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Title: Draft Resolutions on the Attitude of the English Working Class towards the Franco-Prussian War (1871)
Description: Three draft resolutions read by Engels in the General Council: the working-class movement should have forced the British Government to recognise the French Republic, and England can only recover her naval power by renouncing the Declaration of Paris.
Author: Friedrich Engels
Date: 1871-01
URL: https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/originales/1871%20Draft%20Resolutions%20on%20the%20Attitude%20of%20the%20English%20Working%20Class%20towards%20the%20Franco-Prussian%20War
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*Read by Frederick Engels at the meeting of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association of January 31, 1871, as a basis for the debate on the attitude of the English working class towards the war, and recorded in the Minute Book; manuscript. Written by Engels; attributed to him by MEW (vol. 17). Title after the MEW. Text from The General Council of the First International. Minutes, vol. IV (1870-1871), Moscow, Progress Publishers, n.d. [1963-68], pp. 112-113, which prints the Minute Book. [Traducción al español](https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/1871%20Proyectos%20de%20resoluci%C3%B3n%20del%20Consejo%20General%20sobre%20la%20actitud%20de%20la%20clase%20obrera%20inglesa%20ante%20la%20guerra%20franco-alemana)*

1. That the working-class movement in support of the French Republic ought to have concentrated its efforts, at the beginning, upon the enforcement of the recognition of the Republic by the British Government.

2. That the military intervention of England in favour of France, as understood by those proposing it, could have been of any use whatever at a certain moment only, which has long since passed away.

3. That England remains incapable, not only of interfering with effect in Continental affairs, but also of defending herself against the Continental military despotism so long as she does not recover the liberty of using her real war power—that is to say, her naval power, which she can only recover by the renunciation of the Declaration of Paris.