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Resolution of the General Council on the Convocation of the Congress in Mainz
Author(s) | First International Karl Marx |
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Written | 17 May 1870 |
Reproduced from the Minute Book of the General Council
Source: Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 21
By decision of the Basle Congress, the next congress of the Association was to be held in Paris. At the General Council meeting of May 17, 1870 Marx proposed that the meeting-place should be changed in view of the increasing harassment by Napoleon Illâs government of the working-class and democratic movement and, in particular, of the International. It was decided to convoke the congress in Mainz.
However, the congress did not meet in Mainz because of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in July 1870. At the General Council meeting on August 2, Marx proposed that local sections and federations must be approached in writing and asked whether they would consent to a postponement of the congress. On receiving their consent, the General Council passed a formal resolution on August 23, 1870 for the postponement of the congress âuntil the earliest opportunityâ.
The resolution on the convocation of the congress in Mainz proposed by Marx was passed by the General Council on May 17, 1870. The German text, which Marx sent to Wilhelm Liebknecht, was printed in Der Volksstaat, No. 42, May 25; Der Vorbote, No. 6, June 1870, and in Volkswille, No. 20, June 11, 1870. In French the resolution wa« published in LâĂgalitĂ©, No. 22, May 28 and Le Mirabeau, No. 45, May 29, 1870.
In English the text of the resolution has been preserved in the Minute Book of the General Council and as a handwritten copy made by Eleanor Marx. It was first published in English in The General Council of the First International. 1868-1870, Moscow, 1966.
Considering,
That by the Basle Congress Paris was appointed as the meeting-place for this yearâs Congress of the International Working Menâs Association;
That the present French regime continuing, the Congress will not be able to meet at Paris;
That nevertheless the preparations for the meeting render an immediate resolution necessary;
That article 3 of the Statutes obliges the Council to change, in case of need, the place of meeting appointed by the Congress[1];
That the Central Committee of the German Social-Democratic Working Menâs Party has invited the General Council to transfer this yearâs Congress to Germany[2];
The General Council has in its sitting of the 17th of May unanimously resolved that this yearâs Congress of the International Working Menâs Association be opened on the 5th September next and meet at Mayence.