the conference The Hague Congress met from 2 to 7 September 1872 in The Hague, the Netherlands. Marx declared that the proletariat had to take control of the state for a successful revolution, and advocated that the Congress vote to uphold this view. The anarchists naturally objected. Anarchist leaders Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume were expelled for protesting after the Congress accepted Marx's proposal. Bakunin was not present at the conference but was expelled in absentia. Aftermath After the expulsion of Bakunin and James Guillaume from the Hague Congress, the anarchists declared it null and void. The anarchist faction (including the Jura federation, and the federations of Spain, Italy and Belgium) then held its own Congress of Saint-Imier, a few days later, from which also emerged the Anarchist St. Imier International. Later in that year of 1872 Bakunin wrote: The legitimacy of this conference has been contested. Mr. Marx, a very able political conniver, doubtless anxious to prove to the world that though he lacked firearms and cannons the masses could still be governed by lies, by libels, and by intrigues, organized his Congress of the Hague in September 1872. Barely two months have passed since this congress and already in all of Europe (with the exception of Germany where the workers are brainwashed by the lies of their leaders and their press) and its free federations – Belgian, Dutch, English, American, French, Spanish, Italian – without forgetting our excellent Jura Federation [Switzerland] – there has arisen a cry of indignation and contempt against this cynical burlesque which dares to call itself a true Congress of the International. Thanks to a rigged, fictitious majority, composed almost exclusively of members of the General Council, cleverly used by Mr. Marx, all has been travestied, falsified, brutalized. Justice, good sense, honesty, and the honor of the International brazenly rejected, its very existence endangered – all this the better to establish the dictatorship of Mr. Marx. It is not only criminal – it is sheer madness. Yet Mr. Marx who thinks of himself as the father of the International (he was unquestionably one of its founders) cares not a whit, and permits all this to be done! This is what personal vanity, the lust for power, and above all, political ambition can lead to. For all these deplorable acts Marx is personally responsible. Marx, in spite of all his mis-deeds, has unconsciously rendered a