The Socialism of to-day

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE INTERNATIONAL, 183 congress is to fix the place where the next congress shall meet, and the federation there shall take charge of the correspon dence, serve as intermediary and prepare questions for discussion. No contribution shall be demanded. In short, no government, no budget. They almost attained the absolute perfection which consists in abolishing everything. Van den Abeele raised an objection. “ We Hollanders,” he said, “ are partisans of the experimental method. A central power is a bad thing. Let us try the formation of three committees. I admit the principle of anarchy; but are we strong enough to apply it forthwith ? ” “ What ! ” replied the French delegate. Brousse, “ you wish to destroy this authoritarian structure ? Anarchy is your programme, and yet you shrink before the consequences of your principles ! Another blow, and the whole pile will tumble.” They worked, in fact, to bury their association. Their principles were about to produce the natural results. From impotence they were going to pass to non-existence. Eccarius, the former lieutenant of Marx, from whom he had recently separated, and the only person of any weight among the “ autonomists ” present, summed up the history of the Inter national in a few words of his closing address. “ The old International, the first stone of which was laid at St. Martin’s Hall on the 28th of September, 1864, and the building of which was completed at the Congress of Geneva in 1866, has ceased to exist. That which we now establish is entirely distinct from it. The initiative came from the trades unions of London, who wished us to concern ourselves with politics, and the Proud- honians, who wished us to have nothing to do with them. The former desired to apply the principles of trades unionism, that is to say, the rising of wages by means of combinations and strikes ; whereas the latter sought to realize their theories of social reconstruction. At Bâle, the Proudhonians succumbed, but at the same time the unionist element was destroyed by personal rivalries among the members of the general council. At Paris, on the other hand, the unionists carried the day over the heads of the Proudhonians. In 1870 a reconciliation might perhaps have been brought about, but the outbreak of

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