Report on the General Meeting of the Workers' Association, February 1849

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Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Karl Marx
Written 15 February 1849


First published in the Freiheit, Brüderlich- keit, Arbeit No. 3, February 15, 1849
Printed according to the newspaper
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 8


Röser, the President, opened the meeting and, after a brief introduction concerning the reason for calling a general meeting, called upon Citizen Schapper to speak on the effectiveness of the Association since the last general meeting.

Citizen Schapper gave a detailed account of the work done at the committee meetings which have taken place so far and by the branch associations, and outlined the main issues which had been dealt with.

He then expounded the plan for reorganising the Association, which consists in the following:

To increase the present total of three branch associations until there are eight or nine of them in the most convenient parts of the city; to make enrolment in one of these branches a condition of membership of the Association; to fix a monthly contribution of one silver groschen, nine pfennigs of which to be retained in the branch associations to provide for a library, and three pfennigs to be paid into the general treasury of the Workers’ Association; and to hold a general meeting every fortnight in the Eiser Hall, which all members of the branch associations may attend without having to pay a special contribution, a condition which is not, however, applicable to non-members. In addition he announced that Herr Marx and Herr Engels had also offered to deliver fortnightly social lectures, alternating with the President of the Association, these also to be free of charge to members.

Citizen Schapper proposed that a vote be taken to ascertain whether the Association approved of this plan, and also that a commission be appointed to draw up the Statute for the Association in which the plan should be set forth exactly.

A vote was taken. The proposed plan was approved and passed on to a commission, which had already been nominated for this purpose at a committee meeting, to draw up the Statute of the Association in accordance with the plan and present it for approval at the next general meeting.[1]

Citizen Bedorf reported on the income and expenditure of the Association and on the state of the treasury.

The meeting confirmed the decisions taken by the committee to resume publication of the former newspaper Freiheit, Brüderlichkeit, Arbeit, and to appoint Chr. Jos. Esser to the post of editor.

It was decided to hold a general meeting on the Sunday after Shrove Tuesday, and on that occasion to lay down the Statute of the Association.

The meeting was then closed.

  1. ↑ The new Statute of the Cologne Workers Association was adopted on February 25, 1849. According to it, the Association's main task was to raise the workers class and political consciousness and it was to be built not on the guild principle as before, but on a territorial basis; consistent democratisation was to apply in the internal life of the organisation, and simultaneously the authority of its elected leading body — the Committee — was to increase. Nine branches were set up as planned. All this contributed to extend popular support for the Association and to enhance its political influence.
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