Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/241

 Rh organisations to welcome Marx as a leader, and in 1847 a Communist League was formed in London. For this League Marx and Engels drafted the Communist Manifesto. But the Revolutions of 1848 pushed both the League and the Manifesto into the background for the time being. The failure of the Revolutions was written in blood and repression. But Socialism survived and gave an impetus to the re-born political movements in the various countries; and in each state, as I have already told, Socialist groups struggled to gain and maintain a foothold. This went on till the International Exhibition in London, in 1862, provided for the international movement another chance of organising itself.

A deputation of French workmen came to the Exhibition under official auspices, and was entertained by English workmen. Next year another deputation came over and was again received publicly. The results were more than the rulers had bargained for. For, on the 28th of September 1864, an international meeting was held in London at which a committee was elected to form and carry on the business of an International Working-men's Association. The duty of drafting a constitution was first of all entrusted to Mazzini, but his modes of thought and action were not congenial to the spirit of the committee, and the task was ultimately transferred to Marx. The note struck was Socialist. In spite of the growing wealth of the nations, the lot of the working classes was not improving; the individualist economics of the