The British Labour Movement And The International In 1864

Abstract

Socialists remember 1864 because of two events. Firstly, because Ferdinand Lassalle was killed in a duel with the Bojard Janko von Racowitza. Secondly, because a few months later Karl Marx attended a meeting in the St. Martin's Hall at which the International Working Men's Association was established. The first of these occurrences had very little bearing on the second. The death of Lassalle-soon to be followed by that of Proudhon-removed a rival, but it can hardly be said to have determined Marx's resolve to resume his organizational commitments; a thing he had not done since the Collapse of the Communist League. Marx went to St. Martin's Hall and sat "mutely" upon the platform because he recognized that the Labour Movement in Western Europe was at last showing signs that it 'was regrouping and recovering its self-confidence after the disasters of 1848. There was scarcely a country which was untouched by these developments, but it was the progress of the working class in France and Britain rather than Germany which appeared as the governing factor in relation to the formation and prospects of the new association.