Материал: Karl Marx_ A Biography ( PDFDrive )

S E V E N

The International

The International belonged to the period of the Second Empire during which the oppression reigning throughout Europe prescribed unity and abstention from all internal polemics to the workers' movement, then just reawakening.

Engels to Sorge (1874), MESC, p. 288

I . O R I G I N S O F T H E I N T E R N A T I O N A L

One of the main reasons why Volume One of Capital was so long in appearing and why the subsequent volumes never appeared at all is that Marx's time was taken up by the work forced on him as the leading figure in the International.

After the dissolution of the Communist League in 1852, Marx had carefully avoided any party political commitment; for one thing, the 1850s were a period of reaction and left-wing activism was inopportune. But by the early 1860s political and economic conditions were encouraging a revival of working-class activity in Europe. In England the successful struggle of the building workers for a nine-hour day encouraged the

relax the anti-trade union laws in the hope of using the workers as a counterweight to the increasing liberal opposition. As for Central Europe, Lassalle (who died just a few weeks before the founding of the International) had 'reawakened the working-class movement in Germany after a sleep of fifteen years'.'

This revival coincided with a growing spirit of internationalism, particularly strong in England. T h e cause of Italian independence had long been popular among the British working class; Garibaldi was feted when he came to London and Mazzini was personally known to many of the working-class leaders. Lincoln's proclamation abolishing slavery rallied trade unionists to the side of the North in the Civil War and Marx was very impressed by the 'monster meeting' organised by the trade unions

I'olish insurrection of 1863. A representative delegation of French workers subsidised by Napoleon - had already visited London in the Exhibition year of 1862 and it was natural that the French should send a delegation ID the mass meeting on Poland called in London in July 1863. These links were further strengthened by French and English workers contributing to 1 k h others' strike funds. Following the Polish meeting, George Odger, Secretary of the London Trades Council, was deputed to draw up an address, 'To the Workmen of France from the Working M en of England', which proposed the foundation of an international association to promote peace and foster the common interests of the working classes of all countries. T h e French drafted a reply and a meeting was called at St Martin's Hall near Covent Garden on 28 September 1864 to hear the exchange of addresses. It was at this meeting that the International was

founded.2

Although Marx was in no way instrumental in summoning this meet-

the. time the lava will flow from East to West and not the other way, so thm we will be spared the "honour" of a French initiative.'5 To give vent in Ins views, Marx conceived the idea of a pamphlet - the military half

he. liver forced him to stop. These manuscripts, which remained unpub-

economic influences, and their mainspring is Marx's Russophobia. Accord-

Marx was thus actively interested in the immediate occasion for the St Martin's Hall meeting. His own account of his being invited (written some weeks later to Engels) is as follows:

A Public Meeting was summoned for 28 September 1864 in St Martin's Hall by Odger (shoemaker, President of the Council of all London Trades' Unions) and Cremer (a mason and secretary of the Masons' Union). . . . A certain Le Lubez was sent to me to ask whether I would take part on behalf of the German workers and in particular whether I could supply a German worker to speak at the Meeting. I supplied Eccarius, who was a great success, and I was also there - as a silent figure on the platform. I knew that this time the real 'powers' from both the London and Paris sides were present, and so decided to waive my otherwise standing rule to decline any such invitations.'

In fact, Marx's invitation seems to have been a very hurried affair, for he only received the formal note from Cremer asking him to attend a few hours before the meeting. T h e French, largely followers of Proudhon, believed that workers should run their own organisations, and Eccarius was an obvious choice, having been one of the signatories of the German Workers' Educational Association's Manifesto in October 1863.

T h e meeting was 'packed to suffocation' with some 2000 present. Beesly, Professor of History at London University and a leading Positivist, made a brief speech from the chair, the German workers' choir sang, and Odger read out the Address he had written the previous December. Henri Tolain, the most influential socialist in France, and a member of the delegations that visited London in 1862 and 1863, read the French reply which was almost exclusively confined to advocating, in Proudhonist terms, a reform of the relation between capital and labour that would ensure the worker a fair return for his work. Le Lubez then outlined the French plan for a Central Committee in London which was to correspond with sub-committees in the European capitals with a view to drawing up a common policy. George Wheeler and William Dell, two British trade unionists, proposed the formation of an international association and the immediate formation of a committee to draw up its rules. After a debate in which Eccarius spoke for the Germans, the meeting closed with the election of a committee comprising thirty-four members: twenty-seven Englishmen (eleven of them from the building trade), three Frenchmen, two Italians and two Germans, Eccarius and Marx.

This General Committee (soon to be called General Council) met on 5 October and elected Odger as President and Cremer, on the proposal of Marx, as Secretary. Corresponding secretaries were elected for France and Poland. Marx suggested that the secretary for Germany be chosen

S E L E C T C R I T I C AL B I B L I O G R A P HY 3 3 5

by the German Workers' Educational Association and he was himself elected by them shortly afterwards. Turning to its main business, after 'a

men's organisation.'11 Odger and others, continued Eccarius, were very dissatisfied with the proposed drafts and had remarked that 'the right man in the right place would be Dr Marx'.1 2 Cremer himself wrote urging Marx to attend. However, Marx also missed the next meeting of the subcommittee claiming that he was not informed of the rendezvous in time. At this meeting Le Lubez was deputed to synthesise the drafts made by Wolff and Weston.

Marx finally put in an appearance at the General Committee which met on 18 October to consider this synthesis. Marx wrote that he was 'really shocked when I heard the worthy Le Lubez read out an appallingly

crusted over with the vaguest tags of French socialism'.13 Marx managed to get the drafting once more referred back to the sub-committee, which met two days later in his own house. His aim was if possible 'not to let one single line of the thing stand' and, in order to buy time, he suggested

to postpone the meeting of the General Committee until they had had time for a further sub-committee meeting. T h e papers were left for Marx to work on. His brief was merely to give expression to the 'sentiments' of Le Lubez's draft which the General Committee had already approved. Ii) justify what he himself admitted to be the 'extremely peculiar way' in which he went about this, he wrote an Address to the Working Classes which he described as 'a sort of review of the fortunes of the working classes' since 1845.1 4 He also reduced the number of rules to ten. At the subcommittee meeting Marx's draft was approved except that, as he wrote to