*352 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHYMarx's influence in the International is undoubtedly very useful. He
has exercised a wise influence on his party down to the present day
and he is the strongest support of socialism and the firmest bulwark
against the invasion of bourgeois ideas and intentions. I should never
forgive myself if I had ever tried to destroy or even weaken his beneficial
influence merely in order to revenge myself on him.^80
Shortly afterwards he wrote to Marx himself that 'my fatherland is now
the International of which you are one of the principal founders. You
therefore see, dear friend, that I am your disciple and proud of being
so.'^81
Nevertheless, the Geneva paper Egalite, which was controlled by fol-
lowers of Bakunin, began to attack the General Council and suggested
its removal from London to Geneva. The General Council's reply, drafted
by Marx, was addressed to the French-speaking Federal Councils, and
emphasised how necessary it was for the General Council to be in charge
of the revolutionary movement in England: this was vital for the success of
the movement on the Continent, and the English movement would lack
all momentum if left to its own resources. In the following March Marx
(who always put more emphasis on Bakunin's alleged machinations than
on his ideas) sent this same circular to the Brunswick Committee of the
Eisenach party with a rider denouncing Bakunin as a downright intriguer
and an obsequious sponger. But although this dispute was to dominate
the later years of the International, it was not for the moment a major
factor.
If 1869 was the year of the International's maximum power and influ-
ence, just how important was it and how vital was the part that Marx
played?^82 Many contemporaries considered the influence and resources of
the International to be gigantic: The Times put the number of its adherents
at two-and-a-half million and some even doubled that figure. The paper
also stated that the financial resources of the International ran to millions
of pounds. These were, of course, wild exaggerations. For the year
1869-7 0 the total income of the General Council was about £50. The
General Council did negotiate loans from the trade unions of one country
to those of another, particularly to support strikes, but the Council was
itself continually harassed for small debts.
As for membership figures, it is important to remember that (unlike
its successors) the First International had an individual membership
forming local sections which in their turn joined together in national
federations. In Britain, the total number of individual members by the
end of 1870 was no more than 254. In Germany, by the end of 1871
there were 58 branches with a total membership of 385. In France in
1870 there were 36 local sections. In Italy, the International increased its