Karl Marx: A Biography

45 2 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHY

Congresses put together',^143 the London Conference rendered more acute

the divisions in the International, and there was almost immediate oppo-

sition to its decisions - opposition that very soon quenched for ever the

optimism that Marx enjoyed throughout 1871.^144 The Germans were as

apathetic as ever (they had paid no financial contributions since September

1869 ) and Marx took the unprecedented step of asking all their sections

to correspond directly with him.^145 The French section in London

opposed the decisions of the Conference, as did the followers of Victoria

Woodhull in America and the sections in Italy and Spain. This opposition

was voiced by the Jura Federation which in November 1871 issued a

circular denouncing authoritarianism and hierarchy in the International,

accusing the General Council of being a kind of government and propos-

ing that it be replaced by a correspondence bureau linking a free associ-

ation of national sections. Marx wrote a reply for the General Council

entitled The Alleged Splits in the International. Here he rightly exposed the

futility of many of the anarchist doctrines, but also repeated the charges

against Bakunin arising out of the Netchayev affair, made much of the

fact that two of Bakunin's followers had turned out to be Bonapartist

spies, and finally dismissed the followers of both Lassalle and Bakunin as

sects which

have a justifiable existence at a time when the proletariat is not suf-

ficiently developed to act as a class. Individual thinkers begin to criticize

social contradictions and seek to overcome them by fantastic solutions

which the masses of the workers have only to accept, propagate and

carry out. By their very nature the sects which form around such

pioneers are exclusive and hold themselves aloof from all practical

activities, from politics, strikes, trade unions, in a word from every form

of mass movement. The masses of the workers remain indifferent, or

even hostile to their propaganda. Originally one of the levers of the

working-class movement, they become a hindrance and reactionary

immediately the movement overtakes them. Examples of this are the

sects in France and England, and later on the Lassalleans in Germany,

who, after having hampered the organization of the proletariat for

years, have finally become simply tools in the hands of the police.^146

What finally destroyed Marx's influence in the International were the
increasing difficulties he had to face even in the bastion of Britain. At
first the establishment of the English Federal Council created no prob-
lems: Hales, its Secretary, continued to support Marx and it managed to
create numerous branches. The first sign of revolt came over the groups
in America, known as Section 12 , founded by Victoria Woodhull and
Tennie Claflin whose membership was middle class (and whose main
energies were devoted to such causes as free love and spiritualism) in