Engels to Giuseppe Benedetti
in Pisa
(Draft)

[London, 18 February 1872]

Citizen G. Benedetti,

A few days ago I received your letter of 7 January, and I am not quite certain whether it was intended for me, since neither of the two stamps it bears is that of our Association, neither “Associazione Democratica Internazionale” nor “Associazione Internazionale fra gli operai”. However, since you mention the Basel Congress and the Jura circular, it is probable that it has reached the right address.

As to its content, I must tell you that the Pisa section is absolutely unknown here as a section of the International Working Men’s Association. Resolution IV of the Basel Congress stipulates that every section or society intending to join the International must immediately notify the General Council, which (Resolution V) has the right to admit or refuse the adhesion of any new section or group, subject to appeal to the Congress. The General Council admits societies or sections of a genuinely internationalist and working-class character once it has satisfied itself that their rules contain nothing contradictory to the General Rules (Resolution 14 of the Geneva Congress).

I am sorry that these Congress resolutions weigh so heavily upon the autonomous conscience of the so-called Pisa section—a section only recently formed and not yet even admitted which, therefore, naturally knows “the true character of the Association” far better than those who have belonged to it since its foundation and have elaborated its statutes. But although you are of the opinion that this character “excludes any principle of authority”, the General Council is, unfortunately, compelled to recognise at least the authority of the Statutes of the International, which oblige it to carry out the resolutions of the Congresses (including that of Basel) and not to admit sections whose autonomy does not permit them to recognise the authority of the Statutes that are binding upon the entire Association.

As regards the demand for an extraordinary Congress, I cannot submit it to the General Council so long as your section is not properly admitted. I may, however, tell you that you have the distinction of being the first (real or alleged) section to demand this convocation from us after the publication of the Jura circular.