THE RED INTERNATIONAL.* Tirs writer of this book has chosen
for it a sensational and not altogether relevant title. The International Association of Workmen, organised at 'London in 1864, shared the fate of the Paris Commune in 1871; and the Draconian law passed by the French Assembly in 1872, and the measures taken by other Governments, have hitherto effectually hindered any open revival of the defunct society. But the idea still exists, and, as the International Congresses held at London in June, 1881, and at Chur in the following October, abundantly proved, the leaders of the movement all over the Continent are practically united, and the "societies to which they belong, although not officially affiliated to each other, have similar objects and a com- mon understanding. It is these societies, and the social movement as a whole, that Dr. Zacher describes as the "Red International," and the design of his book is to give a history of the movement and an account of its pre- sent position. Being a Government official, and regarding militant Socialism as a grave and growing danger, he has naturally scant sympathy with Anarchists and Social Demo- crats; yet he evidently tries to be impartial, refrains from violent language, and has been at great pains to collect, marshal, and verify his facts. He begins, of course, with Germany. The rapid growth of Socialism in that country is a portentous phenomenon ; and it is no wonder that Prince Bismarck should seek to arrest its further, progress by repressive legislation, and even to disarm its advocates by borrowing their weapons. It dates, as an organisation, from 1863, when Lassalle founded at Leipsic the General German Workmen's Union ; but he had never more than a few thousand followers, and the Union did not long survive his death in 1864. At the Eisenach Congress (1869) it was merged into the Social Democratic Workmen's Party, the German branch of the International Association, under the leadership of Liebknecht and BebeL The delegates present at
a-Die Rothe Internationale. Von Dr, Zacher, Regiernow-Assessor. Berlin : Witholut Hertz. 1883.
this gathering numbered 263, representing 300 societies, with a total of 155,486 members. But owing to a lack of unanimity as to ends, and frequent disputes as to means, it was deemed ex- pedient in 1875 to hold at Gotha a "Union Congress," which succeeded in reconciling differences, and framing a programme to which all could assent. The result was an immediate increase of numbers and strength. At a Congress held the following year, it was officially stated that the party had eight stationary and fourteen " flying " agitators, seventy-seven speakers, and forty-six other employes, all paid, partially or wholly, by the organisation ; and twenty - three press organs, with 100,000 subscribers ; that they had circulated hundreds of thousands of pamphlets, sold 40,000 copies of the party Calendar, and received an income of 30,000 marks. The Congress of 1879 was informed that the circulation of the press organs had increased to 150,000, of the Calendar to 50,000, and that the year's income amounted to 400,000 marks. The elections of 1878 showed that the progress of the movement, as indicated by these figures, was no vain boast. In all parts of the country many more votes were cast for Socialist candidates than had ever been cast before. In 1871 they numbered 101,927; in 1878 they reached a total of 437,158. In Berlin, which in 1867 gave only sixty-seven votes for Socialism, and 2,058 in 1871, the votes recorded for the Party's candidates in 1878 were 56,147. The Government had already proposed repressive measures, but it was not until after the attempts on the Emperor's life in May and June, 1878, that the Reichstag could be persuaded to accept the "muzzling law," and place the capital in the minor state of siege. The immediate effect of these measures was the dissolution of all the Socialist societies in the country, the suppression of their organs in the press, and the flight and expulsion of several of their leaders. But the effect on the movement has not answered the expectations of the Government ; it seems as far from being crushed as ever. The suppressed papers were started afresh at Zurich and London, and are smuggled over the frontier and circulated by the hundred thousand. The leaders, forbidden to meet in public at home, meet in private abroad ; and the legal unions, which the police could control, are replaced by secret societies, of whose proceedings they are ignorant. Mean- while a serious split had taken place in the Social Democratic Party. The extreme section, whose principles are identical with those of the French Anarchists and more extreme than those of the Russian Nihilists, separated from the main body and refused to recognise existing institutions either by voting at elections or taking any political action what- ever. To this defection the falling-off in the Socialist vote to 311,961 at the election of 1881 is mainly due. If Dr. Zacher's inference from his figures be correct, the Anarchist party in Germany musters about 100,000 adherents. It may, how- ever, well be that the difference is in a measure due to the muzzling law, which renders political propaganda and electoral organisa- tion all but impossible. Yet despite these difficulties, and the abstention of their Anarchist allies, the Social Democrats (called also Gemassigten, or Opportunists), more than recovered in 1883 the ground they had lost, or seemed to have lost, in 1881, They carried their candidates at several supplementary elections for the Reichstag, returned four Members to the Saxon Land- tag, cast a tenth of the entire votes and carried five candidates at the Berlin municipal election ; and in various communal elections in the neighbourhood of Leipsic and Dresden, and in other places, won all the seats. We may, therefore, safely conclude that the effective strength of the German Socialist army is some half million of adult men in possession of the franchise, trained to arms and fairly educated. As these men must of necessity have the sympathy of their kindred and connections, and be supported by the opinion of the class to which they belong, we shall perhaps be under the mark if we reckon the entire numerical strength of the Party at a round million. Pos- sibly more ; for, owing to the fact that Members of the Reichstag receive no pay, and to the interdict on raising money by public subscription, Socialist candidates can be run in rela- tively few places, and there must be many adherents of the Work- men's Party who have no opportunity of expressing their opinion by their votes. Hence all that the Government effect by their measures of repression is to diminish somewhat the number of Communistic candidates, and disguise from themselves the extent of the movement which they seek to arrest. Dr. Zacher fully admits that the coercion laws have not responded to the
expectation of their framers; yet, on the ground that without them Socialism would have made more progress than it actually has made, he advocates their retention.
France is undoubtedly more Socialist than Germany, but, owing to the divisions among the Socialists themselves, it is no easy task to obtain a trustworthy estimate of their numbers. At the French Workmen's Congress of 1870, twenty-eight societies, with more than a million members, were represented; and although not ostensibly a Socialist gathering, the language used and the resolutions adopted showed that its sympathies were altogether Communistic and revolutionary. In most French towns, moreover, and in the mining districts of Montceau and Blanzy, the workmen are nearly all affiliated to some Socialist organi- sation; and the strength of the party, as a whole, in adult men, is probably rather over than under a million. But they are composed of various groups and factions, and although unani- mous in opposing and abusing the Government and the bour- geoisie, they hardly ever meet on the platform without quarrelling desperately ; sometimes, even, they come to blows. Broadly speaking, they may be divided into two bodies,—the Oppor- tunists, who correspond with the German Gemfissigten ; and the Anarchists. The former would have a government of some sort, the latter would have none. Rochefort, who taunted Gambetta with being an Opportunist, is now himself taunted in like manner by his redder and more fire-eating friends. The greatest name among the Anarchists is unquestionably that of Eliseo Reclus ; but he takes no active part in the movement, hardly ever quits Clarens—where he works twelve hours a day at his Giographie Universelle—and between him and the wretches who leave dynamite in cafes on the chance of its killing a few bourgeois, and, by way of promoting "the cause," pistol nuns as a preliminary to blowing out their own brains, there is little in common. Even among the Anarchists them- selves there are two schools—one of which, represented by Reclus, rejects authority utterly ; while the other, founded by Blanqui, admits some sort of rule to be indispensable.
Owing to the nearness of the country to France and Germany, Socialism has struck its roots deeply into the soil of Belgium. In 1869, the International counted 70,000 Belgian members. Since that time the Socialists have greatly increased, are well organised, and advocate their views through four newspapers, published in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, and Verviers respec- tively. In Spain, too, the movement has made portentous pro- gress. In 1869, the International had 20,000 members. In 1882, according to a report read at the Social Congress of Seville, the organisation consisted of 209 local and 10 provincial societies, 632 sections, and 50,000 members. They run a news- paper, the Revista Social, circulating 10,000 copies, and have a yearly income of 600,000 francs. Their last Congress, held at Valencia in October, 1883, was less successful, owing, as was supposed, to the atrocities of the Mans Negra in Andalucia, and their effect on public opinion ; but another Congress will be held at Madrid in 1884, and it is proposed to hold an Inter- national Anarchist Congress next September at Barcelona. Italy is also becoming a Socialist stronghold, but owing to the previous restriction of the suffrage, the party had no opportunity until the general election of 1882 of testing their strength. On that occasion they contested 30 seats, and cast 50,000 votes. Where no Socialist candidate was run, the Socialists voted with the Republicans. The Anarchists act separately, and have their own organisation. In 1880 they held a secret Congress at Chiasso, in which delegates from fifteen towns of Upper Italy took part.
The Austrian Empire, as recent events have shown, enjoys no immunity from revolutionary Socialist agitation, and although, on account of the measures taken by the Government, it is difficult to obtain trustworthy information, the party is undoubtedly numerous and contains a strong Anarchist element. They have, or had lately (several having been suppressed), press organs in Vienna, Pesth, Reichenberg, Prague, Lemberg, and Cracow. One paper, the Przedsurt (" The Dawn "), is printed in Switzerland, and the Freiheit, and other journals of the same class, enjoy a large secret circulation in German-speaking districts.
We have no intention of discussing here the causes, or attempting to forecast the consequences, of the Social Revolu- tionary movement on the Continent; but it is a significant fact, and well worth the attention of all who take an interest in the subject, that Switzerland, albeit surrounded by countries in which Socialism is rampant, and the dwelling-place of a multi-
tude of rampant foreign Communists, is perhaps the least Communistic of European States. Dr. Zacher estimates the Swiss Socialists at 15,000, but even this is probably an ex- aggeration; their Socialism, moreover, is of a very mild type. They have neither sent nor, we believe, attempted to send a single- deputy to the National Assembly, and Anarchism they utterly repudiate. This, as the author suggests, is doubtless in great part due to the traditional conservatism of the Swiss character. But national contentment does not come by nature ; the Swiss are proof against the blandishment of Communism because landed property is so widely diffused among them (there are as many landowners in the Canton of Geneva alone as in the whole of Ireland), because of their communal organisation, which insures every man against starvation; because of the absence of privi- leged classes, which breed envy and encourage flunkeyism, and of standing armies, which waste labour and increase taxation; and finally because of the consciousness on the part of the people that, by means of their local parliaments and federal assemblies and their right of veto, they are the absolute masters of their own destinies, and that if they are not prosperous they have nobody to blame but themselves.
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