34. F. Engels. To Citizen Delegates of the Regional Spanish Congress Assembled at Saragossa
London, April 3, 1872 Citizens,
The General Council of the International Working Men's Association has asked me to congratulate you on its behalf on the occasion of the second congress of the Spanish sections. You are indeed to be congratulated for the results you have obtained in so short a time. The International, founded in Spain less than three years ago, now covers the whole country with its sections and federations, is established in all the towns and is penetrating into the countryside. Thanks to your efforts, and also to the senseless and ridiculous persecution by successive governments of your country, it has been possible to obtain these fine results and make the International a real force in Spain. We ought not to forget, at the same time, that these results are also due to the special constitution of our Association which leaves every national or local federation complete freedom of action, granting the central organs only such powers as are absolutely essential to enable them to safeguard the unity of the programme and common interests, and to prevent the Association from becoming a plaything of bourgeois intrigues and police machinations.(1)
You have probably still to come in for further persecutions. Remember then that there are other countries, like France, Germany, and Austria and Hungary, where the members of the International suffer even harsher government repression and yet do not bow their heads, knowing, as you know, that persecution is the best means of propaganda for our Association, and that there is no force in the world strong enough to suppress the ever-growing revolutionary movement of the modern proletariat. In order to destroy the International it would be necessary to destroy the soil of which it is the natural product: modern society itself.
Greetings and fraternity, On behalf of the General Council
Secretary for Spain,
Frederick Engels