The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-09-27
BY HARRISON GEORGE


day tremendous mass of the London
proletariat will crowd by the hundreds
of thousands around the corner of
Long Acre and Endell street, for, on
that corner stands st. Martins Hall,
and in that hall on September 2Sth,
1864, was born the International Work
ingmen's Association-the First Inter
national.
Previous to that date the advance
of capitalist domination had been I'M
challenged. 1t had smashed feudal
forms. 1t had seen its catch-words
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity
(meaning free trade, equality of bour-
geois with the nobility, and the FRA
ternity" of stock holders) Towering
awaited alike the resistant feudalist
and the nascent, deceived proletariat.
1t had overturned governments right
and left, and except for isolated and
confused resistances such as the
Chartist Movement, capitalist advance
was me uninterrupted triumph.
But with the birth of the /. w. M.
A., was forged the first crude weapon
which the international working class
used in blocking the path of capital
.st exploitation. Capitalism saw the
birth of its implacable enemy, and
foresaw with abject terror its histor-
ical extinction.
Beginnings
1t was upon the material, even
though unstable and immature, found
alton of English trades unions that
the First International was based
On the Continent, unions were for
hidden and only occasional, impotent
groups or republicans led by Mazzini
furtively existed. 1t was the hope,
undoubtedly, of British unionists to
extend unionism to the Continent,
that led a group of them headed by
George Odger to send, in 1868, an
address ITO the Workingmen of Fran
ce from the Workingmen of England. "
This address was built upon the
question then agitating all libertar-
1ans, the subsection of Poland and the
recent suppression of the Polish in
surrection. But, evidently, this adj
dress was reply to some unknow
French manifesto, as it said: I'VE
echo your call for a fraternity of
peoples, highly necessary for the
cause of labor" Anyhow, from these
beginnings came the meeting on Sept.
2Sth, 1864 at st. Martins Hall, Lon
don.
Although, as mentioned, the Polish
question was uppermost, and the
meeting, under the Craftsmanship of a
positivist professor, E. S. Beesley, had
the formulation of a protest on be-
half of Poland as it's first order of
business; after that had been finished,
the problem of the international organ
ization of the working class was taken
up. lie Lubez, French refugee living
in London, proposed that a Central
Council, sitting in London, with bran
ches in all European capitals, should
be formed. The proposal was accept
ed and upon the Central Council were
appointed number of English union
lists, Major L. Wolff, who represented.
as his secretary, the ideas of Mazzini.
and the great economist and revolu-
tionary, Karl Marx.
There were four primary currents.
Firstly, Odger and Howell, English
trade unionists, wished merely to pro-
vide the workers on the Continent
with unions. Some French refugees
hoped that the new organization
would attempt the assassination of
@N0ROACOh liz /,
through his secretary, Major Wolff
Cater exposed as a police spy by the
seizure Of records in the Paris Co
mune) hoped to turn the I.W.M.A.
into groups Of secret republican So
cieties. But Marx, with his tireless
energy and patience won the day with
his famous Address and Rules" to
make the International a great propa-
amidst body, uniting and educating
the workers, admitting both unions
and political sections.
In reality, it was Marks first OBJ
portunity to realize in action that
amazing intellectual contribution.
THE Communist Manifesto" which he
and his brilliant co-worker Frederick
Engels had written in 1S47 for the
obscure and now forgotten FEEDER
alton of the Just"
AS indicative of the political direct
ion accepted by the First International
the lines from Marks Inaugural Ad-
dress may be quoted: Conquest of
political power is the first task of the