13. From the Minute Book of the General Council. Central Council Meetings (October 1865-January 1866)
October 3, 1865
The question as to the publication of the doings at the conference was then discussed.
Citizens Carter and Lubez proposed that Citizen Marx be requested to compile the report of the conference proceedings. Carried unanimously.
Tuesday, November 21, 1865
The Secretary for Germany (1) stated that, in view of the sudden demand for cards that had arisen at Paris, he and the Secretary for Switzerland(2) had guaranteed the printer for the cost of preparing 2,000 cards, of which number 1,000 should be sent to Paris, 500 reserved for the French province and 100 reserved for Germany. He desired the sanction of the Council to this arrangement.
It was moved by Citizen Morgan and seconded by Wheeler and carried nem. con.: "That we sanction the arrangement made by Citizens Marx and Jung with the printer of the cards and that the allotment of them be as proposed by Citizen Marx."
GENERAL REPORT
Citizen Marx stated that on his proposition it had been resolved at the conference that a report should be drawn up of the transactions of the Association for the first year of its existence.
He now advised that the resolution for preparing such report be rescinded on two grounds: (1) because the French delegates had already published a report, (2) that its publication at the present moment was not opportune and should be delayed until May.[288]
He had, however, communicated copies of the resolution and programme to our correspondents in Belgium and to Citizen Jung-
The resolution for drawing up a report was accordingly rescinded.
PROPAGANDA IN GERMANY
The Secretary for Germany said he was glad to be able to report that our Association was at length making headway in Germany, where it had obstacles to overcome greater than those which existed in France.[289] Steps were being taken to form branches in Berlin, Mayence and Leipsic by men for whom the speaker could vouch. These societies would probably be represented at the Geneva Congress.
Tuesday, November 28
SWITZERLAND
In the regretted absence of the Secretary for Switzerland, Citizen Marx stated that Citizen J. Ph. Becker had issued a proclamation to the German Swiss, concerning the Association, portions of which he thought should be translated and published in our report.[290] In it it was announced that the branch societies in Switzerland were about to issue a paper in German and French which would be the organ of the Association in that country.(3)
December 26. Boxing night!
Citizen Le Lubez laid on the table the first of a projected series of attacks on the policy of the Central Council published in the Journal de Verviers (Belgium).[291]
Citizen Marx made some observations in defence of the Council.
January 9, 1866
Marx thought that the Constitution published in the Echo de Verviers as emanating from the French branch in London ought to have been laid before the Council before publication. He then alluded to the attack which he said was written by Citizen Vésinier.
Jung denounced the attack as an infamous one and exposed some of its misstatements. Such a manifesto ought to have been signed. He moved that Vésinier retract these falsities or be expelled from the Association.
Le Lubez admitted that Vésinier was the author of the attack. Marx took occasion to defend our Paris correspondents from the aspersions made upon them. They had left with the Council all their accounts and correspondence and had behaved in the most honourable manner. [...]
Marx objected to the word "retractation". Vésinier should be called upon to substantiate or to make his exit. [...]
Jung, then withdrew his motion and Marx moved and Jung seconded that Vésinier be called upon to substantiate his accusation or, failing to do so, be expelled.
Le Lubez moved as an amendment that the subject be referred to a committee of three to conduct a correspondence with Vésinier. He objected to the harsh measure of expulsion. This amendment was not seconded.
The motion of Marx was carried with one dissentient and one neutral.
January 23, 1866
Marx read a letter from the Leipsic correspondent Liebknecht. They had formed a small branch there; he also referred to a visit he had recently received from the editor(4) of the Social-Demokrat.[292]
Marx also read letter from De Paepe(5) explaining his long silence; he was sorry they had not increased in numbers; but they had now confederated with the "People"(6) and had made the Tribune of the People their organ[293]; they wished to exchange with the Workman's Advocate.
Endnotes
[288] By decision of the London Conference, a congress of the International Working Men's Association was initially to take place in Geneva in May 1866, Later the convocation was postponed until September. For the reactionary laws in Prussia prohibiting workers' organisations to join
[289] the International, and for the Lassallean leaders' opposition to this, see Note 230. Early in 1865 Marx proposed individual membership which enabled German workers to circumvent these laws. The International Association's members in Germany got in touch with the Central Council directly or through the German Section founded by Johann Philipp Becker in Geneva. This is how the contact was established with the workers in Mainz, Berlin, Solingen and other towns. Marx based his communication to the Central Council meeting about the headway being made by the Association in Germany on Liebknecht's letter to him of November 16 and on one from Theodor Metzner, Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt of November 13, 1865.
[290] ^ e appeal to the workers of Switzerland to join the International was issued by the German Section in Geneva in November 1865. An abridged version in English was published in The Workman's Advocate, No. 145, December 16, 1865.
[291] On December 16 and 18, 1865 the Belgian democratic newspaper L'Echo de Verviers, Nos. 293 and 294, published an anonymous article which gave a distorted picture of the Central Council's activities and the work of the London Conference of 1865. Its author was the French petty-bourgeois republican Pierre Vésinier, a refugee in Belgium and the spokesman for petty-bourgeois elements in the French branch in London who opposed Marx and the Central Council. This branch was founded in the autumn of 1865 and included, besides petty-bourgeois refugees (Le Lubez, Félix Pyat and others), proletarian elements (Eugène Dupont, Hermann Jung and Paul Lafargue) who later broke away from its petty-bourgeois wing. Vésinier's article was discussed in the Central Council on December 26, 1865 and on January 2 and 9, 1866. On the instructions of the Council, Vésinier's slanderous attacks were refuted by Hermann Jung, who was helped by Marx to write a letter to the editor of L'Echo de Verviers (see this volume, pp. 392-400).
[292] Wilhelm Liebknecht informed Marx in a letter of January 18, 1866 that the Leipzig Workers' Educational Society was willing to form a branch of the International. H e also wrote that Hofstetten, an editor of Der Social-Demokrat, had tried again to get himself, Marx and Engels to contribute to the paper. Marx's letter to Engels of February 10, 1866 shows that Marx strongly objected to these attempts by the Lassalleans to use his name and that of Engels, and severely criticised Liebknecht for his conciliatory attitude (see present edition, Vol. 42).
[293] x h e "People" (Peuple)—a Belgian atheist society consisting mainly of progressive intellectuals who advocated Utopian socialism. It published a newspaper, La du Peuple, which became the organ of the International Working Men's Tribune Association in Belgium in August 1865 (officially in January 1866) when the society joined the International.