9362 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHYCitizen Marx, who has devoted all his life to the triumph of the working
class.'^62 Marx had entertained great fears for the Geneva Congress: but,
as he wrote to Kugelmann, 'on the whole, its outcome has been better
than my expectations'.^6 'III. THE INTERNATIONAL AT ITS ZENITHDuring the years 1867-69, with its three Congresses at Lausanne,
Brussels, and Basle, the International moved to the height of its power
and influence. The Lausanne Congress was once more a Franco-Swiss
gathering. Marx was too absorbed in finishing Capital (Volume One) to
give much time to the preparations and the large French delegation made
a considerable impact: they succeeded in forcing a compromise resolution
on state responsibility for education, and would only agree to the words
'social ownership' in connection with the Belgian resolution urging
nationalisation of railways and other monopolies. The Proudhonists sup-
ported peasant ownership, and the discussion on the nationalisation of
land had to be adjourned until the following year. Resolutions on co-
operatives and credit schemes were also French-inspired. The one ques-
tion that united Marx and the French was how to reply to an invitation
from the League of Peace and Freedom - an international semi-pacifist
organisation supported by such varied people as John Stuart Mill, Victor
Hugo, Bright, Herzen, Garibaldi and Bakunin. The League was holding
a conference in Switzerland at the same time as the International and had
invited the attendance of representatives. In the General Council Marx
had strongly opposed having anything to do with this group of 'impotent
bourgeois ideologists'. The majority of delegates at Lausanne were in
favour of co-operating with the League but Tolain managed to have
included in the statement of acceptance the view that war could only be
stopped by a new social system created by a just redistribution of wealth.
So far from finding this unpalatable, the League accepted the statement
with enthusiasm, but did not pursue co-operation with the International
any further.
The current industrial unrest and the passage of the 1867 Reform Bill
in Britain focused public attention on working-class movements, and the
Lausanne Congress was widely reported in the British Press. Marx wrote
optimistically to Engels:
Things are moving forward, and in the next revolution, which is perhaps
nearer than it seems, we (i.e. you and I) have this powerful machine in
our hands. Compare this with the results of the activities of Mazzini
and others over the past 30 years. All accomplished without financial