International Workingmen’s Association 1868
Source: MECW Volume 21, p. 31;
Written: by Karl Marx at the end of October-November 3, 1868;
Adopted: by the General Council on November 3, 1868;
First published: in The Bee-Hive Newspaper, November 21, 1868.
At its meeting of October 6, 1868, the General Council of the International Association decided to publish the resolutions of the Geneva Congress (1866), adopted after the Council’s report (K. Marx, “Instructions for the Delegates of the Provisional General Council. The Different Questions), as well as those of the Brussels Congress (1868). Eccarius did the preliminary work, while Marx prepared the text for the press and checked the translation. Marx wrote the preamble to this publication between the end of October and November 3, 1868 (see his letter to Engels of February 24, 1869) and it was first published in The Bee-Hive Newspaper, November 21, 1868. Section 1 of this publication, including Marx’s preamble, was approved at the General Council meeting of November 3, 1868. Subsequently, the publication was incorporated into a pamphlet The International Working Men’s Association. Resolutions of the Congress of Geneva, 1866, and the Congress of Brussels, 1868, London [1869].
As some of the resolutions passed at the first Congress may be considered as part of the platform of principles of the International Working Men’s Association, and the reports of that Congress have had but a limited circulation, the General Council deems it advisable to republish them with the issue of the resolutions passed at the last Congress.
Amongst the various subjects that came under the consideration of the first — the Geneva Congress — the following are the most important.
The Geneva Congress resolutions, which Marx selected for inclusion in the publication of those of the Brussels Congress (1868), dealt with the role of the International in the proletariat’s economic struggle, the eight-hour working day, protection of child and female labour, the organisation of co-operative production and the tasks of the trade unions (Points 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the “Instructions for the Delegates of the Provisional General Council. The Different Questions”).