FICTITIOUS SPLITS IN THE INTERNATIONAL 
 
 
                   written by Marx and Engels between  
                        January and March 5, 1872 
  
          adopted by the General Council as a private circular 
 
             published in Geneva 1872 as a French pamphlet  
         called _Les Pretendues Scissions dans l'Internationale_ 
 
       this etext is derived from a Progress Publisher translation 
 
 
                                FOOTNOTES 
                            by Marx and Engels 
 
[1]  B. MALON --  Do the friends of B. Malon, who have been advertising 
     him in a stereotyped way for the last three months as the founder 
     of the International, who have called his book the only independent 
     work on the Commune, know the attitude taken by this assistant to 
     the Mayor of Batignolles on the eve of the February elections?  At 
     that time, B. Malon, who did not yet foresee the Commune and saw 
     nothing more than the success of his election to the Assembly, 
     plotted to get himself put on the list of the four committees as a 
     member of the International.  To these ends, he insolently denied 
     the existence of the Paris Federal Council and submitted to the 
     committees the list of a section founded by himself at Batignolles 
     as coming from the entire Association.  Later, on March 19, he 
     insulted in a public document the leaders of the great Revolution 
     on the eve of their consummating it.  Today, this anarchist from 
     top-to-toe prints, or has printed, what he was saying a year ago to 
     the four committees: I am the International!  B. Malon has hit on a 
     way of parodying Louis XIV and Perron the chocolate manufacturer at 
     one and the same time.  It was Perron who declared that his 
     chocolate was the _only_ edible chocolate! 
 
[2]  Here is the national composition of the Council:  
 
          -- 20 Englishmen, 
          -- 15 French, 
          --  7 Germans (of whom 5 are founding members of the 
                        International), 
          --  2 Swiss, 
          --  2 Hungarians, 
          --  1 Pole, 
          --  1 Belgian, 
          --  1 Irishman, 
          --  1 Dane, and 
          --  1 Italian. 
 
[3]  A little later, this Chautard whom they had wanted to put on the 
     General Council was expelled from the section as an agent of 
     Thiers' police.  He was accused by the same people who had judged 
     him worthy among all others of representing them on the General 
     Council.  
 
[4]  The Conference resolution on political action of the working class 
     reads as follows: 
 
     "Considering the following passage of the Preamble to the Rules: 
 
          'The economical emancipation of the working classes is the 
          great end to which every political movement ought to be 
          subordinate as a means'; 
 
     "That the Inaugural Address of the International Working Men's 
     Association (1864) states: 
 
          'The lords of land and the lords of capital will always use 
          their political privileges for the defense and perpetuation of 
          their economical monopolies.  So far from promoting, they will 
          continue to lay every possible impediment in the way of the 
          emancipation of labor....  To conquer political power has 
          therefore become the great duty of the working classes'; 
 
     "That the Congress of Lausanne (1867) has passed this resolution: 
 
          'The social emancipation of the workmen is inseparable from 
          their political emancipation'; 
 
     "That the declaration of the General Council relative to the 
     pretended plot of the French Internationals on the eve of the 
     plebiscite (1870) says: 
 
          'Certainly by the tenor of our Statutes, all our branches in 
          England, on the Continent, and in America, have the special 
          mission not only to serve as centres for the militant 
          organization of the working class, but also to support, in 
          their respective countries, every political movement tending 
          toward the accomplishment of our ultimate end -- the 
          economical emancipation of the working class.'; 
 
     "That false translations of the original Statutes have given rise 
     to various interpretations which were mischievous to the 
     development and action of the International Working Men's 
     Association; 
 
     "In presence of an unbridled reaction which violently crushed every 
     effort at emancipation on the part of the working men, and pretends 
     to maintain by brute force the distinction of classes and the 
     political domination of the propertied classes resulting from it; 
 
     "Considering that against this collective power of the propertied 
     classes the working class cannot act, as a class, except by 
     constituting itself into a political party, distinct from, and 
     opposed to, all old parties formed by the propertied classes; 
 
     "That this constitution of the working class into a political party 
     is indispensable in order to ensure the triumph of the Social 
     Revolution and its ultimate end -- the abolition of classes; 
 
     "That the combination of forces which the working class has already 
     effected by its economical struggles ought at the same time to 
     serve as a lever for its struggles against the political power of 
     landlords and capitalists -- 
 
     "The Conference recalls to the members of the International: 
 
     "That in the militant state of the working class, its economical 
     movement and its political action are indissolubly united." 
 
[5]  Recent police publications on the International, including the Jules 
     Favre circular to foreign powers and the report of Sacaze, a deputy 
     in the rural assembly, on the Dufaure project, are full of 
     quotations from the Alliance's pompous manifestos.  The phraseology 
     of these sectarians, whose radicalism is wholly restricted to 
     verbiage, is extremely useful for promoting the aims of the 
     reactionaries.  
 
[6]  At this time, these were the _apparent_ ideas of the Emancipation 
     of the Proletariat Society, as represented by its corresponding 
     secretary, a friend of Bakunin.  Actually, however, this section's 
     tendencies were quite different.  After expelling this 
     double-dealing traitor for embezzlement and for his friendly 
     relations with the Turin police chief, the society set forth in 
     explanation, which cleared up all misunderstanding between it and 
     the General Council.  
 
[7]  The gentlemen of the Alliance, who continue to reproach the General 
     Council for calling a private Conference at a time when the 
     convocation of a Congress would have been the height of treachery 
     or folly -- these absolute proponents of clamor and publicity -- 
     organized within the International itself with the aim of bringing 
     its sections, unbeknown to them, under the sacerdotal direction of 
     Bakunin.  
 
     The General Council intends to demand at the next Congress an 
     investigation of this secret organization and its promoters in 
     certain countries, such as Spain, for example.  
 
[8]  Under the heading "To the Pillory!", _L'Egalite_ (of Geneva), 
     February 15, 1872, had this to say: 
 
          "The day has not yet come to describe the story of the defeat 
          of the movement of the Commune in the South of France; but 
          what we, most of whom witnessed the deplorable defeat of the 
          Lyons insurrection on April 30, can announce today is that one 
          of the reasons for the insurrection's failure was the 
          cowardice, the treachery, and the thievery of G. Blanc, who 
          intruded everywhere carrying out the orders of A. Richard, 
          who kept in the shade.  
 
          "By their carefully prepared maneuvers, these rascals 
          intentionally compromised many of those who took part in the 
          preparatory work of the insurrectionary Committees.  
 
          "Further, these traitors managed to discredit the 
          International at Lyon to such an extent that by the time of 
          the Paris revolution the International was regarded by the 
          Lyon workers with the greatest distrust.  Hence the total 
          absence of organization, hence the failure of the 
          insurrection, a failure which was bound to result in the fall 
          of the Commune, which was left to rely on its own isolated 
          forces!  It is only since this bloody lesson that our 
          propaganda has been able to rally the Lyon workers around the 
          flag of the International.  
 
          "Albert Richard was the pet and prophet of Bakunin and 
          company."  
 
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