THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 869, 3 October 1871, Page 3

THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Erequent reference is made in late English papers to this Society. We give a few extracts tending to show its •extent and also its aims. The Paris correspondent of tbe ~" Times 1 ' writes « —*' We are constantly receiving fuller details in regard to the organisation of this Society, which has, in fact, only attained its real developement and acquired a complete organisation during the last four or five years, and is still scarcely old and strong enough to enter on its proposed programme of destroying—first, all religions; second, the family tie ; third, property; fourth, hereditary rights; fifth, the national tie. But the rapidity with which it is spreading and extending its organization into all ■countries leads one to anticipate that the day cannot be far distant when it will boldly declare itself. We even hear that in China and in India there is a society called ' The Fraternal Society of Heaven and Earth,' which proposes the same programme. The number of members in England is stated to be 95,000 with a capital of £I7OO. In America the ' National Labour Union,' which haa united itself with the International, numbers 800,000; bnt the stronghold of the society is Germany, where the adherents amount to over a million." In a subsequent issue the " Times" says:—" The ' Oonstitutionnel' asserts that, out of 55,000 inscribed members of the Internationale, 8000 were killed during the recent insurrection, and nearly 20,000 prisoners. According to official reports from London, the foreign and provincial branches of the Association furnished 12,000 killed, wounded, or 'captured. The Paris pa-

pers state the Socialistic agitation in Switzerland is very active. At Vevev, in the Canton of Vaud, the following document has been published:— * Workmen.—You who so often are in want of work, or toil for a few pence like real slaves, look around you. See all those people well fed, well clad, well housed j they only work a few hours a day, or even do not work at all; and yet they can indulge in all the pleasures of life, while your families are wanting bread, Why is it that you and your children should be condemned to endless misery, and what right have they who work the least to perpetual enjoyment? But patience; the day of justice will soon come to put an end to the sufferings of the people. lu the meantime prepare yourselves and join en masse the International Association, that you may learn what are your rights and your duties.' "

Tha " Pall Mall Gazette," in a leading article on" the subject, says:— "" A third point to be noticed is the latent power which the Association wields. The fact that the revolution at which it aims is social as well as political is in itself a source of immense strength. At tire least it enables the revolution to command the organisation and training which has done so much for the cause of trade unionism. Working men do not always care much for politics, but they care keenly, and universally for their own contests with their masters. The International Association asks them to become politicians under its guidance, in order that a political "catastrophe may pave the way for social reconstruction. It says to them, establish the Commune, and the Commune will emancipate labour. The producer is to become the political ruler, and * the political rule of the producer cannot exist with social slavery.' The end for which the Commune Was founded was to " serve as a lever for uprooting the economical foundations on which rests the existence of classes, and therefore of class rule. With labour emancipated every man becomes a working man, and labour ceases to be a class attribute.' It is obvious that if this ideal could be secured the end of trade unionism would be completely answered, and consequently a revolution which strives to compass it is a revolution which appeals to working men in every country. At present the utmost they can hope that the State will do in any conflict between them and their masters is to hold the balance evenly between them.

In the social republic of which they dream, the workmen are themselves to constitute the State, and consequently will be in a position to use the power of the State for their own purposes. Thus all the local objects for which the workmen have hitherto been contending in different countries are merged in this great central conflict. It is not necessary for the purposes of the Association that it should everywhere assume the precise political aae pect it wears in France. There the hostility between the capitalists and the producing classes has long been at white heat. The days of June and the dajs of May, 1848 and 1871, have shown that the war between them is one in which no quarter is given and no thought of compromise is entertained. But in countries where this state of feeling does not exist, or only exists in part, all that the Association asks is the help and syempathy of the working men. But the senti ment created by obedience to this cais one which is terribly likely to lead men to more active co-operation. There have been contemporaneous insurrections before now in several countries, but the ends to which they were directed were different in every case, or at most only coincided in name. The insurrections with which the International Association promises to keep Europe supplied will have the same underlying object common to them all, will appeal to the same class in every conntry. and will rest their appeal upon motives and wishes by which this class is everywhere actuated. Consequently its strength promises to become* greater in proportion as its objects are more fully proclaimed. It is a prospect which all who flatter themselves that the worst is over, and that the empire of law and order is now de. finitely restored, will do well to ponder carefully."