Speech by Karl Marx 1868
Source: Wikisource, from The Bee-Hive on July 25, 1868 about a speech given by Karl Marx at the General Council meeting in July 21, 1868.
A letter from Germany announced that the Working-Men’s Unions of the Southern States of Germany are going to hold a Congress at Nürnberg in the first week of September. The first question to be decided by that Congress is the adhesion of the whole federation to the International Working-Men’s Association.
Attention was called to an article in Le Réveil, a newspaper, published by the friends of Ledru-Rollin at Paris, in which the attitude of the members of the Paris Committee is approvingly commented upon, and the political sagacity and the superior moral conduct of the working classes of Europe, contrasted with the intriguing stupidity of the ruling classes. The article contains the following remarkable passage:
“It is to the union of ideas and sentiments that prevails amongst the working men of the different countries of Europe that we trust for the maintenance of peace. In a few days the Congress of the International Association is going to assemble. All the countries of Europe will be represented there, perhaps with the exception of France, and will it be too much to say that by the wisdom of its resolutions this assembly of all the European delegates of labour may become the Amphitryonite council of Europe? Yes; if to-morrow, by mastering the immortal principles of the French revolution, and taking in hand the sacred interests of labour, which comprehend order, security, and liberty, this Congress decreed peace, the word would be received with enthusiasm by all Europe.”