which the procedure of the "parliamentary Socialists" had
been rejected, since only a social revolution was regarded as a
remedy; in the struggle against present-day society all and any means
were looked upon as right and justifiable; and in view of this the
distribution of leaflets, the sending of emissaries, and the use of
explosives were recommended. A German living in London had proposed an
amendment involving the forcible removal of all potentates after the
manner of the assassination of the Russian Czar, but this was rejected
as "at present not yet suitable." The congress following this
preliminary one took place in London on July 14 to 19, 1881, and was
attended by about forty delegates, the representatives of several
hundred groups.

"The revolutionaries of all countries are uniting into an
'International Social Revolutionary Working Men's Association' for the
purpose of a social revolution. The headquarters of the Association is
at London, and sub-committees are formed in Paris, Geneva, and New
York. In every place where like-minded supporters exist, sections and
an executive committee of three persons are to be formed. The
committees of a country are to keep up with one another, and with the
Central Committee, regular communication by means of continual reports
and information, and have to collect money for the purchase of poison
and weapons, as well as to find places suitable for laying mines, and
so on. To attain the proposed end, the annihilation of all rulers,
ministers of State, nobility, the clergy, the most prominent
capitalists, and other exploiters, any means are permissible, and
therefore great attention should be given specially to the study of
chemistry and the preparation of explosives, as being the most
important weapons. Together with the chief committee in London there
will also be established an executive committee of international
composition and an information bureau, whose duty is to carry out the
decisions of the chief committee and to conduct correspondence."

This Congress and the decisions passed thereat had very far-reaching
and fateful consequences for the development of the Anarchism of
action. The executive committee set to work at once, and sought to
carry out every point of the proposed programme, but especially to
utilise for purposes of demonstration and for feverish agitation every
revolutionary movement of whatever origin or tendency it might be,
whether proceeding from Russ