The Express.
London, England, 1868-09-10 00:00:00

THE INTERNATIONAL. CONGRREIS OP
WORKMEN.

BRI7BBELit, fixer. 0.
I am not able to report that the International
Congress of Workmen has made much progress
towards the solution of tho question which it has
undertaken to discuss, nor can I say that there is
any increase in the interest with which its pro-
ceedings are regarded by the public. The at-
tendance
of delegates at the meeting to-night war
smaller than on previous occasions, and the general
audience was certainly no larger, lf, however, it
was limited in number, it ineluded at lutist one
individual whose name is much in the mouths of
men at the present nu ttttt In the course of
the everting M. Henri Rochefort, the author of
La Lanterns. entered one of the stage boxes of the
Thiiit re du Cirque with some friends, and remained
for some time an attentive witness of the proceed-
ings of the congress. lied he been generally
known, I dare ray ho would have been made the
subject of an ovation ; hat as he occupied rather a
retired position in the box he was only recognised
by a few individuals, and escaped any demonstra-
tion of public sympathy.
The final derision upon the attitude which work-
men ought to assume tho event of a war be-
tween the great European powers has been post-
poned until the close of the congress, and the
question which was debated, but without any
result, this evening was, " Strikes, federation
among trades unions, ancia,l4 fie resistance,
and the creation of a council of arbitration
for possible strikes, grives ermine/les." The dis-
cussion was not nearly no animated as was that of
the previous evening, and as almost all the speeches
were delivered in French, and none of them were
Ira :Islet into any other language, the German and
Flemish as well as the English delegates must
have been entirely ignorant as to what was going
on. The question was introdiusel by the reading
of several reports from various sections of the
association. Sumo of these, especially that front
Brussels, were very long. As their general
purport was pretty muds the
sufficient to notice only one or two of them. As
far as I guttered from the reading, none of these
reports expressed unqualified appetite' of strikes,
lint all defended them on the ground that they were
rendered nets- any by the existing social and econo-
mised oondition of the world, and pointed to the
general establishment of trades unions, and their
federation under the auspices of the International
Association, as the beet means of putting au end
to such conflicts. The Liege section regarded striker
ea contests in which injuries were sustained by both
parties, and fatal consequences often resulted to
one or the other; but maintained that in the pre-
sent Mate of society they were inevitable. The
telly, or ut all events tho beat means of avoidine
them was to establish an international union of
trade societies, so that workmen in all countries
might communicate with each other, and obtain
such complete knowledge of the circumstmwes of
their several trades as would enable them to secure
attention to their just demands without resorting
to these extreme measures. The report of the
Bnutsels section admitted that strikes fur-
nished no complete solution of the questions
which arose between capitalists and workmen, and
recorded that, as far as the hitter class was een-
cerned, they sometimes had meet deplorable
(junestes) results. At the same time, it called at-
tention to the existence of associations of capi-
talists, and pointed out that in England strikes
had often been suceessful. It was necessary to
distinguish between strikes and strikes. Some of
these contests were so ill-timed, and so ill-con-
. ductixl, that their failure was inevitable, but this
observation by no means applied to all. trader
any circumstances they were a protest against the
monopoly of property. (Applause.) Strikes at,-
peered to be a necessity ; lea in order that a strike
should success!, there must be a union of :several
conditions. It must not only be just, but it must
be opportune, and must be supported by a good
organisation. It was the absence of organisation
which led to the ill suwess of the strike of Charle-
roi. Strikes could not completely ameliorate the
condition of working men, but they were a natural
protest against the existing organistition of society.
To the success of strikes, societies of resistance
(trades unions), were of course essential ; but
they would be of little or no use without an in-
ternational federation. Objection was taken to
the existing councils of arbitration on the ground
that the advantages of position, education. and so
forth, enabled the employers to control the judg-
ment of theme tribunals, Which were composed half
of masters and half of workmen; but the seethe)
desired the appointment of a federal council to
discover the limits, and devise the means of arbitra-
tion Strikes were only a palliation of the exist-
ing system of things, and both they and trade,'
unions were spoken of as a step towards association,
and the abolition of the salarariat. Whet the
Brussels branch especially demanded—and of this
requisition the majority of the emigress ap-
pound very cordially to approve—wan the
absorption of capital by work. rho discussion
which followed was opened by Tarlaret, of PM-6,
who, speaking in entire harmony with the spirit
of the reports, declared that strike& were neees-
and necessarily involved the existence of
trades unions. Ile condemned the 'misting tri-
bunals of arbitration such as the Conseil* tie
Prudlommes in Franco, as unsatisfactory, awl
expressed a confident opinion that the most news-
Sary measure was the establishment of a confede-
ration of co-operative societies and the organiza-
tion of a tribunal which should work like the tri-
bunals of commerce. Catalan was of opinion that
strikes WPM the only means of obtaining the aug-
mentation of wagtat and the concession of the rights
of tho workman. In many instances, as in
France itself, the political forces were opposed
to the working men, anti iu such casts the vin-
dication of work could only be effected by moons
of strikes. In countries where political liberty
existed, as in Switzerland, this task of the work-
man was inure easy, as was proved by the ex.-
perk.nce of the Cleneva strike. In that ease the
men on strike beat drums, paraded the streets.
and discussed the question of the strike, just as
they pleased, without the interference of the
police. In his opinion the social and ecanonne
emancipation of the labourer was indissolubly
bound up with his political emancipation--a de-
claration which excited loud applause. Tontine
of Paris, pointed out that this was the Mouthed
proposition that war affirmed by the congress at
Lausanne, and asserted that strikes and trades
unions wore right and inevitable, as being the
necessary means of transition from our present
state of affairs to one of association. The federa-
tion of trades societies was nee eseary to create
an authority which should enfortin the
desires of any council of arbitration ; and
as a praotiotd measure ho retssuunentled the
federation of all trades unions, and the establish-
ment of a tribunal of arbitration charged with the
settlement of all questions that might arise.
Another delegate still further enforeisi the doe-
trim, of federation by reminding the Congress
that the musses of the Geneva strike was attribu-
table in great measure to the contributions which
they retatived from the working men of other na-
time'. In order to ensure the peteentso of such
eteltrilmtiens when they were wante4, it was
nreeasair7 that there should bo an international
association. Shaw, from England, while admit-