18. Record of Marx's Speech on the Political Action of the Working Class
18. Record of Marx's Speech on the Political Action of the Working Class[411]
[FROM THE MINUTES OF THE SESSION OF THE LONDON CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING
MEN'S ASSOCIATION ON SEPTEMBER 20, 1871]
Citizen Lorenzo has called on us to observe the Regulations, and Citizen Bastelica has followed him in this course.— I take the original Rules and the Inaugural Address, and I read in the two that the General Council will be responsible for presenting a programme for discussion at the congresses.(1)
The programme which the General Council is presenting to the conference for discussion comprises(2)—the organisation of the Association; and the Vaillant motion relates to this point — the claim of Lorenzo and Bastelica is therefore unfounded —
In almost all countries some members of the International, basing themselves on the mutilated formulation of the Rules passed by the Congress of Geneva,[412] have indulged in propaganda in favour of abstention from politics, which the governments have taken great care not to interrupt. Even in Germany, Schweitzer and others in the pay of Bismarck tried to rally the sections round the policies of the government. In France this culpable abstention had allowed Favre, Picard and others to seize power on 4 September— this abstention enabled a dictatorial committee to set itself up in Paris on 18 March, composed largely of Bonapartists and intriguers who knowingly wasted the first days of the Revolution in inaction, when they should have spent them consolidating it.[413]
In America a congress held recently[414] and composed of workers has resolved to deal seriously with the political question and to substitute workers like themselves tö represent them, entrusted with defending the interests of their class, for these personalities who make a career out of being politicians.
In England it is less easy for a worker to enter Parliament. The Members receiving no subsidy, and the worker having nothing but the proceeds of his labour to live on, Parliament is closed to him, and the Bourgeoisie, stubbornly refusing to pay an allowance to Members, knows full well that this is the way to prevent the working class from being represented.
But it must not be thought that it is of minor importance to have workers in parliament. If their voices are stifled, like those of De Potter and Castiau, if they are ejected like Manuel — the effect of this severity and intolerance on the people is profound— Whereas if, like Bebel and Liebknecht, they are able to speak from this platform, the entire world can hear them — in one way or the other it means considerable publicity for our principles — To mention only one example — When, during the war taking place in France, Bebel and Liebknecht embarked on the struggle against it, and to disclaim all responsibility on behalf of the working class with regard to what was happening — the whole of Germany was shaken, and even Munich, this city where no-one would contemp-late revolution unless it involved the price of beer, was the scene of great demonstrations demanding an end to the war.
The governments are hostile to us.(3) We must answer them by using every possible means at our disposal, getting workers into parliament is so much gaining over them, but we must choose the right men and watch out for the Tolains.(4)
He supports Citizen Vaillant's motkm with the Frankel amend-ment, which consists in prefacing it with a preamble explaining the reason for this declaration, that is stating that it is not just today that the Association asks the workers to engage in politics, but all the time.
Endnotes
[411] 1 On the discussion at the London Conference of the political action by the working class, see notes 253 and 273.
[412] 2 The original text of the Rules of the International Working Men's Association was written by Marx in English in October 1864 and approved by the Central Council on November 1 of that year as the Provisional- Rules (see present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 14-16). At the Geneva Congress in 1866, the Rules were confirmed, with some additions and amendments, together with the Administrative Regulations appended to them. In the autumn of 1866, the Rules and Administrative Regulations were translated by Marx and Lafargue into French and, late in November, published in London as a pamphlet that included the basic changes introduced at the Geneva Congress (see present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 441-46). In 1867, the English text of the Rules and Administrative Regulations was printed in London; it took account of the changes introduced by the Geneva and Lausanne congresses since the adoption of the Provisional Rules in 1864. At the next congresses — in Brussels (1868) and Basle (1869) — a number of resolutions were adopted that constituted addenda to the Rules. However, the texts of the Rules without these addenda and amendments were current at the time. The English editions published after the Geneva and Lausanne congresses also contained some substantial inaccuracies. Besides, there was no official edition of the Rules in different languages, which led to poor translations of them circulating in a number of countries. The French translation of 1866, prepared by Tolain, a Right-wing Proudhonist, distorted the most important proposition of the role of political struggle for the emancipation of the working class. Considering all these circumstances, the London Conference adopted a resolution, drafted by Marx, on the publication of a new, authentic edition of the Rules and Administrative Regulations in English, German and French. It also resolved that all translations into other languages should be approved by the General Council. At the end of September-October 1871, Marx and Engels prepared a new edition of the Rules and Administrative Regulations, taking into account the resolutions of all the congresses of the International and of the London Conference. They rewrote the Appendix that substantiated all the amendments and addenda in detail. Marx and Engels directly supervised the translation of the Rules and Regulations into German and French. The official English edition—General Rules and Administrative Regulations of the International Working Men's Association—appeared as a pamphlet in London early in November, in French — in December 1871; in German the Rules and Regulations were published in pamphlet form in Leipzig and also in the newspaper Der Volksstaat, No. 12, February 10, 1872. For lack of money, the General Council failed to publish the official edition of the Rules and Regulations, prepared with Engels' participation, in Italian. They were issued in Italian in abridged form by La Plebe and L'Eguaglianza publishers.
[413] Marx has in mind certain dubious elements and traitors who made their way into the Central Committee of the National Guard in Paris, which was of a mixed character (Blanquists, neo-Jacobins, Proudhonists, etc). Such people on the Central Committee functioning as the revolutionary government from March 18 to 28, 1871 (when the Commune was proclaimed), as well as absence of political unity among them, were the main reasons for the serious mistakes it committed (see this volume, pp. 509-10).
[414] This refers to the congress of the American National Labour Union, which took place from August 7 to 10, 1871 (see Note 141).