THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

198
At  the  Congress  of  the  League  of  Peace  and  Liberty,  which
assembled  at  Berne  in  1869,  under  the  presidency  of  Victor
Hugo,  Bakunin  with  some  of  his  friends  attempted  to  carry
resolutions  in  favour  of  Communism.  He  obtained  only  thirty
votes  against  eighty.  Indignant  at  the  imbecility  and  cowardice
of  the  bourgeois  democrats,  he  founded  a  new  society  which
was  to  carry  out  his  ideas,  “  the  Alliance  of  the  Socialist
Democracy.”
One  extract  from  its  programme  will  suffice  to  enable  its
tendencies  to  be  understood  :  “  The  Alliance  declares  itself
atheistic.  It  desires  the  final  and  complete  abolition  of  classes,
and  the  political,  economical,  and  social  equalization  of  the  two
sexes.  It  wishes  that  land,  instruments  of  production,  and  all
other  capital  should  become  the  collective  property  of  society
as  a  whole,  and  should  only  be  utilized  by  the  workers,  that  is,
by  agricultural  and  industrial  associations.  It  recognizes  that
all  political  and  authoritative  States  actually  existing  must  disappear ­
  in  the  universal  union  of  free  associations.”
How  to  realize  this  radical  change?  Evidently  by  force
employed  without  truce  and  without  mercy.  The  Bakunists
did  not  disguise  the  matter  at  all.  One  of  them,  Jaclard,
exclaimed  in  this  congress  intended  to  establish  universal
peace,  “You  wish  to  preserve  existing  institutions  in  order  to
reform  them  ?  Vain  endeavour  !  They  can  only  be  the  instruments ­
  of  tyranny  and  spoliation.  We,  we  alone  are  logical  ;  we
wish  to  destroy  everything.  We  separate  ourselves  from  you,
and  warn  you  :  War  you  shall  have,  and  it  will  be  a  terrible  one.
It  will  array  itself  against  all  that  exists.  Yes,  we  must  away
with  the  bourgeoisie  and  its  institutions.  It  is  only  on  their
smoking  ruins  that  the  definitive  Republic  can  be  based.  It  is
on  the  ruins  smeared,  I  will  not  say  with  their  blood—it  is  long
since  they  have  had  any  in  their  veins—but  with  their  accumulated ­
  filth,  that  we  shall  plant  the  standard  of  the  Social
Revolution.”
The  Alliance  resolved  to  join  the  International,  but  the
general  council  of  the  latter  refused  to  admit  it,  on  the  ground
that  the  Alliance,  which  also  proclaimed  itself  International,
could  not,  as  such,  enter  into  its  ranks.  The  Alliance  accord-