73. F. Engels. Letters from London. II. More about the Hague Congress
73. F. Engels. Letters from London. II. More about the Hague Congress[205]
London, October 5, 1872
I hope that the outcome of the Hague Congress will make our Italian "autonomous" friends think. They ought to know that wherever there is an organisation, some autonomy is sacrificed for the sake of unity of action. If they do not realise that the International is a society organised for struggle, and not for fine theories, I am very sorry, but one thing is certain: the great International will leave Italy to act on its own until it agrees to accept the conditions common to all.
In the secret Alliance of Socialist Democracy there are three grades: international brethren (a tiny number), national brethren, and mere Alliancists. C.(1) is an international brother, just as Guillaume (chief of Bakunin's general staff) and one or two Spaniards.
Among the French delegates, five came from France under fictitious names, the others are refugees of the Commune. I attach the list, in which the names and localities of the French sections are not given so as not to betray them to the police.(2) But we have re-organised in more than thirty of the French départements and the International there is stronger and more active than ever.
It was gratifying to see the French and the Germans always voting in agreement at The Hague: it was obvious that all the wars, the conquests, the national hatred did not exist for the International. It was this union of the French and the Germans that led to all the resolutions without exception being adopted.
The reason for the transfer of the General Council to New York was: 1. The firm determination of Marx, Serraillier, Dupont and Engels not to accept a new mandate. Marx and Engels have scientific works to complete and have not had time for this in the past two years; 2. The certainty that in the event of their resignation a General Council in London would be composed as far as the French were concerned of Blanquists who, with their simulation of conspiracy, would lead to the arrest of the majority of our members in France — if they were accepted by these at all; as far as the English were concerned, of corrupt men used to selling themselves to the liberal bourgeoisie and to Mr. Gladstone's radical agents; and as for all the other nationalities, they would not be represented at all, since Wröblewski, MacDonnell and Frankel did not want to remain on it without Marx and the others. Whatever the bourgeois press may say, we were well received by the workers of The Hague. Once the reactionaries sent a handful of drunks to us to sing the Dutch national royal anthem after the ending of the sitting. We let them sing and, passing through them, replied with the Marseillaise. Even the minority at the Congress would have been sufficient to disperse them by force. At the last sitting, on the Saturday,(3) a numerous public gave the speakers a lot of applause.
Signed: Federico Engels Translated from the Italian "Our correspondence"
Endnotes
[205] This article was published in English for the first time in The Hague Congress of the First International. September 2-7, 1872. Reports and Letters, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978.