, Dupont has been very 
useful to us. The republican clubs of Dilke & Co. adhere to the 
International in all the larger cities, and the best elements of 
almost all those clubs belong to us, so that one fine day this 
bourgeois republican movement will escape from its bourgeois 
leaders and fall into our hands. 

I was greatly pleased by the article on the Neuer Social-Demokrat 
in the Emancipacién. I at once translated and sent it to the 
Volksstaat, Liebknecht’s newspaper in Leipzig.*” 

In France Serraillier is being amazingly active. Needless to say, 
the results he has obtained are not for publication, but they are 
very good. Everywhere the sections are reforming under different 
names. One fact disclosed by this correspondence is that, in almost 
every case, the Bakuninists’ correspondents are informers. In one 
town in the Midi, their member was the superintendent of police.* 
It has now been almost proved that Marchand of Bordeaux is an 

1,538 

a Association internationale des travailleurs. Déclaration de la section frangaise fédéraliste de 
1871...- > See this volume, p. 297. - © ‘Sucesos de la semana’, La Emancipacién, 
No. 31, 14 January 1872. - 4 Abel Bousquet 

informer. As you may know, he mislaid the minutes of two 
meetings; well, all those mentioned in the said minutes have been 
taken to court, and the same intentions were harboured in regard 
to yourself. Marchand has never been able to explain what became 
of those minutes and, though proscribed in Geneva, he was able to 
return to Bordeaux without being harassed. 

In Switzerland, not only has the Romance Committee, which 
represents at least ten times more Internationalists than the 
Jurassians, come out in favour of the General Council,* but also 
the Tagwacht of Zurich, organ of the Internationalists of German 
Switzerland (see No. 1 of 6 January).*” The question it puts to 
those who speak of the authoritarian power wielded by the 
General Council is as follows: 

‘A dictatorship always presupposes the possession by the dictator of the material 
power that would enable him to enforce his dictatorial orders. Now, all these 
journalists would greatly oblige us if they would kindly let us know where the 
General Council keeps its arsenal of bayonets and mitrailleuses.26 Suppose, for 
example, that the Zurich section should not be in agreement with this or that 
decision of the General Council (something which has not hitherto occurred), to 
what means could the General Council have recourse in order to compel the Zurich 
section to bow to that decision? But the General Council has not even the right 
definitively to exclude any one section from the Association—at the very most it 
can suspend its functions until the next Congress, which alone can give a final 
ruling... The most divergent views, not only in regard to the future organisation of 
society, but also in regard to the steps to be taken here and now, are represented in 
the great international association. That association, at its general congresses, does 
of course debate questions of this kind, but in no article of its Rules does it lay 
down a system, an obligatory norm for the sections. There is nothing obligatory 
save the fundamental principle: The emancipation of the workers by the workers 
themselves... Thus, in the International we find represented the most opposing 
political views, from the strict centralism of the Austrian workers to the anarchic 
federalism of the Spanish confederates. These last proclaim abstention from 
elections; the German confederates make full use of their votes in every election. 
In certain countries the Internationalists support other more or less progressive 
parties, elsewhere they remain aloof, as a distinct party, no matter what the 
circumstances. Nowhere, however, are there monarchists amongst the Inter- 
nationalists. The same thing applies to questions of social economy. Communists 
and individualists work side by side, and it may be said that all forms of socialism 
are represented in the International...o> However, the International has always 
shown itself capable of closing its ranks against the outside enemy, ... it has 
succeeded in maintaining its unity in the face of the Franco-Prussian War and, 
from that war, it has emerged bigger and stronger, whereas other societies have 
been crushed by the war. To a man, the International sided with the Paris 
Commune... And does the fact that this or that group holds a different view on 
questions of detail entitle the bourgeois press to talk of splits in the International?... 

a ‘Réponse du Comité fédéral romand...’, L’Egalité, No. 24, 24 December 1871. - > In 
the Tagwacht: ‘...and it may be said that there is no socio-economic view that is not 
represented in the International’. 

You have only to read the circular from the Jura sections, protesting against this 
and that, but ending with the cry: “Long live the International Working Men’s 
Association!” Is that a split? No, gentlemen, despite your efforts, the International 
will not be subject to splits, it will settle its own internal affairs and reveal itself 
more united and with its ranks more serried than ever ... the more you calumniate 
us, the more you talk of splits in our ranks, the more you attack us—the more 
shall we serry our ranks and the louder will the cry resound: Long live the 
International Working Men’s Association!’ 

If you can make use of this for the Emancipacién, so much the 
better. 

In Germany the Volksstaat has come out with considerable force 
against the Jurassians and in favour of the General Council.’ 
Furthermore, on 7 January the Saxon Congress, with 120 dele- 
gates representing 60 sections, held a private meeting (being 
forbidden by law to debate the matter publicly) at which they 
unanimously condemned the Jura circular and passed a vote of 
confidence in the General Council.‘ 

The Austrians and Hungarians are also unanimous in their 
support of the General Council, though prevented by persecution 
from giving public proof of same; they can hardly ever meet, and 
any meeting in the name of the International is at once prohibited 
or broken up by the police. 

In Italy no organisation so far exists. So autonomous are the 
groups that they will not or cannot unite. This is a reaction to the 
extreme and bourgeois centralism of Mazzini, who aspired to 
control everything himself, and very stupidly at that. By slow 
degrees enlightenment will dawn, but they will have to be allowed 
to learn from experience. 

You say nothing about your wife’—I hope that you have had 
good news of her and also of the little boy.“ Mrs Marx, who is with 
me at the moment, and the whole of the Marx family, senp THER 
Love. Cordial salutations from my wife’ and from myself also. 
Remember me to Laura when you write to her, and let me hear 
from you soon. 

Yours ever, 
The General‘