2.—International Combination of Efforts,by the Agency of the Association, in the Struggle Between Labour and Capital
(b) To counteract the intrigues of capitalists always ready, in cases of strikes and lockouts, to misuse the foreign workman as a tool against the native workman, is one of the particular functions which our Society has hitherto performed with success. It is one of the great purposes of the Association to make the workmen of different countries not only feel but act as brethren and comrades in the army of emancipation.
(c) One great "International combination of efforts" which we suggest is a statistical inquiry into the situation of the working classes of all countries to be instituted by the working classes themselves. To act with any success, the materials to be acted upon must be known. By initiating so great a work, the workmen will prove their ability to take their own fate into their own hands. We propose therefore:
That in each locality, where branches of our Association exist, the work be immediately commenced, and evidence collected on the different points specified in the subjoined scheme of inquiry.
That the Congress invite all workmen of Europe and the United States of America to collaborate in gathering the elements of the statistics of the working class; that reports and evidence be forwarded to the Central Council. That the Central Council elaborate them into a general report, adding the evidence as an appendix.
That this report together with its appendix be laid before the next annual Congress, and after having received its sanction, be printed at the expense of the Association.
GENERAL SCHEME OF INQUIRY, WHICH MAY OF COURSE BE MODIFIED BY EACH LOCALITY
1. Industry, name of. 2. Age and sex of the employed. 3. Number of the employed. 4. Salaries and wages: (a) apprentices; (b) wages by the day or piece work; scale paid by middlemen. Weekly, yearly average.
5. (a) Hours of work iri factories, (b) The hours of work with small employers and in home work, if the business be carried on in those different modes, (c) Nightwork and daywork.
6. Meal times and treatment.
7. Sort of workshop and work: overcrowding, defective ventila-tion, want of sunlight, use of gaslight. Cleanliness, etc.
8. Nature of occupation. 9. Effect of employment upon the physical condition.
10. Moral condition. Education. 11. State of trade: whether season trade, or more or less uniformly distributed over year, whether greatly fluctuating, whether exposed to foreign competition, whether destined principally for home or foreign competition,[3] etc.[139]
Endnotes
[3] Garottes—robbers who strangled their victims. In the early 1860s such attacks often occurred in London and were a subject of special debate in Parliament.
[139] The general scheme of statistical inquiry into the situation of the working class (see Note 137) as suggested by Marx was unanimously accepted by the Geneva Congress. In practice, however, the collection of data and their publication in the form of Central Council reports were extremely difficult in view of the lack of material means and the negligence of the local organisations. The subsequent congresses of the Association — in Lausanne (1867), Brussels (1868) and Basle (1869)—confirmed the need to carry out the Geneva Congress resolution on the workers' statistics, and the London Conference of 1871 included point "c" of the second section of the "Instructions" in the Administrative Regulations of the Association (see present edition, Vol. 23).