London, 9 March, 1869
Citizens,
According to Article I of its[3] Statutes, the Int. W. Ass.b admits "all working men's societies ... aiming at the same end, viz., the protection, advancement, and complete emancipation of the working classes".0
Since the various sections of working men in the same country, and the working classes in different countries, are placed under different circumstances and have attained to different degrees of development, it seems almost necessary that their theoretical notions, which reflect the real movement, should also diverge.
The community of action, however, called into life by the Intern. W. Ass., the exchange of ideas facilitated by the public organs of the different national sections, and the direct debates at the General Congresses, are sure by and by to engender a common theoretical programme.
Consequently, it belongs not to the functions of the General Council to subject the programme of the Alliance to a critical examination.d We have not to inquire whether, yes or no, it be a true scientific expression of the working-class movement." All we have to ask is whether its general tendency does not run against the general tendency of the [3] Int. W. Ass., viz., the complete emancipation of the working class?
One phrase in your programme lies open to this objection. It occurs [in] Article 2:
"Elle (l'Alliance) veut avant tout l'égalisation politique, économique et sociale des classes." ("The Alliance aims above all at the political, economical, and social equalisation ... of classes."[66])
The "égalisation des classes", literally interpreted, comes to the "Harmony of Capital and Labour" ("l'harmonie du capital et du travail") so persistently preached by the bourgeois socialists. It is not the logically impossible "equalisation of classes", but the historically necessary, superseding "abolition of classes" (abolition des classes), this true secret of the proletarian movement, which forms the great aim of the Int. W. Ass.
Considering, however, the context, in which that phrase "égalisation des classes" occurs, it seems to be a mere slip of the pen, and the General Council feels confident that you will be anxious to remove from your programme an expression which offers such a dangerous misunderstanding.
It suits the principles of the Int. W. Ass. to let every section freely shape its own theoretical programme, except the single case of an infringement upon its general tendency. There exists, therefore, no obstacle to the transformation of the sections of the Alliance into sections of the Int. W. Ass.
The dissolution of the Alliance, and the entrance of its sections into the Int. W. Ass, once settled, it would, according to our Regulations, become necessary to inform the General Council of the residence and the numerical strength of each new section.(1)
Adopted by the General Council on Reproduced from the English March 9, 1869 rough copy, checked with Marx's
clean copy in French
Endnotes
[65] Having received the General Council's letter of December 22, 1868 in which it refused to admit the Alliance of Socialist Democracy to the International as an independent international organisation (see this volume, pp. 34-36), the Alliance's Central Bureau again applied to the General Council on February 27, 1869, declaring its readiness to dissolve its international organisation provided the General Council approved its programme and admitted its individual local sections to the International (see Marx's letter to Engels of March 5 and Engels' reply of March 7, 1869, present edition, Vol. 43). This letter is the General Council's reply to the second application of the Alliance. It was written by Marx who obtained Engels' agreement to it by quoting it almost verbatim in his letter of March 5, 1869. It was accepted unanimously by the General Council on March 9 and confidentially sent out to all sections of the International. The document was first published in the pamphlet by Marx and Engels, Les prétendues scissions dans l'Internationale (Geneva, 1872) and reprinted in Le Courrier de France, June 24, 1872 and Le Radical, No. 176, June 24, 1872. This letter has been preserved in several copies with minor differences in reading: two rough copies by Marx in English and French, Marx's fair copy in French, and a copy in French in an unknown hand with corrections made by Marx. This document was first published in English in The General Council of the First International. 1868-1870, Moscow, 1966. In this volume the document is reproduced from Marx's rough copy in English checked with his fair copy in French. Major differences in reading are given in the footnotes.
[66] Article 2 of the Alliance's Programme was already included in the Programme which Bakunin presented at the Berne Congress of the League of Peace and Freedom in September 1868. In compliance with the General Council's request, Article 2 of the Alliance's Programme was changed in April 1869 to read as follows: "It is above all working for the complete and final abolition of classes and of political, economic and social equalisation of persons of both sexes." At the General Council meeting of July 27, 1869 Marx proposed and the Council resolved that the Alliance should be admitted to the International.
[3] Marx wrote this item on the basis of a letter from Johann Baptist Schweitzer dated April 29, 1868. The item was included in the report of the General Council meeting of May 12, 1868 published in The Bee-Hive Newspaper, No. 344, May 16, 1868, but is not to be found in the Minute Book. Informing Engels of Schweitzer's letter, Marx wrote to him on May 4, 1868 that he intended "to use this question in the interests of the Party", and insisted on an inquiry into the condition of the workers employed in the iron trade of the Rhine Province (see this letter and Marx's letter to Engels of May 7 and the latter's reply of May 6-7, 1868, present edition, Vol. 43).