Karl Marx Instructions for the Delegats of the Provisional Council

First published in The Commonwealth, No. 180, August 18, 1866

Reproduced from the Minute Book of the General Council checked with
the newspaper


Karl Marx
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DELEGATES
OF THE PROVISIONAL GENERAL COUNCIL


2. — INTERNATIONAL COMBINATION OF EFFORTS.
BY THE AGENCY OF THE ASSOCIATION,
IN THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN LABOUR AND CAPITAL
(a) From a general point of view, this question embraces the whole
activity of the International Association which aims at combining and
generalising the till now disconnected efforts for emancipation by the
working classes in different countries.
(b) To counteract the intrigues of capitalists always ready, in cases
of strikes and lockouts, to misuse the foreign workman as a tool
against the native workman, is one of the particular functions which
our Society has hitherto performed with success. It is one of the
great purposes of the Association to make the workmen of different
countries not only feel but act as brethren and comrades in the army
of emancipation.
(c) One great “International combination of efforts” which we suggest
is a statistical inquiry into the situation of the working classes of
all countries to be instituted by the working classes themselves. To
act with any success, the materials to be acted upon must be known. By
initiating so great a work, the workmen will prove their ability to
take their own fate into their own hands. We propose therefore:
That in each locality, where branches of our Association exist, the
work be immediately commenced, and evidence collected on the different
points specified in the subjoined scheme of inquiry.
That the Congress invite all workmen of Europe and the United States
of America to collaborate in gathering the elements of the statistics
of the working class; that reports and evidence be forwarded to the
Central Council. That the Central Council elaborate them into a
general report, adding the evidence as an appendix.
That this report together with its appendix be laid before the next
annual Congress, and after having received its sanction, be printed at
the expense of the Association.
GENERAL SCHEME OF INQUIRY,
WHICH MAY OF COURSE BE MODIFIED BY EACH LOCALITY
Page me20.186
1. Industry, name of.
2. Age and sex of the employed.
3. Number of the employed.
4. Salaries and wages: (a) apprentices; (b) wages by the day or piece
work; scale paid by middlemen. Weekly, yearly average.
5. (a) Hours of work in factories. (b) The hours of work with


small employers and in home work, if the business be carried on in
those different modes. (c) Nightwork and daywork.
6. Meal times and treatment.
7. Sort of workshop and work: overcrowding, defective ventilation,
want of sunlight, use of gaslight. Cleanliness, etc.
8. Nature of occupation.
9. Effect of employment upon the physical condition.
10. Moral condition. Education.
11. State of trade: whether season trade, or more or less uniformly
distributed over year, whether greatly fluctuating, whether exposed to
foreign competition, whether destined principally for home or foreign
competition,†a etc.