# General Rules and Administrative Regulations of the International Working-Men's Association

For the 1864 provisional rules see here. The General Rules reflect the version adopted in 1866.
GENERAL RULES
AND
ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS
OF THE
INTERNATIONAL WORKING-MEN'S ASSOCIATION.
OFFICIAL EDITION, REVISED BY THE GENERAL COUNCIL.
LONDON: Printed for the General Council by EDWARD TRUELOVE, 256, HIGH HOLBORN. 1871.
page
GENERAL RULES
OF THE
INTERNATIONAL WORKING MEN'S ASSOCIATION.
Considering,
That the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves; that the struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class-rule;
That the economical subjection of the man of labour to the monopolizer of the means of labour, that is the sources of life, lies at the bottom of servitude in all its forms, of all social misery, mental degradation, and political dependence;
That the economical emancipation of the working classes is therefore the great end to which every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means;
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;
That the present revival of the working classes in the most industrious countries of Europe, while it raises a new hope, gives solemn warning against a relapse into the old errors, and calls for the immediate combination of the still disconnected movements;
For these Reasons—
The International Working Men's Association has been founded .
It Declares:
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;
​That it acknowledges no rights without duties, no duties without rights;
And in this spirit the following rules have been drawn up.
1. This Association is established to afford a central medium of communication and co-operation between Working Men's Societies existing in different countries and aiming at the same end; viz., the protection, advancement, and complete emancipation of the working classes.
2. The name of the Society shall be "The International Working Men's Association."
3. There shall annually meet a General Working Men's Congress, consisting of delegates of the branches of the Association. The Congress will have to proclaim the common aspirations of the working class, take the measures required for the successful working of the International Association, and appoint the General Council of the Society.
4. Each Congress appoints the time and place of meeting for the next Congress. The delegates assemble at the appointed time and place without any special invitation. The General Council may, in case of need, change the place, but has no power to postpone the time of meeting. The Congress appoints the seat and elects the members of the General Council annually. The General Council thus elected shall have power to add to the number of its members.
On its annual meetings, the General Congress shall receive a public account of the annual transactions of the General Council. The latter may, in cases of emergency, convoke the General Congress before the regular yearly term.
5. The General Council shall consist of working men from the different countries represented in the International Association. It shall from its own members elect the officers necessary for the transaction of business, such as a treasurer, a general secretary, corresponding secretaries for the different countries, &c.
6. 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; and that when immediate practical steps should be needed—as, for instance,in case of international quarrels—the action of the associated societies be simultaneous and uniform. Whenever it seems opportune, the General Council shall take the initiative of proposals to be laid before the different national or local societies. To facilitate the communications, the General Council shall publish periodical reports.
7. Since the success of the workingmen's movement in each country cannot be secured but by the power of union and combination, while, on the other hand, the usefulness of the International General Council must greatly depend on the circumstance whether it has to deal with a few national centres of working men's associations, or with a great ​number of small and disconnected local societies; the members of the International Association shall use their utmost efforts to combine the disconnected working men's societies of their respective countries into national bodies, represented by central national organs. It is self-understood, however, that the appliance of this rule will depend upon the peculiar laws of each country , and that, apart from legal obstacles, no independent local society shall be precluded from directly corresponding with the General Council.
8. Every section has the right to appoint its own secretary corresponding with the General Council.
9. Everybody who acknowledges and defends the principles of the International Working Men's Association is eligible to become a member. Every branch is responsible for the integrity of the members it admits.
10. Each member of the International Association, on removing his domicile from one country to another, will receive the fraternal support of the Associated Working Men.
11. While united in a perpetual bond of fraternal co-operation, the working men's societies joining the International Association will preserve their existent organizations intact.
12. The present rules may be revised by each Congress, provided that two-thirds of the delegates present are in favour of such revision.
13. Everything not provided for in the present rules will be supplied by special regulations, subject to the revision of every Congress.
ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS,
Revised in accordance with the Resolutions passed by the Congresses (1866 to 1869), and by the London Conference (1871).
I.
The General Congress.
1. Every member of the International Working Men's Association has the right to vote at elections for, and is eligible as, a delegate to the General Congress.
2. Every branch, whatever the number of its members, may send a delegate to the Congress.
3. Each delegate has but one vote in the Congress.
4. The expenses of the delegates are to be defrayed by the branches and groups which appoint them.
5. If a branch be unable to send a delegate, it may unite with other neighbouring branches for the appointment of one.
​6. Every branch or group consisting of more than 500 members may send an additional delegate for every additional 500 members.
7. 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.
8. The sittings of the Congress will be twofold—administrative sittings, which will be private, and public sittings, reserved for the discussion of, and the vote upon, the general questions of the Congress programme.
9. The Congress programme, consisting of questions placed on the order of the day by the preceding Congress, questions added by the General Council, and questions submitted to the acceptance of that Council by the different sections, groups, or their committees, shall be drawn up by the General Council.
Every section, group, or committee which intends to propose, for the discussion of the impending Congress, a question not proposed by, the previous Congress, shall give notice thereof to the General Council before the 31st of March.
10. The General Council is charged with the organization of each Congress, and shall, in due time, through the medium of the Federal Councils or Committees, bring the Congress programme to the cognizance of the branches.
11. The Congress will appoint as many committees as there shall be questions submitted to it. Each delegate shall designate the committee upon which he may prefer to sit. Each Committee shall read the memorials presented by the different sections and groups on the special question referred to it. It shall elaborate them into one single report, which alone is to be read at the public sittings. It shall moreover decide which of the above memorials shall be annexed to the official report of the Congress transactions.
12. In its public sittings, the Congress will, in the first instance, occupy itself with the questions placed on the order of the day by the General Council, the remaining questions to be discussed afterwards.
13. All resolutions on questions of principle shall be voted upon by division (appel nominal).
14. Two months at latest before the meeting of the annual Congress, every branch or federation of branches shall transmit to the General Council аa detailed report of its proceedings and development during the current year. The General Council shall elaborate these elements into one single report, which alone is to be read before Congress.
II.
The General Council.
1. The designation of General Council is reserved for the Central Council of the International Working Men's Association. The Central Councils of the various Countries, where the International is regularly organized, shall designate themselves as Federal Councils, or Federal Committees, with the names of the respective countries attached.
2. The General Council is bound to execute the Congress Resolutions.
3. As often as its means may permit, the General Council shall publish a bulletin or report embracing everything which may be of interest to the International Working Men's Association.
For this purpose it shall collect all the documents to be transmitted by the Federal Councils or Committees of the different countries and such others as it may be able to procure by other means.
The bulletin, drawn up in several languages, shall be sent gratuitously to the Federal Councils or Committees, which are to forward one copy to each of their branches.
In case the General Council should be unable to publish such bulletins, it shall every three months send a written communication to the different Federal Councils or Committees, to be published in the newspapers of their respective countries, and especially in the International organs.
4. Every new branch or society intending to join the International, is bound immediately to announce its adhesion to the General Council.
5. The General Council has the right to admit or to refuse the affiliation of any new branch or group, subject to appeal to the next Congress.
Nevertheless, wherever there exist Federal Councils or Committees, the General Council is bound to consult them before admitting or rejecting the affiliation of a new branch or society within their jurisdiction; without prejudice, however, to its right of provisional decision.
6. The General Council has also the right of suspending, till the meeting of next Congress, any branch of the International.
7. In case of differences arising between societies or branches of the same national group, or between groups of different nationalities, the General Council shall have the right of deciding such differences, subject to appeal to the next Congress, whose decision shall be final.
8. 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.
9. English, French, and German editions of the General Rules and Regulations are to be reprinted from the official texts published by the General Council.
All versions of the General Rules and Regulations in other languages shall, before publication, be submitted to the General Council for approval.
III.
Contributions to be paid to the General Council.
1. An annual contribution of One Penny per member shall be levied from all branches and affiliated societies for the use of the General Council. This contribution is intended to defray the expenses of the General Council, such as the remuneration of its General Secretary, costs of correspondence, publications, preparatory work for Congresses, &c. &c.
2. The General Council shall cause to be printed uniform adhesive stamps representing the value of one penny each, to be annually supplied, in the numbers wanted, to the Federal Councils or Committees.
3. These stamps are to be affixed to a special sheet of the livret or to a copy of the Rules which every member of the Association is held to possess.
4. On the 1st of March of each year,the Federal Councils or Committees of the different countries shall forward to the General Council the amounts of the stamps disposed of, and return the unsold stamps remaining on hand.
5. These stamps, representing the value of the individual contributions, shall bear the date of the current year.
IV.
Federal Councils or Committees.
1. The expenses of the Federal Councils or Committees shall be defrayed by their respective branches.
2. The Federal Councils or Committees shall send one report at least every month to the General Council.
3. The Federal Councils or Committees shall transmit to the General Council every three months a report on the administration and financial state of their respective branches.
4. Any Federation may refuse to admit or may exclude from its midst societies or branches. It is, however, not empowered to deprive them of their International character, but it may propose their suspension to the General Council.
V.
Local Societies, Branches, and Groups.
1. Every branch is at liberty to make rules and bye-laws for its local administration, adapted to local circumstances and the laws of its country. But these rules and bye-laws must not contain anything contrary to the General Rules and Regulations.
2. All local branches, groups, and their committees are henceforth to designate and constitute themselves simply and exclusively as branches, groups, and committees of the International Working Men's Association, with the names of their respective localities attached.
​3. Consequently, no branches or groups will henceforth be allowed to designate themselves by sectarian names,—such as Positivists, Mutualists, Collectivists, Communists, &c., or to form separatist bodies, under the name of sections of propaganda, &c., pretending to accomplish special missions distinct from the common purposes of the Association.
4. Art. 2 of this division does not apply to affiliated Trades' Unions.
5. All sections, branches, and working men's societies affiliated to the International are invited to abolish the office of President of their respective branch or society.
6. The formation of female branches amongst the working class is recommended. It is, however, understood that this resolution does not at all intend to interfere with the existence, or formation of branches composed of both sexes.
7. Wherever attacks against the International are published, the nearest branch or committee is held to send at once a copy of such publication to the General Council.
8. The addresses of the offices of all International Committees and of the General Council are to be published every three months in all the organs of the Association.
VI.
General Statistics of Labour.
1. The General Council is to enforce Article 6 of the Rules relating to general statistics of the working class, and the Resolutions of the Geneva Congress, 1866, on the same subject.
2. Every local branch is bound to appoint a special Committee of Statistics, so as to be always ready, within the limits of its means, to answer any question which may be put to it by the Federal Council or Committee of its country or by the General Council.
It is recommended to all branches to remunerate the secretaries of the Committees of Statistics, considering the general benefit the working class will derive from their labour.
3. On the 1st of August of each year the Federal Councils or Committees will transmit the materials collected in their respective countries to the General Council, which, in its turn, is to elaborate them into a general report, to be laid before the Congresses or Conferences annually held in the month of September.
4. Trades' Unions and International branches refusing to give the information required, shall be reported to the General Council, which will take action thereupon.
5. The Resolutions of the Geneva Congress, 1866, alluded to in Article 1. of this division are the following:—
One great International combination of efforts will be аa statistical inquiry into the situation of the working classes of all civilized countries to be instituted by the working classes themselves. 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 to 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; reports and evidence to be forwarded to the General Council. The General Council shall elaborate them into a report, adding the evidence as an appendix. This report, together with its appendix, shall be laid before the next annual Congress, and after having received its sanction, be printed at the expense of the Association.
General scheme of inquiry, which may of course be modified by each locality. 1. Industry, name of. 2. Age and sex of the employed. 3. Number of the employed. 4. Salaries and wages; (a) apprentices; (b) wages by, the day or piece work; scale paid by middle men. Weekly, yearly average. 5. (a) Hours of work in factories. (b) The hours of work with small employers and in home work, if the business be carried on in those different modes. (c) Nightwork and daywork. 6. Meal-times and treatment. 7. Sort of workshop and work; overcrowding, defective ventilation, want of sunlight, use of gaslight, cleanliness, &c. 8. Effect of employment upon the physical condition. 9. Moral condition. Education. 10. State of trade: whether season trade, or more or less uniformly distributed over the year, whether greatly fluctuating, whether exposed to foreign competition—whether destined principally for home or foreign consumption, &c.
APPENDIX.
The Conference held at London from 17th to 23rd September, 1871, has charged the General Council to issue a new, authentic and revised edition, in English, French, and German, of the "General Rules and Regulations of the International Working Men's Association," for the following reasons:—
I. General Rules.
The Geneva Congress (1866) adopted, with a few additions, the provisional rules of the Association, published at London in November, 1864. It also decided (see "Congrès ouvrier de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs, tenu à Genève du 3 au 8 Septbre., 1868." Genève, 1868, p. 27, note), that the General Council should publish the official and obligatory text of the Rules as well as of the Regulations voted by the Congress. The General Council was prevented from executing this order by the seizure, on the part of the Bonapartist Government, of the minutes of the Geneva Congress on their transit through France. When at last, through the intercession of Lord Stanley, then British Foreign Secretary, the minutes were recovered, a French edition had already been issued at Geneva, and the text of the Rules and Regulations contained in it was at once reproduced in all French-speaking countries. 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. From an insufficient acquaintance with the English language, it had also misinterpreted some of the articles of the Rules.
2. The Geneva Congress having to give a final character to the provisional Rules, the Committee appointed for this purpose simply struck out all passages in which anything of a provisional nature was alluded to, without noticing that several of these passages contained most important matter of no provisional character whatever. In the English edition published after the Lausanne Congress (1867) the same omissions are repeated.
II. Administrative Regulations.
The administrative Regulations hitherto published conjointly with ​the Rules, are but those voted by the Genera Congress (1866). It thus became necessary to codify the further regulations voted by subsequent Congresses and by the late London Conference.
The following publications have been made use of for the present revised edition:—
"Address and Provisional Rules of the International Working Men's Association," &c. London. 1864.
"Rules of the International Working Men's Association." London. 1867.
"Congrès ouvrier de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs, tenu à Genève du 3 au 8 Septbre., 1866." Genève. 1866.
"Procès-verbaux du Congrès de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs, réuni à Lausanne, du 2 au 8 Septbre., 1867." Chaux-de. Fonds. 1867.
"Troisième Congrès de 'lAssociation Internationale des Travailleurs (Brussels Congress)-Compte-rendu officiel." Bruxelles. 1868.
"The International Working Men's Association. Resolutions of the Congress of Geneva, 1866, and the Congress of Brussels, 1868." London. 1868.
"Compte-rendu du 4me Congrès International, tenu à Bâle en Septbre., 1868." Bruxelles. 1869.
"Report of the Fourth Annual Congress of the International Working Men's Association, held at Basel, 1869." Published by the General Council. London 1868.
"Quatrième_Congrès de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs, tenu à Bâle, 1869. Rapport du délégué des Sections de la Fabrique à Genève." Genève. 1869.
"Resolutions of the Conference of Delegates of the International Working Men's Association, assembled at London, 1871." London. 1871.
For the Basel Congress, the German report of the Congress proceedings, published in fly-sheets at Basel, and the notes taken during the Congress by the General Secretary, have also been consulted.
How these various sources have been made use of for the purposes of the present revised edition will appear from the following statement.
General Rules.
Preamble.—After the words, "For these reasons," there have been restored the words, "the International Working Men's Association has been founded." See Provisional Rules, p. 13.
The passage, "They hold it the duty of a man," & c., has been omitted, because there exist two equally authentic versions of it, irreconcilable with each other. The true meaning of it is, besides, already contained in the passage immediately preceding, and in that immediately following: "No rights without duties," &c.
Art. 3 is restored from Art. 3 of Provisional Rules.
Art. 4.—Part of Art. 3 and the whole of Art. 4 of Rules, London, 1867.
​Art. 5.—Introductory part of Art. 3, Rules, 1867. The words "a president" have been omitted, in agreement with Administrative Resolution I. of Basel Congress.
Art. 6.—Art. 5, Rules, 1867. The words "Co-operating Associations" have been changed into "national and local groups of the Association," because the expression, in some translations, has been misinterpreted as meaning co-operative societies.
Art. 7.—Art. 6, Rules, 1867.
Art. 8.—Art. 10, Rules, 1867.
Art. 10.—Art. 8, Rules, 1867.
Art. 12 forms Art. 13 of the Administrative Regulations in "Rules, 1867."
Art. 13.—Art. 12, Rules, 1867.
Art. 7, Rules, 1867, has been omitted, because its insertion was contrary to a resolution of the Lausanne Congress. See "Procès-verbaux du Congrès de Lausanne," p. 36.
Administrative Regulations.
I. The General Congress.
Art. 1.—Art. 11 of Regulations voted by Geneva Congress ("Congrès de Genève," Genève, 1866, p. 26, &c.); Art. 10, Rules, & c., 1867, which is incomplete.
Art. 2.—Art. 9, Congrès de Genève; Art. 6, Rules, &c., 1867.
Art. 3.—Art. 13, Congrès de Genève; Art. 11, Rules, &c., 1867.
Art. 4.—Art. 10, Congrès de Genève; Art. 9, Rules ,& c., 1867.
Art. 5.—Art. 9, Congrès de Genève; Art. 7, Rules, &c., 1867.
Art. 6.—Art.12, Congrès de Genève; Art. 8, Rules, &c., 1867.
Art. 7.—Basel Administrative Regulations, VIII.
Art. 8.—For this article the Guide pratique pour le Congrès de l'Internationale (Compte-rendu du Congrès de Bâle, Bruxelles, 1869) has been completed by the other materials on the Basel Congress, quoted above.
Art. 9.—First part as for Art. 8. Second part, Resolution of Lausanne Congress (Procès-verbaux, p. 74, 1).
Art. 10.—Art. 16, Congrès de Genève; Art. 1 b, Rules, & c., 1867.
Art. 11.—Guide Pratique, Basel Congress, Art. 3 and 11.
Art. 12.—Guide Pratique, &c., Art, 10.
Art. 13.—Guide Pratique, &c., Art. 7.
Art. 14.—Guide Pratique, &c., Art. 4.
II. The General Council.
Art. 1.—London Conference, 1871, II. 1.
Art. 2.—Congrès de Genève, Art. 1; Rules, &c., 1867, Art. 1.
Art. 3.—The two first Alineas, Art. 2 and Art. 1 a, Congrès de Genève, ​and Rules, &c., 1867. Third Alinea, Art. 3, Congrès de Genève. Last Alinea, Lausanne Congress, Procès-verbaux, p. 31, Art. 2.
Arts. 4 to 7.—Basel Administrative Resolutions, IV. to VII.
Art. 8.—London Conference, III.
Art. 9.—Resolution of London Conference, sittings of 18th and 22nd September.
III. Contributions to be Paid to the General Council.
Art. I.—First Alinea, Lausanne Congress, Procès-verbaux, p. 37, 3; and Art. IX., Basel Administrative Resolutions. Second Alinea, Art. 4, Congrès de Genève, and Rules, 1867.
Arts. 2 to 6.—London Conference, IV., 1 to 5.
IV.—Federal Councils or Committees.
Art. 1.—Art. 6, Congrès de Genève, and Rules, 1867.
Art. 2.—Art. 5, ditto.
Art. 3.—Brussels Congress, "Compte-rendu Officiel," p. 50, Appendice, Séances Administratives, Resolution No. 3.
Art. 4.—Art. VI., Basel Administrative Resolutions.
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.
R. Applegath, M. T. Boon, Fred. Bradnick, G. H. Buttery, E. Delahaye, Eugène Dupont (on mission), Wm. Hales, G. Harris, Hurliman, Jules Johannard, Harriet Law, Fred. Lessner, Lochner, Ch. Longuet, C. Martin, Zevy Maurice, Henry Mayo, George Milner, Ch. Murray, Pfander, John Roach, Rühl, Sadler, Cowell Stepney, Alfred Taylor, W. Townshend, E. Valliant, John Weston.
Corresponding Secretaries.
Leo Frankel, for Austria and Hungary; A. Herman, Belgium; T. Mottershead, Denmark; A. Serraillier, France; Karl Marx, Germany and Russia; Charles Rochat, Holland; J. P. McDonnell, Ireland; Fred. Engels, Italy and Spain; Walery Wroblewski, Poland; Hermann Jung, Switzerland; J. G. Eccarius, United States; Le Moussu, for French Branches of United States.
CHARLES LONGUET, Chairman. HERMANN JUNG, Treasurer. JOHN HALES, General Secretary.
256, High Holborn, W.C., London, 24th October, 1871.
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