organization with its headquarters in London. The League was formed in
Paris by German refugees and traveling workmen, and seems to have been
an offspring of Mazzini's "Young Europe" agitation of 1834. At different
times it bore the names, "League of the Just," "League of the
Righteous," and, finally, "Communist League."[44] For many years it
remained a mere conspiratory society, exclusively German, and existed
mainly for the purpose of fostering the "Young Germany" ideas. Later it
became an International Alliance with societies in many parts of Europe.

In 1847 Karl Marx was residing in Brussels. During a prior residence in
Paris he had come into close association with the leaders of the League
there, and had agreed to form a similar society in Brussels. Engels was
in Paris in 1847, and it was probably due to his activities that the
Paris League officially invited both him and Marx to join the
international organization, promising that a congress should be convened
in London at an early date. We may, in view of the after career of
Engels as the politician of the movement, surmise so much. Be that how
it may, the invitation, with its promise to call a congress in London,
was extended and accepted. The reason for the step, the object of the
proposed congress, is quite clear. Marx himself has placed it beyond
dispute. During his stay in Paris he and Engels had discussed the
position of the League with some of its leaders, and he had, later,
criticised it in the most merciless manner in some of his pamphlets.[45]
Marx desired a revolutionary working class political party with a
definite aim and policy. Those leaders of the League who agreed with him
in this were the prime movers for the congress, which was held in
London, in November, 1847.

At the congress, Marx and Engels presented their views at great length,
and outlined the principles and policy which their famous pamphlet later
made familiar. Perhaps it was due to the very convincing manner in which
they argued that the emancipation of the working class must be the work
of that class itself, that there was some opposition to them, on the
part of a few delegates, on the ground that they were "Intellectuals"
and not members of the proletariat, a criticism which pursued them all
through their lives. Their views found general favor, however, as might
be expected from such an inchoate mass of men, revolutionaries to the
core, and waiting only for effective leadership. A