International Working Men's Association

“ That all efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from the want of solidarity between the manifold divisions of labour in each country, and from the absence of a fraternal bond of union between the working classes of different countries;
That the emancipation of labour is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution on the concurrence, practical and theoretical, of the most advanced countries ”

“ It may be desirable to begin elementary school instruction before the age of nine years; but we deal here only with the most indispensable antidotes against the tendencies of a social system which degrades the working man into a mere instrument for the accumulation of capital, and transforms parents by their necessities into slave-holders, sellers of their own children. The right of children and young persons must be vindicated. They are unable to act for themselves. It is, therefore, the duty of society to act on their behalf. ”

“ It cannot be dispensed with so long as the present system of production lasts. On the contrary, it must be generalised by the formation and combination of Trades' Unions throughout all countries. On the other hand, unconsciously to themselves, the Trades' Unions were forming centres of organization of the working class, as the mediæval municipalities and communes did for the middle class. If the Trades' Unions are required for the guerilla fights between capital and labour, they are still more important as organized agencies for superseding the very system of wages labour. ”

“ Considering themselves and acting as the champions and representatives of the whole working class, they cannot fail to enlist the non-society men into their ranks. They must look carefully after the interests of the worst paid trades, such as the agricultural labourers, rendered powerless by exceptional circumstances. They must convince the world at large that their efforts, far from being narrow and selfish, aim at the emancipation of the downtrodden millions. ”

“ That, therefore, the interest on capital is a permanent source of injustice and inequality, and that the co-operative associations by continuing this practice, do simply transfer the principle of egotism—the gnawing worm of the actual state of society—from the individuality to the collectivity ”

“ The General Council shall form an international agency between the different national and local groups of the Association, so that the working men in one country be constantly informed of the movements of their class in every other country; that an inquiry into the social state of the different countries of Europe be made simultaneously, and under a common direction; that the questions of general interest mooted in one society be ventilated by all ”

“ The Congress counts upon the spirit of solidarity which animates the working men of all countries, and entertains a hope that means would not be wanting in such an emergency to support the people against their government. ”

“ Only the delegates of such societies, sections, or groups as form parts of the International, and shall have paid their contributions to the General Council, will in future be allowed to take their seats and to vote at Congresses. Nevertheless, for such countries where the regular establishment of the International may have been prevented by law, delegates of trades' unions and working men's co-operative societies will be allowed to participate in Congress debates on questions of principle, but not to discuss, or to vote on, administrative matters. ”

“ Considering that the productive properties of the soil are the prime materials of all products, the prime source of all means of production, and of all desirable things that cost no labour;
The Congress thinks that the economical development of modern society will create the social necessity of converting arable land into the common property of society, and of letting the soil on behalf of the state to agricultural companies under conditions analagous to those stated in regard to mines and railways. ”

“ Considering that on the one side machinery has proved a most powerful instrument of despotism and extortion in the hands of the capitalist class, that on the other side the development of machinery creates the material conditions necessary for the superseding of the wages system by a truly social system of production. ”

“ Restricted, however, to the dwarfish forms into which individual wages slaves can elaborate it by their efforts, the co-operative system will never transform capitalistic society. To convert social production into one large and harmonious system of free co-operative labour, general social changes are wanted, changes of the general conditions of society, never to be realised save by the transfer of the organised forces of society, viz.: the State power, from capitalists and landlords to the producers themselves. ”

“ That all societies and individuals adhering to it will acknowledge truth, justice, and morality, as the basis of their conduct towards each other and towards all men, without regard to colour, creed, or nationality ”

“ The working man is no free agent. In too many cases, he is even too ignorant to understand the true interest of his child, or the normal conditions of human development. However, the more enlightened part of the working class fully understand that the future of their class, and, therefore, of mankind, altogether depends upon the formation of the rising working generation. ”

“ All delegates appointed by the General Council to distinct missions shall have the right to attend, and be heard at, all meetings of Federal Councils or Committees, district and local Committees, and local branches, without, however, being entitled to vote thereat. ”

“ That the quarries, collieries, and other mines, and railways, be let by the state, not to companies of capitalists as at present, but to companies of working men bound by contract to guarantee to society the rational and scientific working of the railways, etc., at a price as nearly as possible approximate to the working expense. ”

“ We acknowledge the co-operative movement as one of the transforming forces of the present society based upon class antagonism. Its great merit is to practically show, that the present pauperising, and despotic system of the subordination of labour to capital can be superseded by the republican and beneficent system of the association of free and equal producers. ”

“ This text was faulty in many respects.
1. The Paris edition of the London Provisional Rules had been accepted as a true translation; but the Paris Committee to which this translation is due, had not only introduced most important alterations in the preamble of the Rules which, on the interpellation of the General Council, were represented as changes unavoidable under the existing political state of France. ”

“ Cognisant that it is impossible at present to organise a rational system of education, the Congress invites the different sections to establish courses of public lectures on scientific and economical subjects, and thus to remedy as much as possible the short comings of the education actually received by the working man. It is understood that the reduction of the hours of labour is an indispensable preliminary condition of any true system of education. ”

“ Too exclusively bent upon the local and immediate struggles with capital, the Trades' Unions have not yet fully understood their power of action against the system of wages slavery itself. They therefore kept too much aloof from general and political movements. ”

“ In enforcing such laws, the working class do not fortify governmental power. On the contrary, they transform that power, now used against them, into their own agency. They effect by one general act what they would vainly attempt by a multitude of isolated individual efforts. ”

“ A preliminary condition, without which all further attempts at improvement and emancipation must prove abortive, is the legal limitation of the working day. It is needed to restore the health and physical energies of the working class—that is the great body of every nation, as well as to secure them the possibility of intellectual development, social intercourse, social and political action. ”

“ We recommend to the working men to embark in co-operative production rather than in co-operative stores. The latter touch but the surface of the present economical system, the former attacks its ground work. ”

“ To act with any success, the materials to be acted upon must be known. By initiating so great a work, the working men will prove their ability to take their own fate into their own hands.
The Congress therefore proposes that in each locality where branches of our Association exist, the work be immediately commenced, and evidence collected on the different points specified in the subjoined scheme of inquiry; the Congress invites the working men of Europe and the United States of America to co-operate in gathering the elements of the statistics of the working class ”

“ V. Local Societies, Branches, and Groups.
Art. 1.—Art. 14, Congrès de Genève 3; Art. 12, Rules, &c., 1867.
Arts. 2 to 4.—London Conference, II., 2 to 4.
Art. 5.—Art. I., Basel Administrative Resolutions.
Art. 6.—London Conference, V.
Art. 7.—Art. II., Basel Administrative Resolutions.
Art. 8.—Art. III., ditto.
VI. General Statistics of Labour.
Arts. 1 to 4.—London Conference, VI., 1 to 4.
Art. 5.—Resolution of Geneva Congress (London edition of Geneva and Brussels Congress Resolutions, p . 4) .
By order, and in the name of the London Conference, 1871,
The General Council. ”

“ The disunion of the workmen is created and perpetuated by their unavoidable competition amongst themselves. Trades' Unions originally sprung up from spontaneous attempts of workmen at removing or at least checking that competition in order to conquer such terms of contract as might raise them at least above the condition of mere slaves. The immediate object of Trades' Unions was therefore confined to everyday necessities, to expedients for the obstruction of the incessant encroachments of capital; in one word, to questions of wages and time of labour. ”

“ That interest and profit of every kind accruing to capital, whatever form it may assume, is a black mail levied upon the labour of to-day for the benefit of him whom the labour of yesterday has already enriched, and that if he has the right to accumulate, he has no right to do so at the expense of others ”

“ That strikes are not a means to the complete emancipation of the working classes, but are frequently a necessity in the actual situation of the struggle between labour and capital.
2. That it is requisite to subject them to certain rules of organization, opportunity, and legitimacy.
3. In such trades where no unions and benefit societies exist as yet, it is necessary to create them. The unions of all trades and countries must combine. In each local federation of trade societies a fund destined to support strikes ought to be established. ”

“ Considering that our social institution as well as the centralisation of political power, are a permanent cause of war, which can only be removed by a thorough social reform; that the people even now can diminish the number of wars by opposing those who declare and make war ”

“ As a mere temporary expedient, we are willing to allow shareholders a low rate of interest.
5.—Trades' Unions. Their past, present, and future.
(a) Their past.
Capital is concentrated social force, while the workman has only to dispose of his individual working force. The contract between capital and labour can therefore never be struck on equitable terms, equitable even in the sense of a society which places the ownership of the material means of life and labour on one side and the vital productive energies on the opposite side. The only social power of the workmen is their number. ”

“ If the middle and higher classes neglect their duties towards their offspring, it is their own fault. Sharing the privileges of these classes, the child is condemned to suffer from their prejudices. The case of the working class stands quite different. ”

“ They know that, before everything else, the children and juvenile workers must be saved from the crushing effects of the present system. This can only be effected by converting social reason into social force, and under given circumstances, there exists no other method of doing so, than through general laws, enforced by the power of the state. ”

“ The delegates of the International Working Men's Congress declare that the League of Peace and Liberty has no raison d'etre in the presence of the efforts of the International Working Men's Association, and invite the members of that League to enter the different sections of the International Working Men's Association in their respective countries. ”

“ The costs of the technological schools ought to be partly met by the sale of their products. The combination of paid productive labour, mental education, bodily exercise and polytechnic training, will raise the working class far above the level of the higher and middle classes. ”