Letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, September 11, 1865

Author(s)	Karl Marx
Written	11 September 1865

First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXIX, Moscow, 1946
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42

MARX TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT

IN LEIPZIG

London, 11 September 1865

Dear Liebknecht,

As soon as I know whether you are still in Hanover, I shall report to you the reasons for the interruption in correspondence, and indeed write at greater length.

On 25 September, a (PRIVATE) conference between the COUNCIL of the International here and the DELEGATES of the ADMINISTRATIONS in Switzerland, France, and Belgium will take place here. Can you not send yourself over here as DELEGATE from Germany?^[1]

Salut.

Your

K. M.

↑ The London Conference of the International Working Men's Association was held from 25 to 29 September 1865. It was convened on Marx's insistence, for he considered that the Association's sections were not yet strong enough to succeed in holding a general congress in 1865 as stipulated by the Provisional Rules. The conference was attended by Central Council members and by delegates from the principal branches in France, Switzerland and Belgium. Wilhelm Liebknecht could not come to the conference, and Germany was represented by Karl Marx as the Corresponding Secretary of the Central Council for the country and Johann Philipp Becker who had credentials from the Solingen branch of the General Association of German Workers which was in opposition to the latter's Lassallean leadership.
The conference heard the Central Council's report, its financial statement, and also delegates' reports on the situation in individual sections. The main point discussed was the agenda and the procedure for convening the forthcoming congress. It was decided to hold it in Geneva in May 1866 (later the Central Council postponed it until early September 1866). Though the Proudhonists demanded that the Polish question should be struck off the agenda of the Congress and that the right of any member of the Association to participate in it be recognised, the conference retained in the agenda the point of the restoration of Poland's independence and recognised only elected delegates as competent members of the Congress. Other proposals of the Council concerning the programme of the Congress were also approved.
The London Conference of 1865 which was prepared and conducted under Marx's guidance played an important part in the formation and organisational shaping of the International.

[1] The London Conference of the International Working Men's Association was held from 25 to 29 September 1865. It was convened on Marx's insistence, for he considered that the Association's sections were not yet strong enough to succeed in holding a general congress in 1865 as stipulated by the Provisional Rules. The conference was attended by Central Council members and by delegates from the principal branches in France, Switzerland and Belgium. Wilhelm Liebknecht could not come to the conference, and Germany was represented by Karl Marx as the Corresponding Secretary of the Central Council for the country and Johann Philipp Becker who had credentials from the Solingen branch of the General Association of German Workers which was in opposition to the latter's Lassallean leadership.
The conference heard the Central Council's report, its financial statement, and also delegates' reports on the situation in individual sections. The main point discussed was the agenda and the procedure for convening the forthcoming congress. It was decided to hold it in Geneva in May 1866 (later the Central Council postponed it until early September 1866). Though the Proudhonists demanded that the Polish question should be struck off the agenda of the Congress and that the right of any member of the Association to participate in it be recognised, the conference retained in the agenda the point of the restoration of Poland's independence and recognised only elected delegates as competent members of the Congress. Other proposals of the Council concerning the programme of the Congress were also approved.
The London Conference of 1865 which was prepared and conducted under Marx's guidance played an important part in the formation and organisational shaping of the International.

[1]