28. From the Minute Book of the General Council. General Council Meetings (September 24-October 22, 1867)
September 24
Upon the proposition of Citizen Hales, it was unanimously agreed not to appoint a standing president.[345]
Upon the proposition of Citizen Shaw, it was unanimously [agreed] that the functions hitherto performed by the financial secretary should be transferred to the general secretary and the office of financial secretary abolished.
October 8
Citizen Marx announced that a member of the Association, Citizen Liebknecht, had been returned to the North German Parliament by the working men of Saxony.34b He was the only member that had dared to attack Bismarck's war policy, for which he had been invited by the Arbeiter-Bildungs-Verein — a Schulze-Delitzsch society — to receive the acknowledgements of the working men for his services.
October 22
Citizen Marx read some extracts from the stenographic reports of the North German Parliament. Mr. Liebknecht, a member of the Association, had delivered a speech in favour of the abolition of standing armies and the introduction of popular armaments, and subjecting Bismarck's conduct in the Luxemburg affair to a severe criticism.517
Endnotes
[3 4 5] As is evident from Marx's letter to Engels of October 4, 1867 (see present edition, Vol. 42), the proposal to abolish the office of the General Council's President was moved on Marx's initiative. The abolition of this post, held by George O d g e r permanently since 1864, reflected the battle being fought by Marx and his followers to isolate, and weaken the position of, the trade-union reformist leaders in the governing bodies of International. In its resolution on the organisational question, the Basle Congress of the International in 1869 approved this decision of the General Council, p. 438