converted" to socialism. Like many another distinguished convert, he
immediately began to remodel the whole theory and to create what he
supposed were new and original doctrines of his own. But no sooner were
they put in print than they were found to be a restatement of the old
and choicest formulas of Proudhon and Bakounin. Engels therefore took up
the cudgels once again, and, no doubt to the stupefaction of Duehring,
denied that property is robbery,[48] that slaves are kept in slavery by
force,[49] and that the root of social and economic inequality is
political tyranny.[50] Furthermore, he deplored this method of
interpreting history, and pointed out that capitalism would exist "if we
exclude the possibility of force, robbery, and cheating absolutely...."
Furthermore, "the monopolization of the means of production ... in the
hands of a single class few in numbers ... rests on purely economic
grounds without robbery, force, or any intervention of politics or the
government being necessary." To say that property rests on force
"_merely serves to obscure the understanding of the real development of
things_."[51] I mention Engels' argument in answer to Dr. Duehring,
because word for word it answers also Bakounin. Of course, Bakounin was
a much more difficult antagonist, because he could not be pinned down to
any systematic doctrines or to any clear and logical development or
statement of his thought. Indeed, Marx and Engels seemed more amused
than concerned and simply treated his essays as a form of
"hyper-revolutionary dress-parade oratory," to use a phrase of
Liebknecht's. They ridiculed him as an "amorphous pan-destroyer," and
made no attempt to refute his really intangible social and economic
theories.

However, they met Bakounin's attacks on the International at every
point. On the method of organization which Bakounin advocated, namely,
that of a federalism of autonomous groups, which was to be "in the
present a faithful image of future society," Marx replied that nothing
could better suit the enemies of the International than to see such
anarchy reign amidst the workers. Furthermore, when Bakounin advocated
insurrections, uprisings, and riots, or even indeed purely economic
action as a substitute for political action, Marx undertook
extraordinary measures to deal finally with Bakounin and his program of
action. A conference was therefore called of the leading spirits of the
International, to be held in London in S