Citizens! The Lyonese section of the International Working Men's Association, in virtue of a resolution passed at the Congress of Basle, 1869, to the effect that the General Council shall act as umpire in cases where differences arise between members of the Association,[3] has appealed to the Council to decide between Albert Richard on one side and Schettel, Cormier, A. Blanc, Chanoz and Vindry on the other side, the latter being members of the old section of Lyons.
The General Council, having examined the documents sent by that section, declares the accusations made to be without the least foundation and confirms the verdict of the two special commissions appointed on that subject: the first at the Congress of Lausanne, 1867, and the second at Geneva, 1869, and maintains Albert Richard in the post of Corresponding Secretary of the International Working Men's Association conformably to the Rules and Regulations.
Considering also that the call made by the old members upon the radical burgesses to give a decision in this case which ought only to have been known to the members of the Association is contrary to the Rules, spirit, and interest of the Association and of a nature of profiting the enemies, the General Council censures energetically the conduct of the old members of the section.
The General Council takes advantage of the position in which it is placed by this misunderstanding to remind all the members of the Association that before any publication or any public action it should be apprised of it, as this mode of proceeding is calculated to excite personal animosities which should be carefully avoided at all times, and produces divisions in our ranks, and can only be useful to our adversaries at a time when all the activity, all the strength, and all the energy of our members should be concentrated for the speedy triumph of the principles of the International Working Men's Association.
Adopted by the General Council on Reproduced from the Minute March 8, 1870 Book of the General Council
Endnotes
[145] This is a report of the Standing Committee which it discussed at the sittings of February 19 and March 5, 1870. (Marx also attended them.) The report was submitted to the General Council of the International on March 8, 1870. The Council, which had the right to arbitrate in conflicts arising between sections of the International, adopted the report and passed a decision on the conflict between Adrien Scheitel and other members of the old Lyons section who supported the French Left Republicans, and the group of Albert Richard, a Bakuninist. The General Council found all the accusations made against Richard untenable and confirmed him in the post of Corresponding Secretary of the IWMA. The decision signed by the Corresponding Secretary foi France, Eugène Dupont, was published in L'Internationale, No. 63, March 27, 1870.
[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).