1. Considering, that the Belgian Parliament has just prolon-gated for three years the law by which every foreigner may be expelled [from] the country by the Belgian executive government[5];
2. that the dignity of the I. W. Association is incompatible with the meeting of the Congress at a place where they would be at the mercy of the local police;
3. that Article 3 of the Rules of the I.W.A.(1) provides that the General Council may, in case of need, change the place of meeting of the Congress;
the General Council resolves that the Congress of the I.W.A. do assemble in London on the 5th of September, 1868.
Introduced at the General Council meet-Reproduced from the Minute ing of June 2, 1868 Book of the General Council
Endnotes
[4] The Lausanne Congress of the International in 1867 designated Brussels as the venue of the next general congress. On February 24, 1868, the General Council called on all sections to begin preparing the Congress agenda. However, the Belgian Minister of Justice, Jules Bara, declared in the Chamber of Deputies on May 16 that he would not permit the convocation of the Congress in Brussels and urged the deputies to renew the Aliens Law of 1835, under which any foreigner could be expelled from the country as politically unreliable. In view of this, at the General Council meeting of May 26, 1868, Marx raised the question of not meeting in Brussels (see The Bee-Hive Newspaper, No. 346, May 30, 1868). The resolution drawn up by Marx to this effect was read by Jung at the General Council meeting of June 2, since Marx had left for Manchester. Bara's statement and the prolongation of the Aliens Law caused great discontent in Belgium. The Brussels Section of the International sent the Minister a protest letter which was published in La Tribune du Peuple, No. 5, May 24, 1868. In their letters to the General Council, De Paepe and Vandenhouten, the leaders of the Brussels Section, urged the Council not to yield to the government because this threatened the further existence of the International in Belgium. Consequently, on Marx's proposal, the General Council meeting of June 16 cancelled the resolution of June 2 and Brussels remained the venue for the next annual congress (see this volume, pp. 320-21 and also Marx's letter to Engels of June 20, 1868, present edition, Vol. 43). The text of the June 2 resolution was included in the Minutes of the General Council meeting of June 2, 1868, and was also published in The Bee-Hive Newspaper, No. 347, June 6, 1868.
[5] This refers to the Aliens Law adopted in Belgium on September 22, 1835 and prolonged every three years. Despite the widespread protest campaign in the press and at meetings, it was renewed at the end of June 1865. In May 1868, the Belgian Government, for fear of fresh mass action, prolonged it without discussion in the Chamber of Deputies.