[London,] 21 September 1872 

Dear Sorge, 

I hope that you have arrived safely in New York and that Guage 
has also survived the terrors of the steerage. 

a J. Pietri - > See B. Landeck’s statement to the Prefect of Police in Troisiéme 
proces de l’Association Internationale des Travailleurs @ Paris, p- 4. - © Street in 
19th-century London notorious for filth and vice. - 4 on - ¢ See T. Kalb, G. Beer, 
‘Wer ist Joseph Schneider?’, Der Volksstaat, No. 14, 17 February 1872. - f the 
conference of April 1872 at which the Universal Federalist Council was established 

Of the Congress Resolutions 

you: 

1. the new Articles 2 and 6 of the Administrative Regulations, 
Section II, on the General Council’; 

2. the report of the Commission on the Alliance”; 

3. the declaration of the minority™’; 

4. the resolution about the transfer [of the seat of the General 
Council] and the election of 12 members of the General Council 
with plenary powers to co-opt another 3, together with the list of 
those elected.”* 

So what you still do not have are: 

1. the resolution expressing sympathies with the martyrs of the 
proletariat BE? 

2. the one about subscriptions, 

3. the one about cancelling plenary powers and 

4. perhaps the wording of the article in the Rules about politics. 
I enclose all 4. 

The other papers you left behind are 1. incoming items about 
which nothing was decided, 2. motions that were not accepted, 
3. one or two motions on procedural matters which were 
adopted and, having been put into effect at the Congress, are 
now disposed of. All these will go into the minutes and are of no 
Interest to you. 

It occurs to me that perhaps you do not have 

5. Lafargue’s proposal for international Trapes Unions, so I have 
translated it from the Spanish and enclose it herewith. 

As soon as we have received the report you promised on the 
mandate debate (which, as you know, was not minuted, owing to 
the stupidity of the President, who failed to have secretaries 
nominated), the resolutions will be officially compiled and 
published.*** 

Lucain took the Commission’s papers with him to Brussels and 
is now sorting out the statements of the witnesses. As soon as we 
receive from him the papers, promised to us by the end of the 
month at the latest, all the evidence about Bakunin and the 
Alliance will be compiled and printed. We have now received some 
more very nice material, which could not be laid before the 
Commission because it arrived too late. 

Next, the minutes of the Congress for publication.” 

For the correspondence with Germany, Italy, etc., I enclose all 
the addresses known to me. 

you took the following with 

9 

a Cf. K. Marx and F. Engels, ‘Resolutions of the General Congress Held at The Hague 
from the 2nd to the 7th September, 1872’. 

Hales raised hell in the Federal Council here, proposing a 
motion of censure against Marx because he had said that the 
English workers’ leaders had been sold down the river—but a 
local English and an Irish section have already protested, saying 
that Marx is in the right. The whole crew—Hales, Mottershead, 
Eccarius, etc.—are furious that the General Council has been 
taken out of their hands.*” 

Guillaume has said in Brussels to Wilmart (who has passed it on 
to us in writing) that the Spaniards would re-establish the Alliance 
since it was now more necessary than ever. 

West is still stuck here—no money for the return journey. 

Give my warmest regards to Cuno and tell him to keep in touch 
with me wherever he might go. Best wishes, 

Your 
F. Engels 

The Dutch say that the main reason they voted with the 
minority was that they want to be reunited with Belgium and 
hence have to oblige the Belgians! 

Hepner has been arrested and threatened with 4 weeks gaol 
because, as you know, the Chief of Police in Leipzig has banned 
the International on his own initiative! 

Resolution approved at the first public session: 

The Congress of the International Working Men’s Association, assembled at 
The Hague, expresses in the name of the world proletariat its admiration for the 
heroic fighters for the emancipation of labour who fell victims of their devotion, 
and sends fraternal and sympathetic greetings to all those who are at present 
persecuted by bourgeois reaction in France, Germany, Denmark and the entire 
world. 

(Proposed by A. Schwitzguébel and 7 others.)* 

On subscriptions: 
We propose that the subscription should remain as fixed by the General Rules. 

(Proposed by E. Dupont and 3 others—adopted on Saturday 
morning.) 
On the cancellation of the old plenary powers: 

a The texts of the resolutions quoted and the first two comments in brackets are in 
French in Engels’ letter. - > 7 September 

I propose that all powers granted by the General Council, the councils, 
committees and sections in the countries where the International is banned should 
be cancelled and that the General Council alone should have the right to nominate 
representatives in those countries. 

(Proposed by A. Serraillier and 7 other French delegates and 
adopted on Saturday.) 

The Lafargue motion was passed unanimously on Saturday 
morning. However, I have only a Spanish version which will not 
correspond exactly to the official wording. 

On behalf of the Portuguese Federation and the New Madrid Federation I 
propose: 

That the new General Council be charged with the special mission of organising 
international trade associations (TRADES UNIONS). 

For this purpose it will, within one month of the conclusion of this Congress, 
draw up a circular which shall be printed and forwarded to all working men’s 
associations whose addresses are in its possession, whether they are affiliated to the 
International or not. 

In this circular the Council will invite the working men’s associations to form an 
International union of their respective trades. 

Every working men’s association shall be invited to fix itself the conditions 
under which it proposes to enter the International Union of its own trade. 

The General Council is charged with unifying all the conditions put forward by 
the associations which have endorsed this idea and to draw up a general plan to be 
submitted to the provisional acceptance of all the working men’s associations 
wishing to enter International trades unions. 

The next Congress will then formally ratify the project. 

(Supported by 10 others and passed unanimously without 
debate.) 

Germany—everything to the editors of the Volksstaat, Hepner 
and, at the moment, Rud. Seiffert—the addresses of the 
Committee, etc., are to be found in the Volksstaat. 

Italy: Turin Section (Socteta Emancipazione del Proletario): 
1. Outer envelope: M. Jean Jacques Goss, Concierge de l’église 
évangélique, Via Principe Tommaso No. 1, Turin; inner envelope: 
Signor Cesare Bert—Secretary. 2. Signor Luigi Perrini, Viale del 
Re 26, Torino. Be on your guard here against that scoundrel 
Carlo Terzaghi. 

Milan Section: (Circolo Operaio*) Secretary, Mauro Gandolfi, Via 
Solferino 11, Milano (a member of the Alliance, and the Section is 
rotten. Details from Cuno). Rome Section: 1. Outer envelope: 
Signor Leonardo Centenari, direttore della Tipografia Rechiedei, 
Via Monserrato 25, Roma. Inner envelope: Signor Osvaldo 

4 Workers’ Circle 

Gnocchi-Viani.— Parcels—outer address: alla Libreria dell’Univer- 
sita, Via Staderari 38-40, inner address to O. G. Viani. Only 
registered 2 weeks before the Congress. 

Ferrara Section: everything to be sent to Enrico Bignami, 
Periodico La Plebe, Via Cavour 19, Lodi, Lombardia. This and the - 
Turin Section are the best. I know nothing about the Rome 
Section. 

Girgenti Section, Sicily: Avvocato Antonino Riggio (Bakunin- 
ist)—have heard nothing from there for ages. 

Spain: Consejo Federal de la Régién Espanola: Senior Don Julian 
Valero, Calle de Sorolla 35, Valencia. Inner envelope: Francisco 
Tomas. 

Nueva Federacién Madrilena: José Mesa y Leompart, San Pedro 
16, 3° (third floor) Madrid (French). 

Portugal: José C. Nobre-Franga, Travessa do Abarracamento de 
Peniche, No. 4, 2° andar (second floor), Lisboa, Portugal (French). 

Serraillier, Auguste, 35 Gaisford Street, Kentish Town, London, 
N.W. 

Brussels: De Paepe, César, Hopital Saint-Jean, Bruxelles. 

Geneva: H. Perret or J. Ph. Becker, Temple Unique, Genéve. 

Holland: H. Gerhardt, 472 Runstraat, Amsterdam. 

Art. 7a of the General Rules, adopted Saturday morning by 28 
to 13 (including abstentions), i.e. with more than a two-thirds 
majority.— 

In its struggle against the 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.—This 
constitution of the working class into a political party is indispensable in order to 
insure the triumph of the social revolution, and of its ultimate end, the abolition of 
classes. 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 its exploiters. The lords of land and the lords of 
capital will always use their political privileges for the defence and perpetuation of 

their economical monopolies, and for the enslavement of labour. The conquest of 
political power has therefore become the great duty of the working class.