29. K. Marx. Resolutions on the Split in the United States' Federation Passed by the General Council of the I.W.A. in Its Sittings of 5th and 12th March, 1872
29. K. Marx. Resolutions on the Split in the United States' Federation Passed by the General Council of the I.W.A. in Its Sittings of 5th and 12th March, 1872[90]
I. THE TWO FEDERAL COUNCILS
Art. 1. Considering, that Central Councils are but instituted in order to secure, in every country, to "the Working Men's movement the power of union and combination" (Art. 7 of the General Rules)(1); that, consequently, the existence of two rival Central Councils for the same federation is an open infraction of the General Rules;
The General Council calls upon the two provisional Federal Councils at New York to re-unite and to act as one and the same provisional Federal Council for the United States until the meeting of an American General Congress.
Art. 2. Considering, that the efficiency of the Provisional Federal Council would be impaired if it contained too many members who have only quite recently joined the International Working Men's Association;
The General Council recommends that such new-formed sections as are numerically weak, should combine amongst each other for the appointment of a few common delegates.
II. GENERAL CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES' FEDERATION
Art. 1. The General Council recommends the convocation, for the 1st of July 1872, of a General Congress of the delegates of sections and affiliated societies of the United States.
Art. 2. To this Congress will belong the appointment of the members of the Federal Council for the United States. It may, if convenient, empower the Federal Council thus appointed to add to itself a certain limited number of members.
Art. 3. This Congress will have the sole power of determining the bye-laws and regulations for the organisation of the I.W.A. in the United States, "but such bye-laws and regulations must not contain anything contrary to the General Rules and Regulations of the Association" (Adm. Reg., V. Art. l).b
III. SECTIONS[6]
Art. 1. Considering, that Section No. 12 at New York has not only passed a formal resolution by virtue of which "each section" possesses "the independent right" to construe, according to its fancy, "the proceedings of the several congresses" and the "General Rules and Regulations",c but moreover has fully acted up to this doctrine which, if generally adopted, would leave nothing of the I.W.A. but its name;
that the same section has never ceased to make the I.W.A. the vehicle of issues some of which are foreign to, while others are directly opposed to, the aims and purposes of the I.W.A.;
For these reasons the General Council considers it its duty to put in force Administrative Resolution VI of the Bale Congressd
and to declare Section No. 12 suspended till the meeting of the next General Congress of the I.W.A. which is to take place in September 1872.
Art. 2. Considering, that the I.W.A., according to the General Rules, is to consist exclusively of "working men's societies" (see Art. 1, Art. 7 and Art. 11 of the General Rules);
that, consequendy, Art. 9 of the General Rules to this effect: "Everybody who acknowledges and defends the principles of the I.W.A. is eligible to become a member", although it confers upon the active adherents of the International, who are no working men,e the right either of individual membership or of admission to working men's sections, does in no way legitimate the foundation of sections, exclusively or principally composed of members not belonging to the working class;
that for this very reason the General Council was some months ago precluded from recognising a Slavonian section, exclusively composed of students[91];
that, according to the General Regulations V, 1, the General Rules and Regulations are to be adapted "to local circumstances of each country";
that the social conditions of the United States, though in many other respects most favourable to the success of the working-class movement, peculiarly facilitate the intrusion into the International of bogus reformers, middle-class quacks and trading politicians;
For these reasons the General Council recommends that in future there be admitted no new(2) American section of which two-thirds at least do not consist of wage-labourers.
Art. 3. The General Council calls the attention of the American Federation to Resolution II, 3, of the London Conference relating to "sectarian(3) sections" or "separatist bodies pretending to accomplish special missions" distinct from the common aim of the Association,(4) viz., to emancipate the man of labour from his "economical subjection to the monopoliser of the means of labour", which "lies at the bottom of servitude in all its forms, of all social misery, mental degradation, and political dependence" (see Preamble of the General Rules).(5)
Endnotes
[90] In December 1870 in New York representatives of several sections formed a Central Committee as the leading body of the International in the United States. In July 1871, Sections No. 9 and No. 12, headed by the bourgeois feminists Victoria Woodhull and Tenessee Claflin, joined these sections and began campaigning, in the name of the International, for bourgeois reforms. On September 27, 1871, without the knowledge of the New York Central Committee, Section No. 12 demanded that the General Council recognise it as the leading section in the United States. At the same time it conducted a campaign in the newspapers against those sections which maintained the proletarian character of the organisation. In its resolution of November 5 the General Council rejected the claims of Section No. 12 and confirmed the powers of the New York Central Committee. Nevertheless Section No. 12 continued to attack the Central Committee which led to a split in December 1871 between the proletarian and petty-bourgeois sections. Two councils were formed in New York: the Provisional Federal Council (committee No. 1) which included Friedrich Sorge, Friedrich Boite and others, and committee No. 2 headed by Woodhull and other bourgeois reformers from Section No. 12. The General Council resolutely supported the proletarian wing of the North American Federation, and Section No. 12 was suspended from the International pending the next congress. On May 28, 1872, the General Council announced the Provisional Federal Council the only leader of the International in the USA. The North American Federation Congress in July 1872 elected the standing Federal Council, its members being almost all those of the Provisional Council. For causes of the split in the North American Federation, see Engels' "The International in America" and Marx's draft manuscript "American Split" (this volume, pp. 177-83 and 636-43). The resolutions have survived in two manuscripts: Marx's rough manuscript in English and the French translation of these resolutions in Charles Rochat's hand with Marx's corrections on a form with the stamp "International Working Men's Association".
[6] Marx has in mind the resolution of the Basle Congress of 1869 which approved the decision of the General Council of September 24, 1867 to abolish the post of President of the General Council.
[91] Under the direct influence of anarchists, Serbian and Bulgarian students in Zurich organised a small group "Slavenski Savez" within the Alliance of Socialist Democracy. After several attempts in the spring of 1872 to constitute itself as a section of the International and the General Council's refusal to recognise it, the group (whose programme was drawn up by Bakunin) affiliated to the Jura Federation in June-July 1872 and ceased to exist in the summer of 1873.