he congress.

The first great debate took place upon whether there should be any
central council. The English delegates believed that there should be
one, but that its power should be limited. Other delegates believed that
there might be various commissions to perform certain necessary
executive services. John Hales declared, in support of a central
commission, that it will promote economy and facilitate the work, and
that it will be easy to prevent such a commission from usurping
power.[3] Paul Brousse, Guillaume, and others opposed this view with
such heat, however, that Hales was forced to respond: "I combat anarchy
because the word and the thing that it represents are the synonyms of
dissolution. Anarchy spells individualism, and individualism is the
basis of the existing society that we desire to destroy.... Let us
suppose, for example, a strike. Can one hope to triumph with an
anarchist organization? Under this regime each one, being able to do
what he pleases, can, according to his will, work or not work. The
general interest will be sacrificed to individual caprice. The veritable
application of the anarchist principle would be the dissolution of the
International, and this congress has precisely an opposite end, which is
to reorganize the International. One should not confound authority and
organization. We are not authoritarians, but we must be organizers. Far
from approving anarchy, which is the present social state, we ought to
combat it by the creation of a central commission and by the
organization of collectivism. Anarchy is the law of death; collectivism,
that of life."[4] This was, as Hales soon discovered, the very essence
of heresy, and, when the vote was taken, he was overwhelmed by those
opposed to any centralized organization.

The anarchists were not, however, content merely with having no central
council, and they began to discuss whether or not the various
federations should vote upon questions of principle. The commission that
was dealing with the revision of the by-laws recommended that views
should be harmonized by discussion and that any decisions made by the
congress should be enforced only among those federations which accepted
its decisions. Costa of Italy approved of these ideas. "For that which
concerns theory, we can only discuss and seek to persuade each other,
... but we cannot enforce, for example, ... a certain political
program."[5] Brousse vigorously opposed the process of voting