Record of Marx's Speech on the Paris Commune, April 25, 1871

Author(s) First International
Karl Marx
Written 29 April 1871


Source : Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 22
First published in part in The Eastern Post No. 135, April 29, 1871
First published in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 44, Moscow, 1977
Reproduced from the General Council's Minute Book, verified with The Eastern Post
Collection(s): The Eastern Post

For a long time, Marx's speech at the General Council meeting of April 25, 1871 was not published in full because page 216 was missing from the Minute Book. The text of this page found later was first published in English in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung (Berlin), 1978, No. 3, p. 402.

[FROM THE MINUTES OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL MEETING

OF APRIL 25, 1871]

Cit. Marx read a letter from the Secretary of the New York Committee[1] giving the following list of Sections represented by delegates in the Committee.[2]

1. General German Workingmen's Society (Labor Union No. 5).

2. French Section of the I.W.A. New York.

3. Czechian Workingmen's Society New York.

4. Social Political Workingmen's Society 1 Chicago

5. Ditto " " " 2 Chicago (German

6. Social Democratic Workingmen's Society New York

7. Irish section of the I.W.A. New York.

8. Social Democratic Society Williamsburgh N.Y. (German).

The Sections were reported as doing good work, the Irish is rapidly increasing and trying to enter into combination with the Irish Confederation of the United States. Progress has been made to establish a weekly German newspaper. The Workingmen's Union had decided that only delegates representing Labor,[3] not capital should be admitted. The National Labor Union was losing ground among the New York Societies; several had refused to send delegates to the next Congress.

The Workingmen's Assembly of the State of New York had held its annual session at Albany and passed a resolution approving and endorsing the principles of the I.W.A. concluding "Workingmen of all Countries, unite!"

An address to the workingmen's Societies and Trades Union was in course of preparation and correspondence had been established with the Miners' Benevolent Association of Pennsylvania. The organised political labor party had overthrown the Republican ascendancy in New Hampshire in the recent election. A native American Section had been founded and sent a delegate [to the New York Committee]. A bill of exchange for two pounds sterling was remitted as contribution for 293 members and payment for Congress Reports.

Cit. Marx announced that letters had been received from Paris, one of the 12th and one of 15th[4] but they had only arrived on Saturday. A Frenchman from the Commune who had come to London to transact business with the Stock Exchange had paid him [Marx] a visit to obtain his assistance. The expulsion of Tolain was authentic,[5] in consequence of which he proposed the following resolution: —

"Considering the Resolution of the Federal Council of the Paris Sections expelling Citizen Tolain from the Association because, after having been elected to the National Assembly as a representative of the Working Classes, he has deserted their cause in the most cowardly manner, which resolution the General Council is called upon to confirm;

Considering that the place of every French member of the International Workingmen's Association is undoubtedly on the side of the Commune of Paris and not in the usurpatory and counter-revolutionary Assembly of Versailles;

The General Council of the International Workingmen's Association confirms the resolution of the Paris Federal Council and declares that Citizen Tolain is expelled from the International Workingmen's Association."

Eccarius seconded the resolution, it was carried unanimously. Cit. Marx continued. He said he had pointed out to the delegate of the Commune that it was a great blunder to leave us without either letters[6] or papers. This would be rectified in future as the commercial communications between the Commune and London would be kept up by a travelling agent who would also take charge of our communications.

Serraillier and Dupont had been elected to fill up vacancies in the 17th arrondissement, Serraillier had written that Dupont [7] was sure to be elected but he had not written since the election; he might have written to Manchester.[8] It appeared that more letters had been written than had arrived. Felix Pyat and Vésinier were calumniating Serraillier and Dupont [9] in Paris and when Serraillier had threatened to prosecute they had denied it. It was urgent to write at once to Paris to state the reasons why Pyat calumniated Serraillier and Dupont, and upon the motion of Citizen Mottershead Citizen Marx was instructed to write.[10]

The letters had been posted outside the line by Lafargue,[11] they had therefore been delayed by rail, both the French and the Prussian Governments sifted the letters. Most of the information they contained was old but there were a few facts which the papers had not given. It was stated that the provinces knew as little what was going on in Paris as during the Siège. Except where the fighting was going on it had never been so quiet. A great part of the middle class had joined the National Guards of Belleville. The great Capitalists had run away and the small trades people went with the working class.[12] No one could have an idea of the enthusiasm of the people, and the National Guards and the people at Versailles must be fools if they believed that they could enter Paris. Paris did not believe in a rising in the provinces and knew that superior forces were brought against it but there was no fear on that account, but there wa^s fear of Prussian intervention and want of provisions. The decrees about rent and commercial bills were two master strokes: without them 3/4 of the trades people would have become bankrupt. The murder of Duval and Flourens had excited a sentiment of vengeance. The family of Flourens and the Commune had sent a legal officer to have the cause of their death certain, but in vain.[13] Flourens had been killed in a house.[14]

About the fabrication of telegrams there was some information. When Protot had gone through the accounts of the Government of National Defence he had discovered that money had been paid for the construction of an improved portable guillotine."[15] The guillotine had been found and publicly burned by order of the Commune.[16] The Gas Company had owed the municipality more than a mill, but had not shown any willingness to refund till their goods had been seized; then a bill to the amount had been given on the Bank of France. The telegrams and correspondents gave altogether different versions of these things.[17] The greatest eyesore was that the Commune governed so cheap. The highest officials only received at the rate of 6000 fr.[per] year, the others only workman's wages.[18]

The Address[19] was to be ready at the next meeting.

  1. ↑ F. A. Sorge.— Ed.
  2. ↑ The reference is to the report of the Central Committee of the NorthAmerican Sections, dated April 2, 1871 and signed by Sorge.
  3. ↑ Then follows the text of the missing page from the Minute Book.— Ed.
  4. ↑ A. Serraillier's letters were received on April 23.— Ed.
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 297.— Ed
  6. ↑ The end of the missing page from the Minute Book.— Ed
  7. ↑ J. M. A. Dupont.— Ed.
  8. ↑ Serraillier was elected to the Commune at the additional elections on April 16, 1871, from the Paris 2nd arrondissement. Eugène Dupont, a member of the General Council, was also nominated, but he did not stand, because he was unable to leave England for Paris. J. M. A. Dupont was elected from the 17th arrondissement
  9. ↑ Eugène Dupont.— Ed
  10. ↑ In his letter to Leo Frankel of April 26, 1871, written on the instructions of the General Council, Marx refuted the slanderous attacks on Serraillier made by petty-bourgeois democrat Félix Pyat (see present edition, Vol. 44).
  11. ↑ Paul Lafargue stayed in Paris from April 6 to 12, 1871.
  12. ↑ In the report published in The Eastern Post this sentence ends as follows: "and the shopkeepers have little love for the Versailles government".— Ed.
  13. ↑ The Eastern Post has: "for an authenticated statement of the cause of death, which would have involved an inquest, but the Versaillese flatly refused".— Ed.
  14. ↑ The Eastern Post has: "Flourens did not fall in any encounter, he was literally assassinated in a home."—Ed.
  15. ↑ The Eastern Post has: "One of the first things the officers of the Commune did was to examine the papers and books of their predecessors. In the accounts of the Home Department of the Government of National Defence, there was an entry found of money having been paid for the construction of an improved portable guillotine. This new instrument for the slaughter of the Paris workmen was constructed while the patriots now conspiring at Versailles, pretended to defend Paris from Prussians.":—Ed.
  16. ↑ The Eastern Post has further: "The telegrams and the correspondents had it that the people burned them to save their heads against the Commune."—Ed.
  17. ↑ The Eastern Post describes this as follows: "The Gas Company being robbed is another little bit. The municipal account showed that the Gas Company had received upwards of a million out of the rates levied on the inhabitants of Paris, which was registered as owing; while the same Gas Company had a large balance in the Bank of France. When no response was made to refund, the Commune sent the brokers, and when the Company found that matters had become serious, that their cash-box and goods were seized, they gave a cheque in the Bank of France for the amounts, and their cash-box and goods were restored. These two cases may serve as samples."—Ed.
  18. ↑ The Eastern Post has: "The pay of ordinary functionaries is only equal to skilled workmen's wages, the salary of the highest officials is only at the rate of £240 a year. Surely they must be people, they cannot have any gendemen among them — fancy a gentleman giving ministerial parties and Lord Mayor's dinner on £240 a year."— Ed
  19. ↑ K. Marx, The Civil War in France (this volume, pp. 307-59).— Ed.