i8o
THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY.
different nationalities and influenced by divergent currents of
thought. The signal for revolt was hoisted at Neuchâtel.
Certain sections of working men at Lode and at Chaux-de-
Fonds, under the direction of an active leader, James Guil
laume, revolted against the excessive authority claimed by the
general council, and, separating themselves from the other groups
of French-speaking Switzerland, established the Federation of
the Jura. They were called Federalists or Autonomists. The
Blanquists, representing the Jacobin tradition, also rose very
vehemently against “the German Jew’s theory of historic
evolution.” Lastly, the most ardent in their opposition were
the Anarchists who followed Bakunin. At the Congress of the
Peace League, which met at Berne in 1869, under the
presidency of Victor Hugo, Bakunin had proposed a vote
approving of atheism and communism. Beaten by a large
majority, he then founded the “ Alliance of the Social Demo
cracy.” On the other hand, the general council forbade the
sections of the International to take any particular name, and
reserved to itself the right of suspending or dissolving any
sections disobeying this order.
The Congress of the Hague (from the 2nd to the 7th ot
September, 1872) was the battle-field where these opposing
tendencies clashed together. There were sixty-five delegates,
of whom four represented Holland, eight Belgium, two
Denmark, eight Germany, seven Switzerland, eleven France,
four Spain, one Portugal, one Hungary, ten England, one
Ireland, six America, and one Australia. The fight arose on
the question of the powers of the general council, the
Autonomists wishing to reduce it to a mere committee 0
inquiry. Guillaume attacked Marx to his face. 1 h^^
are some,” he said, “ who assert that the International is t e
invention of a clever man, endowed with infallibility in n
social and political matters, whom nobody has any right to
oppose. Our association would therefore have merely to oW;
the despotic commands of a council formed to maintain t
new orthodoxy. According to us, on the contrary, t ^
International sprang spontaneously from the economic cir
cumstances of the times, and we want no Pope to ju g
