97. F. Engels. Communication from the Continent
97. F. Engels. Communication from the Continent[310]
Communications from the Continent reported that the Secession movement, which had been set on foot in some places, had been followed by the usual result — Anarchy. Certain individuals, envying the cheap importance that the mere act of secession had given some of their fellows had resolved to learn the trick themselves, and had, of course, found no difficulty in setting up a very ready pretext in order to become Seceders from Secession. The attempt which had been made to remedy this state of things by inducing the erratic Sections to affiliate to the Jurassian Federation, though doubtless pleasing enough to M. M. Bakounin and Guillaume, whom it would have elevated to virtual dictatorship and to the national susceptibilities of a prime mover of the pernicious agitation in England,[3] had not been found so acceptable to the denizens of those other countries whose "Institutions" had escaped the blotting of a co-operative pennyworth of foggy elucidation.[311] Hence the anticipated result, the Secessionist fractions were rapidly thinning out into mere isolated groups, without a common understanding, except to quarrel with each other and to keep the peace towards the enemies of Labour — a situation which, though possibly not without its charme for a Morley, could only gain its full need of appreciation at the hands of a Thiers or a Bismarck.
Endnotes
[310] The International Herald included this communication in its report on the regular meeting of the British Federal Council, which took place on May 8, 1873.
[3] Jules Gottraux, a Swiss-born subject of Great Britain and a member of the International, was detained by the French police on the French-Swiss frontier on September 30, 1866, when he was returning to London from Switzerland. The police confiscated letters, printed matter, and other material entrusted to him by the International's leaders in Geneva for delivery to the General Council. The seized documents included the preliminary report on the work of the Geneva Congress which had been drawn up by Council member Joseph Card and published in French in Geneva as a pamphlet. (Later, this gave rise to rumours that the French authorities had confiscated the Congress minutes, which in fact had bv that time been brought to London by Hermann Jung.) The General Council decided to lodge a complaint about this wanton act and to use the fact publicly to expose the regime of the Second Empire. At the beginning of December, the Council addressed the British Foreign Secretary, requesting him to make a corresponding démarche to the French government, which forced the French authorities to return, on December 21, the materials taken from Gottraux.
[311] This is an allusion to the attempts made by John Hales, former General Secretary of the General Council of the International, after the transfer of the General Council from London to New York, to turn the breakaway reformist wing of the British Federal Council into a sort of centre for all the federations opposing the decisions of the Hague Congress. Hales' claims to leadership in the international working-class movement did not find support on the Continent.