expanding union of the
workers."[12] It is when their unions grow national in character and the
struggle develops into a national struggle between the classes that it
naturally takes on a political character. Then begins the struggle for
conquering political power. But, while "all previous historical
movements were movements of minorities, or in the interests of
minorities, the proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent
movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense
majority."[13] Returning again to the underlying thought, it is pointed
out that the working class must "win the battle of democracy."[14] It
must acquire "political supremacy." It must raise itself to "the
position of ruling class," in order that it may sweep away "the
conditions for the existence of class antagonisms, and of classes
generally."[15]

Such were the doctrines and tactics proclaimed by Marx and Engels in
1847. The Manifesto is said to have been received with great enthusiasm
by the League, but, whatever happened at the moment, it is clear that
the members never understood the doctrines manifested. In any case,
various factions in the movement were still clamoring for insurrection
and planning their conspiracies, wholly faithful to the
revolution-making artifices of the period. Two of the most prominent,
Willich and Schapper, were carried away with revolutionary passion, and
"the majority of the London workers," Engels says, "refugees for the
most part, followed them into the camp of the bourgeois democrats, the
revolution-makers."[16] They declined to listen to protests. "They
wanted to go the other way and to make revolutions," continues Engels.
"We refused absolutely to do this and the schism followed."[17]

On the 15th of September, 1850, Marx decided to resign from the central
council of the organization, and, feeling that such an act required some
justification, he prepared the following written declaration: "The
minority[R] [_i. e._, his opponents] have substituted the dogmatic
spirit for the critical, the idealistic interpretation of events for the
materialistic. Simple will power, instead of the true relations of
things, has become the motive force of revolution. While we say to the
working people: 'You will have to go through fifteen, twenty, fifty
years of civil wars and wars between nations not only to change existing
conditions, but to change yourselves and make yourselves worthy of
political power,