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Special pages :
Record of Marx's Speech on the Government of National Defence
Author(s) | Karl Marx |
---|---|
Written | 21 January 1871 |
The account of the speech (without any mention of the author) was published in The Eastern Post No. 121, January 21, 1871.
This variant of the record was first published in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 17, Moscow, 1960
Reproduced from the General Council's Minute Book
Marx’s speech on the Government of National Defence at the General Council meeting on January 17, 1871 was directed against Odger’s praising of the government and its Foreign Minister Jules Favre, who was expected in London, at the meeting in St. James’s Hall in London on January 10. Odger moved a resolution that extolled the Government of National Defence and contradicted the class approach taken towards it by the General Council in its Second Address on the Franco-Prussian war (see this volume, pp. 267-75). In connection with Marx’s criticism of Odger’s speech, the General Council discussed the question of the need for the members of the International to adhere to its principles at meetings.
This speech, like other speeches by Marx and Engels at the General Council meetings, has survived as a record in the Minute Book. The records for the period covered by this volume were made by Eccarius (up to May 1871) and later by Hales, they are brief and fragmentary, and often contain serious inaccuracies. The same applies to the newspaper reports of the General Council meetings made by Eccarius on their basis and published in The Eastern Post. In some cases, when the newspaper reports are fuller than the minutes, Marx’s and Engels’ speeches are given according to the newspaper reports. The minutes, as was the rule in the General Council, were approved at each subsequent meeting; on Marx’s and Engels’ demand, notes were often made concerning mistakes in the records.
This record was first published in The General Council of the First International. 1870-1871. Minutes, Moscow, 1967, pp. 106-07.
[FROM THE MINUTES OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL MEETING
OF JANUARY 17, 1871]
Cit. Marx said as there were several English members present he had a very important statement to make. At the last meeting at St. James’s Hall Odger spoke of the French Government contrary to truth. In our second address we said the brand of infamy attaches to some of the members of the provisional government from the Revolution of 1848.[1] Odger said there was not a blame attached to them. Favre can only be received as the representative of the Republic, not as the spotless patriot Jules Favre. The way that is now talked about him put Favre in the foreground and the Republic almost out of sight. One example of Favre’s doings. After the Revolution of 1848 Favre became Secretary of the Interior; on account of Flocon being ill, Ledru-Rollin chose Favre. One of the first things he did was to bring back the army to Paris, which afterwards enabled the bourgeoisie to shoot the work-people down. Later, when the people became convinced that the Assembly consisted of middle-class men, the people made a demonstration in favour of Poland on which occasion the people ran into the assembly.[2] The president entreated Louis Blanc to speak to them and pacify them, which he did. A war with Russia would have saved the Republic. The first thing Jules Favre did a few days after was to ask for authority to prosecute Louis Blanc as an accomplice of the invaders. The Assembly thought he was instructed by the Government to do but all the other members of the Government denounced [this measure] as the private affair of Favre. The provisional government conspired to provoke the insurrection of June. After the people were shot down Favre proposed that the Executive Committee should be abolished.[3] On the 27th he drew up the decree to transport the prisoners without trial; 15,000 were transported. In November the Assembly was compelled to examine some not yet transported. In Brest alone 1,000 had to be liberated. Of the most dangerous who were tried by a military commission many had to be liberated, others were only sentenced to short terms of imprisonment. Afterwards motions were made for an amnesty, Favre always opposed. He was one of the men who insisted for a commission of inquiry of the whole revolution except February. He was instrumental in the passing of the most infamous press laws[4] that ever existed and of which Napoleon made good use. Favre had certain relations with the Bonapartists under the July monarchy and he used all his influence to get Napoleon into the National Assembly. He interested himself to bring about the expedition to Rome,[5] which was the first step for the establishment of the Empire
- ↑ See this volume, p. 269.— Ed.
- ↑ The Paris demonstration on May 15, 1848 was organised by revolutionary clubs; nearly 150,000 people, mainly workers, took part in it. The participants marched to the Constituent Assembly, which was to discuss the Polish question that day, entered the conference hall and demanded military assistance to Poland in her struggle for independence, as well as decisive measures to combat unemployment and poverty. Since their demands were rejected, they declared the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and the formation of a revolutionary government. The demonstration was dispersed by troops and bourgeois detachments of the National Guard.
- ↑ The reference is t o the Executive Committee (Commission executive)—the Government of the French Republic, set up by the Constituent Assembly on May 10, 1848, in place of the Provisional Government, which had resigned. It existed until June 24, 1848, when Cavaignac’s dictatorship was established.
- ↑ The reference is to the reactionary press laws passed by the Constituent Assembly on August 9 and 11, 1848. According to these laws, the periodicals had to make large deposits of money, which meant that progressive and workers’ newspapers and journals had to close down; the laws also envisaged serious punishment (fines and imprisonment) for the printing of articles against the government, the existing order and private property. They were based on similar laws enacted during the Restoration and the July monarchy
- ↑ A reference is evidently to the following speeches: by Lowe, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on September 16, 1870 in Elgin; by Bruce, Home Secretary, on September 26 in Glasgow; and by Cardwell, M.P., on October 14, in Oxford. All the speakers demanded that Britain observe strict neutrality.