Letter to the Spanish Sections of the International Working Men's Association, August 1782

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This document was adopted at the meeting of the Sub-Committee of the General Council on August 8, 1872. As is seen from the rough manuscript in French, the first paragraph was written by Marx (in the manuscript it is supplied with the subtide “Introduction”) and the rest by Engels.

It was published, besides La Emancipacion, in La Federation, No. 157, August 18, Bulletin de la Federation jurassienne de l’Association Internationale des Travailleurs, Nos. 15-16, August 15-September 1 and, in excerpts, in The Times, No. 27476, September 7, 1872 (in Eccarius’ report).

The document was first published in English in full in The General Council of the First International. 1871-1872. Minutes, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1968.

The Sub-Committee—see Note 137.

London, August 8, 1872

In view of the intrigues launched against the International Working Men’s Association by some members of the Alliance secret society, the Executive Committee of the General Council had, at its meeting of July 24, 1872, instructed Citizen F. Engels, Secretary for Spain, to write the Spanish Federal Council in Valencia the following letter:

TO THE SPANISH FEDERAL COUNCIL

Citizens,

We hold proof that within the International, and particularly in Spain, there exists a secret society called the Alliance of Socialist Democracy. This society, whose centre is in Switzerland, considers it its special mission to guide our great Association in keeping with its own particular tendencies and lead it towards goals unknown to the vast majority of International members. Moreover, we know from the Seville Razon that at least three members of your Council belong to the Alliance.

When this society was formed in 1868 as a public society, the General Council was obliged to refuse it admission to the International, so long as it preserved its international character, for it pretended to form a second international body functioning within and without the International Working Men’s Association. The Alliance was admitted to the International only after promising to limit itself to being purely a local section in Geneva (see the private circular of the General Council on Fictitious Splits etc., p. 7 onwards).

If the organisation and character of this society were already contrary to the spirit and the letter of our Rules, when it was still public, its secret existence within the International, in spite of its promise, represents no less than treason against our Association. The International knows but one type of members, all with equal rights and duties; the Alliance divides them into two classes, the initiated and the uninitiated, the latter doomed to be led by the former by means of an organisation of whose very existence they are unaware. The International demands that its adherents should acknowledge Truth, Justice and Morality as the basis of their conduct; the Alliance obliges its supporters to hide from the uninitiated members of the International the existence of the secret organisation, the motives and the aim of their words and deeds. The General Council had already announced in its private circular that at the coming Congress it would demand an inquiry into this Alliance, which is a veritable conspiracy against the International. The General Council is also aware of the measures taken by the Spanish Federal Council on the insistence of the men of the Alliance in the interests of their society, and is determined to put an end to this underhand dealing. With this end in view, it requests from you for the report it will be presenting at the Hague Congress:

1) a list of all the members of the Alliance in Spain, with indication of the functions they fulfil in the International;

2) information about the nature and activities of the Alliance, and also about its organisation and ramifications outside Spain;

3) a copy of your private circular of July 7;

4) an explanation of how you reconcile your duties towards the International with the presence in your Council of at least three notorious members of the Alliance.

Unless it receives a categoric and exhaustive answer by return, the General Council will be obliged to denounce you publicly in Spain and abroad for having violated the spirit and the letter of the General Rules, and having betrayed the International in the interests of a secret society that is not only alien but hostile to it.

Greetings and fraternity.

On behalf of the General Council

Secretary for Spain,

Frederick Engels

33, Rathbone Place, W.

London, July 24, 1872

The Spanish Federal Council replied to the inquiries of the General Council in a letter dated “Valencia, August 1”, and received in London on August 5. It ran as follows:

“Comrades, we have received your last letter, but as it is in French we are unable to acquaint ourselves with its contents since our usual translator is not in Valencia. We have asked another comrade to translate it as soon as possible so that we can answer it.”

At its meeting of August 8, 1872, the Executive Committee of the General Council decided that pending the receipt of the requested information from the Spanish Federal Council, it was necessary to publish the above letter in order to move all the Spanish federations and sections to undertake their general inquiries into the existence, acts and aims of the Alliance secret society.

The Executive Committee

of the General Council:

Leo Frankel Corresponding Secretary for Austria and Hungary

J. P. McDonnell	Ireland
F. Engels	Spain and Italy
A. Serraillier	France
Le Moussu	America
Hermann Jung	Switzerland
Karl Marx	Germany and Russia

Chairman of the meeting

Walery Wrôblewski, Secretary for Poland

Secretary of the meeting

F. Cournei, Secretary for Holland