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 whichhave 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.^146What 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