Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-07-20
THE COMMUNISTS.
An International Leader Explain
and Defends abe society

An International Leader Explains
and Defends ahe Society.
Special Dispatch to the Cincinnati Gazette.
New YoRK, July 18.-Dr. Carl Mara,
German, now resident in London, of
the international chiefs, gives this expls-
nation of the working of the society:
formerly, when q strike took place in
one country it was defeated by the i'm
portation of Workmen from another.
The international has nearly stopped al
that. It receives information of the in
tended strike; it spreads that information
among its members, who at once see that
fox them the seat of the struggle must be
forbidden ground. The masters are thus
left alone to reckon with their men. In
most cases the men require no other aid
than that of their own subscriptions or
those of the societies to which they are
more Immediately affiliated supply them
with funds; but should the pressure upon
them become too heavy, and the strike be
one of which the association approves,
their necessities are supplied out of the
common purse. By these means a strike
of the cigar makers of Barcelona was
brought to a victorious issue the
other day. But the Society has no
interest in strikes, Though it supports
them under certain conditions. 1t can
not possibly gain by them in pccuniary
point of view, but msy easily lose. Lst
us sum it all up in word. The working
classes remain poor amid the increase of
wealth, wretched amid the increase of
luxury. Their material priVation dwarfs
their moral as well as their physical sta
ture. They can not rely on others for 8
remedy. 1t has become then with them
an imperative necessity to take their own
case Id hand. They must revise the rela-
tons between themselves and the capital
lists and landlords, and that means they
must transform society.
"This ia the general end of every known
workmen's organization. Lsnd and labor
leagues, trade and friendly societies, CO.
operative stores and cooperative ploduc-
tion are but means toward it. To estsb-
lish perfect solidarity between these
organizations is the business of the inter
national association. lis influence is be-
ginning to be felt every where.
E'Two papers spread its views in Spain,
three in Germany, the same number in
Austria and in Holland, six in Belgium,
and six in Switzerland. And GoW that
have told you what the international is,
you may perhaps be in position to form
your own opinion as to its pretended
plots. The association does not dictate
the form of the political movements, it
only requires pledge as to their end.
Il is q net work of affiliated sOcie
ties spreading all over the world of labor.
In each part of the world some special
aspect of the problem presents itself, and
the workmen there address themselves to
its consideration in their own way. Com
binations among workmen can not be alb
| solutely identical in detail in New Castle
and in Barcelona, in London and Berlin.
In England, for instance, the way to
| political power lies open to the
working class. IDsurrection would
| be madness where peaceful agitation
would more swiftly and surely do the
work. In France hundred laws Of re-
preston and mortal aTtagonism between
| the classes seem to necessitate the violent
solution Of social war. The choice of
| that solution is the affrsy Of the working
| classes of that country. The interns-
tional does not presume to dictate in the
matter, and hardly to advise, but to eve
ny movement it sccedes its sympathy and
its aid within the limits assigned by its
own laws. The chief centres of our &C
tiVity are for the present among the old
societies of Europe. Many circumstances
have hitherto tended TO prevent tie labor.
problem from assuming an absorbing i'm
portance in the United States. But they
are rapidly disappearing, and it IS rapidly
coming to The front there with the growth
as in Europe of q laboring class distinct
from the rest of the community and d.
vorced from capital.