Letter to Wilhelm Bracke. May 5, 1875
Dear Bracke,
Will you be so kind, after you have read the following marginal notes on the unity programme,(1) to pass them on for Geib and Auer, Bebel and Liebknecht to see. Notabene. The manuscript should be returned to you so as to be at my disposal if needs be. I have more than enough to do, and, as it is, must take on far more work than laid down for me by my doctor. Hence it was by no means a "pleasure" to write such a lengthy screed. Yet it was necessary if the steps I shall have to take later on are not to be misinterpreted by the party friends for whom this communication is intended.
After the Unity Congress is over, Engels and I will publish a short statement to the effect that we entirely disassociate ourselves from the said programme of principles and have nothing to do with it.
This is indispensable because of the view taken abroad — a totally erroneous view, carefully nurtured by party enemies — that we are secretly directing the activities of the so-called Eisenach Party from here. Only recently, in a newly published Russian work,(2) Bakunin suggests that I, for instance, am responsible, not only for that party's every programme, etc., but actually for every step taken by Liebknecht from the day he began co-operating with the People's Party.
Aside from this, it is my duty to refuse recognition, even by maintaining a diplomatic silence, to a programme which, I am convinced, is altogether deplorable as well as demoralising for the party.
Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes. Hence, if it was impossible to advance beyond the Eisenach Programme — and circumstances at the time precluded this — they should simply have come to an agreement about action against the common foe. But to draw up programmes of principles (instead of waiting till a longish spell of common activity has prepared the ground for that sort of thing) is to set up bench marks for all the world to see, whereby it may gauge how far the party has progressed.
The leaders of the Lassalleans came because circumstances forced them to. Had they been told from the start that there was to be no haggling over principles, they would have been compelled to content themselves with a programme of action or a plan of organisation for common action. Instead, our people allow them to present themselves armed with mandates, and recognise those mandates as binding, thus surrendering unconditionally to men who are themselves in need of help. To crown it all, they are holding another congress prior to the congress of compromise, whereas our own party is holding its congress post festum* Obviously their idea was to elude all criticism and not allow their own party time for reflection. One knows that the mere fact of unification is enough to satisfy the workers, but it is wrong to suppose that this momentary success has not been bought too dear.
Besides, the programme's no good, even apart from its canonisation of the Lassallean articles of faith.
I shall shortly be sending you the final instalments of the French edition of Capital. Printing was held up for a considerable time by the French government ban. The thing will be finished this week or at the beginning of next. Have you received the six previous instalments? (3) [8] Would you also very kindly send me the address of Bernhard Becker, to whom I must likewise send the final instalments.
The bookshop of the Volksstaat has peculiar manners. For instance, they haven't as yet sent me so much as a single copy of their reprint of the Cologne Communist Trial!(4)
With kind regards.
Your
Karl Marx
Endnotes
[8] 8 Engels gives this quotation according to the Address of the Polish Refugees to the English People, p. 3, which differs from the corresponding passage in Pogodin's book (see M. n . IToro^HHt, TIOA^CKOÜ eonpocr», Moscow, 1867, pp. 54-55).