ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Ramsgate, 30 August 1873
Dear Moor,
If Serraillier won't go, we cannot force him to.[1] However, / cannot absolve him of his promise, since I have telegraphed his acceptance,[2] and in any event he must himself come to terms with the General Council.
Against the reasons you give, it must be urged that it is important for us to have a reporter; without Serraillier we shall not receive any account of what takes place, especially in the closed sessions.
What is absolutely essential, however, and our duty to the General Council, is that the two reports enclosed[3] which are utterly useless in Geneva in English, should be translated into French in time and sent off to Geneva. In the circumstances you must make sure that this is done. If 3-4 people each do a part at the same time, it can be ready in 1-2 days, and even if it doesn't come out just as one would have wished, the rush excuses everything.
In the circumstances, the sorrier our Congress[4] turns out to be the better, of course, and to that extent it is better if Seiraillier doesn't go. But I am in the awkward position of having given assurances that he would attend, assurances that I cannot reverse unilaterally.
Why on earth doesn't even one of those Geneva jackasses write in good time! What a dirty trick, and brought about by the very people who made all the fuss to start with! The others will undoubtedly have the laugh on them and insist that they should indeed eat humble pie and recognise their Congress[5] and their new Rules. And Duval, who was in such a fury in The Hague,[6] has also joined in the hue and cry—it really is the last straw.
Well, it will all be very jolly. Regards to all.
Your
F. E.
- ↑ A reference to Auguste Serraillier's planned trip to the Geneva Congress of the International (see Note 672) as the General Council representative. As a member of the British Federal Council, he was also to hold credentials from the British sections. However, by the end of August, drawing on the reports from the International's local branches, Marx and Engels had already realised that under the conditions obtaining at the time the Congress had no chance of becoming a truly international forum. They were gravely concerned about the conciliatory tendencies being displayed by some of the International's activists in Romance Switzerland, and their readiness to go back on a number of the Hague Congress resolutions in order to work out a compromise with the anarchists. Marx and Engels thus considered it inexpedient to send a representative to the Congress and persuaded Serraillier not to go to Switzerland.
- ↑ See this volume, p. 518.
- ↑ A reference to the General Council documents sent by its Secretary Sorge to Engels in connection with the preparations for the International's congress. Among them were an Address and the annual official report of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association to the Geneva Congress, and the 'Annual Confidential Report of the General Council to the 6th General Congress of the International Working Men's Association in Geneva Opening on 8 September 1873'.
- ↑ A reference to the next regular congress of the International scheduled for September 1873.
The 6th Congress of the International Working Men's Association was held in Geneva between 8 and 13 September 1873. Of the 31 delegates present at the Congress, 28 were representatives of the International's Swiss branches or its émigré sections in Switzerland. When considering the General Rules, the majority headed by Johann Philipp Becker endorsed the decisions of the Hague Congress of 1872 on extending the functions of the General Council (against opposition from Henri Perret and a number of other Swiss delegates). The Congress stressed the need for the working class to engage in political struggle. New York was left as the General Council's headquarters until the next Congress scheduled for 1875. The Geneva Congress of 1873 was the last congress of the International Working Men's Association.
- ↑ A congress of anarchist and reformist organisations within the International, which had refused to abide by the resolutions of the Hague Congress, was held in Geneva on 1-6 September 1873. Its organiser was the Bakuninist Geneva Section of Propaganda and Revolutionary Socialist Action (see Note 339). Having declared rejection of all authority as the basic principle of the international anarchist association, the congress abolished the General Council, revoked the right of congresses to pass any definite decisions on issues of principle, and removed from the General Rules Article 7a on the political action by the working class.
- ↑ On 19 July 1872 at the meeting of the General Council Executive Committee (Sub-Committee; see Note 435), Engels was instructed to prepare the financial report for the Hague Congress covering the period since the London Conference in September 1871. The report was read out by Engels at the Hague Congress sitting of 7 September 1872, and unanimously approved.
Marx and Engels arrived at The Hague to take part in the Congress on 1 September 1872. On 8 September they travelled to Amsterdam, where they took part in the meeting marking the closure of the Congress. Engels returned to London on 12 September, and Marx around 17 September 1872.
The Fifth Congress of the International Working Men's Association was held on 2-7 September 1872 in The Hague and attended by 65 delegates from 15 national organisations. Its decision to include in the General Rules (as Article 7a) the major tenet on the conquest of political power by the proletariat, and its resolutions relating to Administrative Regulations signified a victory for Marxism. The Congress took stock of the struggle Marx, Engels and their followers had waged for years against petty-bourgeois sectarianism in the workers' movement, in whatever guise it appeared, most notably against Bakuninism; Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume, the anarchist leaders, were expelled from the International. The resolutions of the Hague Congress laid the groundwork for the future formation of independent political parties of the working class on a national level.