23. Record of Marx's Speech on the Seventh Anniversary of the International
23. Record of Marx's Speech on the Seventh Anniversary of the International[420]
[FROM THE NEWSPAPER REPORT ON THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING IN LONDON ON SEPTEMBER 24, 1871]
Concerning the International, he said that the great success which had hitherto crowned its efforts was due to circumstances over which the members themselves had no control. The foundation of the International itself was the result of these circumstances, and by no means due to the efforts of the men engaged in it. It was not the work of any set of clever politicians: all the politicians in the world could not have created the situation and circumstances requisite for the success of the International. The International had not put forth any particular creed. Its task was to organize the forces of labor and link the various working-men's movements and combine them. The circumstances which had given such a great development to the association were the conditions under which the work-people were more and more oppressed throughout the world, and this was the secret of the success. The events of the last few weeks had unmistakably shown that the working class must fight for its emancipation. The persecutions of the governments against the International were like the persecutions of ancient Rome against the primitive Christians. They, too, had been few in numbers at first, but the patricians of Rome had instinctively felt that if the Christians succeeded the Roman empire would be lost. The persecutions of Rome had not saved the empire, and the persecutions of the present day against the International would not save the existing state of things.
What was new in the International was that it was established by the working men themselves and for themselves. Before the foundation of the International all the different organizations had been societies founded by some radicals among the ruling classes for the working classes, but the International was established by the working men for themselves. The Chartist movement[409] in this country had been started with the consent and assistance of middle-class radicals, though if it had been successful it could only have been for the advantage of the working class. England was the only country where the working class was sufficiently developed and organized to turn universal suffrage to its own proper account. He then alluded to the revolution of February[421] as a movement that had been favored by a portion of the bourgeoisie against the ruling party. The revolution of February had only given promises to the working classes and had replaced one set of men of the ruling class by another. The insurrection of June had been a revolt against the whole ruling class, including the most radical portion. The working men who had lifted the new men into power in 1848 had instinctively felt that they had only exchanged one set of oppressors for another and that they were betrayed.
The last movement was the Commune, the greatest that had yet been made, and there could not be two opinions about it — the Commune was the conquest of the political power of the working classes. There was much misunderstanding about the Commune. The Commune could not found a new form of class government. In destroying the existing conditions of oppression by transferring all the means of labor to the productive laborer, and thereby compelling every able-bodied individual to work for a living, the only base for class rule and oppression.would be removed. But before such a change could be effected a proletarian dictature would become necessary, and the first condition of that was a proletarian army. The working classes would have to conquer the right to emancipate themselves on the battlefield. The task of the International was to organize and combine the forces of labor for the coming struggle.
NOTES
AND INDEXES
Endnotes
[420] 0 Marx made this speech at the ceremonial meeting on the occasion of the 7th anniversary of the International, held in London on September 24, 1871. The meeting was chaired by Marx and attended by the delegates to the London Conference, members of the General Council and refugee Communards. The report on this meeting, mistakenly dated September 25, was published in The World; it gave a brief rendering of Marx's speech, which is reproduced in this volume.
[409] 19 The reference is to Chartism, the workers' political movement in Great Britain from the 1830s to the early 1850s under the slogan of the People's Charter, which included the demand for universal suffrage and certain conditions to ensure this right to the workers. pp. 615, 634
[421] 1 This refers to the February 1848 revolution in France.