To the Tuesday President of the Society in Great Windmill Street. Sir,
The undersigned herewith give notice of their resignation from the Society.
London, September 17, 1850
H. Bauer, K. Pfänder, J. G. Eccarius, S. Seiler, K. Marx, K. Schramm, F. Engels,
F. Wolff, W. Liebknecht,
Hain, Haupt, G. Klose
Endnotes
[343] This document reflects an acute struggle waged by Marx, Engels and their followers against sectarian elements in the Communist League. By August 1850, Marx and Engels realised that, in the context of the general economic prosperity, there was no prospect for a new revolution in the near future (see this volume, pp. 509-10). They believed that most efforts should be concentrated on strengthening the proletarian party's independence from petty-bourgeois democracy, both ideologically and organisationally. This sober analysis and logical approach were opposed by Willich and Schapper, members of the Communist League Central Authority. Willich also disagreed with Marx's understanding of the theory of the proletarian revolution; he thought that communism could be enforced by the minority once and for all. Marx wrote to the Cologne Communists on their disagreements as far back as June 1850. The contents of his letter were recorded in the evidence of Peter Röser, one of the accused at the Cologne trial (1852), which he gave late in 1853 and early in 1854 while in prison. Willich, Schapper and their followers, instead of analysing objective reality as Marx and Engels did, proposed pseudo-revolutionary phrases and employed adventurist tactics in an attempt to provoke new insurrections in Germany. This led to disagreements in the Central Authority which became clear during its meetings in August and the early half of September, and intensified on September 15, 1850, when the Communist League split (see this volume, pp. 625-29). This meeting decided to transfer the seat of the League's Central Authority to Cologne and instruct the local authority there to form a new Central Authority of the League (see this volume, p. 630). The factionalists, being in the minority, walked out, appealed to League members of the London district, and, with their support, formed their own central authority. The majority of the members of the German Workers' Educational Society in London (see Note 61) also sided with the separatist faction of Willich and Schapper, causing Marx, Engels and their followers to resign from this Society. The statement was printed in Cologne in 1852 in the Bill of Indictment of the Cologne communist trial under the title: Marx, K., Engels, F., An den Dienstagspräsidenten der Gesellschaft in Great Windmill Street, London, 17. September, 24-1124 1850, and in the book: Wermuth-Stieber, Die Communisten-Verschwörungen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, Th. 1, Berlin, 1853.