nd exploited the
name of the International. Furthermore, Outine was instructed to prepare
a report from the Russian journals on the work of Nechayeff. Cf.
_Resolutions_ II, XVII, XIII, XIV, respectively, of the Conference of
Delegates of the International Working Men's Association, Assembled at
London from 17th to 23d September, 1871.

CHAPTER IX

THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE

After The Hague congress the socialists and anarchists, divided into
separate and antagonistic groups--with principles as well as methods of
organization that were diametrically opposed to each other--were forced
to undergo a terrific struggle for existence. Marx had clearly enough
warned the followers of Bakounin that their methods were suicidal. "The
Alliance proceeds the wrong way," he declared. "It proclaims anarchy in
the working-class ranks as the surest means of destroying the powerful
concentration of social and political forces in the hands of the
exploiters. On this pretext it asks the International, at the moment
when the old world is striving to crush it, to replace its organization
by anarchy."[1] And, as strange as it may seem, this was in fact what
Bakounin was actually striving for. In the name of liberty he was
demanding that the International be broken up into thousands of
isolated, autonomous groups, which were to do whatever they pleased, in
any way they pleased, at any time they pleased. This may have been, and
doubtless was, in perfect harmony with the philosophy of anarchism, but
it had nothing in harmony with the idea of a solidified, international
organization of workingmen that Marx was striving to bring into
existence. Anarchism when advocated as an ideal for some distant social
order of the future, concerned Marx and Engels very little; indeed, they
did not even discuss it from this point of view. It was only when
Bakounin counseled anarchy as a method of working-class organization
that both Marx and Engels protested, on the ground that such tactics
could lead only to self-destruction. Neither Bakounin nor his followers
were convinced, however, and they set out bravely after 1872 to put into
practice their ideas. Their revolt against authority was carried to its
ultimate extreme. How far the anarchists were prepared to go in their
revolt is indicated by a letter which Bakounin wrote to _La Liberte_ of
Brussels a few days after his expulsion from the International. Although
not finished, and consequently not sent t