Record of Marx's Speech on the Position of the International Working Men's Association in Germany and England

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This is Marx's brief report as Corresponding Secretary of the General Council for Germany; other corresponding secretaries and delegates also made reports. The part of his speech dealing with England is an addition to his speeches on trades unions (this volume, pp. 614-15).

[FROM THE MINUTES OF THE SESSION OF THE

LONDON CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL

WORKING MEN’S ASSOCIATION ON SEPTEMBER 22, 1871]

You know that in Germany the organisation of the Association is unable to exist under its own name, the laws not permitting any local society to affiliate with a foreign society, but the Association exists nevertheless and has experienced tremendous development under the name of the Socialist Democratic Party, whose membership of the Association already dates back a long way. But this membership was reaffirmed with great éclat at the Congress of Dresden. So there is no need to propose any measure or declaration for this country comparable to those approved for countries where the Association is persecuted.

If he [Marx] has spoken badly of the German students, he has no criticism to make of the workers; during the last war, which had become a matter of contention between the classes, the attitude of the German workers was quite beyond praise, moreover, the Socialist Democratic Party fully realised that this war had been undertaken by Bonaparte and Wilhelm more to stifle modern ideas than for ideas of conquest—the Committee of Brunswick had all been arrested and taken to a fortress on the Russian border, and most of its members are still prisoners today, charged with the crime of high treason. In the Reichstag itself, Bebel and Liebknecht, the representatives of the German working class, were not afraid to declare that they were members of the International Association and that they were protesting against the war, for which they refused to vote any subsidy—the government did not dare to have them arrested while the House was sitting, only when they emerged did the police seize them and carry them off to prison.

During the Commune the German workers did not cease, at meetings and through the newspapers that belong to them, to affirm their solidarity with the Revolutionaries of Paris. And when the Commune was crushed they held a meeting at Breslau which the Prussian police tried in vain to prevent; at this meeting, and at others in various towns in Germany, they acclaimed the Paris Commune—Eventually, when Kaiser Wilhelm and his army staged their triumphal entry into Berlin, these conquering heroes were greeted by the populace with cries of “Long Live the Commune! “

When speaking about England Citizen Marx had forgotten to make the following statement.

You will know that between the English workers and the Irish workers there has existed of old very considerable antagonism the causes of which are actually very easy to enumerate. This antagonism has its origin in the differences of language and religion ; and in the competition between Irish workers and English workers over wages.—In England this antagonism is the dam that holds back the flood of Revolution, hence it is skilfully exploited by the government and the upper classes, who are convinced that no bond would be able to unite the English and Irish workers.— It is true that in the political field no union would be possible; but it is not the same in the economic field, and on either side sections of the International are being formed which in this capacity ought to march simultaneously towards the same goal.—Before long the Irish sections will be very numerous.