30. Rules and Administrative Regulations of the International Working Men's Association[351]
RULES3
Considering, That the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves; that the struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for class privileges and monopolies,1" but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class rule;
That the economical subjection of the man of labour to the monopoliser of the means of labour, that is the sources of life, lies at the bottom of servitude in all its forms, of all social misery, mental degradation, and political dependence;
That the economical emancipation of the working classes is therefore the great end to which every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means;
That all efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from the want of solidarity between the manifold divisions of labour in each country, and from the absence of a fraternal bond of union between the working class of different countries;
That the emancipation of labour is neither a local, nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution on the concurrence, practical and theoretical, of the most advanced countries;' That the present revival of the working classes in the most industrious countries of Europe, while it raises a new hope, gives solemn warning against a relapse into the old errors, and calls for the immediate combination of the still disconnected movements;
For these reasons: — The first International Working Men's Congress[a] declares that this International Association and all societies and individuals adhering to it will acknowledge truth, justice, and morality, as th'e basis of their conduct towards each other, and towards all men, without regard to colour, creed or nationality;
This Congress considers it the duty of a man to claim the rights of a man and a citizen, not only for himself, but for every man who does his duty. No rights without duties, no duties without rights;
And in this spirit they have drawn up [b] the following Rules of the International Association: —
1. This Association is established to afford a central medium of communication and co-operation between Working Men's Societies existing in different countries, and aiming at the same end, viz., the protection, advancement, and complete emancipation of the working classes.
2. The name of the Society shall be: "The International Working Men's Association".
3. The General Council shall consist of working men belonging to the different countries represented in the International Association. It shall from its own members elect the officers necessary for the transaction of business, such as a president, a treasurer, a general secretary, corresponding secretaries for the different countries, &c. The Congress appoints annually the seat of the General Council, elects a number of members, with power to add to their numbers, and appoints time and place for the meeting of the next Congress. The delegates assemble at the appointed time and place without any special invitation. The General Council may, in case of need, change the place, but has no power to postpone the time of meeting.
4. On its annual meetings, the General Congress shall receive a public account of the annual transactions of the General Council.
In cases of urgency, it may convoke the General Congress before the regular yearly term.
5. The General Council shall form an international agency between the different co-operating associations,[3] so that the working men in one country be constantly informed of the movements of their class in every other country; that an inquiry into the social state of the different countries of Europe be made simultaneously, and under a common direction; that the questions of general interest mooted in one society be ventilated by all; and that, when immediate practical steps should be needed, as, for instance, in case of international quarrels, the action of the associated societies be simultaneous and uniform.[a] Whenever it seems opportune, the General Council shall take the initiative of proposals to be laid before the different national or local societies. To facilitate the communications, the General Council shall publish periodical reports.
6. Since the success of the working men's movement in each country cannot be secured but by the power of union and combination, while, on the other hand, the usefulness of the International General Council must greatly depend on the circumstance whether it has to deal with a few national centres of working men's associations, or with a great number of small and disconnected local societies[b]; the members of the International Association shall use their utmost efforts to combine the disconnected'[1] working men's societies of their respective countries into national bodies, represented by central national organs.[d] It is self-understood, however, that the appliance of this rule will depend upon the peculiar laws of each country, and that, apart from legal obstacles, no independent local society shall be precluded from directly corresponding with the General Council/
7. The various branches and sections shall, at their places of abode, and as far as their influence may extend, take the initiative • not only in all matters tending to the general progressive improvement of public life but also in the foundation of productive associations and other institutions useful to the working class. The General Council shall encourage them in every possible manner.
8. Each member of the International Association, on removing his domicile from one country to another, will receive the fraternal support of the Associated Working Men.
9. Everybody who acknowledges and defends the principles of the International Working Men's Association is eligible to become a member. Every branch is responsible for the integrity of the members it admits.
10. Every section or branch has the right to appoint its own corresponding secretary.
11. While united in a perpetual bond of fraternal cooperation, the working men's societies, joining the International Association, will preserve their existent organisations intact.
12. Everything not provided for in the present Rules will be supplied by special Regulations subject to the revision of every Congress.
ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS[a]
1. The General Council is commissioned to carry the resolutions of the Congress into effect. (A) For this purpose it collects all the documents sent by the Central Committees of the different countries, and such as it may be able to procure by other means. (B) It is charged with the organisation of the Congress, and to bring the Congress programme to the knowledge of all the branches through the medium of the Central Committees.
2. As often as its means permit, the General Council shall publish a report embracing everything that may be of interest to the International Working Men's Association, taking cognisance above all of the supply and demand for labour in different localities, Co-operative Associations, and of the condition of the labouring class in every country.
3. This report shall be published in the several languages and sent to all the corresponding offices for sale. To save expense the corresponding secretaries must previously inform the General Council of the approximate number of copies that may be disposed of in their respective localities.[3]
4. To enable the General Council to fulfil these duties an annual contribution of ONE PENNY per member will be levied from affiliated societies for the use of the General Council payable in quarterly instalments.[1]' This contribution is destined to defray the expense of the General Council, such as the remuneration of the General Secretary, postage, printing, &c.c
5. Whenever circumstances may permit Central Committees representing groups of branches using the same languaged will be established. The functionaries of these Committees are elected by the respective sections, but may be recalled from their offices at any time. They shall send their reports at least once a month, oftener if'need be.
6. The expense of the Central Committees shall be defrayed by their respective sections/ Every branch, whatever the number of its members, may send a delegate to the Congress.
7. Branches that are not able to send a delegate may unite with other branches to form a group to send a delegate to represent them.
8. Every branch, or group, consisting of more than 500 members, may send a delegate for every additional full 500 members. Only the delegates of branches and sections who have
•' In the 1866 French edition this sentence is part of the previous one and reads "whose duty it is to send one copy to each branch".— Ed.
b The 1866 French edition has: "To enable the General Council to fulfil these duties a contribution of 30 centimes (3d.) per member of the Association will be levied for 1866-1867 as an exception."—Ed.
' The 1866 French edition has "expenses on publication, correspondence, organisation and other preparations for the Congress" instead of "postage, printing, &c."—Ed.
d The words "representing groups of branches using the same language" are omitted in the 1866 French edition.— Ed.
paid their contributions to the General Council can take part in the transactions of the Congress/'
9. The expense of the delegates is defrayed by the branches and sections who appoint them.'[1]
10. Every member of the International Working Men's Association is eligible.'
11. Each delegate has but one vote in the Congress.'[h]
12. Every section is at liberty to make Rules and Bye-Laws for its local administration, suitable to the peculiar circumstances of the different countries. But these Bye-Laws must not contain anything contrary to the general Rules and Regulations.
13. The present Rules and Regulations may be revised by every Congress, provided that two-thirds of the delegates present are in favour of such revision.
BYE-LAWS FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM'
1. The contribution for individual members is Is. per annum. 2. Societies joining in their corporate capacity have to pay an entrance fee of 5s.
3. Affiliated societies in the Metropolitan district have the right to send a delegate to the meetings of the General Council. Upon invitation deputations from the General Council will wait upon societies in the Metropolitan district to explain the aims and objects of the Association.
By order of the General Council,
Robert Sluno, Chairman
/. George Err.arms, Hon. Gen. Sec.
Published as a pamphlet Rules of the Reproduced from the pamphlet International Working Men's Association, London [18671
•' Corresponds to Article 12 in the 1866 French edition where the second phrase is omitted.— Ed.
Residual editorial notes
58 editorial note entries had no resolved in-text occurrence and remain here so no source note definition is discarded.
[19] This is a covering letter to Marx's statement (printed below) to the editor of Der Beobachter, a Stuttgart petty-bourgeois democratic newspaper. Der Beobachter, No. 268, N'ovember 17, 1864, carried an anonymous report from Bradford, the author being Karl Blind. Blind's cowardly attempt to deny his authorship of the anonymous leaflet "A Warning" reprinted in June 1859 by Das Volk (London) and the Allgemeine Zeitung (Augsburg) and depicting Karl Vogt as a Bonapartist secret agent was censured by Marx in 1860 in his pamphlet Herr Vogt (see present edition, Vol. 17). Blind's new article compelled Marx to expose him again as a liar and refute his boasts of enjoying influence in the USA. At the request of Sophie von Hatzfeldt, Lassalle's friend, Marx also came out against Blind's attacks on Lassalle. On December 22, 1864 Marx wrote to Sophie von Hatzfeldt: "It was at your request that I wrote this attack, although its composition did not come easily to me as I did not agree with Lassalle's political tactics" (see present edition, Vol. 42). The Beobachter editor confined himself to publishing only the covering letter and his own "comments" on Marx's statement. Marx's statement did not appear in the newspaper columns.
[20] On Marx's motive for writing this statement, see Note 19. Marx foresaw that the Beobachter editor might not publish his statement and sent a copy of it to Sophie von Hatzfeldt for publication in other German papers. Countess Hatzfeldt placed it in the Hamburg Nordstern. A copy of the statement in Mrs. Marx's hand with the author's corrections has survived.
[28] Engels wrote this article to substantiate the tactics of the German working class in the so-called constitutional conflict between the Prussian Government and the bourgeois-liberal majority of the Provincial Diet which, in February 1860, refused to confirm the army reorganisation project proposed by War Minister von Roon. However, the Government soon managed to secure allocations from the Provincial Diet to "maintain the army ready for action" which in fact meant the beginning of the planned reorganisation. When, in March 1862, the liberal majority of the Chamber of Deputies refused to endorse military expenses and demanded a ministry responsible to the Provincial Diet, the Government dissolved the Diet and announced new elections. At the end of September 1862 the Bismarck Ministry was formed. In October it again dissolved the Provincial
[53] See Note 7.
[56] The Lay of Hildebrand—partly extant German eighth-century epic.
[57] By the time of writing this statement, Marx and Engels had become fully convinced that the political line of Der Social-Demokrat could not be set right. The proof of this was Schweitzer's letter to Marx of February 15, 1865 (for details see this volume, pp. 89-90) and his series of articles Das Ministerium Bismarck in which Bismarck's policy of unifying Germany under Prussia's supremacy was openly supported. The appearance of these articles enabled Marx and Engels to publicise and explain to the masses their break with the newspaper. Marx wrote this statement on February 18, 1865 and sent it to Engels, who fully approved it and returned it to Marx with his signature; on February 23, 1865 Marx sent the statement to the editors of Der Social-Demokrat. Marx took measures to make Schweitzer publish the statement. He instructed Liebknecht to place it with the Berliner Reform in case Schweitzer refused to publish it. Marx also sent two copies to Karl Siebel, asking him to print the statement in the Rheinische Zeitung or Düsseldorfer Zeitung two days after receipt. The statement was published in many papers, among them the Banner Zeitung and Elberfelder Zeitung (No. 60) on February 26, Düsseldorfer Zeitung (No. 59) on February 28, Berliner Reform (No. 51), Neue Frankfurter ment, Staatsbürger-Zeitung (No. 60) on March 1; Bonner Zeitung (No. 51), Hermann (No. 29) on March 3; Der weiße Adler (No. 29) on March 9 and Nordstern (No. 300) on March 11, 1865. Schweitzer had to publish this statement in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 29, on March 3, 1865. It was preceded by a few lines from the editors which show that Liebknecht also refused to contribute. Similar statements were soon made by Georg Herwegh, Friedrich Wilhelm Rüstow and Johann Philipp Becker. The statement by Marx and Engels evoked a broad response among advanced German workers. In March 1865 it was approved of by the Berlin Printers' Association where Liebknecht made a report on Marx's and Engels' break with the newspaper. Der Social-Demokrat lost a considerable part of its subscribers, especially among Berlin workers. The English translation of this statement was first published in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London, 1934.
[58] See Note 46.
[59] This notice was published anonymously in a number of German papers with the help of Wilhelm Liebknecht, Karl Siebel and Karl Klein. It was printed in the Berliner Reform (No. 53), Düsseldorfer Zeitung (No. 62), Elberfelder Zeitung (No. 62) and Rheinische Zeitung (No. 62) on March 3, 1865; Oberrheinischer Courier (No. 56) on March 7, Osnabrücker Zeitung (No. 250) on March 9 and Neuer Hannoversche Anzeiger (No. 70) on March 11, 1865.
[60] Early in 1865 a conflict arose among the Paris members of the International: a group of Proudhonist workers headed by Henri Tolain and Charles Limousin, on the one hand, and, on the other, a French lawyer and bourgeois republican Henri Lefort, who claimed to be the founder and leader of the International Working Men's Association in France. Those close to Lefort accused Tolain and other members of the Paris Administration of being in contact with the Bonapartists (Marx and Engels exposed this insinuation in the statement to Der Social-Demokrat, see this volume, p. 36). Nevertheless, wishing to draw into the International the workers grouped around Lefort, Marx supported the Central Council resolution of February 7, 1865, on Lefort's appointment as "Counsel for the literary defence" of the International in France. Those present at the meeting of the Paris Section, however, lodged a protest against this decision, and sent Tolain and Fribourg to London on February 28 to speak on, this point at the Central Council meeting. The Council referred the problem to the Sub-Committee which discussed it on March 4 and 6. Marx proposed a draft resolution which has survived in his notebook (see this volume, p. 330). When Marx drew it up, he tried to protect the French organisation of the International from attacks by bourgeois elements and to strengthen the leadership of the Paris Section by bringing in revolutionary proletarians. This draft formed the basis of the relevant Central Council resolutions adopted on March 7, 1865 (published below). The resolutions also criticised certain Proudhonist dogmas defended by members of the Paris Administration. The text of the resolutions has survived in the Council Minute Book and as a handwritten copy which was appended to Marx's letter to Engels of March 13, 1865 and also contained the private instruction to Schily. The document was published in English for the first time in The General Council of the First International. 1864-1866, Moscow, 1962.
[64] This Proudhonist demand was also put forward by the French delegation at the Geneva Congress of the International in 1866, but was rejected. During the discussion of the General Rules and Regulations, Tolain proposed that the relevant point should stress that a delegate to the Congress had to be a person directly engaged in manual labour. His proposal was vehemently rejected by the English delegates. Cremer and Carter emphasised that the International owed its existence to many citizens not engaged in manual labour. They particularly noted the services of Marx who, as Cremer pointed out, had made the triumph of the working class his life's work.
[65] The coopting of Pierre Vinçard, working-class journalist and veteran of the 1848 Revolution, to the Paris Administration was meant to make the French members of the International familiar with the revolutionary and socialist traditions of the French working class of the 1840s. However, Vinçard did not accept the appointment for personal reasons (see this volume, p. 365). p. 82
[67] The reference is to the Credit au travail Bank founded in Paris in 1863 by the petty-bourgeois socialist Jean Pierre Beluze to grant credits to producer and consumer co-operatives and to draw workers' savings to promote the co-operative movement. The bank lasted until 1868.
[68] bs That this synopsis was written by Marx is clear from his letter to Engels of March 18, 1865 (see present edition, Vol. 42). A newspaper clipping with the text of this synopsis marked in Mrs. Marx's hand "Londoner Anzeiger. 17. März, 1865" has survived. An illegible word at the end of the clipping is deciphered as "erschöpfend" (exhaustive) in Mrs. Marx's hand.
[69] See Notes 28 and 46.
[73] Judging by the excerpts quoted by Marx in his letter to Engels of February 18, 1865, he severely criticised the political tactics of the Lassalleans in his letter to Schweitzer of February 13, 1865. He explained the importance of associations, the role of trade unions in organising the working class for the struggle against the bourgeoisie. Following Lassalle, Schweitzer refused to recognise the importance of strikes and trade unions in the workers' struggle against capital and put forward the Lassallean demand for a universal suffrage and producer associations as the only panacea for resolving the social problem in a peaceful reformist way; moreover, like Lassalle, Schweitzer encouraged the workers to hope for assistance from the Prussian Government.
[76] Marx added Szemere's name from memory. It is possible, however, that the Hungarian correspondent in Paris mentioned here was Gustav Zerffi (Bangya's secret accomplice in the police service, something of which Marx was totally unaware) and that Bertalan Szemere was the third person, as mentioned below, who helped to expose Bangya.
[95] The Corn Laws were repealed in June 1846. They imposed high import duties on agricultural produce in the interests of the landowners so as to maintain high prices on the home market. The repeal of the Corn Laws was a victory for the industrial bourgeoisie, who opposed them under the slogan of free trade.
[99] A reference to the stand taken by the representatives of British capitalist and official circles when the Ten Hours' Bill of 1831 for children and adolescents was debated in Parliament in February and March 1832.
[100] Juggernaut (Jagannath)—a title of Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu. The cult of Juggernaut was marked by sumptuous ritual and extreme religious fanaticism which manifested itself in the self-torture and suicide of believers. On feast day some believers threw themselves under the wheels of the chariot bearing the idol of Vishnu — Juggernaut.
[119] Marx wrote this address on the instructions of the Central Council in connection with the importation into Scotland of German and Danish tailors to be used as strike-breakers. This issue was discussed at the Central Council meeting of May 1, 1866. Friedrich Lessner informed the meeting that London manufacturers also intended to have recourse to German workers. For this reason the German tailors living in London formed a committee headed by Lessner and Haufe and took a decision to act jointly with the Council in order to frustrate the plans of the manufacturers and their agents in Germany. The Central Council sent two representatives to Edinburgh who persuaded the newly-arrived workers to cancel their contracts and return home. On Marx's request, Lessner and Haufe sent him on May 3 details about the events in Edinburgh. "A Warning" written by Marx on May 4 was published in several German newspapers. The author's rough and fair copies of this document have survived. At the same time Lessner and Haufe published a leaflet which set forth the aims and tasks of the German tailors' London Committee and contained an appeal to German workers in London to collect funds. In July 1866 the committee issued a second leaflet, also signed by Lessner and Haufe, and addressed to the tailors in Germany. This document was published in English for the first time in The General Council of the First International. 1864-1866, Moscow, 1962.
[120] A reference to the trade union which was formed in London in March 1866 when the London journeymen tailors went on strike. It had an executive committee and, jointly with the Central Council, successfully directed the tailors' strikes. In April 1866 this union joined the International. Their delegate, Matthew Lawrence, took part in the Geneva Congress.
[122] Engels devoted this series of articles to the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 which rounded off the long rivalry between Austria and Prussia and predetermined the unification of Germany under the supremacy of Prussia. Several German states — including Hanover, Saxony, Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden — fought on Austria's side. Prussia formed an alliance with Italy. In June and July military operations were conducted on two fronts: in Bohemia and in Italy. After a grave defeat at Sadowa on July 3 Austria began peace negotiations and signed a treaty in Prague on August 23. Austria conceded Schleswig and Holstein to Prussia, paid small indemnities to her and gave the province of Venetia to Italy. The German Confederation, which was founded in 1815 by decision of the Vienna Congress and embraced over 30 German states, ceased to exist, and the North German Confederation was founded in its place under Prussia's supremacy. As a result of the war, Prussia annexed the Kingdom of Hanover, the electorate of Hesse-Cassel, the Grand Duchy of Nassau and the free city of Frankfurt-am-Main. In the first articles, Engels expressed the assumption that the Austrians might win the war, but withdrew it as soon as information on military operations enabled him to obtain a more accurate knowledge of the real balance of forces. Engels had made his preliminary forecast proceeding from the interests of achieving Germany's unification in a revolutionary way, believing that the defeat of militarist junker Prussia would be a contributory factor. The Manchester Guardian published articles Nos. I and II under the heading "Notes on the War in Germany", and Nos. III-V under that of "Notes on the War".
[143] The Conference of trades' delegates was held in Sheffield from July 17 to 21, 1866. It was attended by 138 delegates representing 200,000 organised workers. The battle against lockouts was the main question at the Conference. Its resolution, calling trade unions to become affiliated to the International Working Men's Association, was published in a book, Report of the Conference of Trades' Delegates of the United Kingdom, held in Sheffield, on July 17th, 1866 and
[162] 62 Marx wrote this article in connection with a speech made by the Lassallean Hofstetten at a meeting of the General Association of German Workers on November 24, 1867. The report of this meeting was printed in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 139, first supplement, November 29, 1867. Hofstetten had borrowed separate passages from Marx's Capital rewriting them almost word
[174]
[177] of commodities are determined by the quantity of money in circulation, that the guarantee of stable currency is the obligatory backing of banknotes by gold and that their issue is regulated according to the import and export of precious metals, regarding violation of these "laws" as the decisive cause of economic crises. The attempts of the British Government to rely on the "currency principle" theory (Bank Act of 1844, etc.) failed, thus proving its scientific infeasibility and its impracticability (see critique of this theory in Marx's A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy). In the second German edition of the book (1872), the first chapter ("Commodities and Money") was turned into Part I, consisting of three chapters. In the English edition of 1887 Part I also consists of three chapters: Chapter I.— Commodities, Chapter II.— Exchange, and Chapter III.— Money, or the Circulation of Commodities. Engels is referring to the passage in which Marx demonstrates the fallacy of the allegations by the vulgar economist N. W. Senior that the capitalist's profit was produced by the labourer in the last hour of his working day and of his justified objections on this ground to the legal limitation of working hours (see Capital, 1887, Part III, Chapter IX, Section 3). The Règlement organique—the first constitution of the Danubian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. It was introduced by P. D. Kiselev, head of the Russian administration, in 1831, during the temporary occupation of the principalities by Russian troops under the Treaty of Adrianople of 1829, which concluded the Russo-Turkish war of 1828-29 and confirmed the autonomy of Moldavia and Wallachia from the Sultan of Turkey. In accordance with the Règlement, legislative power in each principality belonged to the assembly elected by big landowners, while executive power was in the hands of the hospodars elected for life by the representatives of landowners, the clergy and towns. The Règlement ensured a dominant position for the boyars and the high clergy by retaining the feudal practices, including corvée. At the same time it envisaged certain bourgeois reforms (abolition of inland customs barriers, separation of court from administration, etc.). The publication of Engels' reviews of Volume I of Capital and the reprinting of Marx's preface to it (in excerpts or in full) by a number of bourgeois newspapers (Die Zukunft, No. 206, September 4, 1867; Der Beobachter, No. 210, September 7, 1867; Hamburger Nachrichten, No. 218, September 13, 1867; Hamburger Börsenhalle, No. 17848, February 14, 1868) and working-class and democratic newspapers (Der Social-Demokrat, No. 105, September 6, 1867; The Bee-Hive, No. 308, September 7, 1867; Vorbote, Nos. 9-10, September-October 1867; Le Courrier français, No. 106, October 1, 1867; Demokratisches Wochenblatt, No. 1, January 4, 1868 and others) made bourgeois economists break the "conspiracy of silence" and comment on the book in the press. Their first reviews, not yet numerous, often contained slanderous fabrications about the author of Capital. In particular, they alleged that Marx had borrowed the determination of the magnitude of value by the socially necessary labour-time from the French vulgar economist Frédéric Bastiat. This accusation was made in an anonymous review in the Vierteljahrschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Kulturgeschichte, Jrg. 5, Bd. 20, 1868, and in another review by an unknown author which was signed "h" in the Literarisches Centralblatt für Deutschland, No. 28, July 4, 1868. This item is Marx's reply to these reviews; it was not published during his lifetime and has survived in manuscript form.
[192] In view of the anniversary of the Polish insurrection of 1830-31, the Central Council of the International resolved at its meeting of November 29, 1864 to issue an address to the Polish people on behalf of the British members of the International Working Men's Association. Peter Fox, a Council member and leader of the British National League for the Independence of Poland, was instructed to write it. A democratically-minded journalist, Fox, however, shared the naive belief of many democrats at that time, and also trade-union leaders, in the "Poland worship" of Western ruling circles, in particular the Bonapartist Second Empire in France. The address submitted by Fox alleged that the traditional policy of France was favourable to Poland's independence. The address led to a discussion at the Sub-Committee's meeting of December 6 and at the Central Council's meetings of December 13 and 20, 1864 and January 3, 1865. Marx took an active part in the discussion. He criticised Fox's report at the Sub-Committee's meeting of December 6, of which he informed Engels in a letter on December 10, 1864 (see present edition, Vol. 42), and at the Council's meetings of December 13 and January 3 (see this volume, pp. 354 and 356). Marx showed, particularly in his speech on January 3, 1865, that the French ruling circles, both under absolutism and under the bourgeois regimes right up to the time of Napoleon III, had always sought to exploit the Polish question in the selfish interests of the ruling classes and that their policy was not favourable to the cause of Poland's independence, of which the sole defenders were the representatives of the revolutionary proletariat. Marx's arguments made the Central Council adopt a decision to enter the appropriate amendments in Fox's address. When preparing his speeches, Marx collected, in December 1864, material for his polemics with Fox and then used it for the draft speech published here. It reproduced in more concise and polished form the greater part of Marx's preparatory material, but the history of Franco-Polish relations was brought only to 1812. Marx elucidated their later development in his speeches, in particular on January 3, on the basis of preparatory material in which their history was traced up to 1848. The corresponding small part of the MS with preparatory materials is published in this volume, in Note 229. Words and expressions, crossed out by Marx, and the vertical lines drawn by him in the left margins of the MS, usually opposite quotations, are not reproduced. Some paragraphs are numbered by Marx, the rest (in brackets) by the editors. Obvious slips of the pen in the dates have been corrected without comment.
[193] T h e Treaty of Westphalia concluded the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) in which the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs and the Catholic German princes, supported by the Pope, fought against the Protestant countries: Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and a number of German states which adopted Reformation. In 1635 Catholic France, a rival of the Habsburg Empire, joined the Protestant coalition. Germany was the main arena of the struggle, and the Treaty of Westphalia set the seal on its political dismemberment,
[216] Comité du Salut Public—the central body of the French revolutionary government (April 1793-July 27, 1794).
[227] Marx is referring to a term of the Schönbrunn Peace Treaty (signed in the Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna), which was concluded on October 14, 1809 by France and Austria, a m e m b e r of the fifth anti-French coalition, after Austria lost the campaign of that year. The war was carried on by the other countries fighting Napoleon — Spain and Portugal, where a national liberation struggle against the French invaders began in 1808, and Britain. U n d e r the Schönbrunn Treaty, of the territories obtained during the Polish partitions which Austria had to cede, Western Galicia was to be annexed to the Duchy of Warsaw and the Tarnopol district to Russia. In this way Napoleon sought to aggravate the Austro-Russian contradictions and to prevent these two countries from restoring the alliance between them.
[230] Marx made this report at the Central Council meeting of January 24, 1865 on the basis of Wilhelm Liebknecht's letter to him of January 21. Marx wrote the draft for the report between the lines of Liebknecht's letter. In the Minute Book of the General Council, Marx's speech was recorded in shorter form (see this volume, pp. 356-57). When speaking about the affiliation of the General Association of German Workers to the International Working Men's Association, Marx did not have sufficient information about the sectarian position of the Lassallean leadership of the General Association. Their sectarianism hindered the affiliation no less than the police bans then in force in Prussia and other German states (the Prussian law of 1850 on associations which forbade the workers officially to join any society abroad, and so on). This document was published in English for the first time in The General Council of the First International. 1864-1866, Moscow, 1962.
[247] Engels wrote these notes during his trip to Sweden and Denmark in July 1867. In a letter of June 26, 1867 he informed Marx that he and his wife Lydia (Lizzy) Burns intended to undertake this trip via Hamburg and Schleswig (see present edition, Vol. 42). Engels' notes on hotel bills, ship tickets and other travel documents allow us to trace the route and the length of stay in various places. From July 7 to 9, Engels and his wife were in Göteborg, from July 11 to 13 in Stockholm, on July 14 in Malmö, from July 15 to 18 in Copenhagen, and on July 20 they were already in Flensburg, Germany. They returned to Manchester early in August 1867. Engels' notes, written on three separate sheets of paper, have been preserved. Appended to them is a larger sheet with the plan of a fortress (apparently Karlsborg mentioned in the text) drawn by Engels. At the end of the first paragraph Engels drew a man's head.
[249] The Minutes of the weekly (apart from extraordinary) meetings of the International's leading body — the General Council (originally known as the Committee, elected by the inaugural meeting of September 28, 1864, then the Provisional Central Committee or Council or simply the Central Council)— during its residence in London from 1864 to 1872 made up five Minute Books. They were usually kept by persons who were active as the Council's Secretary at the given moment. Some Minutes have been preserved as rough copies written on separate sheets of paper and pasted onto the corresponding pages of the Minute Book. Sometimes newspaper cuttings containing the printed report of a certain meeting were pasted into the Minute Book. As a rule, the Minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed at the beginning of each meeting. The first Minute Book covers the period from October 5, 1864 to August 21, si866 and the records in it are very brief. The second book contains the Minutes from September 18, 1866 to September 1, 1868. Here, as in the subsequent books, the records are more detailed. The section "Appendices" contains extracts from the first and second Minute Books of the General Council showing the most important aspects of Marx's activity in it, including his speeches, the brief summaries of which become understandable only in the context of the corresponding passage in the Minutes. The more detailed extant records of his speeches for the given period are published in this volume as separate documents. This document was published in English for the first time in the collection, Founding of the First International, Moscow, 1935.
[256] A reference to the editorial in a January issue of St. Louis Daily Press; the same issue published excerpts from the "Inaugural Address of the Working Men's International Association". Marx received the newspaper from Weydemeyer on January 31, 1865.
[258] Marx based his first information on a letter from Ernest Jones dated February 13, 1865. He then read Jones' letter of February 10, 1865 in reply to his own
[266] Marx meant Charles Longuet, editor of the democratic weekly La Rive Gauche which published the International's documents (it began to appear in Paris on October 20, 1864). Longuet was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment for publishing articles against the Second Empire, and the paper was banned as of March 12, 1865. Publication was resumed on May 14, 1865 in Brussels and continued until August 15, 1866.
[270] Late in March 1865, the Leipzig Compositors' Union declared a strike in reply to the employers' refusal to meet the compositors' demand for higher wage rates. It involved nearly 650 people. On April 15, the Berlin Compositors' Union, of which Wilhelm Liebknecht was one of the leaders, sent a letter to the Central Council asking it to support the Leipzig compositors. This letter is quoted in the report of the given Council meeting published in The Bee-Hive Newspaper, No. 185, April 29, 1865.
[272] On the Reform Conference in Manchester see Note 242. The leading bodies of the Reform League (see Note 141)—the Council and the more narrow Executive Committee — were elected at the end of March 1865. The Executive included six Central Council members (Cremer, Leno, Nieass, Odger, Howell and Eccarius). Howell was elected the League's honorary secretary. In view of the forthcoming conference in Manchester, the League issued an address to the working classes to campaign for manhood suffrage.
[273] An extraordinary meeting of the Central Council to discuss problems raised by Weston was held in the evening of May 20. The minutes of this meeting are not extant. In a letter to Engels, dated May 20, 1865 (see present edition, Vol. 42), Marx gave the substance of Weston's views and his chief objections to them. As can be seen from the letter, Marx considered it important to counter Weston's erroneous theses with a scientific theory on the questions concerned, and to explain in popular form several basic propositions from his own economic teaching. Marx did not therefore confine himself to opposing Weston at this and subsequent meetings, but prepared a special report which he read in the Council on June 20 and 27, 1865 (see Note 87).
[274] Written by Marx, the Address of the Central Council was printed in the New-York Daily Tribune, No. 7536, June 1, 1865, under the heading "To Andrew Johnson, President of the United States". The heading was preceded by the words: "The Working Men of Europe to President Johnson".
[275] The Provisional Rules of the International Working Men's Association envisaged the convocation of a congress in Belgium in 1865 (see this volume, p. 15). However, Marx soon realised that the local organisations were not yet strong enough and that the International as a whole was not ready for a congress. He managed to convince Central Council members of the need to convene a conference in London, instead of a congress, on July 25, 1865. The Council approved the report of the Standing Committee on this question (see . this volume, pp. 375-77).
[278] The address was drawn up on the basis of the Central Council's resolutions, drafted by Marx, on the terms of the admission of workers' organisations to the International (see this volume, p. 18). The leaflet with the address was
[281]
[297] This letter was the Central Council's reply to Vésinier's slanderous article (see Note 291). It was written by Jung and, by the Council's decision of February 6, 1866, was sent to the editor of L'Echo de Verviers. The letter was edited by Marx, as is evident from Jung's letters to him of February 15 and 26, 1866. The English translation of the letter was first published in The General Council of the First International. 1864-1866, Moscow, 1962.
[3 0 5] T h e Schiller Institute, founded in Manchester in November 1859 in connection with the centenary of Friedrich Schiller's birth, strove to be the centre of cultural and social life of the German émigrés. Engels was critical of the Institute noted for its tendency to formalism and pedantry, and initially kept aloof from it. But when certain changes were introduced into its Rules, he became a m e m b e r of its Directorate in 1864. Later, as the President of the Engels devoted much time to it and exercised a considerable Institute, influence on its activities. In September 1868, while Engels was away from Manchester, the Institute invited Karl Vogt who was slandering the proletarian revolutionaries, to deliver a lecture. Engels felt that his political reputation would be compromised if he remained President and so he left the Directorate. In April 1870 he was again elected a m e m b e r of the Directorate of the Schiller Institute, but did not take an active part in it.
[315]
[320] On February 28, 1867 Marx made a speech at the celebration of the 27th anniversary of the German Workers' Educational Society in London (see Note 260). Besides German workers, the celebration meeting was attended by French members of the International in London and participants in the British working-class movement. The meeting was addressed by General Council members Peter Fox, Georg Eccarius and other speakers. An account of the meeting, including the record of Marx's speech, was made by Friedrich Lessner and sent to Johann Philipp Becker to be published in Der Vorbote.
[322] See Note 305.
[326] The Royal Commission to Make Inquiry Respecting the English Trade Unions was set up in February 1867 because the ruling classes were anxious about their growing activity and hoped the inquiry would help to outlaw the trade unions or at least restrict the scope of their activity. At the same time an anti-trade-union campaign was launched in bourgeois newspapers. The trade unions, supported by the General Council of the International, reacted to this by holding meetings all over the country and convening a national conference in London on March 5-8, 1867. The Royal Commission failed to make any serious charges against the trade unions, but it hindered the process of their full legalisation (defence of their funds by law, recognition of their right to fight strike-breakers, to post pickets and to support strikes organised by other trade unions).
[334] A reference to the membership cards (carnets de membre). Of the 1,000 copies printed, 800 were sent to France and confiscated by the French police at the frontier; as was the practice, they reproduced the Rules and Administrative Regulations of the International approved by the Geneva Congress of 1866. These cards were printed in London on November 25 by the General Council's decision of September 16, 1866 in reply to a request from the Paris Administration. The Council thought it expedient to undertake this task, fearing that the Paris Administration, which had in the past published the Provisional Rules with Proudhonist distortions, would repeat them in subsequent editions. (And indeed the French Proudhonists did publish a similarly distorted text of the Rules at the end of 1866.) The French text of the Rules for the new publication was prepared by Marx, who drew on the Geneva Congress materials brought by Jung. The Administrative Regulations were translated from German by Paul Lafargue with the help of Marx's daughter Laura, since there was no French text among the above-mentioned materials. The manuscripts of Marx and Lafargue are extant. Marx cut out paragraphs IV and V from the leaflet and pasted them into his manuscript. When preparing the Rules for the press, Lafargue rewrote the second page of Marx's manuscript and repasted the cutting into it. The rewritten passages in Marx's manuscript were crossed out. The publication appeared in London in November 1866 as a separate pamphlet, Association Internationale des Travailleurs. Statuts et règlements.
[335] In October and November 1866, in reply to the basket-makers' refusal to dissolve their trade unions and accept lower wages, the employers declared a lockout and tried to import Belgian workers for use as strike-breakers. The General Council's measures compelled the employers to make concessions.
[336] On the General Council's support of the Paris bronzeworkers' strike in February and March 1867, see Note 325. In April 1867 nearly 7,000 London tailors went on strike demanding fixed rates for all branches of the clothing industry in all the big cities of England. Thanks to assistance organised by the General Council from the workers of France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany, the strikers held out for several months.
[337] A reference to the Act of Parliamentary Reform finally passed by the British Parliament on August 15, 1867. It extended suffrage to persons who lived in towns not less than 12 months and were tenants of houses or flats. In the counties the right to vote was granted to tenants with an annual income of £12. As a result, the number of voters increased from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000. The electoral right extended not only to the middle-class strata of town and country, but also to the comparatively well-to-do upper stratum of the working class; The bulk of the working people of Britain, however, as before, had no right to vote.
[338] T h e National Reform League was founded in London in 1849 by Bronterre O'Brien and other Chartist leaders. Its objective was to campaign for universal suffrage and social reforms. In 1866 the League became affiliated to the International. Its leaders Alfred Walton and George Milner joined the General Council and took part in several congresses of the International.
[346] Wilhelm Liebknecht was elected to the North-German Imperial Diet by one of the Saxon electoral districts. The returns became known on September 20, 1867.
[3 4 7] In early 1867 a conflict arose between the ruling circles of Prussia and France, both claiming the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, which was connected by personal union with the Netherlands (the King of the Netherlands was the Grand Duke of Luxemburg) and was also a member of the German Confederation. But when the latter was dissolved in 1866, Luxemburg refused to enter the North-German Confederation formed under Prussia's aegis. Napoleon III and the King of the Netherlands struck a bargain over the sale of Luxemburg to France, but Bismarck blocked this by using the Prussian garrison which has been sent to the Duchy when the German Confederation still existed. In May 1867 the Luxemburg question was discussed at an international conference in London which made it incumbent upon both powers to guarantee Luxemburg's former status and neutrality. Prussia was to withdraw its troops from the Duchy. The Luxemburg conflict was accompanied by military preparations and noisy militarist propaganda in these countries and was a stage in the preparations for the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Liebknecht's speech in the North-German Imperial Diet on October 17, 1867 was reproduced in the report of the General Council meeting on October 22, published in The Bee-Hive Newspaper, No. 315, October 26, 1867. Marx attached great importance to this speech; he asked Lafargue to translate it into French and send it to France for the publication in Le Courrier français.
[349] For the Lausanne Congress of the International Working Men's Association, see Note 331. For the congress of the League of Peace and Freedom in Geneva, see Notes 155 and 329.
[351] The Rules and Administrative Regulations of the International Working Men's Association were approved by the Geneva Congress at its sittings on September 5 and 8, 1866. The Rules were based on the Provisional Rules drawn up by Marx in October 1864 (see this volume, pp. 14-16), into which some changes and additions were inserted. The Administrative Regulations were worked out during the Geneva Congress by a commission of which Eccarius was a member. Both documents were published in German by J. Ph. Becker in Der Vorbote, No. 9, September 1866. Subsequently, they were published in French and English in the reports on the Congress or in other forms in the various periodicals of the International. Marx personally took part in preparing two of these editions. In the autumn of 1866, by the General Council's decision, he and Laf argue worked on a French translation of the Rules and Regulations, which was reproduced in the membership cards. As most of them were seized on the French frontier (for details see Note 334), the edition was not widely circulated. The following autumn, after the Lausanne Congress, Georg Eccarius, with the knowledge and support of Marx, prepared a new official edition of the Rules and Administrative Regulations in English. On November 5, 1867, the General Council sanctioned the publication of 1,000 copies, presumably delayed for lack of funds. At the Council meeting on December 17, Marx offered to advance his own money for the publication, and the pamphlet was brought out in London at the end of 1867. In the 1867 English edition the Rules and Regulations were given in the form adopted at the Geneva Congress. Unlike the above-mentioned French edition of 1866, which reproduced the text of the Preamble but gave only the first six paragraphs of the Rules, designated as "articles", and omitted the remaining six paragraphs (perhaps through the carelessness of the publisher who had undertaken to print membership cards containing the Rules and Regulations) the English edition of 1867 gave all 12 paragraphs. In both editions, French and English, the number and sequence of paragraphs in the Regulations did not coincide: the French text has 15 paragraphs, the English has 13. There are also textual differences. This volume reproduces the text of 1867 English edition of the Rules and Administrative Regulations which was approved by Marx and later used by him in subsequent work on these documents. The most important discrepancies with the 1866 French edition are given in footnotes.