Untitled

196
VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
all seems to be utter confusion. In any case, the Bakouninists,
after The Hague congress,
undertook to revive
the International and to base this new organization
on these ideas of anarchism. After a conference at
Saint-Imier in the Jura, where Bakounin and his friends
outlined the policies of a new International, a call was
sent out for a congress to be held in Geneva in 1873.
The congress that assembled there was not a large one,
but, with no exaggeration whatever, it was one of the
most remarkable gatherings ever held. For six entire
days and nights the delegates struggled to create by some
magic means a world-wide organization of the people,
without a program, a committee, a chairman, or a vote.
No longer oppressed by the "tyranny" of Marx, or
baffled by his "abominable intrigues," they set out to
create their "faithful image" of the new — world an organization
that was not to be an organization; a union
that was to be made up of fleeting and constantly shifting
elements, agreeing at one moment to unite, at the
next moment to divide. This was the insolvable problem
that now faced the first congress of the anarchists. There
were only two heretics among them. Both had come
from England; but Hales was a "voice crying in the
wilderness," while Eccarius sat silent throughout the
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