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BATTLE BETWEEN MARX AND BAKOUNIN 187
to use a phrase of Liebknecht's. They ridiculed him as
an "amorphous pan-destroyer," and made no attempt to
refute his really intangible social and economic theories.
However, they met Bakounin's attacks on the International
at every point. On the method of organization
which Bakounin advocated, namely, that of a federalism
of autonomous groups, which was to be "in the present
a faithful image of future society," Marx replied that
nothing could better suit the enemies of the International
than to see such anarchy reign amidst the workers. Furthermore,
when Bakounin advocated insurrections, uprisings,
and riots, or even indeed purely economic action
as a substitute for political action, Marx undertook extraordinary
measures to deal finally with Bakounin and
his program of action. A conference was therefore
called of the leading spirits of the International, to be
heM in London in September, 1871. The whole of Bakounin's
activity was there discussed, and a series of
resolutions was adopted by the conference to be sent to
every section of the International movement. A number
of these resolutions dealt directly with Bakounin and the
Alliance, which it was thought
still existed, despite Bakounin's
statement that it had been dissolved.* But by
far the most important work of the conference was a res-
* One of the resolutions prohibited the formation of sectarian
groups or separatist bodies within the International, such as
the Alliance de la Democratic Socialiste, that pretended "to
accomplish special missions, distinct from the common purposes
of the Association." Another resolution dealt with what was
called the "split" among the workers in the French-speaking
part of Switzerland. Still another resolution formally declared
that the International had nothing in common with the infamies
of Nechayeff, who had fraudulently usurped and exploited the
name of the International. Furthermore, Outine was instructed
to prepare a report from the Russian journals on the work of