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VISIONS OF VICTORY 343
tenths would force the one-tenth to yield up its private
property, that is to say, its "power to subjugate the labor
of others." (7)
Taking their stand on this careful analysis of historic
progress and of economic evolution, they viewed with
contempt the older fighting methods of the revolutionists,
and turned their vials of satire and wrath upon Herwegh,
Willich, Schapper, Kinkel, Ledru-Rollin, Bakounin,
and all kinds and species of revolution-makers.
They deplored incendiarism, machine destruction, and all
the purely retaliative acts of the laborers. They even
ridiculed the general strike.*
And, while for thirty years
they assailed anarchists, terrorists, and direct-actionists,
they never lost an opportunity to impress upon the workers
of Europe the only possible method of effectually
combating capitalism. There must first be unity
— worldwide,
international unity
— among
all
the forces of labor.
And, secondly, all the energies of a united labor movement
must be centered upon the all-important contest
for control of political power. They fought incessantly
with their pens to bring home the great truth that
every class struggle is a political struggle ; and, while
they were working to emphasize that fact,
they began in
1864 actually to organize the workers of Europe to fight
that struggle. The first great practical work of the International
was to get votes for workingmen. It was
the chief thought and labor of Marx during
the first
* "The general strike," Engels said, "is in Bakounin's program
the lever which must be applied in order to inaugurate the
social revolution. . . . The proposition is far from being
new; some French socialists, and, after them, some Belgian
socialists have since 1848 shown a partiality for riding this
beast of parade." This appeared in a series of articles written
for Der Volksstaat in 1873 and republished in the pamphlet
"Bakunisten an der Arbeit."