BakuninCivil WarEngelsMarxParis CommuneWorking Class

286 THE CLASS STRUGGLE MARX AND THE INTERNATIONAL 287 longed to the long dead German Empire. And, therefore, it is maintained that this piece of earth, and the human beings that have grown up upon it, must be confiscated as an eternal possession of the German nation. But if the map of Europe is to be changed that it may correspond with old historic rights, then let us under no circumstances forget, that the Kurfürst of Brandenburg was at one time, for his Prussian possessions, the vassal of the Polish Republic.
In this address Marx made his famous prophecy, that the annexation of Alsace Lorraine would drive France into the arms of Russia and would bring a pew and a greater war. He declared. Do the German jingoes really believe that German peace and freedom are assured, if they force France into the arms of Russia? If the fortune of arms, if rejoicing over success and dynastic intrigues lead Germany to rob French territory, only two paths are open before it. Either it will become, whatever may happen, the obvious serf of Russian aggrandizement, or it must arm, after a short period of rest, for a new defensive war, not for one of those half baked localized wars, but for a gigantic war against the united Slav and the Roman races.
Our times have shown how clearly Marx foresaw the political course of events.
It is well known how wonderfully Karl Marx pictured the Paris Commune in his address of the General Council on Civil War in France. According to him, the Commune was, in the main, a government of the working class, the newly discovered political form under which alone the economic liberation of the working class can be achieved. On the 28th of May the last Commune revolutionists gave up their lives. Only two days later, on the 30th of May, Marx read his papers in the General Council, describing the historic significance of the Commune in short, pregnant lines, but more clearly and truthfully than this has ever been done anywhere in the mass of literature that has been written on this subject.
It would lead us too far afield, should we further discuss the contents of Marx address on the Commune, especially since it is probably well known everywhere in working class circles. Nor can we more than mention in passing the part played by Marx in the differences that arose within the International after the Fall of the Commune, as a result of the secret machinations of Bakunin and his followers.
The work that fell to the lot of Marx as a result of these unpleasant quarrels was enormous. It is possible that it would have exceeded even the limits of his endurance, had he not gained in Friedrich Engels, who had moved from Manchester to London, an industrious helpmate in the work of the International.
In September 1872, the last Congress of the International Workingmen Association on European territory was held. It was the first International Congress which Marx was able to attend.
It was decided to transfer the General Council of the Association from London to New York. This put an end to the direct participation of Karl Marx in its business affairs, After the Congress of the Hague was over, Marx spoke in a mass meeting in Amsterdam, where among other things he said. The Congress at the Hague has proclaimed the necessity for the working class to fight against the old social state, which is on the point of collapse, on the political as well as on the social field. group had arisen in our midst which proclaimed working class abstinence from political work. We deemed it our duty to declare, how dangerous and how threatening such opinions may become for our cause. The worker must, sometime, get the political power into his own hands, in order to lay the foundation for a new organization of labor. He must overthrow the old political system that upholds the old institutions, unless he is ready like the old Christians. to sacrifice the Kingdom of this world. And, he continues, Citizens, let us remember that fundamental principle of the International: Solidarity. Only so long as we keep alive this rejuvenating principle among the workers of all nations will we achieve the great aim that is our goal: The overthrow of capitalist society must be based upon solidarity.