1872
Dear Liebknecht,
First of all, Happy New Year, and then the proofsb enclosed.
Marx or Tussy will have written to you about the Stieberian escapade in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.c It was so transparent that no correspondence was needed to convince you of the deception; the cost of a telegram would have been money thrown away. You did right to denounce the thing as a forgery at once. Compare the names, most of which are false, with the correct ones under the Conference resolutions and you will have direct proof of the forgery.[400]
Marx still has your letter,[401] so I cannot answer it point by point. At all events, you have to find a form that will make it possible for you to be represented at the next congress, and if no one can come, you could have yourselves represented by the old guard here. Since in all probability the Bakuninists and Proudhonists will leave no stone unturned, the credentials will be closely scrutinised and being delegated, for instance, by Bebel and yourself personally, as was the case with the conference credentials sent to me, would not make a good impression. The Spaniards are in as bad a position as you but have not let themselves be side-tracked. Incidentally, the decision of the court in Brunswick does not set a precedent. [83] A downright disgrace like that, where even the laws of the Federal Diet[402] can be dragged in, could only happen in a decadent small state. Bebel ought to protest against it in the Reichstag; the men of Progress[236] would either have to support him or stand compromised before the whole of Germany. If I can find the time I shall send a (legal) critique of this pettifogging judgment to the Volksstaat.40i
In Spain, according to a report from Lafargue (who is or was in Madrid), things are going well — the Bakuninists have overshot the mark with the violence of their manner. The Spaniards are workers and want unity and organisation above all else. You will have received the last circular of the congress in Sonvillier,[374] in which they attack the Basle administrative resolutions as the source of all evil.[399] That is really the last straw and we shall now take action.
In the meantime, Hins, Steens and Co., in Belgium, have played us a fine trick (see the resolution of the Brussels Congress in
L'Internationale[404]). De Paepe shamefully let them make a fool of him; he wrote that all was well. However, up to now this opposition has kept itself within the bounds of legality and will likewise be dealt with when the time is ripe. Apart from De Paepe, the Belgians were never anything much.
A society in Macerata, in the Romagna, has nominated as its 3 honorary presidents: Garibaldi, Marx and Mazzini. This confusion will show you very clearly the state of public opinion among the Italian workers. Only Bakunin's name is needed and the mess is complete.
Cuttings from The Eastern Post (2 meetings)3 to follow tomorrow; I do not have the last issue anymore and shall only get a copy at today's meeting.
Best wishes to yours and to Bebel.
Your
F. E.
Notabene. Have you changed your address? Braustrasse 11?
179. Engels to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 3 January
Dear Liebknecht,
Enclosed are the Eastern Post cuttings.[3]
The immediate printing of the enclosed articleb is very necessary. The Rulesc can wait. I shall see to it that the Egalité translates it and that it reaches every corner of Belgium, Italy and Spain in that form.
Your
F. E.
180. Marx to Maltman Barry. 7 January
Dear Sir,
I regret that you found neither me nor Mr Engels at home. You seem to proceed in your letters from the idea that we form a distinct party in the Council. If we opposed Mr Hales in what we considered wrong, we did only our dutyd and would, under the same circumstances, have followed the same line of conduct towards any other member of the Council.[405] This, however, has nothing to do with party. We know of no parties in the Council. There are among the friends of Mr Hales very worthy men who have worked for a long time in our cause.
If Mr Mottershead has 'consented to stand for the secretaryship', we at all events did not invite him to do so. His position as paid secretary of the 'Labour Representation League'[406] makes the thing almost impossible. Mr Engels told you expressly after last Tuesday's meeting(1) that his mind was not yet made up as [to] who was the proper person to vote for, and for the present we see difficulties on all sides. Hence we have resolved to leave our continental friends to their own discretion.
In our opinion the important thing is, to settle the position and composition of the Federal Council. As to the secretaryship, it is mainly a personal matter which need not and, perhaps, cannot be settled in a hurry. At all events this will depend upon circumstances.
Yours truly,
K. M.
181. Engels to Carlo Terzaghi. First Version. After 6 January[407]
[Draft]
London [after 6 January 1872] 122 Regent's Park Road
My dear Terzaghi,
I received your letter of 4 December last year, and if I have not replied sooner, it was because I wanted to give you a precise answer about the matter which interests you most of all, namely the fund for the Proletario. I am now in a position to provide it.
We have very little money, and the millions of the International exist solely in the terrified imagination of the bourgeoisie and of the police, who cannot understand how an association like ours has been able to achieve such an important position without having money amounting to millions at its disposal. If they had only seen the accounts submitted at the last Conferencea! But never mind; let them go on believing it, it will do us no harm. It had already been decided, on receipt of your letter, to take out a number of shares in the Proletario, in the name of the General Council represented by me, but then the news reached us of the split which you had caused[408] and it was considered doubtful that the newspaper could go on being produced after it. Then there were the holidays, which meant that the meeting of the 26th did not take place, etc., etc. At last I can tell you that if you wish to continue the newspaper, and if there are solid grounds for hoping that this can be done, I am authorised to send you five pounds, i.e. roughly a hundred and sixty Italian lire, in return for which you can send me the corresponding amount of shares in my name. Write to me, then, by return of courier so that if, as I hope, the newspaper is to reappear, I can send you the money without delay.
Tell me at the same time whether the addresses given in your last letter (C. C[eretti] Mirandola, E. Pfescatori] Bologna) will be enough to write to them, with no other indication of street or number, because I would not like my letters to be written for any Mordecaian[409] to read.
You will probably have been sent a circular by the congress of the Jura Federation in Switzerland attacking the General Council and demanding the immediate convocation of a Congress.[374] The General Council will reply to these attacks, but in the meantime a reply has appeared in the Egalité in Geneva,[410] which I sent you three days ago together with two English newspapers containing summaries of the meetings of the General Council.b These citizens, who first looked for an argument with us using the pretext of the Conference, now attack us because we are carrying out the resolutions of the Basle Congress, resolutions which have the force of law for us and which we are obliged to carry out.[399] They do not want the authority of the General Council, not even if it were to be voluntarily consented to by all I would really like to know how without this authority (as they call it) the Tolains, the Durands and the Nechayevs could have been dealt with according to their deserts and how, with that fine-sounding phrase about the autonomy of the sections, they expect to prevent the formation of sections of Mordecaians and traitors. Besides, what did these same men do at the Basle Congress? With Bakunin they were the most ardent advocates of these resolutions proposed not by the General Council, but by the delegates from Belgium!
If, however, you want to have an idea of what they have done and can do for the International, read the official report of the Federal Committee to the congress of the Jura Federation in the Revolution sociale, Geneva, No. 5, 23 November 1871, and you will see to what a state of dissolution and impotence they have reduced in one year a federation which was well established before.[411]
It seems to me that the term 'authority' is much abused. I know of nothing more authoritarian than a revolution, and when one fights with bombs and rifle bullets against one's enemies, this is an authoritarian act. If there had been a little more authority and centralisation in the Paris Commune, it would have triumphed over the bourgeois. After the victory we can organise ourselves as we like, but for the struggle it seems to me necessary to collect all our forces into a single band and direct them on the same point of attack. And when people tell me that this cannot be done without authority and centralisation, and that these are two things to be condemned outright, it seems to me that those who talk like this either do not know what a revolution is, or are revolutionaries in name only.(1)
Write to me, therefore, about the matter without delay. Greetings and fraternity.
Yours,
F. Engels
Second Version. 14- 15 January
[Draft]
London, 14[-15] January 1872 256 High Holborn
14 January 1872, to Terzaghi, Turin
My dear Terzaghi,
If I have not replied sooner to your letter of 4 December last year, it was because I wanted to give you a precise answer about the matter which interests you most of all, namely the money for the Proletario.
You know that the millions of the International do not exist except in the terrified imagination of the bourgeoisie and of the governments, which cannot understand how an association like ours has been able to win such a great position without having millions at its disposal. If they had only seen the accounts submitted at the last Conference!
We would have voted 150 frs for you in spite of our penury, but the Gazzettino Rosa arrived with the news, etc.[412] This changed everything. If you had simply decided to send people to the future Congress, fine. But" what you had in mind was a Congress called for in a circular full of lies and false accusations against the General Council! And if you had only waited for the General Council's reply to this circular! S85 The Council could not but see in your resolution the proof that you had taken the side of the accusers, and without having waited for the Council's defence,— and the authorisation to send you the money in question was withdrawn from me. In the meantime you have received the
Égalité with the answer of the Romance Committee, which represents ten times as many Swiss workers as the Jurassians. But the writers' malevolent intention is already apparent from the Jura circular.1" First they look for an argument with us using the pretext of the Conference, and now they attack us because we are carrying out the resolutions of the Basle Congress, resolutions which we are obliged to carry out. They do not want the authority of the General Council, not even if it were to be voluntarily consented to by all I would really like to know how without this authority (as they call it) the Tolains, the Durands and the Nechayevs could have been dealt with according to their deserts and how, with that fine-sounding phrase about the autonomy of the sections, as it is explained in the circular, they expect to prevent the intrusion of Mordecaians and traitors. Certainly, no one disputes the autonomy of the sections, but one cannot have a federation unless some powers are ceded to the federal committees and, in the last instance, to the General Council.
But do you know who the authors and advocates of these authoritarian resolutions were? The delegates of the General Council? Not at all. These authoritarian measures were put forward by the Belgian delegates, and the Schwitzguébels, the Guillaumes, the Bakunins were their most ardent advocates That's the truth of the matter.
It seems to me that the phrases 'authority' and centralisation are much abused. I know of nothing more authoritarian than a revolution, and when one imposes one's will on others with bombs and rifle bullets, as in every revolution,a it seems to me one performs an authoritarian act. It was the lack of centralisation and authority that cost the life of the Paris Commune. After the victory make what you like of authority, etc., but for the struggle we need to gather all our forces into a single band and concentrate them on the same point of attack. And when people speak to me about authority and centralisation as if they were two things to be condemned in all possible circumstances, it seems to me that those who talk like this either do not know what a revolution is, or are revolutionaries in name only.
If you want to know what the authors of the circular have done in practice for the International, read their own official report on the state of the Jura Federation to the Congress (Révolution sociale, Geneva, 23 November 1871) and you will see to what a state of dissolution and impotence they have reduced a federation which was well established a year before. And these are people who want to reform the International!b
Greetings and fraternity.
Yours,
F. Engels
182. Engels to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 18 Januarya
Dear Liebknecht,
The facts about the Belgians are these: De Paepe is the only one who is worth anything, but he is not very active. Steens is a jackass, a schemer and perhaps worse, and Hins is a Proudhonist who by that very fact, but even more because of his Russian wife, has leanings towards Bakunin. The others are puppets. On the other hand, the Belgian workers show no inclination to spark off a rebellion in the International. Hence the bad grace evident in the formulation of the resolution.[404] Fortunately, Mr Hins has been the victim of his own super-smartness, for the workers' papers, which have not been able to look behind the scenes, interpret the resolution literally and so read it as a declaration in our favour. E.g. the Tagwacht and the Emancipation in Madrid,[413] etc.
Conference resolutionsb have no necessary binding force, since a conference is, in itself, an illegal mechanism, justified only by the gravity of the situation. Hence recognition is always desirable.
It would be good if you were to follow the lead of the Tagwacht and interpret the Belgian resolution as indicated above, adding that the resolution about revising the Rules amounts to a rejection of the Bakuninist call for an immediate congress. This is implicit because the revision would first have to be debated at their congress in June and only after that could it be brought before the regular congress of the International, which could not be held before the regular time scheduled in September. You could further remark that if the Belgians imagined that the General Council was nothing more than a correspondence bureau, they must have forgotten the Basle resolutions,[399] which are of an entirely different nature and which at all events remain in force until they are revoked by a regular International congress.
Up to now we intend to convene the congress at the regular time. It is still early to decide on the place, but it almost certainly will not be Switzerland, or Germany for that matter.[414]
I have received one copy of the issue of the Volksstaat with my article,a and of the next issue nothing at all Marx received the next, but not the one with my article! No doubt a mix-up in despatching them. Send me half a dozen copies of No. 3 and one of No. 4 by return. I need several for correspondents in Italy who can read German, etc.
Warmest thanks from Marx for your discretion in sending the Neuer Social-Demokrat which, without preparation and before any counter-action had been initiated, would only have upset his wife unnecessarily. The Workers' Societyb will reply and send its answer to the Volksstaat; there will be also a reply to Schneider's article.[415] In the meantime, I enclose an item which is unlikely to give the gentlemen any pleasure.[416] Apropos the Workers' Society, there have been some funny goings-on there, too.[386] Schneider and that asinine old scoundrel, Scherzer, thought they had got a majority, and together with Weber, who acted as intermediary, they made common cause with the dissident French and then proposed that the Society should resign from the International. Our people had become lax, had squandered their advantage and admitted far too much riff-raff. But this time things had gone too far. They were called out in force and the proposal was defeated by 27 votes to 20. A motion to expel the 20 was then tabled. The disorder made a vote impossible. Whereupon our people immediately salvaged all the Society's property, moved to another pub and expelled the 20. The rebels are now out in the cold and don't know what to do, but they had the impertinence to send Scherzer as their delegate to the General Council on Tuesdayc! Naturally, he was not admitted.
The alliance of the ultra-federalist French with the ultra-centralist Germans is likewise no bad thing.[417] Moreover, these French are already completely divided. When Vésinier was elected secretary, Theisz, Avrial et Co. resigned (for the second time). The remnant has split into two bodies, one of which is led by the nose by Vésinier, the other by Vermersch (of the Père Duchêne, and here the editor of the Qui Vive! and at present of the Vermersch Journal). Personally and politically, the two are equally disreputable and at least 3 others are more than suspected of being spies. The French police have so overshot the mark with their cunning that their mouchards[3] now only spend their time spying on each other.
The news about the Saxons' resolution gave us great pleasure. We shall see to publication in the appropriate form.[41] Letters about INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS have not yet arrived.[419]
To your questions:
1. The [membership] cards have been superseded by stamps following the resolution.[420]
2. The stamps were to have been ready yesterday at Jung's and in any case will be available by the time you reply, so that we are just waiting to hear from you how many you need. We shall be sure to send them off to you.
3. You should have given us the names or addresses of the Italian Freethinkers at once. Everyone we have contact with in Italy is a Freethinker. I assume you are referring to Stefanoni in Florence; he is an industrialist, a Bakuninist and — the founder of a rival international Freethinking, socialist society.[421]
There is no urgency about Marx's second anti-Proudhon edition.a It is much more important for Capital to appear in French,[395] and that will not be long in coming now. Negotiations are pending. It would be better not to say anything about the second edition of Capital?b since the remaining copies of the first edition have still to be disposed of and it would be better for this bomb to strike the Roschers, Fauchers & Co. unawares.
Marx has said nothing to me about printing the essay on Proudhon from the Social-Demokrat.c If I do not write anything to the contrary within a day or so, go ahead and print it.
Sorge is a BUSYBODY who forgets that correspondence between here and New York takes 3 weeks, and that the General Council has other things on its mind apart from the American squabbles. Had they only waited just 1 day before staging their coup d'état,[422]
they would have had the answer from here, which would have rendered it superfluous. First, they admit a mass of unknown riff-raff in an incredibly casual fashion, and then, when the balloon goes up, we have to extricate them from the mess!
Goegg was here a few days ago. He really has improved greatly, and has progressed roughly to the stage reached by the German artisans in 1848. But from petty bourgeois to artisan is a real step forward. It is at least possible to talk to him now, a thing which was quite out of the question 4 years ago. He is on his way to New York on business and wants to know whether you received the crate of wine he sent you for Christmas. He says that my article" killed Vogt stone-dead, and appears in general to be of the opinion that we were always in the right about him. It is quite possible that he may develop even further in time, or rather, that he may be developed by the course of events.
The news from Spain is good as far as it concerns the Federal Council. There is still a lot of intrigue going on in Barcelona and there is a strong Bakuninist influence in the Federation, but since in Spain the matter will be discussed by the Congress (in April)[423]
and since workers are in the majority there rather than lawyers and doctors, etc., I surmise that all will be well. Lafargue is fortunately still in Madrid; the information about the Neuer Social-Demokrat comes from him.a Mesa, the editor of the Emancipacion, is completely on our side.
In Italy we have Cuno in Milan, a Swiss engineer who knows Bebel and yourself and who up to now has blocked any Bakuninist resolutions there — apart from that, there are either Bakuninists or people who hang back. It is very difficult terrain and gives me a fiendish amount of work.
I enclose reports of 2 meetingsb together with a polemic against Bradlaugh[424]; furthermore the circular of Sonvillier[374] in case you do not have it.
Best regards from us all to you and yours.
Your
F. E.
183. Engels to Pyotr Lavrov. 19 January
IN PARIS
London, 19 January 1872 122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.
My dear Friend,
You will already have received the books[425] listed in the enclosed invoice for the sum of £1 16s. 5d. and I have debited your account accordingly.a
On the other hand I have credited you with your remittance of £2 8s., which I have not yet cashed.
Hodgson's work is quite unknown to me, nor have I seen it advertised anywhere. However, I shall endeavour to find out something about it.
Our accounts should more or less balance now. I shall be writing to you about the Gazette des Tribuneaux, a journal of which I do not think we shall have any further need; the subscription expires at the end of January.
You will have received The Eastern Post journals which I addressed to you, as also the other printed matter which I have enclosed with them from time to time.
As for the International, things are going well. B.'sb intrigues will not amount to anything much. That man forgets that the working masses cannot be led as could a little bunch of doctrinaire sectarians. We have had, by the bye, some most valuable intelligence regarding his machinations in Russia — from the original source, at that. They are unutterably despicable.
Ever your obedient servant,
. Yours,
F. E.
184. Engels to Paul Lafargue. 19 January
184
ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE[426]
IN MADRID
London, 19 January 1872
My dear Toole,(1)
We were delighted to get your letter of the 7th. As for Morago, you may be sure that Bakunin is at the bottom of it. As private correspondents, these men are assiduous beyond belief; and if he [were] a member of the Alliance, they would certainly have bombarded him with letters and blandishments. At any rate, the fact that they have resolved to place all these questions before a Spanish Congress[423] is a victory for ourselves, since:
1) it is a negative, albeit indirect, reply to the demand that a Congress of the International be immediately convened;
2) we have always found that, as soon as the workers themselves, as a body, consider these questions, their natural common sense and their innate feeling of solidarity invariably enable them speedily to smell out such personal machinations. For working men, the International represents a great acquisition which they have no intention at all of relinquishing; for the aforesaid doctrinaire intriguers, it represents no more than an arena for petty squabbles of a personal and sectarian kind.
In our reply we shall endeavour to make the maximum use of your observations; however, we cannot limit ourselves to what might best suit the Spaniards. The sorely assailed Swiss want just the opposite. However, I hope that we shall be able to write in such a way as to satisfy all our friends on the main points.
There have been requests from several quarters for a new impression of the Poverty of Philosophy, for which a new introduction would, of course, be required, and I hope that Moor will attend to this as soon as his work on the second edition of Capital[396] is completed; if, in the meantime, Mesa were to do the Spanish translation, he would probably get the text of the introduction in good time. But I cannot promise anything; you can imagine the amount of unexpected work that constantly devolves on Moor. He has entered into an agreement with Lachâtre[395]; the contract contained one or two quite inadmissible clauses. No doubt Jenny or Tussy will write, either to you or to Laura, and enlarge on the matter.
Now for the news. 1) Over here the French section of 1871,[338] a section which had never been accepted as such because of its refusal to delete utterly incredible things from its rules, has completely disintegrated — at the very moment when it was bringing out a long metaphysical declaration against the General Council, signed by 35 citizens.a
The election of Vésinier as secretary has caused Theisz, Avrial & Co. to resign (for the second time!). The Vésinier clique next demanded the expulsion of Vermersch, a worthy rival to Vésinier, both as a private individual and as a man of politics. There followed another split, thus creating three rumps. This is group autonomy at its most extreme.
On the other hand we have over here a French section of 60 members,[359] an Italian section and a Polish one, aside from the old German section.[427] The calumnies in the Berlin Neuer Social-
Demokrat were the work of some of Schweitzer's hoodlums who had wormed their way into that section; they have just been expelled.b—The British Federal Councilc is now functioning and its propaganda is proving very successful; we are especially anxious to build up support outside the old semi-bourgeois political societies and the old TRADES UNIONS, which are incapable of seeing beyond their trades. In Manchester, Dupont has been very useful to us. The republican clubs of Dilke & Co. adhere to the International in all the larger cities, and the best elements of almost all those clubs belong to us, so that one fine day this bourgeois republican movement will escape from its bourgeois leaders and fall into our hands.
I was greatly pleased by the article on the Neuer Social-Demokrat in the Emancipation^ I at once translated and sent it to the Volksstaat, Liebknecht's newspaper in Leipzig.[416]
In France Serraillier is being amazingly active. Needless to say, the results he has obtained are not for publication, but they are very good. Everywhere the sections are reforming under different names. One fact disclosed by this correspondence is that, in almost every case, the Bakuninists' correspondents are informers. In one town in the Midi, their member was the superintendent of police.*d
It has now been almost proved that Marchand of Bordeaux is an informer. As you may know, he mislaid the minutes of two meetings; well, all those mentioned in the said minutes have been taken to court, and the same intentions were harboured in regard to yourself. Marchand has never been able to explain what became of those minutes and, though proscribed in Geneva, he was able to return to Bordeaux without being harassed.
In Switzerland, not only has the Romance Committee, which represents at least ten times more Internationalists than the Jurassians, come out in favour of the General Council,a but also the Tagwacht of Zurich, organ of the Internationalists of German Switzerland (see No. 1 of 6 January).[428] The question it puts to those who speak of the authoritarian power wielded by the General Council is as follows:
'A dictatorship always presupposes the possession by the dictator of the material power that would enable him to enforce his dictatorial orders. Now, all these journalists would greatly oblige us if they would kindly let us know where the General Council keeps its arsenal of bayonets and mitrailleuses.[26] Suppose, for example, that the Zurich section should not be in agreement with this or that decision of the General Council (something which has not hitherto occurred), to what means could the General Council have recourse in order to compel the Zurich section to bow to that decision? But the General Council has not even the right definitively to exclude any one section from the Association — at the very most it can suspend its functions until the next Congress, which alone can give a final ruling... The most divergent views, not only in regard to the future organisation of society, but also in regard to the steps to be taken here and now, are represented in the great international association. That association, at its general congresses, does of course debate questions of this kind, but in no article of its Rules does it lay down a system, an obligatory norm for the sections. There is nothing obligatory save the fundamental principle: The emancipation of the workers by the workers themselves... Thus, in the International we find represented the most opposing political views, from the strict centralism of the Austrian workers to the anarchic federalism of the Spanish confederates. These last proclaim abstention from elections; the German confederates make full use of their votes in every election. In certain countries the Internationalists support other more or less progressive parties, elsewhere they remain aloof, as a distinct party, no matter what the circumstances. Nowhere, however, are there monarchists amongst the Internationalists. The same thing applies to questions of social economy. Communists and individualists work side by side, and it may be said that all forms of socialism are represented in the International...b However, the International has always shown itself capable of closing its ranks against the outside enemy, ... it has succeeded in maintaining its unity in the face of the Franco-Prussian War and, from that war, it has emerged bigger and stronger, whereas other societies have been crushed by the war. To a man, the International sided with the Paris Commune... And does the fact that this or that group holds a different view on questions of detail entitle the bourgeois press to talk of splits in the International?...
You have only to read the circular from the Jura sections, protesting against this and that, but ending with the cry: "Long live the International Working Men's Association!" Is that a split? No, gentlemen, despite your efforts, the International will not be subject to splits, it will settle its own internal affairs and reveal itself more united and with its ranks more serried than ever ... the more you calumniate us, the more you talk of splits in our ranks, the more you attack us — the more shall we serry our ranks and the louder will the cry resound: Long live the International Working Men's Association!'
If you can make use of this for the Emancipation, so much the better.
In Germany the Volksstaat has come out with considerable force against the Jurassians and in favour of the General Council.[3]
Furthermore, on 7 January the Saxon Congress, with 120 delegates representing 60 sections, held a private meeting (being forbidden by law to debate the matter publicly) at which they unanimously condemned the Jura circular and passed a vote of confidence in the General Council.a
The Austrians and Hungarians are also unanimous in their support of the General Council, though prevented by persecution from giving public proof of same; they can hardly ever meet, and any meeting in the name of the International is at once prohibited or broken up by the police.
In Italy no organisation so far exists. So autonomous are the groups that they will not or cannot unite. This is a reaction to the extreme and bourgeois centralism of Mazzini, who aspired to control everything himself, and very stupidly at that. By slow degrees enlightenment will dawn, but they will have to be allowed to learn from experience.
You say nothing about your wifeb—I hope that you have had good news of her and also of the little boy.c Mrs Marx, who is with me at the moment, and the whole of the Marx family, SEND THEIR LOVE. Cordial salutations from my wifed and from myself also. Remember me to Laura when you write to her, and let me hear from you soon.
Yours ever,
The Generale
185. Marx to Hermann Jung. 19 January
My dear Jung,
It is absolutely necessary that I see you to-morrow evening. I hope, therefore, that you will come. If it be impossible, I shall call upon you on Sunday morning.
Yours fraternally,
Karl Marx
186. Engels to Theodor Cuno. 24 January[429]
Dear Cuno,
I have just received your letter via Becker(1) and see from it that the damned Mordecaians[409] have intercepted my lengthy letter to you of 16 December.[45] This is all the more annoying as it contained all the necessary information about the Bakuninist intrigues, and would have put you in possession of the relevant facts a whole month earlier. Moreover, as you are a foreigner, and so liable to deportation, I had requested you not to be too prominent in public agitation, so that you might stay where you are and retain your position, one which is now, unfortunately, quite ruined.
[Membership] cards have been abolished by the Conference resolution in favour of stamps and have now been replaced by the latter.[420] The cards had been subject to much abuse over a long period, since everywhere a large number of blank cards had fallen into the hands of the police, who had made use of them for their own purposes. In a few days I shall send you the 100 stamps as a receipt for the 10 frs I have none in the house at present.— Nothing is known here of the old Captain with the wooden leg; he is not in touch with the General Council.[430]
I would gladly send you the Rules[309] if only I had them. They have been printed in French and English; a German version is due out any day, the Italian translation is lying in my desk ready for printing, but 1. we have no money to have them printed on our own account, and 2. in view of the general rebellion against the Conference and the General Council instigated by Bakunin among the Italians, it is highly questionable whether they would in fact recognise an edition revised by the General Council in accordance with the Conference resolutions. Before this is resolved it would in my view be pointless to print. In the meantime, various editions of the Rules have come out in Italian there, e.g. in Girgenti(2) (put out by the Eguaglianza), likewise in Ravenna (by the now defunct Romagnolo—Lodovico Nabruzzi in Ravenna could give you information about it), and also La Plebe of Lodi, Corso Palestro, has advertised some at 10c. It is true that all of these are badly and in part incorrectly translated and only contain the earliest Administrative Regulations, but for the time being they will have to do.
Becker tells me that he will write to you about the Bakuninist intrigues, but I do not want to rely on that, so here, in brief, are the essentials. Bakunin, who up to 1868 had intrigued against the International, joined it after he had suffered a fiasco at the Berne Peace Congress[481] and at once began to conspire within it against the General Council. Bakunin has a singular theory, a potpourri of Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is first of all, that he does not regard capital, and hence the class antagonism between capitalists and wage workers which has arisen through the development of society, as the main evil to be abolished, but instead the state. While the great mass of the Social-Democratic workers hold our view that state power is nothing more than the organisation with which the ruling classes — landowners and capitalists — have provided themselves in order to protect their social privileges, Bakunin maintains that the state has created capital, that the capitalist has his capital only by the grace of the state. And since the state is the chief evil, the state above all must be abolished; then capital will go to hell of itself. We, on the contrary, say: Abolish capital, the appropriation of all the means of production by the few, and the state will fall of itself. The difference is an essential one: the abolition of the state is nonsense without a social revolution beforehand; the abolition of capital is the social revolution and involves a change in the whole mode of production. However, since for Bakunin the state is the main evil, nothing must be done that can keep the state alive, i.e. any state, republic, monarchy, or whatever it may be. Hence, complete abstention from all politics. To commit a political action, especially to take part in an election, would be a betrayal of principle. The thing to do is to conduct propaganda, revile the state, organise, and when all the workers are won over, that is, the majority, to depose the authorities, abolish the state, and replace it by the organisation of the International. This great act, with which the millennium begins, is called social liquidation.
All this sounds extremely radical and is so simple that it can be learned by heart in five minutes, and that is why this Bakuninist theory has also rapidly found favour in Italy and Spain among the young lawyers, doctors, and other doctrinaires. But the mass of the workers will never allow themselves to be persuaded that the public affairs of their country are not also their own affairs; they are by nature political and whoever tries to convince them that they should leave politics alone will in the end be left in the lurch by them. To preach that the workers should abstain from politics under all circumstances means driving them into the arms of the priests or the bourgeois republicans.
Now as, according to Bakunin, the International was not formed for political struggle but in order that it might at once replace the old machinery of state when social liquidation occurs, it follows that it must come as near as possible to the Bakuninist ideal of future society. In this society there will above all be no authority, for authority=state=evil in the absolute. (How these people propose to operate a factory, run a railway, or steer a ship without one will that decides in the last resort, without unified direction, they do not, of course, tell us.) The authority of the majority over the minority also ceases. Every individual, every community, is autonomous, but how a society of even two people is possible unless each gives up some of his autonomy, Bakunin again keeps to himself.
So the International must be organised according to this pattern as well. Each section is autonomous, and in each section each individual. To hell with the Basle resolutions,[399] which conferred upon the General Council a pernicious authority demoralising even to itself! Even if this authority is voluntarily conferred, it must cease — precisely because it is authority.
Here you have in brief the main points of the swindle. But who were the authors of the Basle resolutions? The same Mr Bakunin and Co.!
When these gentlemen saw at the Basle Congress that their plan for transferring the General Council to Geneva, i.e. getting it in their hands, stood no chance of success, they adopted another course. They founded the Alliance de la démocratie sociale, an international society within the large International under the pretext which you now encounter in the Bakuninist Italian press, for example in the Proletario and the Gazzettino Rosa: the ardent Latin races require a more striking programme than the chilly, deliberate Northerners. This little plan failed owing to the resistance of the General Council, which naturally could not tolerate the existence of any separate international organisation within the International. Since then, the same plan has appeared in all manner of forms in connection with the efforts of Bakunin and his adherents to substitute Bakunin's programme for the programme of the International. On the other hand, the reactionaries — beginning with Jules Favre and Bismarck and ending with Mazzini — have always come down hard upon the empty and vainglorious Bakuninist phrase-mongering when they have been at pains to attack the International. Hence the necessity of my declaration of 5 December against Mazzini and Bakunin, which was likewise printed in the Gazzettino Rosa."
The core of the Bakunin conspiracy consists of a few dozen people in the Jura, who have scarcely 200 workers behind them; its vanguard in Italy consists of young lawyers, doctors, and journalists, who now come forward everywhere as the representatives of the Italian workers, with a few of the same breed in Barcelona and Madrid, and a few individuals here and there — in Lyons and Brussels. There are almost no workers among them; they have only one specimen here,b Robin.—The Conference (convened out of necessity, because a Congress had become impossible)2M provided them with a pretext; and since most of the French refugees in Switzerland sided with them — they (the Proudhonists) had much in common with them, while personal motives also played a part — they launched the campaign. To be sure, a dissatisfied minority and unrecognised geniuses are to be found everywhere within the International — and they counted on them, not without reason. At the present time their fighting forces are:
1. Bakunin himself — the Napoleon of this campaign. 2. The 200 Jurassians and 40-50 members of the French section (refugees in Geneva).
3. In Brussels, Hins, editor of the Liberie, who does not support them openly, however.
4. Here, the remnants of the Section française de 187l,33i never recognised by us, which has already split into 3 mutually hostile parts; then about 20 Lassalleans of the type of Mr von Schweitzer, expelled from the German section (for proposing resignation en masse from the International),(3) who, as defenders of extreme centralisation and strict organisation, fit marvellously into an alliance with the anarchists and autonomists.
5. In Spain, a few personal friends and adherents of Bakunin, who have greatly influenced, at least theoretically, the workers, particularly in Barcelona. But, on the other hand, the Spaniards attach great importance to organisation, and its absence among the others is conspicuous to them. How much success Bakunin may expect here will be revealed only at the Spanish Congress in April,[423] but as the workers will predominate at this congress, I have no fears about it.
6. Lastly, in Italy, as far as I know, the Turin, Bologna, and Girgenti sections have voted for convening a Congress before it is due.
The Bakuninist press asserts that 20 Italian sections have affiliated with them; I have no knowledge of them. In any event, the leadership is in the hands of Bakunin's friends and adherents almost everywhere, and they are raising a terrific hubbub. But on closer examination it will most likely be found that they haven't much of a following, since in the final analysis the overwhelming mass of Italian workers are still Mazzinists and will remain so as long as the International is identified there with abstention from politics.
At any rate the situation in Italy is such that, for the present, the International there is dominated by Bakuninist intrigues. Nor does the General Council think of complaining about this; the Italians have the right to make fools of themselves as much as they please, and the General Council will oppose this only in peaceable debates. They likewise have the right to express themselves in favour of a Congress in the Jurassian spirit, although it is extremely peculiar, to be sure, that sections that have just joined and can have no knowledge of anything should immediately take a definite stand on a question of this sort without even hearing both sides! I have already given the Turin people my opinion of this quite frankly," and I shall do the same with other sections taking a similar stand. For every such statement of affiliation represents an indirect approval of the false accusations and lies against the General Council contained in the circular[374]; the General Council, incidentally, will soon issue its own circulara on this question. If you can prevent a similar declaration by the Milanese until this latter appears, you will be acting in complete accordance with our desires.
The joke is that these same Turinese who have declared their support for the Jurassians and who therefore reproach us here with authoritarianism, are now suddenly demanding that the General Council should act in an authoritarian manner quite without precedent for it and take steps against their rival, the Federazione Operaia of Turin, and outlaw Beghelli of the Ficcanaso who is not even a member of the International, etc.b
And all this before we have even had a chance to listen to what the Federazione Operaia might have to say on it!
Last Mondayc I sent you the Révolution Sociale with the Jura circular,c an issue of the Genevan Égalité (unfortunately I no longer have a single copy of the one containing the reply of the Genevan Comité Fédéral,f which represents 20 times as many workers as the Jurassians), and a Volksstaat which will show you how people in Germany regard the matter.[8] The Saxon provincial assembly — 120 delegates from 60 places — has declared itself unanimously in favour of the General Council.[418]—The Belgian Congress (25-26 Decemberh) is calling for a revision of the Rules, but at the regular Congress (in September).[404] From France statements supporting us come in every day. Here in England, of course, all these intrigues fall upon barren soil. And the General Council, of course, will not call an extraordinary Congress for the benefit of a few intriguing and vainglorious individuals. As long as these gentlemen stay within legal bounds, the General Council will gladly allow them freedom of action, and this coalition of the most motley elements will soon fall apart of itself. But as soon as they undertake anything contrary to the Rules or Congress resolutions, the General Council will do its duty.
If one bears in mind what a time these people choose to embark on their conspiracy — precisely when the International is being hounded everywhere — it is impossible not to think that the gentlemen of the international Mordecai gang are involved in the affair. And this is actually the case. In Béziers the Genevan Bakuninists have as their correspondent the Commissaire central de police*] Two of the chief Bakuninists, Albert Richard from Lyons and Blanc,b were here and told a worker, Scholl from Lyons, with whom they got in touch, that the only way to overthrow Thiers was to put Bonaparte back on the throne, and that was why they were travelling about at the Bonapartists' expense to carry on propaganda among the émigrés on behalf of a Bonapartist restoration ! That is what these gentlemen call abstention from politics! In Berlin the
Neuer Social-Demokrat, in Bismarck's pocket, is singing the same tune. For the time being I shall leave as a moot point the extent to which the Russian police are involved in this affair, though Bakunin was embroiled up to his eyes in the Nechayev business (he denies this, to be sure, but we have authentic Russian reports here, and since Marx and I understand Russian, he cannot bluff us).[280] Nechayev is either a Russian agent-provocateur or, at any rate, has acted like one; moreover, there are all sorts of suspicious characters among Bakunin's Russian friends.
I am very sorry to hear that you have lost your job. I had expressly written to you saying that you should avoid anything that might have these consequences and that your presence in Milan was of much greater importance for the International than the minute effect that one can have by agitating in public; much could be done underground, etc. If I can be of any assistance with translations, etc., I shall do so with the greatest pleasure; just let me know from which languages and into which language you can translate and in what way I can help.
So the police swine have also intercepted my photograph. I enclose another and ask for 2 of you, one of which will be used to induce Miss Marx to part with a picture of her father for you. (She is the only person who still has a few good ones in her possession.)
I also ask you to take care with all persons connected with Bakunin. It is a characteristic of all sects that they stick together closely and carry on intrigues. Every one of your confidences—you may rest assured of this — will be conveyed to Bakunin at once. One of his main principles is the affirmation that keeping a promise and other such things are nothing but bourgeois prejudices, which a true revolutionary should always disregard in the interests of the cause. In Russia he speaks of this openly, in Western Europe it is a secret doctrine.
Write to me very soon. It would be very good if we could manage to prevent the Milan branch from joining in the chorus of the other Italian sections.
Salut et fraternité.
Yours,
F. Engels
If you write to Miss Burns you need neither an inside envelope, nor to make any mention of my name whatever. I open everything myself.
187. Engels to Carlo Terzaghi. 29 January
My dear Terzaghi,
I wrote to you on the 15th of this month (1) and I then received your letter dated the 15th inst.[432] I communicated the contents of your letter to the General Council, where the great activity of the Turin workers was recognised with pleasure.
So far the Workers' Federation of Turin has not approached the General Council. If it did, the Council, after listening to both parties, would have to deliberate whether this federation could be provisionally admitted or not. I cannot promise you in advance that it will under no circumstances be admitted. For one thing, I am not the Council; then there is the Council's position, as follows.
It is true that the Basle Congress conferred upon the General Council the power to refuse admission, until the next Congress, to any new section[399]; but this power has never been put into practice except in cases of well-proven necessity, and only after hearing the defence of the section in question. How can we possibly commit the General Council in advance, before it has heard the other party? You can rest assured that in any case the Council will look after the interests of the International.
As for Mr Beghelli, we cannot vote for the public declaration you request. Beghelli does not belong to the International and he is outside the Council's jurisdiction, and even if this were not the case I do not think he is sufficiently important to be distinguished in this manner from other journalists hostile to the International.
But I must tell you: we did not expect requests of this sort from you. You have supported the calling of a special congress[374] whose sole aim is to accuse the General Council of authoritarianism, and to abolish the powers given to the General Council by the Basle Congress. And no sooner do you vote this support than you ask the General Council to perform acts ten times more authoritarian than any it has ever performed: you ask it to make use of these same powers which you have already condemned and refuse admission to a new section without even listening to what it has to say in its defence. What would your Jura friends say if we were to make ourselves guilty of such authoritarianism? You have certainly taken your decision on the basis of the Jura circular and you have, albeit indirectly, approved the lies and slanders it contains, without waiting for the reply of the General Council — you, a brand-new section, necessarily ignorant of the whole(2) matter. You had a right to do this, you are an autonomous section insofar as this autonomy is not limited by the laws of the International. But the General Council is responsible for its actions and cannot allow itself such liberty.
Perhaps you will now see for yourselves that such authoritarian powers were conferred upon the General Council not without reason, that they may have some use and that, instead of inaugurating your career as Internationalists by indirectly condemning a General Council quite unknown to you, and with decisions which only tend to sow dissension at a time when universal government persecutions should be pushing all true Internationalists into the closest union — that instead of all this you would have done better to suspend your judgment until you are better informed.
Thank you for the twenty franc contribution, which I have passed on to the treasurer; I am enclosing in return 200 stamps at 10c. each. These stamps, affixed to a page of the General Rules which every member must possess, constitute proof of membership of the International.[420]
To the Emancipation of the Proletarian Society
International Section
Turin
188. Marx to Ferdinand Jozewicz. 1 February[433]
Dear Citizen,
I have delayed my reply to your letter for 3 reasons. Firstly, overwork, since in addition to all the confusion which a few vain mediocrities under the control of government agents have stirred up in the International—my time is taken up with a second German edition of my book on capital,[396] with a French edition,[395] for which I have to prepare a plan after the second German edition, and, finally, with a Russian edition, for which I had to supply a number of alterations to the text.a Secondly, the stamps[420] were only delivered to the General Council at the beginning of this week. I enclose 500. The German edition of the Rules and Administrative Regulations* is in the press and will soon be available for despatch from the Volksstaat at 1 silver groschen each.
Thirdly, we are busy drawing up a circulara to be printed for private circulation which will give a clear account of the intrigues of Bakunin and his comrades, etc. As soon as it is finished and in print, you shall receive a copy. For the moment, I would only say that as regards the French, everyone worth keeping is sticking by us. The small separate section that was formed here has now split into 3 sections which are devouring each other.[338]
With fraternal greetings,
Karl Marx
189. Marx to Hermann Jung. 1 February[118]
The letters we want for the project of the circular[15] are:
1) During the sitting of the Conferenceb you received a letter from one of the Bakuninists, I think from Joukowski, in which the formation of a new section of propaganda[359] was announced and the sanction of the General Council demanded. I knew from Outine that you had already sent a preliminary answer, and that that new section was nothing but a second edition of the 'Alliance
de la démocratie socialiste'.
This is the first letter we want. 2) The letter of Malon in which he calls upon the General Council to acknowledge a 'French Section', founded under his auspices, at Geneva.[434] 3) The letters received since the Conference from Switzerland, relating to the 'quarrel'[9] and which you told the General Council would be submitted to the Sub-Committee.[435]
Yours fraternally,
Karl Marx
In order to save time, please give all this to Regis who will call upon you to-morrow morning.
190. Marx to Maurice Lachâtre and Juste Vernouillet. 9. February[436]
Dear Sirs,
Please be so good as to make two copies of the enclosed contract on stamped paper, one to be signed by Mr Maurice Lachâtre, and then send both copies to me, one of which I shall return duly signed.
In a letter dated 2 February my translator tells me:
'I shall start work this very day and proceed more quickly or less quickly, depending upon the time allowed me by the publisher. At all events I shall be entirely at his disposal.'
You would oblige me by enabling me to advise Mr Roy of 'the time allowed'.
I have the honour to be, Sirs,
Your obedient servant,
Karl Marx
191. Marx to Adolphe Hubert. 12 February
My dear Friend,
Herewith the notes: Old Crémieux has been in London where he put up at the Golden Cross Hotel with a gentleman whom he caused to be entered in the hotel register as his son, but who is in reality Mr Truchy, a former captain on the General Staff, a Bonapartist in search of a fortune, and editor of the Liberté (Girardin's), to which he was appointed by Badingueta and for which he writes military articles under the nam de plume of Mousselerès.
These gentry were in London to settle some business with the man at Chislehurst.b The result of the transactions was old man Crémieux's nomination as one of the members of the Regency of the Empire (in the event of Badinguet's death).
Yours ever,
Karl Marx
192. Marx to Asher & Co. 13 February
192
MARX TO ASHER & Co.[437]
IN LONDON
[London,] 13 February 1872
Dear Sir,
Together with these lines I send you the only copy of the 'Inaugural Address'[3] I can still dispose of.
Yours truly,
Karl Marx
193. Engels to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 15 February
Dear Liebknecht,
Letters from Germany about enrolment are still not forthcoming.[419] If the dear Germans again will not go beyond promises and fine phrases, we shall never get anywhere with them.
I cannot procure for you the data about the POOR-RATES[438] for the moment. We are being kept busy by the reply(1) to the Jura circular,[374] which is very urgent, and local statistics are the sort of thing one must collect oneself from the sources. For the time being, do not mention the reply to the Jurassians in public.
You will be aware that Albert Richard and Gaspard Blanc were the chief supporters of Bakunin & Co. (see the report on the last meeting).
Re the Misere de la philosophie, steps will be taken soon. Marx has signed the contract for the French translation of Capital and it will soon start to appear in instalments. (Between ourselves for the time being).[436] As soon as some have come out, it will be the turn of the
Misère de la philosophie.
The Manifesto will follow, in German a and probably in French and English (having appeared in an English and a French periodical in New York ). You see that things are in full swing here. But it all makes for a lot of work.
The Lassalleans here have been thrown out, as you know." If they go on kicking up a fuss in the Neuer Social-Demokrat, send us the paper when you have finished with it — it doesn't get sent to the Workers' Educational Society[135] anymore. The Lassallean gentlemen here had the impertinence to go on behaving as if they were 'The Society' and sent Scherzer as their delegate to the General Council, where he was turned back without further ado.
You will have received the 800-odd STAMPS from Marx. You stick them on the top of the back of the title leaf of the Rules, of which, I hope, we shall soon receive the 3,000 copies, together with the bill? Cf. the relevant Conference resolution, which is clear enough.[420]
Enclosed find a Prussian loan-certificate for 10 thalers in settlement of the accompanying invoice, for which I should like a receipt. Use the balance as you think fit.
Furthermore, 4 reports on meetings'b from The Eastern Post and a few lines to Hepner.[45]
Cuno is behaving very courageously but has lost his job and is in a very bad way.c
I had guessed that your Italian could only be Stefanoni. Now just pay attention to this:
1. Libero Pensiero No. 18, 2 November 1871. Programme of the Società Universale dei Razionalisti, setting up a rival association to the International. According to its programme rationalist monasteries are to be established, a colossal sum of money to be invested in land is to be amassed and a marble bust of every bourgeois who donates 10,000 francs to the society is to be placed in the congress hall.[421]
2. There follow, in Nos. 20 & 21, increasingly virulent attacks on the International for repudiating atheism, as conceived by the Alliance, and on the General Council for its tyrannical ways, etc.
3. After an interval, this is followed in No. 1 of 4 January 1872 by a lengthy abusive article about the General Council, in which all the slanders of Schneider and Weber from the Neuer Social-Demokrat[386] appear in translation and are accompanied by equally outrageous commentaries, e. g. on the Communist trial. S8
4. This is followed in No. 3 of 18 January by a letter from Wilhelm Liebknecht of 28 December, in which the latter promises help to Stefanoni and offers to publish his contributions and to lend his support, without seeing it, to the programme of this honest society at the Saxon provincial assembly.[4]
5. This is followed in No. 4 of 25 January by another abusive article about the General Council in which the slanderous allegations about Marx by Messrs Schenck and Winand are once more translated from the Neuer.[415]
You can see in what fine company you have involved yourself with your letter-writing. Stefanoni, behind whom none other than Bakunin (who supplied him with all this material) is concealed, has just used you as a tool He has used Feuerbach in the same way, having published one of his letters too. Büchner, of course, is also conspiring with Stefanoni against us. This is what happens when you take up with people you do not know, when a simple enquiry, or even the mere mention of a name, would have sufficed for us to give you the necessary information and to prevent you from compromising yourself in this way. As things stand you have no option but to write Stefanoni a brief rude letter, sending him the relevant numbers of the Volksstaat However, since Stefanoni will take good care not to print your letter, you must send me a copy so that I can translate it and see that it appears in the Italian press," for even the Bakuninist papers are at loggerheads with him. However, if you wish us to continue to be able to come out with you and on your behalf abroad, the first precondition is that you do not continue to make things difficult for us by writing such letters to unknown people.
The people in Spain have their hands full with their struggle against the government, and are much too busy to quarrel with us anymore.
The Marx family and all of us send best wishes to you all, especially to Bebel.
Your
F. E.
Lafargue and Laura are in Madrid and intend to stay there for the time being.
194. Engels to Johann Philipp Becker. 16 February
Au citoyen" J. Ph. Becker
My dear old Comrade-in-arms,
It gave me great pleasure to receive a letter from you once again after so many years.
The business about Lessner's 10 frs has been settled.[442]
Can you make any suggestions about how we might assist Cuno in remaining where he is, i.e. in Milan? I cannot see any way from here and we would certainly be glad to do all we can to keep the brave fellow at such an important post. These damned Italians make more work for me than the entire rest of the International put together makes for the General Council. And it is all the more infuriating as in all probability little will come of it as long as the Italian workers are content to allow a few doctrinaire journalists and lawyers to call the tune on their behalf.
Marx sent the 100 stamps à 1 silver groschen in a registered letter to the address indicated in Cologne, but we have not yet had a reply.
Your young friend Wegmann is presumably the same person as the one about whom my cousin, Mrs Beust, wrote to me in Manchester a few years ago. I tried a great deal then to find him a position, even though convinced of the impossibility of doing so, and my efforts were indeed unsuccessful, a fact on which I reported to Anna Beust in detail.[45] I shall now write once more to Manchester on his behalf, but would be grateful if Wegmann could let me know in what field he is qualified to take up a position. Unfortunately, I cannot really hold out any prospects of success. The place is crawling with young German and Swiss engineers who snap up any position that arises in no time at all. I really tried everything I knew to find something for an Alsatian refugee, but without success, even though the man was on the spot and had very good references. He finally discovered something by pure chance after a long period of giving lessons.
Things are going well in Spain. The forcible measures taken against the International by the government have really cured people of abstention from politics, and Marx's son-in-law, Lafargue, who is in Madrid, is also doing his utmost to drive the Bakuninist quirks out of their heads. I have no worries about Spain. The people we are dealing with there are workers, and Bakunin's few doctors and journalists in Barcelona have to mind their ps and qs. The Spanish Federal Council is completely on our side. People in various sections have expressed very sensible views, and the Federal Council has released a circular (or was about to do so a little while ago), containing its entire correspondence with the General Council and then putting the question whether the General Council had attempted to treat them, the Spaniards, in a dictatorial fashion. In the meantime, the situation has changed so much that it looks as if open conflict is imminent in Spain, and this has completely cut the ground from under the feet of the Jurassians and their adherents. They really do have other things on their hands now in Spain than to make such a to-do about trivialities.
Outine's letter and the Suisse radicale have arrived. We shall publicise the case[444] without delay.(1)
Your enquiry about the letters really did slip my mind. I shall write to Frankel at once to find out whether he received the two letters, and if not I shall keep on searching. If anything has gone astray I shall let you know immediately.
Marx sends greetings to you all and I do likewise.
Fraternally, your old
F. Engels
195. Engels to Giuseppe Benedetti. 18 February
Citizen G. Benedetti,
I received a few days ago your letter of 7 January and I am not too sure that it is meant for me, since neither of the two stamps it bears is that of our Association, whether 'Intern. Democr. Assoc' or 'Int. Assoc, among Working Men'. As however you mention the Basle Congress and the Jura circular,[374] it is probable that it has reached the correct address.
As for its contents, I must tell you that the Pisa section, as a section of the International Association of Working Men, is absolutely unknown to us. Resolution 4 of the Basle Congress says that any section or society wishing to become part of the International is obliged to give immediate notification thereof to the General Council, which (Resolution 5) has the right to admit or refuse the affiliation of any new society or group, except for an appeal to Congress,[445] and which admits genuine workers' and internationalist societies and sections as soon as it has obtained proof that their Rules contain nothing contrary to the General Rules (Resolution 14 of the Geneva Congress).[446]
I am sorry that these Congress resolutions weigh so heavily upon the sense of autonomy of the self-styled Pisa section, which despite being only recently formed and not yet admitted, naturally knows the 'temperament of the Association' much better than those who have belonged to it since its inception and who drafted its Rules. But although you are of the opinion that this temperament 'excludes any principle of authority', the General Council must unfortunately recognise the authority of the laws of the International, which oblige it to carry out the resolutions of Congresses (including that of Basle), and not to admit sections whose autonomy does not permit them to recognise the authority of the laws that are common to the Association as a whole.
As for the demand for an extraordinary Congress, I cannot submit it to the General Council unless your section is regularly admitted. Meanwhile I can tell you that you have the distinction of being the first section (real or self-styled) to call for this Congress since the publication of the Jura circular.
196. Engels to William Burrs. 22 February[447]
In reply...a I beg to say that Mr Glaserb has been highly recommended to me and that I believe him to be a strictly honourable man and not without some means, and who is not likely to enter into engagements he could not fulfil so that, if I were in a position to do business with him, I should not hesitate to trust him to a moderate amount say £100 to 200.
197. Marx to Ferdinand Jozewicz. 24 February[448]
Citizen Secretary,
I can only write a few words today. Because of the conspiracy of the 'international police' with certain faux frères[2] within thev International, the General Council has heaped so many tasks upon me that I have even been compelled to put aside my theoretical work. So to business:
1. A resolution of the General Council, based on the four-month-long delay in printing the stamps (itself due to unforeseen obstacles in London), has set back the date by which unsold stamps should be returned from 1 March to 1 July. (Be kind enough to inform Liebknecht of this since I have no time to write to him at present.)
2. As far as double payment for the stamps is concerned, you have only to state in your report on 1 July that such-and-such a proportion of the money being forwarded stems from that source.
3. As far as the 'corresponding secretary' is concerned, the General Council leaves it to the Berlin section to arrange the matter as it thinks fit.
4. The Berlin section falls into the category of countries where 'legal obstacles' exist to regular organisation and in such countries the sections have absolute freedom to constitute themselves in a manner appropriate to the law of the land, without thereby forfeiting any right possessed by the other sections.[449]
5. The next Congress will be held in September 1872. The General Council has not yet decided on a location for the gathering.[450] The Social-Democratic Party would be well-advised to let us know without delay when they intend to hold their Congress.
6. The periodic reports of the General Council have been replaced by its weekly reports in The Eastern Post, the first despatch of which you will receive today.
6.b The Volksstaat is one of the organs in question.
7. The General Council thanks the Berlin section for having already appointed a statistical commission.[451] 8. The Council enquires through me in what relationship the Hamburgers (i.e. the Committee of the Social-Democratic Party)r
stand towards the General Council. Up to now we have not had a word from them.
9. The General Council requests the Berlin section to declare its approval of the resolutions of the last Conference of delegates of the International (in London).[264]
With fraternal greetings, K. M.
198. Marx to Hermann Jung. 26 Februarya
Could you come and visit me on Thursdayb evening to help Engels and myself prepare a report for the press on the monies disbursed by the General Council for the refugees, etc.?
Bring all your account books with you, and also as many details as possible about the people we have placed.[261]
We and a mass of Frenchmen will not go to Holborn tomorrow evening, since, in view of the uproar in the streets, the meeting cannot be held after all.[453]
Harrison has another brazenly boastful article in The Times about the wonderful help he & Co. have given to the réfugiés, thus putting an end to all need AMONGST THE REALLY DESERVING.d
Enclosed are a little letter and POST-OFFICE ORDER from Jenny.e
Tout à vous,"
K. M.
199. Marx to Laura Lafargue. 28 February
199
MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE
IN MADRID
[London,] 28 February 1872
My dear child,
You may judge of the overwork — I am being bothered with ever since December last — from my negligence in replying to your own and Paul's letters. Still my heart was always with you. In fact, the health of poor little Schnappya occupies my thoughts more than everything, else, and I feel even a little angry at Paul's last epistle, full of interesting details as to the 'movement', but a mere blank in regard to that dear little sufferer.[454]
In consequence of uninterrupted reading and writing, an inflammation of my right eye has set in since a few days, so that it forsakes service for the moment and obliges me to limit even this letter to the most necessary matter-of-fact communications.
In the first instance, Keller is not the translator of my book.b 147
When, at last, I had found out his whereabouts, I wrote at once.[17]
In his reply, he told me that he had till then only translated about 200 pages, and that, moreover, he could not proceed with the work before the month of May, being bound by contract to finish the translation of a medical work. This would not do for me. I have found in Roy, the translator of Feuerbach, a man perfectly suitable to my purpose. Since the end of December, he has received from me the corrected manuscript of the Second German edition[396] up to pagina 280. To-day I have written him to send at once to Paris what manuscript may be ready.[17]
As to the biography, I have not yet made up my mind as to whether it be at all opportune to publish it in connection with this work.[455]
As to the preface for Proudhon,b j'y penserait
The printings Paul wants I shall send to-morrow[45] and should have done so before, if I had found the time to look after some statistical facts in 'the 18. Brumaire' which, I apprehend, are not quite correct.
To Liebknecht I shall write.[458] As to Lara, making him — a man who is a perfect stranger to our party — a contributor to our party prints, is quite out of the question.[459] At the same time, you ought not to neglect all relations with his family. Under certain circumstances they might prove useful.
I regret that you have written to Woodhull et C°. They are humbugs that compromise us. Let Paul write to Charles A. Dana, editor of The Sun (New York) and offer him Spanish correspondence, and ask him at the same time (such things must be settled beforehand with the Yankees) as to the money terms. I enclose a few lines to Dana.a If he should not accept, I shall find another paper at New York. (The Herald or something else).
The New Social Demokrat is the continuation of Schweitzer's paperb under another editorship. He observed still a certain decorum. It is now a mere police paper, Bismarck's paper for the Lassalleans, as he has his feudal, his liberal, his all sort of colour papers.
Apropos. Misled by one of your letters I had put in the contract with Lachâtre[436] 'somme de ... sera remise à Paris ... quinze jours après demande'}' I shall write him to-morrow, that I prefer the payment on 1st July. In case of need, I can find the money, but I must be informed beforehand.
And now, my dear child, adio, with thousand kisses for little Schnappy and yourself, and my greetings to Paul.
Yours most devotedly
Old Nickc
The 'Circular' against the dissentients'd you will receive as soon as printed.
1958
200. Engels to Sigismund Borkheim. Early March[460]
...Sorge is very naive to ask for a book on Ireland from our standpoint. I have been trying to write one for two years now,[57]
but the war, the Commune and the International have called a halt to everything else. In the meantime I recommend him the following:
1. The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland by Prendergast, London, Longmans, 2nd ed., 1870-71.
2. Memoir on Ireland by O'Connell, London — Duffey, 1869. For the historical fundamentals 3. The Irish People and the Irish Land by Isaac Butt, London— Ridgway.
This for the present. The Irish question, simple as it is, is nevertheless the product of a prolonged historical struggle and so requires a thorough study. A manual to make the situation comprehensible in around 2 hours does not exist...
201. Engels to Louis Pio. 7 March[461]
Dear Mr Pio,
I was very pleased to receive your letter of 24 February and would have written to you sooner, even before receiving it, had I had a reliable address in Köbenhavn and had I not heard from Outine that you were away. The truth is that it had not escaped our notice that Mottershead has not attended to his duties as Secretary for Denmark as he should. He has neglected a number of tasks that he should have carried out, as the accompanying letter to the Danish Federal Council makes clear. In order to remove Mottershead from the Secretariat, it would be a good idea for the Danish Federal Council to write to the General Council (c/o John Hales, GENERAL SECRETARY, 33 Rathbone Place, W. London), enquiring why the correspondence was being carried on so negligently. The fact of the matter was that we intentionally did not want to have a German Secretary for Denmark; our Frenchmen do not write English for the most part and we did not know how well correspondence in French would suit you — so our only alternative was to choose an Englishman, since you had written to us in English. And among such people who did not hold other offices, Mottershead seemed the most suitable. However, we see that he will not do and we have to find ways in which to activate the correspondence, so that things do not just stagnate. Cohen, the previous Secretary, no longer takes an interest beyond his immediate comrades, the cigar-workers, and moreover, he was arraigned by the Belgians at the Conference of September 1871 for his behaviour in Belgium at the time of a visitation from the General Council. Since then he has not appeared. For the time being, I shall correspond privately with you, if you agree, until official relations are re-established. I shall also send you a copy of The Eastern Post every week as it carries an official report on the meetings of the General Council. I have already sent you a copy of the issue of 24 February.a You will, of course, write to me in Danish. I understand your language perfectly, since I have made a thorough study of Scandinavian literature, and my only regret is that I cannot reply to you in Danish since I have never had the opportunity to practise it. Perhaps that will come later! Apart from myself, Marx understands Danish, but I doubt if anyone else does on the General Council.
I shall do my best to send you a report for publication in the Socialisten from time to time, and you should indeed receive one today or tomorrow,b if at all possible. I am unfortunately so preoccupied at the moment with my secretarial duties for Italy and Spain and with other tasks that I have hardly any time. Until I can find correspondents in Spain and Italy for you, I shall keep you supplied with news and newspapers from both countries. The best solution would be for you to exchange the Socialisten for papers from there — although there is the problem of cost, since their papers are weeklies and yours appears daily.
You will have heard in Geneva and Leipzig of the attempt made by some dissidents, led by Bakunin, to convene an extraordinary Congress in order to arraign the General Council.[374] The crux of the business concerns the International's stance on politics. These gentlemen call for a complete abstention from all political activity, and especially from all elections, whereas, right from the start, the International has written on its banner the conquest of political power by the working class as a means to social emancipation,[3] and the General Council has defended this position. Resolution IX of the Conferencea sparked off the dispute,[325] but since the Conference resolutions have no binding force on issues of principle until they are endorsed by the federations, it is vital to have a decision of the Danish Federal Council endorsing this one. I shall say nothing on the substance of the matter, as this would be insulting to a nation so highly developed politically as the Danes.
By the way, recognition of the Conference resolutions has already come in from the majority, that is to say from Zurich, from Romance Switzerland, from Germany, England, Holland and America. In Spain the congress due to meet in April will decide[423]; in Italy they are all still at sixes and sevens; the Belgians have made no comment up to now; in France the individual sections have all given their approval — a federation there is out of the question.
Incidentally, the attempts of the Jura people to force through an extraordinary Congress failed spectacularly, and have been abandoned by them in an autographed circular (of 3 March).b In favour of their proposal were: one section in Spain (Palma, Majorca), one in Italy (Turin, which has now reversed its decision), and a number of supposed sections which in fact have neither applied for membership of the International, nor paid any subscriptions (Pisa, Bologna, etc.); in London a supposed Section française de 1871, which however has never been admitted because its local Rules are incompatible with the General Rules, and which has since split into four parts[338]—and that was all. In the meantime, the General Council has produced a reply to these intrigues,[3] which is now in the press and which I shall send you as soon as it is ready.
I am sending you today through the post: 1 copy of the Emancipation from Madrid, 1 English and 1 French copy of the Conference resolutions; 1 English and 1 German copy of the new edition of the Rules.a
For the time being I shall send you the Emancipation along with The Eastern Post every week, and shall write to Madrid and Italy that they should send papers to you. If, when the Socialisten reappears, you can send me 4-6 copies of any interesting issues from time to time, I shall distribute them until you have made firm arrangements of your own.
Since I know that Mottershead has neither proposed that the Danish Federal Council should recognise the Conference resolutions, nor taken any action to implement the decision about the adhesive membership stamps, I am taking it upon myself to put these matters before the Danish Federal Council through you. As for the stamps (Conference Resolution IV, 1-5),[420] they were not ready until much later than expected and so the settlement date has been postponed by a decision of the General Council from 1 March (IV, 4) to 1 July. I am sending you 500 stamps for the present. They cost £2.1/10 and I would be obliged if you could let me know whether you need any more and how many. This information should best go to Mottershead (33 Rathbone Place) or to Hales.
We are keenly awaiting the results of your Rigsdag elections[464]— we think it of very great importance that workers from the International should sit in all the parliaments and that Bebel, who up to now has alone had this honour, should receive some support, no matter where. We believe that you in Denmark have good prospects of getting people in and hope that you are successful.
Salut et fraternité.
Yours,
F. Engels
The best way to reach me is to write to Miss Burns,
122 Regent's Park Road, N.W. London.
An inner envelope is not necessary — it is where I live. I only go to Rathbone Place once a week and we have moved out of Holborn.
202. Marx to Hermann Jung. 7 March
My dear Jung,
I do not find the Rules of the Vermersch Section.[465] Please to look about, whether you have them.
Yours fraternally,
K. Marx
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
203. Marx to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 8 March[466]
Dear Sorge,
Have only received today the German Rules* sent by Liebknecht and they cannot be sent off until Monday}' Over there people seem 8 1872
to imagine that the General Council just conjures up everything out of a hat, whereas the contrary is the case: without the private contributions of its members and their personal friends, absolutely nothing could be done. I notice the same comments in letters from Speyer, Boite and yourself, as I do in correspondence from other countries. Every country believes that our entire time can be devoted to it alone. If we wanted to grumble about every single detail, we could, e.g., complain that your REPORTS to us appear simultaneously in the Volksstaat.
Since I was commissioned by the General Council at long last to report on the SPLIT in America[422] (the matter had had to be postponed from one meeting to the next on account of the chaos within the International in Europe)—I have carefully gone through all the correspondence from New York together with everything that appeared in the papers and have discovered that we were by no means duly informed in time about the elements that brought about the breach. A portion of the resolutions I have proposed[3] has already been accepted, the rest will be passed next Tuesdaya and the final judgment will then be sent off to New York.
You will receive 1,000 copies of the German Rules. Hales will send 500 in English. I am sending 200 French ones, which have all been ordered.
Eccarius says that the things were sent to Gregory[467] (his private correspondent) because you had written to him that you were resigning from office but had not named a new correspondent.
The complaint about the French having their 'own' correspondent is quite unjust,[468] since the Germans also had one of their own and Eccarius, the SECRETARY for the UNITED STATES, can certainly deal with correspondence in German and English, but not in French. Moreover, the complaint was politically ill-advised, since it seemed to justify the view of the French members of the COUNCIL that Section I aspired to dictatorial authority over the other sections.[354] It arrived here at the same time as the complaint from the COUNTER-COMMITTEE that Section I was represented on the old committee in numbers exceeding those stipulated by the Rules.
The cost of the Rules was higher for the COUNTER-COMMITTEE because import duties had to be paid (at least, that is what they maintain).
I hope that your committee will be satisfied with the decision of the COUNCIL. We are having a pamphlet against the DISSENTERS(1) printed in Geneva, which will be almost as big as the one on the CIVIL WAR. In the meantime the dissenters have drawn in their horns in their last circular, so as to dull the polemic.[463]
IN ALL HASTE.
Yours,
K. Marx
204. Marx to Emile Eudes. 9 March
My dear Eudes,
Do not speak to your landlord until you have removed your furniture from your lodgings. Otherwise he might seize it and cause problems for you.
Yours ever,
Karl Marx
205. Engels to Paul Lafargue. 11 March
205
ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE[381]
IN MADRID
London, 11 March 1872
My dear Lafargue,
If you wish to entrust me with your affairs, I shall be glad to look after them; all you have to do is write and ask your agent to send me your share certificates and bonds by registered letter addressed to me at 122 Regent's Park Road. These I would keep along with my own. As to the coupons, dividends and interest, I shan't be able to tell you anything until I have examined the documents, but that can be arranged without difficulty. In the case of ready cash I believe you would do better to have it remitted to Madrid by bill of exchange and deposit it with a banker down there; I feel sure there must be some to whom you can entrust it. If, however, you would rather have it sent to me, I would ask you to give formal instructions that this should be in the form of a bill of exchange (or mandate) on London made out to my order—again by registered letter. In either case the bill of exchange should be short-dated. Or again, you could split the amount and instruct your agent to send part to Madrid and the remainder to me. Whichever you wish. It is always much better to send a bill of exchange than banknotes. You will lose equally one way or the other, but probably less with a bill of exchange. Besides, in the event of theft a banknote is lost for good, whereas a bill of exchange" is difficult for a thief to cash and in such a case one can prevent payment.
There is always a certain risk, even with registered letters, when they pass from one country to the other, but I know of no other means of ensuring that your share certificates, etc., reach me. Besides, we have recently had a great deal of experience with registered letters, since those that are unregistered do not always arrive, while registered letters have hitherto arrived without exception.b
I have sent you a number of papers from here, for instance on February 14th four cuttings from The Eastern Post, the Volksstaat, the Tagwacht of Zurich, and the Socialiste of New York;
on February 21st The Eastern Post, Socialiste and the French edition of the Rules" (to the Emancipaciân).
Tomorrow I shall send you 2 Eastern Posts. Unfortunately the two addresses to old ladies are the only ones we have and it would be very important to have another for both letters and papers as they cannot but become very suspect.
I can understand very well that our friends there are in reality a good deal more practical than they appear in their papers, and I perfectly understand the reason why. I am quite certain for instance that when they demand, that on the morrow of important events the land and the instruments of labour should be at once handed over to those who ought to hold them, they know perfectly well this to be impracticable, but must make the demand for consistency's sake. We must make a full allowance for their position. The Bakunist rubbish cannot be cleared away in one day, it is quite enough that the process of clearing it out has at last begun in good earnest.
From the Jurassian last circular you will have seen what a complete fiasco that ludicrous campaign has ended in.[463] However, the circular of the General Council in replyb is being printed and you may as well prepare our friends there for the fact that these men will be very roughly handled by us, and that all the facts we know about them — they are scandalous enough — will be laid before the Association. We must now make an end of this sect. Mohr's and my time has been wasted entirely by them for months past and this cannot go on. Only yesterday I had to send to Naples a complete pamphlet of twelve closely written pages in refutation of their absurdities.[45] They are all Bakunists in Naples, and there is only one amongst them, Cafiero, who at least is de bonne volonté,0
with him I correspond. About other matters I write to your wife.d
Mrs Engelse sends her compliments to both of you.
Yours truly,
The Generalf
206. Engels to Laura Lafargue. 11 March
206
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE[381]
IN MADRID
London, 11 March 1872
Dear Laura,
I should like to compliment you on Paul's articles in the Emancipation, which have given us all great pleasure, sending as they do a breath of fresh air into the desert of abstract declamation that prevails amongst the Spaniards.3 Given all the tribulations and journeyings which have been inflicted on you over the past eighteen months and which, needless to say, I have followed with interest and at times with anxiety, it must be very gratifying for you to know that Paul's presence in Madrid, precisely at the decisive moment, has been of incalculable value both to us and to the whole Association. Had Bakunin & Co. won the day in Spain — and without Paul they would probably have done so — a split would have occurred and with it a public rumpus. But now this attempted rebellion has come to an ignominious end and we can proclaim a victoire sur toute la lignée In those articles in the Emancipation where, for the first time, the Spaniards were treated to some genuine learning, you yourself played an important part, indeed the really learned part, which means that I, as Secretary for Spain, owe you especial thanks.
I see from the Naples Campana that Paul has also extended his activities in that direction. So much the better. Naples harbours the worst Bakuninists in the whole of Italy. Cafiero is a good chap, a born intermediary and, as such, naturally weak. If he doesn't improve soon, I shall give him up too. In Italy the journalists, lawyers and doctors have thrust themselves so much to the fore that up till now we have been unable to get in direct touch with the workers. That is beginning to change and we are discovering that the workers, as everywhere else, are quite different from their spokesmen. It is ludicrous — these people cry 'we want complete autonomy, we don't want leaders' and at the same time, more than in any other country, they allow a handful of doctrinaire bourgeois to lead them by the nose. The Spaniards are much better in this respect, for on the whole they have progressed a good deal further than the aforesaid Italians.
There have been great rejoicings at your home since the Longuet affair and if, at the time of your engagement, one or two people may have cracked bad jokes about CASTING SHEEFS EYES, you have now been fully avenged, for Jenny is doing her very best along similar lines. This business has, by the way, been of enormous benefit to her; she is happy and cheerful and also physically much better, while Longuet is a very kindly companion. Tussy is also very pleased about the affair and really gives the impression that she SHOULD NOT MIND TO FOLLOW SUIT. Day after tomorrow Longuet will give a guest performance at your house where he will cook sole à la normande, his national dish. We too have been invited and I shall be curious to see what my wifea
makes of the taste. His last offering— boeuf à la mode—WAS NO GREAT
SUCCESS.
The Fondevilles have ruined themselves utterly over here, morally speaking; they are out and out tricksters.
My best thanks for that amusing Spanish poem.[469] It has caused us a great deal of merriment.
I'm glad that Schnappyb is improving and hope soon to hear that he is perfectly well again. The poor little chap has already had a great deal to contend with.
So now good-bye, think kind thoughts of me and rest assured that, wherever you may go, my heartfelt interest will go with you. My wife, though still unknown to you, sends her best wishes.
Ever your old
Generalc
207. Engels to Louis Pio. Mid-March
Dear Mr Pio,
I think I cannot give you anything better for my first correspondence than the preceding translation of two excellent articles from the Pensamento Social.[3] I have not the slightest idea who may be the author, but they show an insight into the economical and historical conditions of the development of modern society which I am astonished to find in a paper coming from so remote a corner of the world.
By the bye, the article on organisation of agricultural production by Association from Socialisten which I got inserted in the published report of the Meetings of the General Council, has gone the round of the Spanish, Italian and American press, and I now find it reproduced in the Pensamento Social[470]; it has created great sensation and will not be without its fruit. Altogether, with regard to the all-important question of enlisting the small peasantry and Husmaendenab in the proletarian movement, the Danes, owing to their local circumstances and to their great political intelligence, are now in advance of all other nations. I have told Liebknecht and others this, but unfortunately they are too lazy to learn Danish.
Mottersheadc has not attended the last three meetings of the General Council, but he intends, so he has told us, to resign from his office as Secretary for Denmark; he says he is too busy to carry out his duties as Secretary.
In the meantime, I beg you to be so kind as to correspond with me, and I take upon myself all responsibility for any repercussions which might affect you vis-à-vis the General Council because of it. We intend to transfer the secretaryship for Denmark to a Frenchman, a member of the Commune de Paris.d
With a socialist handshake and greetings,
F. Engels I have translated the Portuguese articles into French, because this language permits an almost literal translation, and I have made it as literal as possible without regard to elegance or even correctness of French style.
208. Marx to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 15 March[118][3]
Dear Citizen,
I enclose the Resolutions of the General Council (in English and Frencha). The other Council[422] will receive them from Le Moussu.
Eccarius, at the end of the sitting of 12 March, told rhe privately that he would not send the Resolutions to New York and that, at next sitting, he would tender his resignation as Secretary for the United States. As this affair cannot be settled by the General Council before Tuesday next,b the Resolutions sent by me and Le Moussu, are not signed by a Secretary, the which, considering the form chosen, was not necessary. They will be printed in next week's Eastern Post.
During the discussion Eccarius spoke in a spirit most hostile to your Council. He spoke and voted against Resolution III, 2.[471] He was moreover offended because, in order to save time, I had not submitted the Resolutions to the subcommittee[435] of which he forms part, but laid them at once before the General Council. As the latter fully approved this proceeding, after my statement of the reasons which had induced me to act as I have done, Eccarius ought to have dropped his personal spleen.
For the private information of your Council I add that M. and Madame Huleck — he is an imbecile and she is 'une intrigante de bas état'3—had for a moment slipped into the General Council at a time when most of us were absent, but that, soon after, this worthy couple was forced to withdraw consequent upon their intrigues with the soi-disant Branche Française* the which was excluded from the International and denounced by us, in the Marseillaise and the Réveil, on the eve of the plebiscite,[104] as 'une section policière'."[50]
Moreover, these two persons, after their arrival at New York, cooperated in the foundation of a Society hostile to the International and were in constant connection with les beaux restes de la branche française6 at London. The same facts have been communicated by Le Moussu to the other Council.
Section 10 (French) has written an excellent letter to the General Council on the American split.472
Yours fraternally,
Karl Marx
209. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 17 March
Dear Sorge,
I have a favour to ask of you, which I hope will not put you to too much trouble.
17 1872
Would you be so kind as to buy 50 copies of the issue of Woodhull & Claflin's which contains the translation of the Communist Manifesto, and 50-100 of the issues of the Socialiste with the French translation, and send them on to me? [4 4 0] I shall send you the money for them as soon as I know how much it conies to. If there are not enough copies available, may I ask you to send what you can obtain. However much both translations leave to be desired, we still have to use them as propaganda for the time being, the French version especially is quite indispensable for the Latin countries of Europe as a counter to the nonsense purveyed by Bakunin, as well as the ubiquitous Proudhonist rubbish.
As soon as we have time, Marx and I, we shall prepare a new edition of the Manifesto with an introduction,[189] etc., but at the moment we have our hands full. Apart from Spain and Italy, I have to act as Secretary for Portugal and Denmark as well at present. Marx has quite enough to do with his second edition of Capital[396] and the various translations that are now loom-[436] ing.
We had intended to celebrate the revolution of 18 March with a PUBLIC MEETING tomorrow — but yesterday evening the HALL we had hired suddenly became unavailable! T h e pretext given was that THE FRENCH COMMUNISTS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO MEET IN ANY HALL IN LONDON! Since the owners are sure to be most unwilling to lose the 10 guineas rent, and since we shall sue for DAMAGES and shall get them too, it is obvious that they are being compensated by the government. Meanwhile we shall chance it and just go along quietly and if we find the door locked, which is probable, but not certain, we shall put the man who made the aforementioned statement into the WITNESS-BOX and see what can be made of the affair.[473] At all events we shall contrive to embarrass Mr Gladstone.
With warmest regards,
F. Engels
In Lisbon a paper has come out called O Pensamento Social, Rua de S. Boaventura, No. 57, Lisboa, which has a number of outstanding articles in the first issue.(1)
I enclose an article on Arthur O'Connor from the Brussels Liberté, which certainly deserves to appear translated in The Irish Republic. Up to now it is the only article in the entire European press to have come out in support of the poor devil.
210. Marx to Maurice Lachâtre. 18 March[474]
To Citizen Maurice La Châtre
Dear Citizen,
I applaud your idea of publishing the translation of Das Kapital in periodic instalments. In this form the work will be more accessible to the working class and for me that consideration outweighs any other.
That is the bright side of your medal, but here is the reverse. The method of analysis I have used, a method not previously applied to economic subjects, makes for somewhat arduous reading in the early chapters, and it is to be feared that the French public, ever impatient to arrive at conclusions and eager to know how the general principles relate to the immediate questions that excite them, may become discouraged because they will not have been able to carry straight on.
That is a disadvantage about which I can do nothing other than constantly caution and forewarn those readers concerned with the truth. There is no royal road to learning and the only people with any chance of scaling its sunlit peaks are those who have no fear of weariness when ascending the precipitous paths that lead up to them.
I remain, dear Citizen,
Yours very sincerely,
Karl Marx
211. Engels to Cesare Bert. 21 March[475]
Citizen Carlo Bert,
I have received your address from Citizen Et. Péchard, who was passing through Turin at the end of February, and also the information that you are now the secretary of our section Emancipation of the Proletarian, instead of C. Terzaghi, who was expelled for embezzlement, etc. It will therefore now be my pleasant duty to correspond with you.
I have just received a long letter from Terzaghi(1) saying that he resigned as secretary and member of the Emancipation of the Proletarian because this society is made up in part of government agents and Mazzinians, and that this society wanted to pass a vote of no confidence in him because he was preaching war on capital
Naturally, we here are much more inclined to believe what you and the other members of your Council told Péchard than what I hear from Terzaghi, who has always played all sorts of tricks on us. But in order to be able to act confidently and decisively and to fulfil our responsibility at the next Congress, we should like you to send us an official letter from your Council, setting out the charges against Terzaghi and letting us know the resolutions passed by your society concerning him. In no way can we have two rival, warring sections in the same town. Fortunately, the Administrative Regulations (Resolutions of the Basle Congress) give the General Council the right to admit or reject any new section.[476] You yourself see how necessary it is for our organisation to possess a right which Terzaghi's Jurassian friends wanted you to believe was authoritarian and unjustifiable.
Please reply as quickly as possible. A fraternal handshake.
Yours
212. Marx to Paul Lafargue. 21 March
212
MARX TO PAUL LAFARGUE[477]
IN MADRID
London, 21 March 1872
My dear Toole,a
Enclosed herewith an extract from our missive against the dissidents'[3] concerning the functions of the General Council.
All the General Council can do when applying the General Rules and the resolutions of Congresses to given cases is to take decisions as a tribunal. But their implementation in each country depends entirely on the International itself. Thus from the moment at which the Council ceases to function as the instrument of the general interests of the International, it becomes wholly invalid and powerless. On the other hand, the General Council itself is one of the Association's vital forces, being essential for the latter's unity and for preventing the Association from being taken over by hostile elements. The moral influence that the present Council (NOTWITHSTANDING ALL ITS SHORTCOMINGS) has been able to acquire vis-à-vis the common enemy, has wounded the vanity of those who saw the International as nothing save an instrument for their personal ambition.
Above all it should not be forgotten that our Association is the militant organisation of the proletariat and in no way a society created to bring amateur doctrinaires to the forefront. To destroy our organisation just now would be to abdicate. Bourgeois and governments combined could ask for nothing more. Read the report of the Rural Sacaseb on the Dufaure plan.c What does he most admire and fear about the Association? 'Its organisation.'
We have made marvellous progress since the London Conference.[254] New federations have been set up in Denmark, New Zealand and Portugal, great expansion in the United States, in France (where, by their own admission, Malon & Co. do not possess one single section), in Germany, in Hungary, in England (since the formation of the British Federal Council). The Irish sections are of very recent formation. In Italy the only serious sections, in Milan and Turin, are ours; the others are led by lawyers, journalists and other bourgeois doctrinaires. (Apropos, one of Bakunin's personal grounds for complaint against me is that he has lost all influence in Russia where the revolutionary youth tread the same path as myself.)
The Resolutions of the London Conferencea have already been recognised by France, America, England, Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland (minus the Jurassians), the genuine working men's sections in Italy and, finally, the Russians and Poles. Those who fail to recognise them will do nothing to alter this fact, but will be forced to part company with the vast majority of the International.
I am overburdened with work, so much so that I haven't even found time to write to my SWEET Kakadouh and DEAR Schnappyc (of whom I should like to have further news). Indeed, the International impinges too greatly on my time and, were it not my conviction that my presence on the Council is still necessary at this period of strife, I should have withdrawn long since.
The English government prevented our celebration of 18 March, the resolutions concerning which, adopted at a meeting of English working men and French refugees, are enclosed herewith.[473]
La Châtre is an abominable charlatan. He wastes my time over the most absurd matters (e.g. his letter replying to my autograph,d
in which regard I was compelled to propose certain alterations to him).
Roy (6, Rue [de] Condillac, Bordeaux) is a marvellous translator.[479] He has already sent me the manuscript of the first chapter (I had sent the manuscript of the second German edition to him in Paris).[396]
Yours ever,
OLD NICK* [Appendix] 48°
Extract
The Council's Right of Co-option
'The body of the General Council is constantly changing, though some of the founding members remain, as in the Belgian, Romance, etc., Federal Councils.
'The General Council must fulfil three essential conditions, if it is to carry out its mandate. In the first place, it must have a numerically adequate membership to carry on its diverse functions; secondly, a membership of working men belonging to the different nationalities represented in the International Association; and, lastly, workers must be the predominant element therein. Since the exigencies of the worker's job incessantly cause changes in the membership of the General Council, how can it fulfil all these indispensable conditions without the right of co-option?' [Note: More than 3/4 of the members of the General Council in London are wage labourers.]
Functions of the General Council
'Contrary to the rules of all bourgeois societies, the International's General Rules touch only lighdy on its administrative organisation. They leave its development to practice, and its régularisation to future Congresses. Nevertheless, inasmuch as only the unity and joint action of the sections of the various countries could give them a genuinely international character, the Rules pay more attention to the General Council than to the other bodies of the organisation.
'Article 5 of the original Rules' (Article 6 of the revised Rulesa) 'states:
' "The General Council shall form an international agency between the different national and local groups" '
(There follow examples of its activities: information, statistics to be compiled, etc., and also this important passage, falsified by the Jurassians:
'when immediate practical steps should be needed, as, for instance, in case of internationalb" quarrels, the action of all the societies be simultaneous and uniform'.)
The same article states : 'Whenever it seems opportune, the General Council shall take the initiative of proposals to be laid before the different national or local societies.'
The General Rules charge the General Council with working out certain matters to be submitted to the Congress, etc. (see articles 4 and 6 of the revised edition). 'In the original Rules so little distinction is made between the spontaneous action of various groups and unity of action of the Association as a whole, that Article 6' (Article 7 of the revised Rules) 'states:' (see this article).
'The first administrative resolution of the Geneva Congress' (1866) '(Article I) says:
' "The General Council is commissioned to carry the resolutions of the Congress into effect"
'This resolution legalised the position that the General Council has held ever since its origin: that of the Association's executive delegation.
'The Geneva Congress at the same time charged the General Council with publishing "the official and obligatory text of the Rules".' (See the revised Rules, Appendix I, pp. 16, 17.)
'The same Congress resolved (Administrative Resolutions of Geneva, Article 14):
' "Every section has the right to draw up its own rules and regulations adapted to local conditions and to the laws of its own country, but they must not contain anything contrary to the General Rules and Regulations."
'Who is to establish whether' the required conformity actually exists? 'Evidently, if there would be no authority charged with this function, the resolution would be null and void. Not only could police or hostile sections be formed, but also the intrusion of declassed sectarians and bourgeois philanthropists into the Association could warp its character and, by force of numbers at Congresses, crush the workers. Since their origin, the national and local federations have exercised in their respective countries the right to admit or reject new sections, according to whether or not their Rules conformed to the General Rules.' As to the General Council, the exercise of this function 'is provided for in Article 6 of the General Rules' (end of Article 7, revised Rules), 'which allows local independent societies (i.e. societies formed outside the federal body) the right to establish direct contacts with the General Council.' Since the foundation of the International such local independent societies have only been recognised after being admitted by the General Council.
The same 'Article 6 of the Rules' (Article 7 of the revised Rules) 'deals with legal obstacles to the formation of national federations in certain countries where', by force of circumstances, 'the General Council is asked to function as a Federal Council (see Le Congrès de
Lausanne, Procès-verbaux, p. 13, 1867).
'Since the fall of the Commune, these legal obstacles have been multiplying in the various countries, making action by the General Council therein, designed to keep doubtful elements out of the Association, more necessary than ever. Thus, for instance, the French committees recently demanded the General Council's intervention to rid themselves of informers, and in another great country' [between you and me: Austria] 'members of the International requested it not to recognise any section which has not been formed by its direct mandatory or by themselves.' They are seeking, in this way, to rid 'themselves of agents-provocateurs, whose burning zeal manifested itself in the rapid formation of sections of unparalleled radicalism.'
[Note: Needless to say, in countries like Poland and Russia members of the International can only maintain links with the General Council, which must act with the utmost discretion there.]
'Like all the International's groups, the General Council is required to carry on propaganda. This it has accomplished through its' publications, through its correspondence with individuals in countries where the Association has not yet been established, and through 'its agents, who laid the basis for the first organisations of the International in North America, in Germany and in many French towns' [ditto in Australia, in New Zealand].
'Another function of the General Council is to aid strikers and organise their support by the entire International. See General Council reports to the various Congresses. The following fact, inter alia, indicates the importance of its intervention in the strike movement. The Resistance Society of the English Foundrymen is in itself an international "Trades Union" with branches in other countries, notably in the United States. Nonetheless, during a strike of American foundrymen, the latter found it necessary to invoke the intercession of the General Council to prevent English foundrymen being brought into America.'
[Note: The only real international Trades Union in Europe is that of the cigar-men (cigar-makers). However, they stay entirely outside the proletarian movement and only have recourse to the General Council to further the interests of their trade.]
'The growth of the International obliged the General Council and all Federal Councils to assume the role of arbiter.' Without the General Council having asked for it, 'the Brussels Congress' (1868) 'resolved that:
' "The Federal Councils shall transmit to the General Council every three months a report on the administration and financial state of their respective branches" ' (see Procès-verbaux du troisième Congrès etc.) '(Administrative Resolution No. 3).
'Lastly, the Basle Congress occupied itself solely with regulating the administrative relations engendered by the Association's continuing development' itself. 'If it extended unduly the limits of the General Council's powers, whose fault was it if not that of Bakunin, Schwitzguébel, Fritz Robert, Guillaume and other delegates of the Alliance' of Socialist Democracy, 'who were so anxious to achieve just that?' [Note: At the Basle Congress these gentlemen imagined that the Council would be transferred to Geneva.]
'Here are two resolutions of the Basle Congress:
' "No. IV. Each new section or society which is formed and wishes to be part of the International, must immediately announce its adhesion to the General Council",
'and "No. V. The General Council has the right to admit or reject the affiliation of any new society or group, subject to appeal at the next Congress."'
It is these resolutions that 'authorise the General Council to intervene in the internal affairs of the federations.' However, these articles have never been applied except in the case of sections placed outside federal associations or sections formed in countries where the International does not yet exist In these cases intervention by the Council is absolutely essential. On the other hand, the General Council has never 'intervened in the' internal 'affairs of new sections desirous of affiliating themselves with' already 'existing groups or federations.'
'The resolutions cited above' only 'refer to sections in the process of formation. The resolutions given below refer to sections already recognised :
' "VI. The General Council has equally the right to suspend' (see the following Note) 'until the next Congress any section of the International."
' "VII. When conflicts arise between the societies or branches of a national group, or between groups of different nationalities, the General Council shall have the right to decide the conflict, subject to appeal at the next Congress which will decide definitely."
'These two articles are necessary for extreme cases, although up to the present the General Council has never had recourse to them. It has never suspended any section and, in cases of conflict, has only acted as arbiter at the request of the two' sections.
13* [Note: From the enclosed resolutions on the split in America[3]
you will see that the Council has suspended one section composed almost exclusively of bourgeois. In the United States the intrusion of bourgeois seeking to turn the International into their instrument is very dangerous. This proves the necessity of Resolution VI of the Basle Congress.]
Apart from the various functions devolving upon the General Council as a result of the historical development of the International, there is yet another one, imposed on it by the enemies of our Association. By making the Council the object of their attacks, all the parties and sects hostile to the proletarian movement have 'placed it in the vanguard of the International Working Men's Association'.
213. Engels to Carlo Terzaghi. 21 March
Dear Citizen,
I wrote to you on the 13th of this month[45] and later received your letter of the 10th. Péchard was told in Turin[481] that you had been expelled from the Emancipation of the Proletarian society for various reasons: that you refused to hand over a certain sum belonging to the Society as well as the 200 stamps which I sent you, etc., etc.
When such accusations are made, it is absolutely essential that the General Council should know whether or not they are true, before it can declare itself for one side or the other. I should be grateful, therefore, if you would tell me what is going on, because it is certain that such matters cannot be passed over in silence.
As for the contribution of 150 frs,(1) this money did not belong to the General Council but to a private Committee formed to collect funds with which to support the friendly press and other international causes, and since your sudden and enthusiastic declaration in favour of the Jura was such as to lead the Committee to believe that you had taken sides in a cause whose very foundations were necessarily unknown to you, the money was immediately spent on another purpose, and there are no more funds available at present.
I have not received II Proletario, which you promised to send me regularly, for the last 6 weeks.
We have changed the address of the Council meetings. I cannot at present give you another personal address, but I believe the one you have, C. R.,(2) 122 Regent's Park Road, is still better than that of the General Council.
I think Savio is no longer in London but has gone to work in the provinces.[482]
Greetings and emancipation.
214. Marx to Edouard Vaillant. 4 April
My dear Vaillant,
I shall expect you tomorrow evening at 7 o'clock for dinner at my house with...(1) and some other friends.
Yours ever, Karl Marx You would oblige me by lending me Villetard's book (I don't know the title)" in which there is a French translation of our manifesto on the civil war in France.b
215. Engels to Gennaro Bovio. 16 April[118]
To Citizen Gennaro Bovio, Trani4SS
Esteemed Citizen,
I have received, and am returning with thanks, the various documents which you were so kind as to send me through esteemed Citizen Enrico Bignami.
The General Council of the International, as an administrative committee with clearly defined functions, has not been able to become acquainted with these documents and discuss them officially. I did, however, consider it my duty to submit them to those of its members who understand Italian, and they have all read them with great pleasure.
We are happy to acknowledge that, at the same time as an international league of workers was being formed here in London, you, in far-off Apulia, had the same idea and bravely promoted it at the Naples Congress.[484] We are grateful to you for informing us of this: it is fresh proof that the alliance of workers of the civilised world was already recognised in 1864 as a historical necessity, even in countries with which we were unable to establish contacts at that time, not knowing whom to address.' And we sincerely regret that the Italian workers' societies, not having taken up your idea in 1864, have greatly delayed the development of the proletarian movement in Italy.
It gave us great pleasure to read your articles in the Liberia defending the Paris Commune against V. Hugo and others[3]; we willingly believe that they were the first articles to be written with this purpose in Italian. We published here at the same time the manifesto of the General Council on The Civil War in France, of which I have taken the liberty of sending you, on 23 March, a copy in English and one in German, since I do not have the French translation and the Italian one (in the Eguaglianza of Girgentib) has not yet been completed. You will see from this pamphlet that our ideas coincide on this matter too, and that we have not failed in our duty either.
Greetings and brotherhood
Frederick Engels Secretary for Italy to the General Council of the International Working Men's Association
that time, an Italian working-class movement based on the social conditions of their country, fewer workers' societies in Italy today would be advocating sectarian doctrines which, moreover, are not Italian but French or Russian. I further believe that in the working-class movement true national ideas, i.e. ideas corresponding to the economic realities, both in industry and in agriculture, to the realities that are dominant in the country in question, are, at the same time, true international ideas. The emancipation of the Italian peasant will not occur in the same form as the emancipation of the English factory worker, but the better the one and the other realise what form corresponds to his conditions, the less will they disagree on matters of substance'. - a G. Bovio, 'Via smarrita!', La Liberia, No. 90, 10 June 1871, and 'Una difesa dopo la morte', La Liberia, Nos. 97-100; 5, 8, 12 and 15 July 1871. - b Modern name: Agrigento.
216. Engels to Theodor Cuno. 22- 23 April[150]
Dear Cuno,
This morning I received your letter,a which I had awaited with anxiety. Gandolfi wrote me some time agob saying it was believed that the Italian government had handed you over to the Prussians.—I found out about your arrest, etc., from the papers, which indicated that you were being deported for 'lack of visible means of support'. A police statement to that effect appeared in a Milan newspaper. This affair is not without significance. It is the first exploit of the international police conspiracy organised by Prussia, Austria, and Italy, and if you haven't been transported by the police from the Bavarian frontier to Düsseldorf, you owe this solely to the stupidity of the Bavarians. Tomorrow evening I shall report the matter to the General Council, after which the whole story will be included in the official report, which will be printed in The Eastern Post and sent out to every part in the world.c In the meantime, write an article about this in your own name and send it to the Volksstaat, the Geneva Égalité, and the Gazzettino Rosa. We shall take care of here, America, and Spain, as well as of France, over here.[485] The rascals will finally have to realise that they cannot keep on doing this with impunity and that the International's arms are longer than those of the King of Italy.d As soon as the story is printed I shall send you a copy, together with all the newspapers I can collect for you — they won't be too numerous.
The advice Liebknecht gave you — to write to Bismarck — is very good, but for altogether different reasons. First, instead of assisting you to obtain redress, Bismarck will be very glad it happened and will merely be irritated that the Bavarians released you, instead of realising that this gave them a splendid opportunity for having a member of the International transported all over Germany by the police. But you should write to Bismarck simply in order to be able to send his reply — which will be nothing but a lame excuse, of course — at a later date to Bebel, who will use it to raise a row in the Reichstag. But it is out of the question, of course, that Bismarck will do as much as lift a finger to punish Italy for having fulfilled his orders so well.
You must not be surprised that you have received so little support from the party comrades. From one of your previous letters I had already realised that you laboured under youthful illusions concerning the aid people receive when in need. Unfortunately, my answer to this letter was confiscated by the Mordecaians [09] and never reached you. I should add that, although our German workers have far outstripped all the others as concerns theory, in practice they have by no means shaken off their artisan-type mentality, and owing to the dreadfully petty-bourgeois character of life in Germany, they are tremendously narrow-minded, especially in money matters. That is why I wasn't at all surprised at what you experienced in this respect. If I had money, I should send you some, but we here are really on the rocks just now. We have more than a hundred helpless refugees of the Paris Commune, literally helpless, for no people ever feel as helpless abroad as do the French; and what they didn't eat up, we sent to a fine chapa in Cork, Ireland, who founded the International there and was rewarded by being excommunicated by the priests and the bourgeoisie and completely ruined. We are in a tight spot at the moment. If we get some money from somewhere or other, I shall see to it that you are not forgotten.
Let me know in what branches of your profession you have had practical experience and in general what you can do. I shall look around immediately to see if anything can be found for you here. England is overrun by foreign engineers, it is true, but perhaps something can still be done. I have some very good contacts.
During your imprisonment all sorts of things have happened. In Turin Terzaghi was sacked from the Emancipazione del Proletario for embezzlement and suspicious dealings with the Questore.b He still managed to publish 2-3 issues of the Proletario in which he attacks them as canaglia, borghesi, vigliacchi,c etc.—just as he earlier attacked the Federazione Operaia—but the paper now appears to be dead, just like almost all the little new papers in Italy—Martello, Campana, etc. I wrote to Terzaghi,d asking him about these accusations, and he sent me a copy of the Proletario full of abuse, saying that I could see from that what a lot of scoundrels they were! I had had my suspicions about the man for months. Regis (who visited you under the name of Péchard, and who is in Geneva at present) found out that he was constandy going to Locarno to see Bakunin, and it is a good thing that he now stands exposed as a plain rascal.
In Bologna the Fascio Operaio[486] of the Romagna has held a congress in the course of which they threw off their masks and emerged as outright Bakuninists.[487] The Romagnese are joining the International, but won't hear a word about the need to recognise the Rules, etc. They have not yet written to us, although the congress took place on 18 March; we shall give them a jolly reception!—The Ravenna section has written to us announcing that they intend to join but salva la propria autonomic.a I have simply asked them whether they accept our Rules or not.[488]
I have just been looking at a heap of papers that has been sent to me and see that Pezza and Testini have also been arrested in Milan (around 30 March).
The circular of the General Council on Bakunin and Co.b is in the press and will probably be ready by the end of next week. I shall send you a copy without delay. It sets forth everything quite blundy, and it will produce a terrific row.
I believe I'll be able to send you newspapers tomorrow— Gazzettino Rosa and some other Italian items, in general, anything I can lay my hands upon.
A congress of the Spanish members of the International was held in Saragossa on 8-11 April, at which our people won a victory over the Bakuninists.[489] It now turns out that the Alliance de la démocratie socialiste[10] continued to exist in Spain within the International as a secret society under the leadership of Bakunin — a secret society aimed, not against the government, but against the mass of the workers! I have every reason to suspect that the same thing is going on in Italy. What information do you have on this subject?
If anything comes of the job in Spain that Beckerc had in mind for you, let me know at once so that I can give you letters of introduction to our people there. That job will probably be in Catalonia, the only industrial province of Spain, and you will be able to do very useful work, since the mass of workers there are admittedly good but leave their newspaper (La Federation in Barcelona) and the key positions in the hands of the Bakuninists.
There is only one newspaper appearing in Turin now— L'Anticristo, something of the order of a weekly Gazzettino Rosa. Then there are La Plebe in Lodi, II Fascio Operaio in Bologna, and L'Eguaglianza in Girgentia—all the other Italian newspapers are dead. Experience in other countries made it obvious to me long ago that this was bound to happen. It is not enough to have a few people at the top; the masses in Italy are still too backward to be able to support so many newspapers. Prolonged and dogged work, with more theoretical content than the Bakuninists possess, is required to free the masses from the influence of the Mazzinist nonsense.
Many thanks for the Milan address. Would it not be a good idea for you to write first and ask the man b to send you a report on the present position of the International in Milan? You could then send it to me and I would reply to him. The present corresponding secretary is Mauro Gandolfi, i.e. one of Bakunin's supporters.
Write to me very soon — especially on what you are able to do in your profession, so that I can take the necessary steps.
Cordially yours,
F. E.
The address you have been using to write to me (that of your Düsseldorf letter) is by far the best.
23 April 1872
217. Engels to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 23 April
Dear Liebknecht,
We all send you our congratulations on your performance in court.[274] After the trial of the Brunswickers[335] it was essential for someone to stand up to that gang and you have fairly done so. The only thing you might have left unsaid was the statement about the 1,000 members of the International.[490]
Here in England jurymen are locked up overnight or kept prisoner under guard in an hotel, to make sure that they do not come into contact with anyone. They are taken for walks under escort and are also escorted to church on Sundays, if they wish to go. An exception is only made in cases like the Tichborne trial,[491]
where this was not possible because of the inordinate duration of the proceedings (105 days), but even then the jurymen are harassed in all sorts of ways.
Marx will reply to the Concordia[492] as soon as he has compared The Times of 1864.a
Your letter appeared in The Eastern Posth; whether it also appeared in The Morning Post is not to be discovered, since the paper is unobtainable here. The fact is that reading rooms where such things would be preserved, have simply ceased to exist. We send The Eastern Post regularly to the ends of the earth so that the letter will be publicised far more widely — and among the right people—than through other papers.
We can scarcely doubt that the sentence must be quashed. Such breaches of the law have been unheard of since the Demagogue trials.[116] Nor can it be to the advantage of the national-liberal bourgeoisie to establish such precedents, and I doubt very much whether Bismarck, who is hiding behind the small states with the intention of discrediting them, would be willing to risk that sort of thing in Prussia.
I have seen very little about the trial in the English press — I have so many foreign papers to read that I can only read The Daily News and you must realise that since the introduction of the PENNY PRESS[493] it is not possible to find papers anywhere to read without buying them. The article from The Daily News* is enclosed; you can make good use of it.
I have.passed the bill for the Rules'5 on to Marx; we shall send the money at the first opportunity.
I have not been able to get hold of a photograph of Blanqui up to now. The French have one but will not part with it, and there is none to be found here.
Enclosed the receipt for the 6 reichsthalers for the refugees. It is just not possible for us to conjure up an introduction to the Manifesto out of a hat for you.[494] We shall have to study the socialist literature of the last 24 years, if we are to bring Section III up to date. This must be postponed for a subsequent edition, but we intend to send you a small 'Preface"" for the separate edition, and that will suffice for the moment.
What Scheud has to say about the Belgians is partly correct; the fellows have never been worth much and are now worth less than ever. We have sent someone over there who will let us have a detailed report shortly. At all events Scheu's deductions are wide of the mark — the mass of the people will never go so far with Messrs Hins (who through his Russian wife has a certain connection with Bakunin) and Steens (whose vanity is great enough to seduce him into foolish adventures). Particularly since we are making very good progress elsewhere in the world. Our people have defeated the Bakuninists at the Spanish Congress in Saragossa.[489]
As for Cuno, he has behaved extremely well in Milan and what he tells me in his letters about his fate is completely true and has been confirmed by the Italian press.e But it seems quite undeniable to me that, on his journeyings, having been shown the door for the sake of the International through no fault of his own and having landed in Bavaria, helpless and penniless, he has since been treated very uncouthly indeed by the people he has encountered in various places. He may have had rather dewy-eyed ideas about the help he might look forward to, but your money would be better spent if it were reserved for people such as him, instead of its being squandered on tramps and rogues like Rüdt, etc., about whom you yourselves write letters like those read out at the trial (and which have unfortunately not appeared in the Volksstaat—as though that might help!). But, of course, Cuno was not one of the full-fledged men of the 'Party' and so had no business getting into trouble! If I had money I would really sooner send it to him than to anyone else.
The General Council's circular against the Bakuninistsa is now likely to appear next week; it is a French edition. The first instalment of Marx's second editionb will also come out soon, but do not mention it until Marx writes to you about it or until it is out.[145] The Russian translation[360]—a very good one — is out, the French version[436] is in the press.
Enclosed are:
1. Receipt for the 6 thalers. 2. 3 cuttings from The Eastern Post—meetings of the General Council,c etc.
3. 1 ditto on the celebrations of 18 March.[473]
4. 2 Irish documents.[495]
5. Our reply to the debate in Parliament.*d
6. Article from The Daily News on your trial.e So nine items in all.
Must catch the post. Best regards to Bebel and keep your chin up; they haven't got you in jug yet. But make sure that the sale of the stamps goes through properly and not just in Leipzig; we shall be very strict at the next Congress.
Best wishes to your family.
Your
F. E.
218. Marx to Johann Georg Eccarius. 3 May[496]
Dear Eccarius,
You seem to have lost your wits and as I regard this as a passing phase, at least for the present, perhaps you will allow me to address you for the time being as neither SIR, nor Herr nor Domine, and also to write to you in German instead of English.
If you haven't lost your memory along with your command of the German language — and if you have, the MINUTES of the General Council can jog it — you will recollect that all the quarrels I have had with the English since the founding of the International up to the last conferencea have been due simply and solely to the fact that I always took your side. Firstly, on the subject of The Commonwealth, against Odger, Cremer, Howell, etc.; secondly, against Fox, with whom I had been on very friendly terms[497]; and lastly, against Hales during the period when you were General Secretary.
If conflicts occurred later on, it would be important to establish who was responsible for them. I have only attacked you twice.
Firstly, on account of the premature publication of the Conference resolutions, in which, as you are well aware, you exceeded your brief.[498]
Secondly, because of the last skirmish with America where you caused great MISCHIEF. (I am leaving out of account here the fact that your actions brought such abuse from the AMERICAN PAPERS, aided and abetted by Karl Heinzen et Co., down on my head; I am just as impervious to this abuse as I had previously been to praise, both public and private, from the same source.)
You appear to imagine, however, that when you make BLUNDERS others must pay you compliments in return, instead of telling you the truth as one would to anyone else. I shall give you back Gregory's stuff tomorrow evening.[499] Today I have to go through the French and German proofsb simultaneously, so have no time to look through the American papers.
As for my 'INDICTMENT', I shall simply confine myself to proving that 1. you were absolutely in the wrong to write to New York in the way that you wrote, at such a decisive moment, even supposing that your GRIEVANCES were justified, and 2. that your complaint about the suppression of papers vis-à-vis the General Council is absolutely without foundation. Voilà tout*
Finally, let me give you some good advice. You must not think that old personal and party friends are or will be less well disposed towards you just because they see it as their duty to oppose your FREAKS. On the other hand, you should not imagine that the small clique of Englishmen who make use of you for certain purposes are your friends. I could prove the contrary if I wished.
And so salut Since it is my birthday the day after tomorrow I have absolutely no desire to celebrate it in the unpleasant conviction that I have lost one of my oldest friends and like-minded comrades.
Salut fraternel,
Karl Marx
219. Engels to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 7 May
Dear Liebknecht,
I see now where your mistrust of Cuno stems from: you thought he was an agent of Becker'sb who had come on a mission to lead the German International back into the arms of its mother-section in Geneva.c This was quite unnecessary. When Cuno was in Chemnitz,d he could have been enrolled as a member there and then, if you had not treated the International so platonically. In Milan, since he did not have our address, he turned to the only one known to him, that of Becker, and Becker, having admitted him, directed him to us. So just because Becker had once experienced the desire to annex Germany for himself, and because he may still intrigue a little here and there, you have to suspect every honest fellow who has had to turn to Becker because you were unwilling to act! I shall not believe your allegations about his boastfulness until I see proof; I have far less confidence in your correspondents in Nuremberg and elsewhere than I have in Cuno, who has never tried to pull the wool over our eyes, but has always reported more truthfully than most other people. Cuno's father is a Prussian official in Düsseldorf who simply threw him out; now he is stuck without a penny to his name. His possessions and those of his father are two different things altogether.
Enclosed an article by Lafargue from the Emancipation; you will have someone or other who knows enough Spanish to translate it.(1) Lafargue is doing a terrific amount of work in Spain and very skilfully too. The report from the Liberie on the congress in Saragossa was also by him. Incidentally, do not forget to publish the second report, the one in the previous issue of the 'Liberté', in which he unmasks the secret intrigues of the Bakuninists and describes the spectacular victory gained over them by our supporters there.[501]
This was the decisive defeat for that pig-headed Bakunin. The Emancipation is now the best paper we have. These Bakuninists are jackasses. The Spaniards have a very good organisation, one which has stood the test with flying colours precisely in the last 6 months, and now these fools come along and imagine that they can seduce people with their phrases about autonomy and get them to dissolve their organisation to all intents and purposes.
You ought to make more use of The Eastern Post; the information we make available there is truly of greater interest than the dogmatic legalistic waffle of Mr Acollas about the best of all possible constitutions.[502]
I still believe that the conviction will be quashed. In the first place, too many formal errors have been made, and secondly, the trial has already caused far too much of a rumpus.[274] Bismarck must surely perceive that he has gone too far and that quashing the sentence will be more advantageous for him than confirming it.
To the best of my knowledge, Stefanoni has not published your letter/ I have not received all the issues of the Libero Pensiero and unfortunately your letter arrived in Italy at the very moment when all our papers I had sent it to folded up simultaneously. As for Büchner, you only need glance at his last would-be socialist production to see the envy and hatred the little cripple feels for Marx, whom he plunders and distorts without ever mentioning him by name.a And I stick to my belief that it is he who has filled Stefanoni's head with all that junk. That he is on good terms with you is something he shares with Malon and many others who cherish a mortal hatred for us.
I am sending you today's Daily News with a delightful account of the behaviour of the German professors and students in Alsace and the reception given them by the Alsatians. A description of the German student is enclosed.b Both reports are by Major Forbes, the same man who was with the Saxons before Paris and was, at the time, beside himself with admiration for the German officers and soldiers, i.e. if anything he is prejudiced in favour of the Germans. You should make use of these descriptions of the representatives of 'German culture'; they are striking proof as to how threadbare that 'culture' of the bourgeoisie has become, and how ludicrous its official spokesmen.[503]
As soon as I have time I shall write you an article on the housing shortage and against the absurd Proudhonist stories that have appeared in a series of articles on the subject in the
Volksstaat[504]
Our reply to the Jurassiansc is still in the press. The devil take all these co-operative printers.
There is nothing to tell you about the Congress. Where it will take place can only be decided at the last moment.[450] That it will take place, you know already.
The arrest of our people in Denmark will be of enormous advantage to us and will not do much harm to the victims.[505]
Denmark is not Saxony. Unfortunately, I do not know who has been arrested and so am forced to interrupt the correspondence.
The Emancipation now regularly publishes extracts from the Volksstaat. Laura is looking after it, so make sure that the paper is sent there regularly.
In Belgium the Brussels Federal Council has let everything go to rack and ruin; the two decent people we have there do not have sufficient energy to intervene. The workers in the provinces are much superior, but Brussels is the rottenest soil of all and as long as the centre is there it is unlikely that anything decent can develop. Hins has gone off to Verviers and since then the Liberté is much more accessible, so that is a positive gain.
Give our best wishes to your wifea and Bebel. You will have heard that Jenny Marx is engaged to Longuet. The first instalments of the 2nd edition of Capital[145] are due in the next few days and so is the French edition.[436] We have already seen the proofs.
Your
F. E.
What Lafargue says about Büchner is rubbish, of course. He is not sufficiently well informed about such details.
220. Engels to Theodor Cuno. 7-8 May[150]
Dear Cuno,
It is very good that you are writing to Bismarck about your case — this should be done, if only to induce him to compromise himself and thus afford Bebel an occasion to address the Reichstag.b—By now you will have received The Eastern Post with the report on the General Council meeting at which I talked about your casec; I sent that issue off on the 2nd inst. You have probably also received the newspapers sent you on 24 and 27 April. I also reported on the arson plot, but this is very badly stated in the report, which I am sending you tomorrow, as is usually the case when I don't write these things myself.[506]
I have written off to a friend in Manchester[4] on your behalf, a cotton-spinner who will certainly do his best for you. Unfortunately, he only spends 2 days a week in Manchester now as, for the next 4 weeks or so, he has to spend the rest of his time in his father's factory in the country. He will therefore not be able to do very much for you until he has returned for good. And as misfortune would have it, another friend, a CONSULTING ENGINEER who has a lot of connections, happens to have just left for a two-month trip to Germany. So if I have nothing positive to tell you at the moment, you must put it down to these circumstances.
The secret society of the Bakuninists in Spain is a fully established fact; you will be able to read the details in the report (the second one) on the Saragossa Congress in the Brussels Liberté, which you will probably find in the Volksstaat in the next few days.[501] Luckily enough, the best of the people in it soon realised that the interests of this secret enterprise and the interests of the International were not at all identical, and as the International was dearer to them than everything else, they immediately shifted their stand and remained in the secret society solely in order to check on it and to paralyse its activity. One of thema was here as a delegate to the Conferenceb and saw for himself that everything they had told him down there about the intrigues, dictatorship, etc., of the General Council was empty twaddle. A short time later one of our best men — half Frenchman, half Spaniardc—came to Madrid, and this settled the matter. The Spaniards have an excellent organisation, of which they are rightly proud, and, as it happens, it has shown itself in the best light during the past 6 months. And now along come these jackasses from Bakunin's Alliance to the Saragossa Congress[423] and demand that they should kill off the entire organisation and render it impotent simply for the sake of the 'autonomy of the sections'! All the criticism the Jura camels made of the General Council, all the demands which they put to the General Council — the cancellation of all the powers transferred to it, the demotion of the General Council to the level of a mere correspondence bureau — all this was applied in Spain to the Spanish Federal Council. Of course, the Spanish workers simply laughed these doctrinaires out of court and in one voice bid them to be silent. This is the severest blow Bakunin has received up to now — he was undoubtedly counting on Spain — and there cannot fail to be repercussions in Italy.
I do not doubt for an instant that the same secret society exists in Italy, though, perhaps, not in as rigid a form as in formalistic Spain. The best proof of this for me is the almost military precision with which the very same slogan, issued from above, was simultaneously proclaimed in every corner of the country. (Note that these are the very same persons who always preach the principle dal basso all' alto" to the people, and to the International!) It is only too easy to understand that you were not initiated, for even among the Bakuninists only the leaders are admitted to this esoteric society. Meanwhile, some individual symptoms of improve-ment can be observed in Italy. The Ferrarese have acquiesced; they have recognised the Rules and Administrative Regulations and have sent their own Rules here for our approval,b something which explicitly goes against the Bakuninist slogan.[507] The damned difficulty in Italy is simply getting into direct contact with the workers. These damned Bakuninist doctrinaire lawyers, doctors, etc., have penetrated everywhere and behave as if they were the hereditary representatives of the workers. Wherever we have been able to break through this line of skirmishers and get in touch with the masses themselves, everything is all right and soon mended, but it is almost impossible to do this anywhere due to a lack of addresses. That is why it would have been of great value for you to have remained in Milan and to have been able to visit various cities from time to time — if not now, then at any rate later on. With one or two able comrades at the key points we should have managed to deal with all this rabble in 6 months or so.
As for the Spanish police, all I can tell you is that apparently they are frightfully stupid and that there is no unity at all among them. For instance, one of our best men in Madrid0 was ordered to be deported by the Minister of the Interior,d but the Governor of Madrid said quod non,e and he remained there undisturbed.
8 May. After writing this much I have now received your letter from Seraing. I cannot understand the business with the Prussian police.[508] The police could not do anything at all to you unless you had given them an excuse for legal proceedings, something you will doubtless have taken good care not to do. Could your Papa have staged such a comedy in order to rid himself of an inconvenient son?
At all events, I enclose 50 francs in banknotes, serial numbers below. I have no addresses in Seraing, but shall write at once to César De Paepe, Hôpital St Jean, Brussels (he is a member of the Belgian Federal Council) and ask him to send you some. I shall also write to Alfred Herman, 57 Mont St Martin, Liège (though whether he is still in Liège I do not know). If you do not hear soon from De Paepe, write to him, mentioning my name. If you go to Liège, look Herman up. I enclose a few lines to him,[45] he will be able to give you everything — it is better than my writing to him through the post, he may no longer be there — you are quite close to Liège after all. An unrequested letter opened by the post might betray you.
As for Becker,(1) I shall clear up the somewhat comic mystery in my next letter. Until then,
Sincerely yours,
F. E.
The letter to Herman should only be given to him personally. He also lives with reactionary parents and brothers and sisters.
8 May, evening. As I had to go into town to get the enclosed Banque de France fifty-franc note (dated 11 October 1871, No. 2 648 626, in the upper left corner — 626, in the upper right corner — Z 106), and it was too late to send this letter off by registered mail, which had to be done because of the money, I still have time to tell you the story about Becker, which is another instance of what petty intrigues go to make up world history. For a long time old man Becker has retained his own ideas of organisation, dating from the epoch before 1848: little groups, whose leaders keep in touch in a more or less organised way to give the whole movement a common thrust, a little conspiratorial activity on occasion, and the like; and then another idea, likewise dating from that period, is that the central executive organ of the German organisation must be located outside Germany. When the International was founded, and Becker took over the organisation of the Germans in Switzerland and other countries, he established a section in Geneva, which was gradually converted into the 'Mother Section of the Group of German-Language Sections' by organising new sections in Switzerland, Germany, etc. It then began to claim the top leadership, not only of the Germans living in Switzerland, America, France, etc., but also of the Germans in Germany and Austria. This was all the old method of revolutionary agitation employed up to '48, and as long as it was based upon the voluntary subordination of the sections, there could be no objection to it. But there was one thing the good soul Becker* forgot: that the entire organisation of the International was too big for such methods and purposes. Becker and his friends, however, accomplished something and always remained direct and avowed sections of the International.
In the meantime the labour movement in Germany was growing, freeing itself from the fetters of Lassalleanism, and, under the leadership of Bebel and Liebknecht, it came out for the International in principle. The movement became too powerful and acquired too much independent significance for it to be able to acknowledge the leadership of the Geneva Mother Section; the German workers held their own congresses and elected their own executive organs. The relationship of the German workers' party to the International never was made clear, however. This relationship remained a purely platonic one; there was no actual membership for individuals (with some exceptions), while the formation of sections was forbidden by law. As a result, the following situation developed in Germany: They claimed the rights of membership, while they brushed aside its obligations, and only after the London Conference did we insist that henceforth they would have to comply with their obligations as well.
Now you will understand that there not only had to arise a certain rivalry between the leaders in Germany, on the one hand, and the Geneva Mother Section, on the other, but that individual conflicts also became unavoidable, especially over the payment of dues. The extent to which the General Council has been authoritarian in this affair, as in every other, you can see from the fact that it has been completely uninterested in the matter and has left both sides entirely to themselves. Each is right in some respects and wrong in others. From the very start Becker has attached great importance to the International, but has wanted to cast it in the long-obsolete mould. Liebknecht,etc., are in the right insofar as the German workers want to rule themselves, and not be controlled by an obscure council in Geneva; but in the last analysis they have sought to subordinate the International to their own, specifically German, aims and to make it serve them. The General Council would intervene solely at the request of both sides or in the event of a serious conflict.
Liebknecht evidently took you to be an agent of Becker's, travelling on behalf of the Geneva Mother Section, and this explains all the mistrust with which it seems he received you. He is also a man of '48 and attaches more importance to such trifles than they deserve. You may be glad that you did not live through this period — I have in mind not the first revolutionary wave from February to the June battle[509] (that was splendid), but the democratic bourgeois intrigues, beginning with June 1848, and the ensuing emigration of 1849-51. At the present time the movement is infinitely greater.
This, I trust, will explain the reception you got in Leipzig. No special importance should be attached to such trifles — they are all things that are overcome by themselves in time. When you meet the Belgian members of the International, you will, perhaps, again be disappointed. Above all, don't entertain too great illusions about these people. They are very good elements, but the cause has, by and large, run along in a worn-out rut, and phrases are more important to them than the cause itself. The big words
autonomie and autoritarisme can attract a large audience in Belgium as well. Eh bien, vous verrez pour vous-même*
Yours very truly,
F. E.
221. Engels to Johann Philipp Becker. 9 May
Your suggestion of Geneva as a location for the Congress has much in its favour and has much support here, but naturally nothing can be decided at the moment since the position can alter from day to day.[480] In the meantime, we must know, if we are to be able to make a final decision, what the situation is like there and whether it will be possible for you to be assured of a compact and reliable majority of the Swiss delegates. The Alliance people (1) will use all the old tricks at their disposal to gain the majority for themselves, just as in Basle; the Jurassians will make sure that imaginary sections secure representation. Apart from Turin, the Italians will send nothing but friends of Bakunin — even Milan where, since Cuno's expulsion,(2) they once again have the upper hand. The Spaniards will be divided, though it is not yet possible to say in what proportions. Germany will be weakly represented as usual, the same applies to England; for France there will only be a few refugees from there and perhaps some from here; the Belgians are highly unreliable so that very great efforts will have to be made to secure a respectable majority. For a slight majority is as bad as none at all, and the squabbling would just start up all over again. So let us know what the situation is with you and in German Switzerland, and speak quite frankly so that we do not miscalculate.
Cuno has also had to flee from Düsseldorf with the police after him and he is now in Seraing near Liège.
Wegmann is in Manchester, but since he delayed so long the situation has changed, business is worse and work is hard to come by. However, I shall see to it that he gets something soon. Best wishes from Marx.
Yours very truly,
F. Engels
222. Engels to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 15-22 May
Dear Liebknecht,
Thanks for the letter from Verviers.[510] It confirms our information from other sources and. as far as Hins is concerned, it is agreeable to learn that his preference for the Neuer" not only makes itself felt in the Liberie but is also expressed directly. In this Hins, as a Bakuninist thanks to his wife, is quite consistent. It is good that all the scoundrels should meet up with each other.
I passed on the relevant information to Eccarius, who replied: Tell Liebknecht that I shall discuss corresponding with him again once he has answered my letter of last July.—What Sorge writes to you[511] is at present the subject of charges levelled at Eccarius, who has lost much ground here thanks to his repeated indiscretions.
It goes without saying that nothing can be decided at present about the location of the Congress.[45]
I am delighted to hear that the Volksstaat is selling so well.[512] As soon as time permits I shall contribute articles more frequently, but you can have no idea how hard-pressed we are, because Marx, myself and 1 or 2 others have to do absolutely everything.
We shall attend to the Preface for the Manifestoh at the first possible opportunity.[494] Marx has a terrific amount of work to do on the French translation0; much has to be altered in the opening part.[436] And then he has also to read the proofs of the 2nd German edition.[396]
The article on the housing shortage0 will be done today or tomorrow.
The Fédération Jurassienne publishes a swinish little paper: Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, subscription obtainable from Adhémar Schwitzguébel, Sonvillier, Jura Bernois, 4 frs per annum, 2 frs a half-year. You should take it and hit them hard from time to time, it is Bakunin's Moniteur. In the last issue Lafargue, who is in Madrid under an assumed name, was directly denounced to the Spanish police.[513]
Enclosed is a cutting from The Eastern Postil4—you will probably be sent the first edition, in which, thanks to Hales' indolence, the most important things are missing, as usual. If that is the case, drop me a couple of lines for the PUBLISHER SO that he can send you the second edition. Otherwise you will still be in the dark. What I said about the Saragossa Congress is accurate enough, but Lafargue forgot to tell us that at the same time a resolution had been passed recognising and adopting the resolutions of the Belgian Congress (of 25 December 1871).[404] So that the victory was by no means as complete as he described it to us.[489] I am awaiting further details about this last resolution.
That the Alliance[10] has survived as a secret society, in Spain at least, is proved and recognised. Our own people were in it, because they knew no better and thought they had to be. This is a very serious matter for Mr Bakunin.
Don't forget to publish Lafargue's 2nd report on the Saragossa Congress from the Liberté.[501] It has put the Jurassians into a fury and their last issue contains a public attack on Lafargue, myself, Marx and Serraillier. But they are as quiet as mice on the subject of the revelations about their secret society. This is the tell-tale point and so we must noise it abroad as much as possible. I am convinced that this secret organisation of the Alliance has branches in Switzerland and in Italy too. It will not be easy to obtain proof, however.—The next issue.of Egalité will include a statement by Lafargue against the Jurassians.a
22 May. In the interim I have been writing the enclosed article on housing. Your Proudhonistb will be satisfied with it.
I shall write to Wigand about my Condition of the Working-Class.[515] But there can be no question at all of my attending to it before the Congress is over; my hands are full until then.
The Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher are unobtainable, except, perhaps, second-hand; that should be perfectly clear to you. The same goes for the Misere de la philosophie (although Vieweg in Paris, Frank's successor, may still have a few). A collection of essays is an old plan of ours but it also needs time. Mr Knapp will find sufficient instruction in Capital; once he has digested that he will doubtless know whether he is on our side or not, and if he still does not know, not even Moses and all the Prophets will be able to do anything for him. The crux of the matter is to be found in Chapters II and III of Capital and he should know where he stands on that before calling for further nourishment.
Your request for clarification about Proudhon should be satisfied for the moment by the enclosed article.
Enclosed the report on Spain in The Eastern Post,c which you are unlikely to have received. Please do not publish it. It was based on Lafargue's letters, but since the Jurassians are interpreting another resolution of the Congress in their own favour,[516] and since Lafargue's initial reports of victory were somewhat exaggerated in any event, it would be desirable for them not to circulate with a seal of approval from the General Council. I am not sending it to Italy or Spain either.
I shall now see what can be done about the Preface to the Manifesto. Marx is in the CITY checking on the quotation from the Concordia; those gentlemen have got a big surprise coming to them.[492]
Best wishes and hopes for a speedy quashing.
Your
F. E.
What view does the 'Committee' in Hamburg[452] take of the International? We must now try and clear up the situation there as quickly as possible so that Germany can be properly represented at the Congress.[450] I must ask you straight out to tell us frankly how the International stands with you.
1. Roughly how many stamps have been distributed to how many places, and which places are involved? The 208 counted by Fink[51] are surely not all there are?
2. Does the Social-Democratic Workers' Party intend to be represented at the Congress and IF SO how does it propose to place itself en règle' with the General Council in advance so that its mandate cannot be queried at the Congress? This would mean a) that it would have to declare itself to be the German Federation of the International in reality and not merely figuratively and b) that as such it would pay its dues before the Congress. The matter is becoming serious and we have to know where we are, or else you will force us to act on our own initiative and to consider the Social-Democratic Workers' Party as an alien body for whom the International has no significance. We cannot allow the representation of the German workers at the Congress to be fumbled or forfeited for reasons unknown to us, but which cannot be other than petty. We should like to ask for a clear statement about this quickly.
Receipt for Fink shortly. Notabene. It would perhaps be a good idea, if at all possible, to send me proofs of the article, but I leave it up to you. However, an essential prerequisite for my collaboration is 1) no marginal comments of any kind and 2) it must be printed in long instalments.
223. Marx to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 23 May[166]
Dear Sorge,
Just a few lines in great haste.
I am overwhelmed with work. Quite apart from all the International BUSINESS — everything is at sixes and sevens — every day I have to correct the German proofs of the second edition of Capital (which will appear in instalments)[145]
and the épreuves* of the French translation[436] in Paris, which I often have to re-write completely to make matters clear to the French. And in addition I also have the épreuves of the ADDRESS ON THE CIVIL WAR* which we are bringing out in French in Brussels. You will be receiving a constant flow of instalments in German and French from me.
In Petersburg a splendid Russian translationb has appeared.[360]
The Russian socialist paper, Die Neue Zeit (its German title, the paper comes out in Russian), recently published a five-column-long leader lavishing praise on the book, which, however, was only meant as an introduction to a series of articles.c For this, the paper duly received a warning from the police, who threatened to suppress it.
I shall send Liebknecht my answer to the jackasses from the Concordia today.e I was unable to get round to it sooner. Moreover, it does no harm to leave that factory-owning mob their illusions of victory for a while.
A s TO H E I N Z E N , I CARE NOT ONE FARTHING FOR THE fültS et gestes* OF THIS 'democratic numbskull'. He is the true representative of the 'KNOW-NOTHINGS', in the literal sense of the word.
It will do no harm to send me the French translation of the Communist Manifesto.[440]
I shall tell you in my next letter why the GENERAL COUNCIL is simply abiding by its resolutions'[3] for the time being without proceeding in a more aggressive manner. We shall not continue to correspond with those people any more but have only instructed Le Moussu to ask them to return the letters from Eccarius (who has probably already given the ordre to print his letter over there) and Hales.[518]
(Between ourselves. Eccarius has been demoralised for quite some time now and is now a scoundrel pure and simple—canaille, even.)
In sincere friendship,
Karl Marx
224. Marx to Edouard Vaillant. 24 Mayab
My dear Vaillant,
Serraillier has received a letter from Brussels from some of the proscribed persons over there — which in my view makes it necessary that something be done here to avert if at all possible any further rumpus amongst the Communards. It is for this reason that I have agreed with Serraillier to ask you (and via you
Arnaud), Cournet and Ranvier to come to my house tomorrow evening (Saturday at 8 or 9 o'clock, whichever is more convenient) to discuss what should be done (needless to say the General Council has nothing to do with the affair).
Yours ever,
Karl Marx
I have had a letter from Rochat,a who is presently working in a coal-mine in the Borinage.
of Social History, Vol. XVII, Parts I-II, Translated from the French Assen, 1972 Published in English for the first time.
225. Marx to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 27 May[137]
My dear Sorge,
I am flooded out with proofs, French proofs[436] (where I have to re-write an enormous amount that has been translated too literally) and German proofs,[396] all of which have to be sent off.b I can therefore only write you a few lines.
I am sending you the German and French versions of the General Council declaration on the farce of the 'Conseil fédéraliste universel etc.'.c Ditto notre circulaire privée sur les Jurassiens.6 (More to follow, as soon as we have the copies in quantity.) Eccarius handed in his resignation before his CASE was investigated.[496] Provisionally, Le Moussu is responsible for toute l'Amérique (we also have contacts in South America now). Send everything to me since I see Le Moussu every day, and do not send anything to Hales, who keeps on doing the stupidest things simply out of a desire to seem important. There is an enquête* pending against him as well as Eccarius because of the American affaire.
Eccarius has become both a fool and a scoundrel. I shall write to you about it in greater detail in the course of this week.
I shall insist on the 1,000 COPIES(1) tomorrow in the GENERAL COUNCIL.
Yours,
K. Marx
226. Engels to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 27-28 May[519]
Dear Liebknecht,
Mrs Marx has shown me Eccarius' letter to you[520] and the only possible construction it permits is the one you have put on it and which we have already arrived at from other evidence, namely that Eccarius is mad. How deeply we have intrigued against him you can infer most easily from the fact that I have never said a word to you about the whole clique. Now, however, it is essential to put you au fait
We have absolutely no idea what Eccarius can have in mind when he talks about intrigues directed against him ever since 1869 (!). I only know that up to September 1870, when I arrived here,[122] Marx, for the sake of their longstanding friendship, had always helped him out of the mess he had got into often enough with the English,[497] and whenever Marx himself had a row with the English it was on Eccarius' account, since the latter had always treated the International as his literary property and had been guilty of the gravest indiscretions in his Congress reports in The Times and in his reports to American papers. In short, he had always exploited the situation for his own literary ends. All this could be tolerated up to a certain point and we confined ourselves to rebuking him in private, but the offences were always repeated.
All of a sudden Eccarius announced that he was resigning his office as General Secretary and would absolutely refuse to stand for re-election. We had therefore to choose a successor who, in the circumstances, could only be an Englishman. Hales and Mottershead stood as candidates and Hales was elected. What Eccarius' intentions had been was something we only discovered later when he told Mottershead that he had simply gone on strike so as to receive 30/- a week instead of 15/-. He had thought he was indispensable, and when this plan went wrong he twisted the facts to make it appear that Marx had intrigued with Hales to get him thrown out, and I am firmly convinced that he himself believes this now, although no-one could have been more surprised by his abdication than us.
Then came the Conference.3 Both the General Council and the Conference itself had resolved that the meetings should be held in private. An explicit resolution, of which you are aware, charged the General Council with the task of deciding which resolutions should be made public and which not. WELL, a few days after the Conference an article appeared in The Scotsman*" and The Manchester Guardian with a detailed report on a number of the Conference sessions together with the Conference resolutions. This report then went through the entire English and European press. You can imagine the uproar this provoked. Everyone cried treason and called for an example to be made of the traitor. In all the International papers a chorus of abuse fell on the General Council for allowing such matters to appear in the bourgeois press while our own papers were starved of news.
We knew at once who the traitor was. Reports had appeared only about those sessions where Eccarius had been present. On the others there was not a single word, except for a garbled account of some of the resolutions. Marx took the first opportunity when we had Eccarius on his own to accuse him to his face and to advise him in all friendliness TO MAKE A CLEAN BREAST OF IT, to accept his punishment and to be more discreet in future. He [Eccarius] did in fact go to see Jung, the president of the ad-hoc investigating commission, and told him that he had indeed given the local OFFICE of the New York World an article about the Conference,[498] but on the explicit condition that its content was not revealed to the English press. However, he was perfectly aware of the unprinci-pled character of these people and of their connections with the English provincial press and must also have known that he had no right to sell the Conference transactions to the American press. In the process he made all sorts of lame excuses, saying that the English article contained statements not in the American article, so that someone else must have talked, and that someone was Hales in all likelihood (whose behaviour in all this business had been perfectly STRAIGHTFORWARD) and that he was the real traitor. In order to spare Eccarius, Jung delayed making a decision, but finally Eccarius was reprimanded, and since then this man, who would be ready any day to sell the entire International for a mess of pottage, has been all injured innocence.
Despite this we were foolish enough — and you can see from this how we have been intriguing against him — to propose and carry his nomination as American secretary.[331]
Since Hales' nomination a war to the knife has broken out between Eccarius and Mottershead, on the one hand, and Hales, on the other. The English have split into 3 parties, one anti-Hales, one pro-Hales, and a number of more or less neutral people in the middle. Hales also committed a host of follies — he is terribly vain and WANTS TO STAND FOR HACKNEYa NEXT ELECTION — but the attacks on him by the others were so ludicrously absurd that he was almost always in the right. In order to put an end to the commotion, which came to occupy the General Council almost to the exclusion of everything else, we were forced to appoint a sort of Comité de salut publicb to which all personal matters are referred.[521] It is scarcely necessary to add that we did not hesitate to give Hales a good dressing-down when he deserved it, and that was often enough, just as we did to Eccarius or anyone else.
At all events, Hales still has the trust of the East End workers — our best people here — whereas Eccarius has associated with the most degenerate and suspect elements all of whom are hand in glove with the GREAT LIBERAL PARTY.
When the BRITISH FEDERAL COUNCIL[330] was formed, Mottershead, Eccarius & Co. were not invited since they did not represent any working men's associations. The way in which this was done was irregular and was criticised in the General Council, but it was very necessary if a repetition of the same business were to be avoided.
This means, according to Eccarius, that we had chosen the
DAMNABLE SIDE.
As for America, the split took place immediately after the Conference[422]; the sub-committee (the secretaries)[435] were supposed to report on the matter and since it was Marx who had largely conducted the American correspondence up to then, he took over the mess and all the letters went to him. It goes without saying that Eccarius' position as secretary was virtually suspended until the General Council could reach a decision on the whole business. There was in fact no writing to be done. He seems to have regarded this as yet another insult. When it came to a decision, Eccarius took the part of Sorge's enemies. These consist of 1) a few Frenchmen who, like Malon & Co. in Geneva, want to be in command simply because they are Frenchmen and in part refugees of the Commune; 2) supporters of Schweitzer (Grosse & Co.); 3) the Yankee bourgeois friends of Mesdames Woodhull and Claflin, people who have got a bad name for themselves through their practice of FREE LOVE and who print anything and everything— A UNIVERSAL GOVERNMENT, SPIRITISM (à la Home) and so forth— anything but our stuff. The latter have now declared in reply to the resolutions of the General Council(1) that the International will only make progress in America if we throw out as many 'WAGE-SLAVES' as possible, since they were certain to be the first to sell themselves to the BOGUS REFORMERS AND TRADING POLITICIANS.[522]
Sorge and Co. have also made a number of formal blunders, but if the International in America is not to degenerate into a bourgeois tricksters' society pure and simple, they must have our full support. The good Germans (almost all the Germans), the best Frenchmen and all the Irish are on their side.
Our friend Eccarius, however, had foreseen that the organ of Section 12, Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly, might provide him with a new literary refuge and so we are ON THE DAMNABLE SIDE.
In short, Eccarius has become thoroughly demoralised in his relations with the English agitators and TRADING POLITICIANS AND TRADES-UNIONS PAID SECRETARIES, all of whom either have been bought by the middle class or are begging them to make them an offer. His personal situation, which was truly wretched, though partly through his own fault, and finally his literary ambitions have been contributing factors. He has gone so far that I have abandoned all hope for him. I am very sorry for him, both as an old friend and collaborator as well as an intelligent person, but I cannot conjure the facts out of existence. Moreover, in his cynicism he admits it all quite openly. But if he imagines that we conspired against him and wished to expel him from the General Council, he is somewhat exaggerating his own importance. The opposite is the case: we let him go his own way despite countless opportunities to throw the book at him and we have not done so. We have confronted him with the truth only where it was quite unavoidable. But it was simply out of the question for us to stand aside while he turned the International into his own milch cow, riding roughshod over all other considerations.
Incidentally, Lochner, Lessner, Pfänder and Frankel are all completely in the picture about Eccarius, and if you write to any one of them, you will be unlikely to receive such a cool and dispassionate reply as from me.
28 May. News has come from America today. The separatist Federal Council is now in process of complete dissolution. Madame Woodhull and her Yankee friends from Sections 9 and 12 have held a meeting to push her candidature as President of the United States[523] on the basis of a programme which contains everything under the sun except capital and labour, and have made complete fools of themselves into the bargain.a It was all just too much. The Lassallean Section 6 has deposed its delegate, Grosse, accepted the resolutions of the General Council and has sent a delegate to Sorge's Federal Council. Ditto Section 2, the worst of the French sections, which has also parted company with the separatist Council. Another 6 sections are about to follow suit. More details in the next Eastern Post.b You can see what sort of people Eccarius cultivated over there; all his private correspondents, Maddock, West, Elliott, etc., were present and spoke at the Woodhull meeting.
All these matters are between ourselves, the deliberations of the General Council are not my property and I am telling you of them here simply for your and Bebel's own private information.
The Belgians have debated a revision of the Rules but have not reached any conclusions.c Hins has tabled a draft proposing abolition of the General Council.[524] I would be quite contented with that personally; Marx and I will not re-enter it anyway and as matters stand at present we have scarcely any time to work and that is something that has to stop.
A letter to you from Marx l7 has gone off today. It contains the declaration of the General Council against the petty intriguers here who have acquired a certain importance thanks to the bourgeois press on the Continent.[3]
Regards to your wifea and children, ditto Bebel.
Your
F. E.
227. Marx to Nikolai Danielson. 28 May[525]
My dear Sir,
My reply to you has been so delayed because I had kept on hoping that I would be able to send you, simultaneously with the letter, the first instalments of the 2nd German edition of 'Capital'[145]
as well as the French translationb (Paris). But the German and French booksellersc have dragged the business out for so long that I cannot postpone it any longer.
First of all, my best thanks for the beautifully bound copy. The translation is masterly.[360] I would be grateful if you could let me have a second, unbound, copy — for the British Museum.[526]
I regret that absolute [lack of time] (IN THE MOST STRICTEST SENSE OF THE WORD) prevented me from making a start on the revision for the second edition before the end of December 1871. It would have been of great benefit for the Russian edition.
Although the French edition—(the translation is by Mr Roy, the translator of Feuerbach)—has been prepared by a great expert in both languages, he has often translated too literally. I have therefore found myself compelled to re-write whole PASSAGES in French, to make them palatable to the French public. It will be all the easier later on to translate the book from French into English and the Romance languages.
I am so * overworked, and in fact so much interfered with in my theoretical studies, that, after September, I shall withdraw from the commercial concern* which, at this moment, weighs principally upon my own shoulders, and which, as you know, has its ramifications all over the world.* Mais, est modus in rebus,h *and I can no longer afford — for some time at least — to combine two sorts of business of so very different a character.
The news you have communicated to me on our mutual friendc
have delighted both myself and my family. There are few people in the world of whom I am so fond and whom I esteem so much.*[527]
You will much oblige me by delivering the enclosed letter to Dr W. Baranoff[528] at this address: 'Frau Baggohufudt-Gross, Theater Platz, Haus Baron Küster'.
In the hope of hearing from you soon.
Yours very sincerely,
A. W.d
One of the barkers at present living in Switzerland — Mr Bakounine — is playing such strange tricks that I would be very grateful for any precise piece of information about the man— 1) as to the extent of his influence in Russia, 2) about his role in the trial of such notorious memory.[529]
228. Marx to César De Paepe. 28 May[137]
My dear Friend,
Enclosed is a statement by the General Council against Vésinier and Co.a for the Brussels L'Internationale. The same thing has been sent to the Liberté,
1) because it needs publicity, 2) because Mr Steens has suppressed the General Council's reply to the British Parliament which was sent to him.b
I have read the report on the Belgian Congressc in the L'Internationale.[524] How is it that the Flemish are not included among the delegates? Generally speaking, according to the information received here by the French from their compatriots, it would not seem that the International has made much headway in Belgium after the events of the Commune.
For my part I should be ready to accept the Hins draft (with modifications of detail), not because I think it is good, but because it is always better to make certain experiments than to lull oneself with illusions.
It is very characteristic of the Alliance's[10] tactics: in Spain, where it is strongly organised although it has lost the support of the Spanish Federal Council, it attacked at the Barcelona Council all elements of organisation, the Federal Council, etc., as well as the General Council. In Belgium, where 'prejudices' have to be taken into account, it has been proposed that the General Council be abolished with its functions being transferred to the Federal Councils (this was opposed at Barcelona) and even enlarged.
I can hardly wait for the next Congress. It will be the end of my slavery. After that I shall become a free man again; I shall accept no administrative functions any more, either for the General Council or for the British Federal Council.
Yours as ever,
Karl Marx
229. Marx to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 29 May[137]
Dear Friend,
En toute hâte* In yesterday's meeting of the General Council, at which almost all the members of the Commune were present, Hales read out Praitsching's letter.[530]
I followed this up by relating the aventures of the Contre COUNCIL, basing myself partly on your letter,b and partly on the issue of the World you sent me, and I emphasised how these facts confirmed the necessity of the RESOLUTIONS adopted at my suggestion.[531] Eccarius WAS THUNDERSTRUCK.
This was followed by a useful INCIDENT which I instantly exploited.
Eccarius had received a letter from St Louis in which a German section which had formed there inquired which of the two FEDERAL COUNCILS to go by. I said, naturally, they should acknowledge the COUNCIL that agreed with us, the old one. Hales and Eccarius (although mortal enemies) spoke against this. I replied and the motion was carried in the very well-attended meeting with only 3 votes against (Hales, Eccarius and Delahaye — who counts for nothing with the other members of the Commune).
Le Moussu will inform you of this officially tomorrow, and you would then do well to make it known (naturally as something self-evident and not on instructions from London) that, on the occasion of this application from that German section, the General Council resolved that your COUNCIL is the only one with which it is en règlec and hence which is recognised.
Tout à vous,d
Karl Marx
230. Engels to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 5-6 June
Dear Liebknecht,
My condolences on confirmation [of your sentence].[532] So much is certain: in no other country are our party comrades subject to such persecution as in the glorious Empire of Bismarck-Stieber, scarcely excepting even Austria. However, if there is any certainty in anything, it is that this sentence will never be carried out to the end. In France and Spain, persecution of the International (apart from reprisals against the COMMUNARDS) exists up to now only on paper, and in Italy it rarely involves more than 3 months, the rest being commuted to a fine, which admittedly often works out at a rate of 3 frs per day.
Marx had taken Wuttke's book(1) himself and kept it despite much pestering. Finally, I myself forgot to keep reminding him of it. Now I have got it from him, I read it through in a day and then sent it on to Borkheim with the request to look around for a publisher. Your memory is playing tricks on you if you believe that you wrote to me earlier on, asking me to look into it. I know only that you asked me for my opinion and that I wrote to you saying it would be extremely difficult to find a publisher here who would pay, since Wuttke is completely unknown here. I would otherwise have added that neither Marx nor I have those sorts of contacts here, otherwise we would long since have discovered one for Capital
I can now add only this:
1. Because of its many technical expressions, the book is very difficult to translate, almost impossible for anyone who is not in daily contact with English people.
2. The book would have to be significantly adapted for local consumption. All the waffle in the introduction and the excessively long chapter on Chinese literature would have to go and the arcane style would have to be transformed into PLAIN
ENGLISH.
I think then that Borkheim is the right man to discover a publisher, if this is at all possible. A businessman who seems totally unconnected with literature often has the best chance of succeed-ing with these things. It was Strohn after all who put us in touch with Meissner in Hamburg. At all events, do not count too much on Borkheim succeeding and do not waste time translating until he comes up with someone.
6 June. Wroblewski interrupted me yesterday and stayed the whole evening, so I can now answer your letter of the 4th as well, which I received this morning. I am sorry that you have to go inside so soon, but I hope you will not be in there for long.
The proofs of the Manifesto together with a short prefacea will go off as soon as possible, tomorrow, I hope.[1]
Best thanks for the information about individuals,[533] but there is still no answer to my question about how your Party intends to put its relations with the General Council on a clear footing, without which it will be absolutely impossible for it to be represented at the Congress.h
Your
F. E.
Nothing can be done in the matter of the inheritance, if the people are reluctant to risk money. These things have to be looked at by lawyers, and they do nothing ON SPECULATION. Anyway, the best the heirs could hope for would be the satisfaction of knowing that they had been swindled. They cannot reckon on salvaging any money after all these years — it is 100:1 AGAINST.
231. Engels to J. Molesworth. After 5 June[534]
...a have every confidence in the character of Mr Glaser whom you will, I have no doubt, always find straightforward in all his dealings. As to his means I cannot give you any definite information but as I have the confidence in him that he would not order more than he was justified in doing, I should not hesitate to give him a moderate credit say a couple of £100 — or even more. I think if you were to limit your credit at the beginning to £200 — and then extend it afterwards as the business goes on and you get better acquainted with him, you would be pretty safe.
It is what I should do in your case.
232. Engels to Cesare Bert. 7 June
[...] In Milan, Ferrara, Naples, everywhere there are friends of Bakunin.b As for the Workers' Union[486] of Bologna, it has never written us a word. The Jura party, abandoned on all sides, seems to want to make Italy its great fortress. This party has formed, in the midst of the International, a secret society ' which seeks to control it; we have proof of this as regards Spain, and the situation in Italy must be the same. These men, who always have the words autonomy and free federation on their lips, treat the workers like a flock of sheep, only good for being steered by the leaders of this secret society, using it for purposes of which the mass is unaware. You had a good example in Terzaghi (an investigation is being demanded into the handing over of the letter). Having rebelled against the whole organisation of the International, and knowing that it will have great difficulty in justifying itself at the Congress next September,[450] the Jura Committee is now looking for letters and mandates from the General Council in order to fabricate false accusations against us. I, like all of us, willingly consent to all letters being read to the Congress, but we do not find it agreeable to learn that the same letters, written for this or that section, have been put at the disposal of these gentlemen.
The circular(1) makes things known. We urge you meanwhile to suspend all decisions and you will subsequently act as the interest of the International dictates. I hope you will find that it is not the General Council, but these men of the Jura, acting solely to further the personal ambitions of Bakunin, head of the secret society, who have sown discord.
(Ask for immediate reply about the letter.)
233. Engels to Theodor Cuno. 10 June[150]
Dear Cuno,
A few words in all haste. I have today sent by first post to Herman 2 copies (one of them for you) of the circular of the General Council on the Bakuninist intrigues,a wrapped in a copy of the Kölnische Zeitung. You will find in it all the material you need from A to Z.
We now possess accurate information on the Spanish secret society, La Aleanza—it will be quite a surprise to that gang at the Congress. The same society doubtless exists in Italy. If only Regis could get down there! But the poor devil is now peddling newspapers in Geneva, to earn a living as best he can. Cafiero in Naples and someone else in Turin whom I don't yet know turned letters of mine over to the Jurassians[535]; that doesn't matter to me in itself, but the very fact of their perfidy is unpleasant. The Italians will still have to pass through a school of experience to realise that a peasant people as backward as they are merely makes itself ridiculous when it tries to prescribe to the workers of big industrial nations the road they should take for their emancipation.
Incidentally, I no longer receive any Italian newspapers, so I cannot send you any. Cafiero, who always used to send them, has obviously got a bad conscience.
You will have received the letter from Düsseldorf, which I sent
[536] on to you.
We know that affairs are in pretty bad shape in Belgium. The apathy of this neutral nation (sit venia verbob) is the underlying reason for the fact that a plotter and a jackass can call the tune there. The International is falling apart in Belgium by the day, thanks to the inertia of the intelligent and reliable men among the leaders. Incidentally, the clique's leaders have done us a tremendous service with their new draft Rules. The proposal for the abolition of the General Council[524] has put an end to the last vestiges of their influence (which was far from small, since this was one of the oldest federations). The Spaniards call this downright treason.[537] It's a pity that you're not going to Spain; you would like these people; après tout* they are the most gifted of all the Latins, and you could be very useful there. What they need is a dose of German theory, and they take it very well; besides, they are distinguished by a fanaticism and a class hatred of the bourgeois such as we northerners or the vacillating Italians cannot imagine.
The true author of the Belgian draft for the Rules is, of course, Bakunin again. The draft is by Hins and he is a tool of Bakunin both by virtue of a spiritual affinity and because of his Russian wife.
Liebknecht is going into the cachot0 on the 15th of this month.[538]
As soon as my friends are back in Manchester, I shall again take a look around on your behalf. I can do nothing for the moment. For all your misfortunes, you nevertheless have the luck to have a profession which you can follow anywhere fairly easily, at least on the Continent, if needs be. Here, because of the different employment system, it is much more difficult.
Your recent description0 of the impression Düsseldorf made upon you made me laugh heartily. Why, for us, the philistine Wuppertalers, Düsseldorf was always a little Paris, where the pious gentlemen of Barmen and Elberfeld kept their mistresses, went to the theatre, and had a right royal time. But the sky always looks grey where one's own reactionary family lives. Moreover, the process of industrial development, which has after all spread to Düsseldorf as well, is extremely depressing and deadly boring throughout Germany, so that I can well imagine that Wuppertal's dreariness and wretchedness have now conquered Düsseldorf as well. But one fine day we shall send them packing, and then we'll sing the old song again that they used to sing thirty years ago in Milan:
We, we, always we, And if we go out on a spree, Who'll have to pay for it? We! But it will be the bourgeois that will have to pay for the spree.
Yours,
F. Engels
234. Engels to Johann Philipp Becker. 14 June
Dear old Friend,
We are not entirely in agreement with your calculations about the Congress. The Jurassians with their well-known manoeuvres, for example, and the Italians would certainly send close to 30 delegates on their own, if not 50. But unfortunately that is the least of our worries at the moment. What makes it impossible to hold the Congress in Switzerland this year is the unfortunate and quite unnecessary division between the German- and French-speaking Swiss workers which occurred on the revision of the Constitution[539]—a rift that has given the Jurassians such a wonderful opportunity to rejoice and solemnly expatiate on the superiority of their policy of abstention.3 We here cannot help thinking that the two sides are equally to blame. The revised Swiss Constitution was at most no more than an extremely moderate bourgeois step forward. While, on the one hand, it forced the barbarians of the original cantons to bestir themselves a little, on the other hand, it could act as a brake to the most progressive cantons and in particular Geneva, which — as an industrial city which is also an autonomous republic — is in an exceptionally well-favoured position, since it would place them under the control of the overall Swiss peasant majority. So depending on the locality there was something to be said both for and against the revision; my personal sympathies were, if anything, for rather than against. But it is certain that the whole business was not worth the trouble of creating a dispute within the International and of giving the Jurassians the opportunity to crow: Look we savages are the better human beings, nous nous abstenons? while the others quarrel over trifles and so prove that all politics are of the devil.—We are very well aware how things work in a place like Geneva, which is, after all, still pretty small, and in Switzerland as a whole for that matter, where everyone knows everyone else personally and so every political movement assumes the form of gossip and intrigue.
So we do not take the whole thing too seriously and are convinced that proletarian sentiments will once more gain the upper hand in a short time and put everything back on an even keel. But as I said, it does unfortunately make it impossible to hold the Congress in Geneva, and so we are thinking now of Holland.[450]
Utin, who is a fine fellow for all this (even though a Russian is, of course, neither a Frenchman nor a German), will be better off for being away from the local Genevan cliques. Incidentally, I have written as much to him in a letter,[45] saying that we are by no means of his opinion on the subject of federalism as he has been preaching it in the Egalité.[540] But all these questions are secondary and our real battle-field lies quite elsewhere. I hope to hear soon that you two non-Swiss will have forgotten your local Swiss quarrels and have got together to drown your sorrows in Yvorne or Cortaillod. Think of the hue and cry there would have been throughout the Swiss Federal Assembly if you two had proposed to them the liberation of the workers by the workers themselves!
Vaillant is well enough up to now and so is Frankel — who is even better than well since he is of a very amorous nature. I saw Jung yesterday and he seems to have recovered from the rheumatism that plagued him 18 months ago. Marx is also significantly improved on last winter, but is very busy with the 2nd German edition[396] and the French translation of Capital?[36] which is coming out now. The Russian edition has appeared and is very good. As for the Russians in general, there is an enormous difference between those who came to Europe earlier on — noble, aristocratic Russians, among whom we must include Herzen and Bakunin and who are swindlers to the last man — and those who are coming now, all of whom are of the people. As far as talent and character are concerned, some of these are absolutely among the very best in our party. They have a stoicism, a strength of character and at the same time a grasp of theory which are truly admirable.
What is the title of your new, as yet embryonic, work?[541]
Fraternally yours,
F. Engels
235. Engels to Carlo Cafiero. 14 June[542]
No newspapers received from him since 16 May, although The Eastern Post, etc., sent regularly. How come?(1) Might it be too much of a coincidence that at the same time (10 May) the Bulletin jurassien boasts of having in its possession private letters from me to friends in Italy 'full of odious slanders',[5] etc., etc.? In any case, I have not written to anyone in Italy other than you, and it must be these letters of mine to you that Schwitzguébel's paper is referring to. You owe me an explanation of that matter and I expect you to give it to me. I am amazed that you did not supply it as soon as this was published.
My letters have nothing to fear from publication, but it is a question of honour for you to inform me whether they were sent to my enemies with your consent or not. If it was done with your consent, I can only come to one conclusion: that you have allowed yourself to be persuaded to join the Bakuninist secret society, the Alliance[10] which, preaching to the profane — behind the mask of autonomy, anarchy and anti-authoritarianism — the breaking up of the International's organisation, practises towards its initiates an absolute authoritarianism, with the aim of taking over the leadership of the Association. It is a society which treats the working masses as a flock of sheep, led by a few initiates whom they follow blindly, and which imitates, within the International, the role of the Jesuits in the Catholic Church.
If my conjecture is correct, I must congratulate you on having permanently safeguarded your precious 'autonomy' by delivering it entirely into the hands of Pope Bakunin. But I cannot believe that you, an anarchist and anti-authoritarian of the first water, should have so far forsworn your dearest principles, still less that you could stoop to such depths towards myself, when I have always treated you with the greatest sincerity and trust. In short, you must clarify this matter, and without delay. Greetings and emancipation.
Yours,
F. E.
236. Marx to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 21 June[150]
Dear Friend,
I received what you sent on 7 June yesterday (together with the enclosed report).[54]
You will in the meantime have received my second letter,(1) ditto Le Moussu's letter, which definitively formulates the COUNCIL'S position for the UNITED STATES.
The next Congress will be held on the first Monday in September 1872 in The Hague (Holland)[450]—the official notifica-tion will be sent to New York next week. It simply will not do for you to fob us off with a memorandum. At this Congress the life or death of the International will be at stake. You yourself and at least one other, if not two, must attend. As for the sections which do not send delegates directly, they can send mandates (mandates for delegates).
The Germans for me, F. Engels, Lochner, Karl Pfänder, Lessner. The French for G. Ranvier, Auguste Serraillier, Le Moussu, Ed. Vaillant, F. Cournet, Ant Arnaud The Irish for MacDonnel, who is doing very well, or if they prefer, for one of the above-named Germans or French.
Naturally, only 1 delegate for each section, however numerous, unless it has over 500.
You will already know of the beautiful Belgian project to revise the Rules.3 It stems from Hins, an ambitieux impuissant,11 who, together with his Russian wife, takes orders from Bakounine. One of its finest features is the abolition of the GENERAL COUNCIL.[524] The whole plan has been deservedly hauled over the coals in La Emancipacion (Madrid), the organ of the Spanish Federal Council.[53] The same paper gave enthusiastic approval to our American resolutions.[544]
From the enclosed copy of the Egalité you will see that the Congrès Romand has also rapped Hins over the knuckles.[545]
I am sending you by post 4 COPIES of the Circulaire of the GENERAL COUNCIL on Les prétendues scissions dans l'Internationale." Engels has despatched 200 to you per PARCEL COMPANY.
As for my Capital, the first German instalment will be published next week,[396] ditto the first French instalment in Paris.[43] You will be getting copies of both regularly from me for you and some of your friends. Of the French edition (the title-page of which reads, by no means as a mere phrase, 'entièrement révisée par l'auteur',d for I have had the devil of a job with it), 10,000 COPIES have been printed and 8,000 sold already before publication of the first instalment.
In Russia, books after printing is completed but before they are released to the public, must be submitted to the censorship authority, which must file suit in court if it does not want to pass them.
They write me as follows from Russia regarding the Russian translation (a masterly one) of my book[360]:
'In the censorship office two censors went over the work and laid their conclusions before the censorship committee. Even before the examination it was decided in principle not to hold this book up merely because of the author's name, but to make a close investigation of how far it really corresponds to its title. The following is a summary of the conclusion that was unanimously adopted by the censorship committee and submitted to the Main Administration for decision:
' "Although the author, according to his convictions, is a thorough-going socialist and the whole book has a quite definite socialist character, nevertheless, in view o r the fact that the presentation can by no means be called accessible to everyone and that, on the other hand, it possesses the form of a rigidly mathematical scientific demonstration, the Committee declares the prosecution of this book in court to be impossible."'[546] Accordingly it was allowed out into the world. Three thousand copies have been printed. It was made available to the Russian public on 27 March, and 1,000 copies had been sold by 15 May already.
In his announcement of my book the primeval KNOW-NOTHING lout Heinzen found cause for amusement at the statement on the title-page: 'Translation rights reserved'. Who would want to translate such nonsense! The book was obviously written merely in order that Karl Heinzen shouldn't understand it.
We have issued a French translation of the ADDRESS ON THE CIVIL WAR, price 2 Väd. per copy.[246] If wanted in the UNITED STATES, please write.
Regarding the Nicholson affair, it is best not to say anything about it in the GENERAL COUNCIL for the present.[547]
Salut
Yours,
K. M.
237. Marx to Octave van Suetendael. 21 June
Dear Citizen,
Many thanks for your letter.[548] Everywhere the same thing is going on. Everywhere it is non-working men who hamper the advance of the International and who intrigue against the General Council precisely because it represents the general interest and stands in the way of their petty personal ambitions.
According to the General Regulations, we have the right to ask the Belgian Federal Council for a copy of its printed regulations, and for information regarding the financial position of the sections and the number of members. We shall make these requests in such a manner as not to arouse suspicion.
As for the Paris correspondent, I now have his name.a
According to the General Regulations, II, Art. 5b: 'The General Council has the right to admit or to refuse the affiliation of any new society or group, subject to appeal to the Congress. Nevertheless, where there exist Federal Councils or Committees, the General Council is bound to consult them before admitting or rejecting the affiliation of a new branch or society, without prejudice, however, to its right of provisional decision'.
Thus, the new section now forming in Brussels has only to write to the General Council (and it may use my address, the Belgian secretary being away) and state that it wishes to form 'an independent society', in direct relation with the General Council. It must explain (without holding anything back) the reasons why it wants to constitute itself independently of the Belgian Federal Council. Whereupon, the General Council must consult the Belgian Council, however, 'without prejudice to its right of decision'.
The Federation of Working Men's Societies of which you speak would be well-advised, when nominally constituting several sections (say 3 or 4), to request the Council to admit them all at the same time. Their very number would make it easier for the General Council to act. For the fact that several societies in Brussels desired to constitute themselves independently of the Belgian Federal Council would of itself provide serious presump-tive evidence against the latter. Once admitted by the General Council, the said societies will have the right to send delegates to the next Congress — either a common delegate or one delegate per society. The next Congress will take place at The Hague,[45] on the first Monday of September 1872. I shall be sending an official communication to that effect to the Brussels Internationale in a few days' time.c
As for the Hins draft[524] (Hins and his wife are correspondents and agents of Bakunin), this has had a very bad reception in all the countries from which we have heard so far, France, Germany, England, etc.
In L'Egalité (organ of the Romance Federal Council), which I am sending you, you will find resolutions against the Hins draft.[545]
L'Emancipaciön (of Madrid), organ of the Spanish Federal Council, has published two articles against the Hins draft.[537] The first article is in the issue of 8 June and is entitled 'The Belgian Draft of the General Rules'. It says, among other things:
'If the draft stood the slightest chance of being accepted, this would of itself suffice to disorganise the International... The Congresses, which take place only once a year, cannot serve as a true link uniting the various federations. The immediate effect of the suppression of the General Council would be to disrupt the unity of the Association and the strength deriving therefrom... Consistency would further demand the suppression of the federal and local Councils, etc. ... The suppression of the General Council would spell death to the International.'
The Volksfreund ('Friend of the People'), the organ of the International sections of Brunswick, gave the Hins draft a thorough trouncing.a Among other things it says that, if the working men of other countries were to imitate those of Belgium, the International would be transformed from a society organised for struggle into an incoherent mass of pietistic[549] socialist conventicles. In its issue of 16 June it returns to the charge.b
It refers to the police Conference (consisting of Prussian, Austrian, Hungarian, etc., functionaries) which is to be held in Berlin in August and is to discuss measures to be taken by governments against the International. One of the first measures adumbrated by these gentlemen is to confine the proletarian movement within the national boundaries of each country. The
Volksfreund concludes its article by saying: Thus it is the despotic governments on the Continent which, in order to destroy the International, propose to break the ties which bind the various national proletarian movements to the centre in London.
'Let our friends, the Belgians, ponder this: If we are reduced to the national level, as proposed by Bismarck's agents in Berlin,c we shall be killed off in all the Continental countries, one after the other, by the reactionary forces. If, on the other hand, we retain our centre in London and thus remain Europeans, we shall be invulnerable. Our General Council and headquarters in London is not accessible to the blows struck by reaction: it would succumb in one situation only: if government agents were able to stir up successful rebellions against the common centre of the Association among the ranks of continental Internationalists.'
Letters from the French sections express contempt for the Hins draft and say, for example, that according to this fine draft, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary — in a word, all those countries where the International is prevented by the governments from forming official federations, will be virtually excluded from the International 1) because it is intended to deprive them of their right to vote at Congresses, and 2) because, circumstances being what they are, the different sections in those countries would, without the General Council, lose all unified organisation and all reciprocal ties.
So, as you can see, the Hins draft will prove a fiasco. But there is one thing you must not forget! If the Federal Council sends deputies to the Hague Congress, insist that they be given precise written mandates signed by all the members of the Federal Council That is the only way to prevent the trickery to which the friends of the Alliance[10] never hesitate to stoop in furtherance of their own particular little plans.
It goes without saying that you need fear no indiscretion, however slight, on my part.
Fraternal greetings,
Karl Marx
238. Engels to Adolf Hepner. 2 July
Dear Hepner,
When mandates(1) are sent out it is absolutely essential to include one for Cuno, who is now in Belgium. He is of the greatest importance because of the Italian Bakuninists; these people will send nothing but lawyers and other doctrinaire bourgeois who play at being workers' representatives and who have done everything in their power to prevent the workers from corresponding with us directly. It was precisely Cuno who was the first to break through this barrier and, had he remained there, the whole problem would have been solved by now. Moreover, Cuno is one of our very best people; Liebknecht's entire mistrust of him is groundless and is based on his belief that Cuno was an agent of J. Ph. Becker, working in the interests of the Geneva 'Mother Section', something that never crossed Cuno's mind. I had to explain the whole absurd story to him later on since he knew nothing about the Mother Section." When I know what a man has really accomplished, I do not let myself be misled by such matters.
It goes without saying that the Congress deliberations will be conducted in all 3 languages — German, English and French — so that ignorance of the two last languages need deter no-one.[450]
Returning herewith Boruttau's letter.[550] The man is assuredly honest, but terribly muddle-headed and driven on by an urge to perform deeds out of all proportion to his talents. These qualities make him a highly suitable DUPE for the Bakuninists who surround him and exploit him. If you read the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, you will see that precisely now, before the Congress, these gentlemen are doing all they can to obtain private letters and so forth from us and to discover what material damaging to them we have in our possession.0 Apart from that the Boruttau letter is of no significance. It would not occur to us to do additional work for these gentlemen to our own detriment. If Boruttau is so unfamiliar with notorious facts which even Bakunin has never denied, it is not our responsibility'to look up the issue of Kolokol where he can find it all, i.e. if he knows Russian, for if he doesn't, even referring him to the right issue will not help him.c So much is certain: we have the material. Moreover, as long as 3 years ago Borkheim published more on this matter in his Russische Briefe[43]
than six Boruttaus could ask for. You would be well advised to tread warily with Boruttau. The magniloquent phrases of the Bakuninists have completely beguiled this muddle-head and this over-intense sort of honesty often turns into treachery in practice.
'Scissions'."1 The circular is confidential[385] and so not intended for publication. We do not know how the (legitimist) Courrier de France in Paris — which is publishing it — obtained possession of it. Likewise with the Radical, which may have taken it from the
Courrier. A German translation in the Volksstaat (which you would have to produce over there) would only be desirable if the bourgeois press in Germany makes a scandal of the affair—but in that event it would be very desirable indeed In the meantime the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne has publicly attacked it,[551] so an article in the Volksstaat could do no harm. I assume that Liebknecht has left you the copy we sent him. If not, I shall send you one in a letter — a postal wrapper is impossible since the police have stolen everything I sent to Germany in that way.
Henri Perret, Temple Unique, Genève, has been instructed to send the ' Volksstaat' 50 copies for distribution in Germany. If they have not yet arrived, please drop him a few lines.
I shall write to Wigand[552]
'Schulze-Bastiat''. Marx is buried up to his ears in work on the 2nd German edition[396] and the 1st French edition of Capital[436]
But even apart from this he would never agree to write an appendix to correct the blunders in such a completely unscientific book as Lassalle's.a He would have to correct almost the whole book. Entre nous if Marx ever does get around to correcting Lassalle there will be precious little of Lassalle left over. He has not done so up to now out of consideration for the many Lassalleans who have joined the Party, but one day it is sure to come.
'The Housing Question'. Liebknecht spoke of his intention of publishing my articleb on its own.[504] If this is the case, please let me have the galley proofs since there are a number of disas-trous printing errors in it. There is also the following to be considered:
You write to me about Sax. Is it worthwhile writing a special article on a bookc which appeared in 1869? If so, I shall give the man a good hiding for you, and it would perhaps be a good idea to follow up the critique of the petit bourgeois solution to the housing problem with a critique of the grand bourgeois solution. In that event the two articles'd could be published together on their own, which would provide a more exhaustive treatment of the subject. Please let me know about this soon so that I may act accordingly.
I shall also produce a small article for you about the latest squabble in America.*
Yours,
F. E.
239. Engels to Th. Smart & Co. After 3 July(1)
Mr Glaser is a highly respectable man well known in Brussels whom I have no doubt you will always find thoroughly straightforward and honest in all his dealings. As far as I know, he is not without some means and I should not hesitate, if I were in a position to do business with him, to trust him to the extent of a couple of £100.
240. Engels to Theodor Cuno. 5 July[150]
IN LIÈGE
London, 5 July 1872 Dear Cuno,
I sent some English and Spanish newspapers to Herman for you yesterday.
The Belgians make the same impression on everyone who comes in contact with them. The whole International there is just so much hot air and nothing more. This is chiefly the fault of the leaders, of whom only De Paepe is really capable, although indolent, while Hins is empty-headed, but cunning, scheming, ambitious and energetic. Through his Russian wife Hins is in direct contact with Bakunin and on the latter's instructions he has devised a salubrious project to abolish the General Council.[524] Hins is at present in Verviers. You would be doing us a service if you could keep an eye on him.
There is also a German section in Verviers which is in correspondence with the Volksstaat. I wrote to their correspondent, P. Schlehbach, rue de Pont 2, (on 14 June)[45] and also sent a copy of the Scissions,a[385] but have had no reply up to now. It would be a good idea if you could slip over there and establish contact with them. I have written to Hepnerb saying that they should send you a mandate from Germany for the Congress.[450] To be on the safe side, however, it would be good if you could also get the German section in Verviers to give you a mandate from them in case they do not send someone of their own. Bakunin & Co. will make every effort to beat us at the Congress, and as these gentlemen have no scruples about methods, we must take precautionary measures. They will send delegates from a hundred different societies not belonging to the International at all, and will try to obtain a seat and a vote for these persons as delegates of the International in order to place the General Council in the minority with the aid of a coalition of the most heterogeneous elements. Schweitzer and Hasenclever have already concluded an avowed alliance with the scoundrels over here — Vésinier, Landeck, Smith, Schneider, etc.— while the latter, in turn, are corresponding with the Jurassians and the American rogues (see the Emancipation[554] I sent yesterday).
How have the Scissions been received there? I have sent Herman 5 copies in all, but they must be distributed. Is Herman doing that? And how is he doing in general? I heard that at the last Belgian Congress he spoke out very vigorously in favour of the General Council.
It is questionable whether you can qualify for Belgian citizenship. American citizenship is only obtainable by prior registration and five years' residence in the country.
The Congress will be held in any event. On the Continent there is never any guarantee against police interference; but then we will have to get aboard a steamer, go to England, and hold it there. It would be inexpedient to convene it in England from the very start, for although it would be quite safe from police interference here, it would nevertheless be subjected to attacks by our enemies. The General Council, they would say, is convening the Congress in England because only there does it possess an artificial majority.
Bakunin has issued a furious, but very weak, abusive letter in reply to the Scissions.[555] That fat elephant is beside himself with rage because he has finally been dragged from his Locarno lair out into the light, where neither scheming nor intrigues are of any more use. Now he declares that he is the victim of a conspiracy of all the European—Jewsl
What will break the old scoundrel's neck is the continued existence of the 'Alliance'[10]—at least in Spain — as a secret society. Not only do we have proof of this, but the affair has now become quite public in Madrid, etc., so that there can be no denying it any more. This gentleman, who everywhere acted as the most devoted champion of the International, organised this quiet conspiracy to seize overall control and, with the assistance of his initiated Jesuit brothers, to lead the broad masses of workers by the nose like a blind herd! If this had been tolerated, I wouldn't have remained in the International for a day. To be Bakunin's sheep — that would have been the limit! The hardest blow of all for him is that we have uncovered this whole story and are threatening to expose him at the Congress. And now Lafargue (Marx's son-in-law, who has been in Madrid for 8 months) is accusing him, Bakunin, of having drawn up by his own hand and sent to Spain the secret instructions on how the International was to be run there!(1) The enclosed letter arrived today. Give my best wishes to Herman, is he quite well again?
Yours,
F. E.
241. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 9 July[121]
Dear Kugelmann,
My best thanks for the gift of £15 for Jennychen. I have worked myself so much into the ground that today (in 2 hours) I am leaving London with Engels for 4 or 5 days, and going to the seaside (Ramsgate).[556] From the date of my return until 2 September (when the international Congress is to meet at The Hague[450]) I shall have my hands more than full, but from then on I shall have more free time again. But this freedom will not begin until mid-September, because I myself shall go to The Hague.
Perhaps we could see each other later (that is, you could see me, for I would not be safe in Germany).
Adio.
Your
Karl Marx
As soon as the first instalments(1) (whether German[145] or French[436]) are out, you will of course receive them. J am highly dissatisfied with Meissner. He has led me by the nose — first overworked me due to the sudden haste with which he announced the 2nd edition (late November 1871); then wasted months and let the best time slip by. He is a lazy little philistine.
To punish Meissner it would be good if 3101t were to write him on the pretext of wanting to know when the 'first' instalment will finally appear. You can then remark, quite en passant, that from my last letters it seemed to you that I was feeling very embittered towards
Meissner and very dissatisfied with him; what is the reason for that? It is not my usual manner! The fellow has really annoyed me very much by his 'if you don't come today, you'll come tomorrow' attitude.
242. Engels to Adolf Hepner. 9 July
Dear Hepner,
1. Proofsa sent off yesterday. Ditto general title. 2. A note to the above which I should very much like to see inserted since it forestalls a possible misunderstanding.[567]
3. Furthermore, the article on the American squabbles.b
4. Sax must wait awhile.c Marx and I are leaving tomorrow to relax a little for a few days at the seaside.[556] I shall be back on Tuesday the 16th of the month and shall go hard at it as soon as I have dealt with the correspondence that is certain to have piled up in my absence. Marx wanted to reply to the Concordia today but was unwell, and it is not clear whether he can manage it now ig. .556 before his return.[492] He has received the Volks-Zeitung. Lindau will receive no article from him, you can bet on that. [58] Marx will probably take steps himself on the matter.
243. Engels to Ugo Bartorelli. 18 July[559]
Citizen,
In reply to your letter of 27 June, postmarked Florence 6 July, and which, not being correctly addressed, reached me not until the 16th of this month, I should advise you that we have no other flag than that of the world proletariat, the red flag.
It would appear from the same letter that your society has constituted itself and considers itself as a section of the International; it is therefore my duty to inform you that the General Regulations currently in force require the completion of a number of formalities before new sections can be admitted.[560]
Section II, Art. 4 states: Every new branch or society intending to join the International, is bound immediately to announce its adhesion to the General Council. The General Council has the right, etc. (Basle resolution).
And in Section V, Art. 1: Every branch has the right to make particular rules and bye-laws, adapted to the local circumstances and the laws of its country; but these must in no respect contain anything contrary to the General Rules and Regulations (Geneva resolution).[561]
And since, according to Section II, Art. 2, 'the General Council is bound to execute the resolutions of Congresses', to which it is responsible, this General Council cannot recognise as sections of the International any societies other than those which have conformed to these articles, agreed to abide by the General Rules and Regulations of the Association, and whose Rules it has recognised as being in conformity with the General Rules and Regulations. We are sure that you have omitted to do this only because you were unaware of these rules, of which an authentic Italian edition does not exist. I therefore enclose a copy in French with the relevant articles marked in red.
As the Congress is approaching (2 September, in The Hague,[450]
Holland) we would also draw your attention to Article 7 of Section I, which states: 'Only the delegates of such societies, sections or groups as form parts of the International, and shall have paid their contributions to the General Council (10 c. per member), will in future be allowed to take their seats and to vote at Congresses.'
Greetings and brotherhood.
244. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 23 July[121]
Dear Kugelmann,
If nothing happens in between, I shall be at The Hague[450] on 2 September and shall be very glad to see you there. I had already sent you the Scissions etc.* [86] but it seems to have been confiscated. I am therefore enclosing a copy in this letter. You must excuse me for not writing more today. I have to send
épreuves* to Paris and am in general overburdened with work.
Your
K. M.
245. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 29 July[121]
Dear Kugelmann,
At the International Congress (Hague, opening 2 September),[450]
it will be a matter of life or death for the International; and, before I resign,[3] I want at least to protect it from disintegrating elements. Germany must therefore have as many representatives as possible. Since you are in any case coming, write to Hepner that I ask him to get you a delegate's mandate.
Your
K. Marx
246. Marx to Hermann Jung. End of July[562]
Dear Jung,
Voilab Article 8 in the French and English versions: 'Dans sa lutte contre le pouvoir collectif des classes possédantes, le prolétariat ne peut agir comme classe qu'en se constituant lui-même en parti politique distinct, opposé à tous les anciens partis formés par les classes possédantes. Cette constitution du prolétariat en parti politique est indispensable pour assurer le triomphe de la révolution sociale et son but suprême, l'abolition des classes. 'La coalition des forces ouvrières déjà obtenue par ses luttes économiques doit aussi servir de levier aux mains de cette classe dans sa lutte contre le pouvoir politique de ses exploiteurs.
'Les seigneurs de la terre et du capital se serviront toujours de leurs privelèges politiques pour défendre et perpétuer leurs monopoles économi-ques et asservir le travail
'La conquête du pouvoir politique devient donc le grand devoir du prolétariat'
* 'Against the collective power of the propertied classes the working class cannot act, as a class, except by constituting itself into a political party, distinct from, and opposed to, all old parties formed by the propertied classes.
'This constitution of the working class into a political party is indispensable in order to insure the triumph of the social Revolution and its ultimate end—the abolition of classes.
'The combination of forces which the working class has already effected by its economical struggles ought at the same time to serve as a lever for its struggles against the political power of landlords and capitalists.
'The lords of land and the lords of capital will always use their political privileges for the defence and perpetuation of their economical monopolies and for enslaving labour. To conquer political power has therefore become the great duty of the working classes.'*
Salut.
Karl Marx
247. Engels to Adolf Hepner. 4 August[150]
Dear Hepner,
I was about to write a brief article for you on the latest Bakuninist affairs, when it developed that the General Council would have to make a statement on the matter itself. Thus the article has turned into an address,[563] the German translation of which you will receive on Wednesday.[3]
The latest Spanish documents may well serve as a supplement shortly.[564] Bakunin retained the Alliance de la démocratie socialiste,a
which you know of from the Scissions,b [385] as a secret society in order to obtain control of the International. But we learned of this, and now we have the proof. Thus, the charge will now be made publicly, as otherwise the elections to the Congress in Spain[450]
would be run by the Alliance and their outcome would be in its favour. Bakunin will break his neck in this affair.
You will have received the reply to the Concordia.'[492] So that is what the armchair socialists amount to! I had not thought that they could be as stupid as that, I had thought that the paper must be edited by someone like Beta-Bettziech.
The factum of Verdy was something I knew from the Kölnische Zeitung, but I did not know that the man was also a trickster.c
Very fine. That wretched Sonnemann, incidentally, regards every great historical event merely as an opportunity to change his lousy Frankfurt back into a free city of the Empire. And for this reason the Prussians must always serve as whipping-boy. According to our information, the preparations are being made on such a colossal scale that the Prussians can be defeated only if they are opposed by Austria, as well as France and Russia. But Austria will be on Prussia's side, unless some sudden change occurs, which is not to be expected in the circumstances. Moreover, we shall soon witness the diverting spectacle of Williamd issuing an appeal to the Poles and re-establishing some sort of Poland. And with this he, and the whole Prussian regime, will break their necks. The Prusso-German Empire is far from having reached its culminating point; this war (if it ends well, which is to be expected) will swiftly raise it to its climax, and then it will come tumbling down from the dizzy heights of Napoleonic glory. It is quite possible that this time the movement will start in Berlin; the contradictions are growing very acute there, and all that is required to bring things to a head is a change in the political situation. A Berlin revolution of that kind will certainly be pretty rough, but still it is better for it to come from within than after a Sedan, which only brings harm everywhere.[566]
Hirsch must send to Switzerland for the following writings of Bakunin:
Lettres à un français (anonymous), Geneva 1871. L'Empire knouto-germanique by M. Bakounine, Geneva 1871. This is not obtainable from booksellers, I have tried it, but Boruttau will certainly get it for him since he is in raptures about it.
Pass on my greetings to Liebknecht and Bebel when you next visit them.
Best regards.
Yours,
F. E.
248. Engels to Theodor Cuno. 4 August
Dear Cuno,
The Belgian Federal Council could not have done us a greater favour than by taking action against the German section in Verviers.[567] By doing that it shows how necessary it is to have a General Council in order to defend the autonomy of the sections against the Federal Councils. The Belgian Federal Council, however, cannot exclude the German section from the International, but only from the Belgian Federation:
'Administrative Regulations Section IV: Federal Councils or Committees, Article 4. Any Federation may refuse to admit or may exclude from its midst societies or branches. It is, however, not empowered to deprive them of their International character.'(1)
Thus as an independent section, the German section in Verviers has, under Art. 7 of the General Rules (end of the Article), the right to correspond directly with the General Council. Please draw their attention to this fact and urge them to write to us; up to now nothing has arrived here.
Has Schlehbach in Verviers received my letter" and why does he not reply?
I am sending you an issue of the Emancipaciôn and a circular in Spanish by Lafargue (Marx's son-in-law)b and would like you to study it carefully. You will see from it what was at stake for Bakunin: a secret society within the International to gain control of the latter. Fortunately, the plan has now come to light and just in time. This business will break Bakunin's neck. The General Council will issue an Address devoted to it on Tuesday,0 also indicting the Spanish Federal Council, which has 5 members of the Alliance sitting on it.[563]
In all haste — I have to edit this Address and have a terrible amount of other work for the International in preparation for the Congress.[450]
Yours,
F. E.
Tell Herman that I have looked around for work for him, but have not come up with anything yet. There is no point in going to Jackson & Sons after my last experiences there in February. Tell Herman to write to his friend Prigneaux here: he is the right man.
249. Engels to Johann Philipp Becker. 5 August
My dear old Friend,
The fact that the Congress is to be held in The Hague[450] is due, above all, to your unfortunate split[3] on the question of revising the constitution.[539] We could not foresee where that would lead and had no time to waste. However, there are also the following considerations to be borne in mind:
1. We have not overestimated the strength of the Jurassians. On their own count, and this is confirmed by their membership dues, they number 294, including Section Longemalle with 62, and also 74 newly joined graveurs and guillocheurs.b But we know their tactics. Of the 62 Longemallers every one would have managed to obtain an illicit mandate by some means or other; then there are the people from the Jura itself, say a dozen, and then some 20 Italians and 6 Spaniards — which makes more than enough. In these circumstances some of the Belgians would have gone over to their side.
2. As for the forged mandates, they would have around 30-40 from America (from the Woodhull people), around a dozen from here (from the sections forming the UNIVERSAL FEDERALIST COUNCIL[417] which have never been affiliated to the International), around 50-60 from the German Schweitzerians who joined the Federalist Council directly, and if they play their cards well, they would also receive a fair number from Spain. I shall deal with Italy in a moment. So there was every chance that when the mandates are scrutinised — and this time everything depends on that — the societies which wish to force their way into the International without ever having belonged to it would have been able to gain entry with a majority, particularly when you remember how tolerant the workers usually are in such matters and how things worked out at all previous Congresses. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that there will be enough sections on our side, too, whose dues are not in order and which will have to take an indulgent line in voting so as to ensure that they too may be treated indulgently. And if that were to happen we would have had no choice but to take our hats and leave the International.
3. You underestimate the power of the Alliancea in Italy. In the whole of Italy we have only one section, Turin, of whose quality we are certain; and perhaps Ferrara. Milan has been, since Cuno's departure, completely in the hands of the Bakuninists, Naples always was and the Fascio Operaio in Emilia, the Romagna and Tuscany[486] is wholly under Bakunin's influence. These people constitute an International of their own, they have never applied for membership, have never paid dues, but they act as if they belonged to the International. Directed by members of the secret Alliance, they are very numerous and at a rate of 1 delegate for 50 members they could easily elect 40 delegates, 15-20 of whom would be sent from there and the rest would come from Longemalle, provided with blank mandates.
4. The Belgians will not swamp The Hague, they are reluctant to pay. Moreover, the last Congress in Brussels has proved that when matters come to a head, they are not so bad at all. They have resolved that only sections that have been properly recognised can be represented in The Hague, and that is the main thing.
5. Finally, you should have read Schwitzguébel's hypocritical letter[3] complaining that the Congress is not to be held in Switzerland and already giving a gentle hint of a future protest.[569]
If nothing else had shown me that we were pursuing the right tactics, this would.
At all events, pack your things and come, you will see that all will be well. But only if we, too, turn out in force. The othersb are fanatics, they have a number of wealthy bourgeois on a string who are willing to pay, and they have no expenses themselves the whole year through. If our friends were half as active as they, matters would never have deteriorated to such a point. From America Sorge and Dereure are coming, the others (the Woodhul-lers) are sending 3, including a petticoat. All of us will come, of course. See to it that the Swiss spare no expense this time and that they are properly represented. Especially the Swiss Germans.
Incidentally, we shall be launching a bombshell tomorrow evening which will cause no small panic among the Bakuninists. It is a public statement about the continued existence of the Alliance
de la démocratie socialiste as a secret society.[563] We have at long last received the necessary material and the proof of this from Spain [564] and are launching an attack without delay on the Spanish Federal Council, which has 5 members of the Alliance on it." The Emancipation in Madrid opened fire last Saturday weekb and there should be quite a battle. Of course, you will receive a copy for the Egalité without delay. Those swine imagined that with their secret organisation they could direct the entire International from Locarno.0 But this revelation will break their necks, and if Switzerland and Germany exert themselves just a little bit so that the Alliance people do not get a majority after all through the negligence of our friends, then the whole bubble will burst and we shall have peace and quiet at last.
I shall pass on your instructions to Frankel and Lessner tomorrow.
Vaillant is jogging along here as always, he is busy with chemistry and Rule-revision,[570] something in which he takes a great interest.
Regards from Marx.
Your
F. Engels
250. Engels to Walery Wroblewski. 7 August[571]
IN LONDON [Draft]
London, 7 August 1872 122 Regent's Park Road, N. W.
To Citizen Wrôblewski, Chairman of the Judicial Committee
Citizen,
Having been accused by Citizen Hales of untruths at a plenary meeting of the General Council, I ask the Judicial Committee to call upon the said citizen to be more specific in his accusation and to communicate it to me so that I may defend myself.
At the same time I am accusing Citizen Hales before the Judicial Committee of having shamefully calumniated me by uttering such an accusation against me before the General Council.
I am instructing Citizen Marx to impart this communication to the Judicial Committee.
251. Marx to Nikolai Danielson. 15 August
Dear Sir,
I hope you have received the first part of the second German edition a 396 which I have sent you a few days since. I shall also send you the first 6 livraisons3 of the French edition[436] which will be out in a few days. It is necessary to compare both editions because I have added and changed here and there in the French edition.
Your interesting letter[572] I have received and shall answer to it in a few days. I have also received the manuscript[57]* and the article of the Vestnik}
To-day I write in all haste, for one special purpose which is of the most urgent character.
Bakunin has worked secretly since years to undermine the International and has now been pushed by us so far as to throw away the mask and secede openly with the foolish people led by him — the same man who was the manager in the Nechayev affair.[529] Now this Bakunin was once charged with the Russian translation of my book,c received the money for it in advance, and instead of giving work, sent or had sent to Lubanin (I think)d who transacted for the publishere with him the affair, a most infamous and compromising letter.[574] It would be of the highest utility for me, if this letter was sent me immediately. As this is a mere commercial affair and as in the use to be made of the letter no names will be used, I hope you will procure me that letter. But no ime is to be lost. If it is sent, it ought to be sent at once as I shall leave London for the Haag Congress[450] at the end of this month.
Yours very truly,
A. Williams'
252. Marx to Juste Vernouillet. 15 August
Dear Sir,
According to a letter from Mr Lachâtre which reached me yesterday, I am in future to send the proofsa to Mr Lahure.[436]
However, Mr Lachâtre forgot to let me have Mr Lahure's address, which is why I am writing you this note.
Last week I despatched to Mr Dervaux, at the last address he had given me — 34 Rue Fontaine, Quartier St Georges — the manuscript of Section II. He has not yet acknowledged receipt.
On Monday lastb I sent him the final proof of instalment 6, which I had marked ready for press (after having made the few corrections indicated).
I hope that everything has reached the publisher's. If you have received No. 6 and made the corrections, I authorise you, as requested by Mr Lachâtre, to print instalments 1 to 6 straightaway.
Perhaps you would be good enough to reply by return of post.
Yours very faithfully,
Karl Marx
253. Engels to E. Glaser de Willebrord. 19 August[575]
IN BRUSSELS
[Excerpt from a letter]
[London,] 19 August 1872
As you will already know, victory is now ours. The Italians, self-styled Internationalists, have held a Conference at Rimini[576] at which the representatives of 21 sections resolved that: The Conference, etc., etc.
It would be advisable to publish this immediately, in the Internationale and the Liberté. Bakunin, whose style is detectable throughout the document, realising that the game was up, has beaten a retreat all along the line and, with his followers, is leaving the International. Bon voyage to Neuchâtel.
But what is even more absurd is that, of the 21 sections which claim the right to convene an International Congress, only one, that of Naples, actually belongs to the International. The remaining 20, in order to safeguard their autonomy, have repeatedly abstained from taking any of the steps prescribed by our General Regulations as conditions of admission. Their principle is 'L'Italia farà da sè'(1); they constitute an International outside the International. The three other sections which maintain relations with the General Council — Milan, Turin and Ferrara— did not send delegates to Rimini.
Thus, in addition to the Conseil fédéraliste universel*[11] constituted by societies which do not belong to the International and, for that very reason, claim to control it, we now have an anti-authoritarian Congress convened by societies outside the International and claiming to make laws for it.
For the rest, this has happened just at the right moment to open the Spaniards' eyes; in that country we have succeeded in enticing the fox from his lair. We have forced the Alliancists themselves to publish the Rules of the 'eminently secret' Alliance.[10] The present (Spanish) Federal Council, with 5 Alliancists out of 8 members, has been unmasked and publicly denounced as perfidious to the International. Everywhere the struggle has broken out between 24 1872
Alliancists and Internationalists. The oldest TRADE UNION in the world, that of machine-spinners and weavers in Catalonia, 40,000 strong,(2) has come out in support of us and sent Mora, who is one of us, to the Congress[450] because, according to his mandate, he knows better than anyone else what the Alliance is like." The Rimini resolution will put paid to the Alliance in Spain.
The Danes are sending two delegates; the Germans 5 or 6 at least. Sorge and Dereure are on their way from America; the schismatics there want to send three.
Lafargue is coming with a mandate from the Portuguese. Another advantage is that the Congress will henceforth be free of public rumpuses. Everything will go off decorously in front of the bourgeois public.
As for the Neuchâtel Congress, it will turn out to be nothing more than a meeting of the Jura Federation, in company with a few Italian sections, and hence an utter fiasco.
At last all is going well, but we must not allow this to lull us to sleep. If the Internationalists do their duty, the Hague Congress will be a great success; it will establish the organisation on a sound basis and will once again enable the Association to develop internally in a peaceful manner while confronting its external enemies with renewed vigour.
254. Engels to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 24 August[538]
Dear Liebknecht,
I regret that I have to decline your proposal for me to offer myself as a candidate, if only because I have forfeited my status as a Prussian subject, and hence my rights of citizenship in the German Empire, by having stayed abroad for ten years without permission.
We learned today that the Jurassians will be coming to The Hague[450] after all, but that they will withdraw after the first resolutions against the Alliance[10] and will then hold their own congress in Neuchâtel. Bakunin seems to have been premature with his instructions to Italy; the Spaniards will have shown him that things cannot be dealt with in such a way and that they would have to go to The Hague, if only to protest. The situation is that the Spanish Federal Council has an Alliance-majority and has operated an electoral procedure which makes it probable that they will send 4 Alliance representatives.[579] In contrast, the union of the (40,000-strong) Catalan factory workers[577] will send Mora, a supporter of ours.(1) The Italians will take good care not to show up after their Rimini resolution.[576]
Sorge is here, with me, and sends his regards.
Your
F. E.
The Bakuninists are unlikely to provoke a fight. Their cowardice is really without limits, though they are always ready to speak out of turn. But they won't attack unless they are 8 against 1.
255. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 26 August[121]
Dear Kugelmann,
At The Hague[450] the delegates must wear blue bands so that the people who come to meet them will recognise them.
If anything goes wrong: Private address: Bruno Liebers, 148 Jacob Catsstraat. Public Congress Hall: Concordia, Lombardstraat. In all haste,
Your
K. M.
256. Engels to Hermann Jung. Early September
Dear Jung,
In the whole of financial year I find payments for rent[580]
1871 October 31 — Truelove £7.7.— and two payments to Martin "5.—
£12.7.—
but no payments to Truelove on leaving the old shop!" Now this must have been paid — have you forgotten to enter it? Please write to the Hague to address on other side if this payment has been omitted on the books. I know last year at the Conferenceb we owed six months rent and now we owe none.
Yours fraternally,
F. Engels Bruno Liebers
148 Jacob Catsstraat The Hague, Holland Note on inside of envelope that it is for me.
257. Engels to Maltman Barry. 15 September[581]
Dear Barry,
Marx wishes me to send you a few notes on the Hall of Science men,[582] here they are, I hope they will prove sufficient. Marx said he would send you the circular of the General Councila relating to these fellows, but for safety's sake I enclose you a copy which please return.
Yours truly,
F. Engelsb
About April last a knot of men clubbed together, pretending to represent a few societies which nobody knows, and adopted the grandiloquent name of Universal Federalist Council of the I.W.M.A. and of the sections adhering to it.[417] Not one of the societies they pretended to represent belonged to the International. Not one of themselves belonged to it, on the contrary, two of them had been expelled from it. But this was the very reason why they claimed the right to supersede the then existing General Council and to [take the] direction of the International into their own hands. A circular of that General Council held them up to the ridicule of Europe and they were silent for a time. Now these very same men reappear under the name of Universal Federalist Congress. We find here again the same Landeck who entered at the last trial of the International in Paris (June 1870) into a solemn engagement with the Prefect of Policea not to occupy himself anymore with politics or with the International,b and [was] since expelled from the London society of French refugees.[583] The same Vésinier, author of a whole library of Holywell streetc
literature add Louis Napoleon, expelled from the International by a committee of the Brussels Congress in 1868, and from the London society of refugees in 1872. The same Schneider, denounced in the German Press as a disturber of workmen's meetings (the police used next morning to pay for the windows, glasses and furniture smashed by him and his helpmates) and as a swindler.e The same Zielinski, his right hand man, the same Adolphe Smith, etc., we find moreover a few additional preten-ders to fame such as the Pole Mileski who during the conference' translated all speeches into Polish for the exclusive benefit of himself, he being the only Pole present most of the time, and Oudet whose harebrained tomfooleries during the Commune are still in the recollection of many. Add a few German poor workingmen from the East End and you have the whole composition of this Universal Congress of twenty five rogues and fools.
1820-1970. Referate. Diskussionen. Dokumente, Hanover, 1971
258. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 21 September
Dear Sorge,
I hope that you have arrived safely in New York and that Cuno has also survived the terrors of the steerage.
Of the Congress Resolutions[580] you took the following with you:
1. the new Articles 2 and 6 of the Administrative Regulations, Section II, on the General Council";
2. the report of the Commission on the Alliance[584]; 3. the declaration of the minority[585]; 4. the resolution about the transfer [of the seat of the General Council] and the election of 12 members of the General Council with plenary powers to co-opt another 3, together with the list of those elected.
So what you still do not have are:
1. the resolution expressing sympathies with the martyrs of the proletariat[587];
2. the one about subscriptions, 3. the one about cancelling plenary powers and 4. perhaps the wording of the article in the Rules about politics. I enclose all 4.
The other papers you left behind are 1. incoming items about which nothing was decided, 2. motions that were not accepted, 3. one or two motions on procedural matters which were adopted and, having been put into effect at the Congress, are now disposed of. All these will go into the minutes and are of no interest to you.
It occurs to me that perhaps you do not have 5. Lafargue's proposal for international TRADES UNIONS, so I have translated it from the Spanish and enclose it herewith.
As soon as we have received the report you promised on the mandate debate (which, as you know, was not minuted, owing to the stupidity of the President, who failed to have secretaries nominated), the resolutions will be officially compiled and published.[588]
Lucain took the Commission's papers with him to Brussels and is now sorting out the statements of the witnesses. As soon as we receive from him the papers, promised to us by the end of the month at the latest, all the evidence about Bakunin and the Alliance will be compiled and printed. We have now received some more very nice material, which could not be laid before the Commission because it arrived too late.
Next, the minutes of the Congress for publication.[589]
For the correspondence with Germany, Italy, etc., I enclose all the addresses known to me.
Hales raised hell in the Federal Council here, proposing a motion of censure against Marx because he had said that the English workers' leaders had been sold down the river — but a local English and an Irish section have already protested, saying that Marx is in the right. The whole crew — Hales, Mottershead, Eccarius, etc.—are furious that the General Council has been taken out of their hands.[590]
Guillaume has said in Brussels to Wilmart (who has passed it on to us in writing) that the Spaniards would re-establish the Alliance since it was now more necessary than ever.
West is still stuck here — no money for the return journey. Give my warmest regards to Cuno and tell him to keep in touch with me wherever he might go. Best wishes,
Your
F. Engels
The Dutch say that the main reason they voted with the minority was that they want to be reunited with Belgium and hence have to oblige the Belgians!
Hepner has been arrested and threatened with 4 weeks gaol because, as you know, the Chief of Police in Leipzig has banned the International on his own initiative!
Resolution approved at the first public session:
The Congress of the International Working Men's Association, assembled at The Hague, expresses in the name of the world proletariat its admiration for the heroic fighters for the emancipation of labour who fell victims of their devotion, and sends fraternal and sympathetic greetings to all those who are at present persecuted by bourgeois reaction in France, Germany, Denmark and the entire world.
(Proposed by A. Schwitzguébel and 7 others.)a
On subscriptions:
We propose that the subscription should remain as fixed by the General Rules.
( P r o p o s e d b y E. Dupont a n d 3 o t h e r s — a d o p t e d o n S a t u r d a y m o r n i n g . b )
O n t h e cancellation of the old p l e n a r y p o w e r s :
I propose that all powers granted by the General Council, the councils, committees and sections in the countries where the International is banned should be cancelled and that the General Council alone should have the right to nominate representatives in those countries.
(Proposed by A. Serraillier and 7 other French delegates and adopted on Saturday.)
The Lafargue motion was passed unanimously on Saturday morning. However, I have only a Spanish version which will not correspond exactly to the official wording.
On behalf of the Portuguese Federation and the New Madrid Federation I propose:
That the new General Council be charged with the special mission of organising international trade associations (TRADES UNIONS).
For this purpose it will, within one month of the conclusion of this Congress, draw up a circular which shall be printed and forwarded to all working men's associations whose addresses are in its possession, whether they are affiliated to the International or not.
In this circular the Council will invite the working men's associations to form an International union of their respective trades.
Every working men's association shall be invited to fix itself the conditions under which it proposes to enter the International Union of its own trade.
The General Council is charged with unifying all the conditions put forward by the associations which have endorsed this idea and to draw up a general plan to be submitted to the provisional acceptance of all the working men's associations wishing to enter International trades unions.
The next Congress will then formally ratify the project.
(Supported by 10 others and passed unanimously without debate.)
Germany — everything to the editors of the Volksstaat, Hepner and, at the moment, Rud. Seiffert — the addresses of the Committee, etc., are to be found in the Volksstaat.
Italy: Turin Section (Società Emancipazione del Proletario): 1. Outer envelope: M. Jean Jacques Goss, Concierge de l'église évangélique, Via Principe Tommaso No. 1, Turin; inner envelope: Signor Cesare Bert — Secretary. 2. Signor Luigi Perrini, Viale del Rè 26, Torino. Be on your guard here against that scoundrel Carlo Terzaghi.
Milan Section: (Circolo Operaio*) Secretary, Mauro Gandolfi, Via Solferino 11, Milano (a member of the Alliance, and the Section is rotten. Details from Cuno). Rome Section: 1. Outer envelope: Signor Leonardo Centenari, direttore della Tipografia Rechiedei, Via Monserrato 25, Roma. Inner envelope: Signor Osvaldo Gnocchi-Viani.—Parcels — outer address: alla Libreria dell'Univer-sità, Via Staderari 38-40, inner address to O. G. Viani. Only registered 2 weeks before the Congress.
Ferrara Section: everything to be sent to Enrico Bignami, Periodico La Plebe, Via Cavour 19, Lodi, Lombardia. This and the Turin Section are the best. I know nothing about the Rome Section.
Girgenti* Section, Sicily: Avvocato Antonino Riggio (Bakuninist)—have heard nothing from there for ages.
Spain: Consejo Federal de la Région Espanola: Senor Don Julian Valero, Calle de Sorolla 35, Valencia. Inner envelope: Francisco Tomas.
Nueva Federation Madrilena: José Mesa y Leompart, San Pedro 16, 3° (third floor) Madrid (French).
Portugal: José C. Nobre-França, Travessa do Abarracamento de Péniche, No. 4, 2° andar (second floor), Lisboa, Portugal (French).
Serraillier, Auguste, 35 Gaisford Street, Kentish Town, London, N.W.
Brussels: De Paepe, César, Hôpital Saint-Jean, Bruxelles. Geneva: H. Perret or J. Ph. Becker, Temple Unique, Genève. Holland: H. Gerhardt, 472 Runstraat, Amsterdam. Art. 7a of the General Rules, adopted Saturday morning by 28 to 13 (including abstentions), i.e. with more than a two-thirds majority.—
In its struggle against the collective power of the propertied classes, the working class cannot act as a class except by constituting itself into a political party, distinct from, and opposed to, all old parties formed by the propertied classes.—This constitution of the working class into a political party is indispensable in order to insure the triumph of the social revolution, and of its ultimate end, the abolition of classes. The combination of forces which the working class has already effected by its economical struggles, ought, at the same time, to serve as a lever for its struggles against the political power of its exploiters. The lords of land and the lords of capital will always use their political privileges for the defence and perpetuation of their economical monopolies, and for the enslavement of labour. The conquest of political power has therefore become the great duty of the working class.
259. Engels to Hermann Jung. 1 October
IN LONDON
[London,] 1 October 1872 122 Regent's Park Road
Dear Jung,
Can you furnish me with the addresses of the Secretaries of
1) The Iron Founders, 2) The Ship's Carpenters, 3) The Ship's Caulkers (if they have a union). I want these immediately in order to communicate with them on some strike affairs in Portugal[591]—I have applied to the British Federal Council but cannot learn that they are taking any steps whatever, and so I must act on my own hook.
Yours truly,
F. Engels
My and Mrs Engels'a compliments to Mrs Jung and yourself.
260. Marx to P. van der Willigen. 4 October[592]
Dear Sir,
My best thanks for your pamphlet.b
The report of the Hague Congress will not appear for some little while, whereupon I shall send you a copy.
Enclosed the first instalment of the French translation of my book, Das Kapital.a I am sending you at the same time the 4 instalments of the 2nd German edition that have appeared so far.[396]
You must excuse me for not having replied any sooner to your various letters, the reasons being a complete lack of time and a surfeit of work. I shall be pleased to see you at my place one evening (e.g. Wednesday) next week.
Yours very sincerely,
Karl Marx
261. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 5 October
122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.
Dear Sorge,
On vous taille de la besogne." Enclosed the French translation (because the wording can be done most literally in that language) of 2 articles from the Federation (Alerini's paper).b However, the Belgians are not really so terrifying. According to letters received subsequently they have already taken fright at their own boldness and do not know how to extricate themselves; in addition the disorganisation in the International in Belgium increases daily, which is very useful in view of the need to re-organise everything.
In contrast, you cannot simply ignore the resolutions of the Jurassians which, having been passed by a Federal Congress, amount to an open declaration of war.[593] Le Conseil général est tenu d'exécuter les résolutions du Congrès3 (Geneva Resolution ). We wrote off to Geneva at once for the latest Bulletin jurassien and shall send it to you as soon as it arrives. In addition, you could if you want write directly to the Comité Fédéral Jurassien (address: Adhémar Schwitzguébel, graveur, Sonvillier, Jura Bernois, Suisse) and ask for information.
It is a very good thing that these gentlemen have openly declared war and thus given us a sufficient reason to show them the door. After this open declaration it is impossible for a majority of the federations to demand that the matter be brought before a Congress13 especially since at most 4 would vote in favour (they themselves, the Spaniards, Belgians and Dutch), while all the rest would be against. Swift, vigorous action against these eternal troublemakers is, in our view, very much in place as soon as you have the evidence in your hands, and will probably suffice to disperse the threatened Sonderbund.[595]
Yesterday I sent you Nos. 65, 66 and 67 of the Emancipation. The fact that Guillaume had told Wilmart in Brussels that the Spaniards would re-establish the Alliance since now, after the Hague Congress, it was more necessary than ever, was reported by Wilmart himself in a letter to Lafargue (which I have read).
I had intended to enclose the report on Spain, Portugal and Italy to the General Council0 but will not have it ready in time for the post. However, I do enclose my report to Section 6,[596] which you can give to Bertrand.
Here Hales has launched a colossal slander campaign against Marx and myself, but it is rebounding on him without our having to lift a finger.[590] The pretext was Marx's statement about the corruptness of the English labour leaders. Some London sections and the whole of Manchester have protested most vigorously and Hales has lost his former majority in the FEDERAL COUNCIL, so that he will probably be thrown out entirely soon.
That damned Lucain has still not sent us the papers about the Alliance that he took with him, so we are still unable to make a start/ The documents subsequently received from Switzerland give a full account of the Nechayev trial[280] and include some Russian publications of Bakunin's. They are all highly interesting and will cause a fearful scandal. I have never seen such an infamous band of scoundrels in all my life.
My wife[3] discovered after your departure that Emma had accepted money from you for your laundry and asks me to tell you that this was done behind her back, for otherwise she would never have permitted it.
Do not forget the minutes of the mandate debate,[588] since without them we cannot include that section in the minutesb; no one here has anything on it.
With every post we are waiting for news from you and signs of life from the new General Council.
Best wishes to Cuno, I hope he will write soon. POOR Hepner has indeed been given 4 weeks gaol because the International is prohibited in Leipzig!
Your
F. Engels
1906, and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
262. Marx to Maurice Lachâtre. 12 October
Dear Citizen,
You will, I am sure, excuse my long silence, which has been caused by an excessive amount of work. I have at last rid myself of the burdensome administrative business which devolved upon me as a member of the General Council of the International and which, as the days went by, was becoming more and more incompatible with my theoretical studies. At present I still have various tasks entrusted to me by the Hague Congress,[580] but after that I shall be able to dispose of my time more freely.
The first series of Capital[496] has been well done on the whole — I refer to those things incumbent upon the editor. However I was much shocked at the errata which it contains and which were not in the last proofs corrected by me. As an example I am sending you a bit from instalment II p. 16 which reads:
'Ensuite nous avons vu que dès qu'il s'exprime dans la valeur, tous les caractères qui distinguaient le travail productif de valeurs d'usage disparaissent.'a
In instalment II as published (p. 16) they have this totally meaningless sentence:
'Ensuite nous avons vu que dès que le travail productif s'exprime dans la valeur, tous les caractères qui le distinguaient des valeurs d'usage disparaissent.'b
There are other errors of this kind and I have sent a list of them to Mr Vernouillet, at the same time informing him that I shall pass nothing for press until I have in front of me the whole series of five instalments to be published.
Mr Vernouillet has been good enough to send me Mr Maurice Block's pamphlet (extracted from the Journal des Économistes).[597]
Here we have a man of brains who doesn't even know what an 'average' is, although he purports to have devoted his whole life to statistics! I wouldn't deny that there may have been a certain amount of ill-will on his part, but on the whole there is more stupidity in him than malice.
The changes it was necessary to make in Mr Roy's translation have taken a great deal of time, but it gets better from the third section onwards.
In Russia my book0 has proved an extraordinary success. As soon as I have a little more time, I shall send you some extracts from the Russian reviews.[598] The Russian translation (in a fat volume) was published at the end of April ('72) and I have already been advised by Petersburg that a second edition will be appearing in 1873.860
At The Hague I found Laura very unwell and her health deteriorated still further after my departure. A letter received yesterday brings better news and next month I shall have the pleasure of seeing her here with her husband.a
Last Friday the wedding took place between. Jenny, my eldest daughter, and Longuet (who sends you his regards).*b
How goes it with public affairs in Spain? In my opinion you and many of the other proscribed Frenchmenc (save, perhaps, for those most compromised) will soon be able to return home.
I remain, dear Citizen,
Yours very sincerely,
Karl Marx
263. Marx to Hermann Jung. 14 October
Dear Jung,
About the grèved you had best write directly[591]:
1. Leipzig: Editor of the Volksstaat, 4 Hoherstrasse. 2. Vienna: Editor of the Volkswille, 32 Aiserstrasse. 3. Berlin: Fr Milke, compositor, 65 Hof IV, Schützenstrasse. Salut.
K. M.
264. Engels to Friedrich Lessner. 16 October
Dear Lessner,
Would you please give the enclosed letter(1) to the Secretary of the FEDERAL COUNCIL tomorrow evening. If Hales then insists that it is necessary to write to Lisbon direct, without going through me, it would be best if you were to say no more than this: the matter should be dealt with speedily and so the best course to take would be to reply to me without delay; if Hales still wanted to discuss formalities and personalities, this would only show that he did not want any real work to be done, but merely wanted to waste the time of the FEDERAL COUNCIL and to sacrifice the interests of the Portuguese workers to his personal intrigues. If they demand that I should give them the Lisbon address, it would be best to say nothing for the time being; it will all work out.
Your
F. E.
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
265. Engels to Theodor Cuno. 29 October
IN NEW YORK
London, 29 October 1872 122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.
Dear Cuno,
Received your letter of the 8th and the minutes3; many thanks for both.
The Bulletin jurassien, which you will have received,0 and the Internationale of Brussels, which is going off today, will prove to you that we must really get down to it and that it is absolutely essential for Sorge at least to shake off his reservations and agree to an election0 so that not just unity of action but above all action itself can be ensured. If we do not, without further ado, take energetic steps to suspend the Jurassians because of their Congress resolutions, which ride roughshod over the Rules and the Hague resolutions,[593] and to expel the members of the anti-authoritarian Congress,[599] in so far as they belong to the International at all, and to proclaim and justify such actions, then these people really will become altogether too cocksure. Time is still on our side: the Belgians are frightened by their own initial courage and are vacillating, in Spain the opposition to the Alliance people is growing stronger by the day, they are already calling for an extraordinary Spanish congress to examine the behaviour of the Federal Council and the delegates in The Hague — but all of this will go cold if the impertinent behaviour of the Jurassians is tolerated. And you can see from Hales' letter in the Internationale* that these men will do their utmost.[600] Hales is the Jurassians' correspondent and distributes their Bulletin with its filthy articles here gratis to anyone who will take it and he sends it to all the sections.
I must close now to catch the post. Marx and I are overloaded as never before with work on the Congress, preparing things for print, and with correspondence.[588] Sorge will have received the
266. Engels to Jenny Longuet. 30 October
Emancipaciön, you can translate it for him. The next STEAMER will bring another few issues. Along with the Volksstaat it is our best paper.
The business with West amused us greatly. We all send our best regards to Sorge and yourself.
Your
F. Engels
Lafargue and wifea arrived here the day before yesterday.[601]
266
ENGELS TO JENNY LONGUET[602]
IN OXFORD
London as usual, October 30th 1872
My dear Jenny,
You must consider me an awfully cruel individual to think that I should be capable to poison, by malice prepensée, even with one drop of vinegar, the sweetness of your honeymoon.[603] If Mottershead or Guillaume said such a thing of me, I should not wonder, but you! Indeed I never thought that there was in one of the numbers that little entrefiletc about a certain great man' whom I better not name, and if I had seen it I should have kept the number back or used Russian censorship to tease you a bit.
Your account of Oxford people only gives a sad confirmation to the sad fact that landladies are the same all the world over, indeed one does not know which are the worst, landladies or landlords. It's the difference of retail and wholesale which distinguishes the landlady of Stanhope House from the Marquis of Westminster,d
the principle is the same.
Now the Lafargues are here[601] and you no doubt now and then feel inclined to come over here, I hope you will recollect that there is always plenty of accommodation, both for you and for the Longuet of all Charlies, at our house, and he shall find a bed where he can stretch himself without laying crossways. And as I am on this subject, an idea strikes me. To-morrow night seven sharp we shall have the whole of your house, Lafargues and Ellen a and all, here for dinner, and would it not be a nice surprise if they found you here? I could not well write about this before, as the thing was only finally settled to-day, Mohr being so very uncertain on account of his hard work; but I know you're quite capable of making up your mind even to-morrow morning, and so I hope you will come. And as there are generally such things to be had as return tickets available for three or four days, you might stay a few days here, and perhaps Longuet finds time to come on Saturday to take you back on Sunday or Monday morning. If you leave by 2.30 train (if my old railway guide be still correct) you will be here in very good time, and indeed we might go across to Maitland Parkb before dinner and see how they are getting on. I hope you will ruminate this suggestion to-morrow morning over breakfast and find it excellent.
As to the purs, impurs and demipursc604 I see very little of them, the purs are going to publish a pamphletd containing all their grievances but it is still a mystery to me whether they will say much about us. At all events they are going to organise
une société indépendente où toute tendence anti-révolutionnaire serait exclue.'
Last Sundayf Mohr delivered a lecture before the Knoten.[605] I brought a German chemical manufacturer, friend of Schorlemmer'sg ('not unlike your brothers, but otherwise a typically easy-going son of the Palatinate', as Schorlemmer described him in his unsealed letter!) who permitted himself one or two objections but was pretty well rebuffed by Lessner and a few other working men.
So I am counting on your innate energy to make a bold decision and come here tomorrow; that would be an enormous pleasure.
My wifea and Pumpsb join me in sending you both our best wishes.
Your old
F. Engels
This page has, of course, been written in German especially for Longuet's benefit. Lafargue is quite good at German and could follow Mohr's lecture fairly well.
267. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 2 November
Enclosed is my report on Spain.c
I have just been asked to inform the General Council officially of the formation of the following two sections:
1. Associazione degli opérai e degli agricoltori della Bassa Lombardia (Sezione di Lodi), Enrico Bignami, Via Cavour 19 (secretary).
2. Consociazione dei liberi Lavoratori Abruzzesi (Sezione di Aquila, in the province of the same name. Correspondence via Lodi for the moment).
The announcement comes from Bignami, who also states that both have adopted Rules that conform to the General Rules. I shall ask for copies and send them to you.[606]
Bignami is the only fellow in Italy to have taken our side, even though not very vigorously up to now. In his paper, La Plebe, he has printed not only my report on the Hague Congressd but also my much more outspoken private letter to him.a Since I have to send him news reports, the paper remains in our hands. In addition, he has had the General Rules reprinted with the Hague amendments and also my Congress report. He is surrounded by the autonomists and so still has to act circumspectly.
I hear nothing from Turin any more. In Milan Cuno must find at least one contact for us so that we at least get reports. We hear from Ferrara via Lodi; the section was established by Bignami.
Marx asks me to tell you that at the moment the minutes b are still absolutely necessary here. In view of the lies that Hales, Mottershead and Eccarius are spreading here, as well as those of the Jurassians, etc., on the Continent, it may turn out any day that we need to reply in the form of extracts from these minutes. For you, on the other hand, they can easily be dispensed with for the time being. We are making a copy of the parts with the administrative resolutions together with their motivation and shall send it to you.
To be on the safe side I am again giving you the addresses for Spain, Italy and Portugal. If you have accepted the post, I think it is very sensible to have a single corresponding general secretary, who will only co-opt assistants for languages.[60]
Best regards to you all.
Your
F. Engels
José Mesa y Leompart, Calle de San Pedro No. 16, 3° (3rd floor), Madrid.
Spanish, Federal Council: In a double envelope (the inner one to be addressed to Francisco Tomas) to Don Julian Valero, Calle de Sorolla 35, Valencia.
Lisbon: Signor Dom J. C. Nobre-França, Travessa do Abar-racamento de Péniche No. 4, 2° andar (2nd floor), Lisboa.
Turin: Inner envelope: Cesare Bert, Secretary of the local section. Outer: Monsieur J. J. Goss, Concierge de l'église évangéli-que, No. 1, Via Principe Tommaso, Turin.
Turin, alternative address: Luigi Perrini, Viale del Rè 21 (without inner envelope, he is an old member).
Report on Italy to follow — on Portugal Lafargue is translating the report sent from there to the Congress.
time
I am just revising the French translation of the Manifesto; the handwritten version that has been brought is quite good in the main, in so far as Woodhull was good.[60]
268. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 16 November
Dear Sorge,
Your letter of the 25th crossed with mine of 2 November. Marx will have written to you since then.
I gave a copy of the Address [610] to Serraillier in French and first of all to MacDonnel in English for the Irish. I next copied one out myself for The International Herald and lastly sent one to the FEDERAL COUNCIL. The fact is that I was 'very uncertain whether the FEDERAL COUNCIL might not suppress it or, alternatively, that they might not print it word for word with various mistakes in the English and strong Germanisms, so as to expose it to ridicule. I have, of course, changed the latter since the Address was, as it stood, quite unprintable either in English or French. We have always had such things corrected by some educated NATIVE. You will have to do the same as in official documents it is often not possible to make even grammatical alterations, and it is always fatal. For Hales and the Jurassians, etc., any mistake of that sort is in any case a source of amusement.
Up to now the Belgians have not printed anything. You will have to send the Address to Australia yourselves; you will have had a visit from Harcourt in the meantime; I do not have any addresses in Australia.[611]
Jones and Le Moussu have been warned. I shall see Serraillier tomorrow and shall tell him to send you a report which, on account of Dereure, will have to dispense with both names and addresses — the latter he can send you privatim. More on Dereure below.
The stamps[420] cost about £1—Le Moussu did the design gratis. To print the Rules in Englisha cost around £12.
I have already told you of the formation of two new Italian sections.b The official letter now enclosed.
I am sending you today: 1 Emancipation and the manifesto of the Nueva Federation Madrilena[612]
1 Egalité 1 International Herald—report of the FEDERAL COUNCILc 7 Résolutions du Congrès de la Haye. The following matters to report in addition: 1. Blanquists. They have issued a pamphlet: Internationale et révolution of which several copies per NEXT STEAMER. They announce their resignation from the International on the grounds that with the transfer of the General Council to New York it has committed suicide. They will found their own association and are already intriguing actively in France. It is therefore absolutely essential, firstly, that Dereure should not get hold of any addresses in France, and secondly, that he should say where he stands. Of course, this second point is only urgent if you consider it desirable. Serraillier will reply to this concoction in the Liberté and the
Egalité. Ranvier has told Lafargue that the first draft was so full of personalities that he declared he would never put his name to it. He had never seen the second, published, version and his name appeared under it without his authorisation. He has quarrelled with them: they have had the audacity to put him on trial because he continues to belong to a refugee club called the Cercle d'Etudes
Sociales[613] without permission, and he refused to submit to a schoolmasterly examination in the court set up by the purs (which is the name the Blanquists give themselves). As you can see, they are playing at Commune révolutionnaire in the same old way. You will be amused by their little pamphlet in which Vaillant in all seriousness presents all our economic and political ideas as Blanquist discoveries. They have already started to cause trouble in various places in France, apart from Paris where that tall man, Walter, is their agent. Although they are not a threat, they must not be given the means to stir up even more trouble, which is why Dereure must not have any addresses and why we must keep an eye on him.
2. Spain. Matters are going splendidly here. The FEDERAL COUNCIL has had a long thing printed and circulated on the quiet.[614] It contains a) a report on the Congress by the 4 Spaniards which is full of lies,(1)
b) the resolutions of the anti-authoritarians of Saint-Imier,[599]
c) a motion from the Barcelona Federation to convoke a Spanish Congress on 25 December which would decide between the resolutions of The Hague and Saint-Imier,
d) a request to all local federations to give their views on this by 10 November.
The Nueva Federation Madrilena replied to this with the manifesto being sent to you today. It objects to the submission of the Hague resolutions to any International assembly except for the purposes of consideration and implementation. (We have already sent the materials necessary to counter the lies of the 4 Spaniards to Madrid.)
However, in order that the Spaniards should realise who actually rules them, the Jura Committee has already sent the Saint-Imier resolutions direct to all local federations in Spain with the request for their views on them; they have completely by-passed the Spanish FEDERAL COUNCIL.
In the meantime, things have been happening in Spain. The federations of Gracia (industrial suburb of Barcelona) with 500 members, of Toledo (200 members) and those of Badalona and Denia near Barcelona, have come out in our favour and against the Spanish Congress. In Valencia a large part of the local federation is on our side, as well as part of the one in Cadiz, which has already broken away from the old federation there. The sale of the Emancipation, which had been moribund and kept alive by money we had sent from here, is greatly on the increase once more (150 copies in Cadiz, Valencia and Gracia alone). In Gracia there was a large general assembly on 4 November.[615] The Barcelonese, with Alerini at their head, put their proposal forward, but as Mora (who is there) writes:
'Despite all his shouting and gesticulating with his arms and his stick, Alerini was unable to convince these atheists that the Society of Jesus(2) had been acting well. So it was resolved to approve all the Hague resolutions and to censure the attitude of the Spanish delegates.'[616]
Things are going well; if the worst comes to the worst we shall keep a very respectable minority in Spain which will part company with the rest and be of greater value than all the vague nonsense hitherto. However, it is quite possible that we shall smash the whole thing to pieces and throw the Alliance out. For all of this we have Mesa to thank, who has had to bear the brunt all on his own. Mora is feeble and at one point vacillated for a moment. Read the article 'Los medios de la Alianza', in Emancipation No. 71, to see how the Spanish FEDERAL COUNCIL attempted to win over Mora by
INTIMIDATION.6'7
3. London FEDERAL COUNCIL. Thanks to the slackness of the better people among the English, Hales and Mottershead have succeeded in gaining complete control of the FEDERAL COUNCIL. A mass of delegates from imaginary sections have momentarily provided Hales with a majority; he is secretary and treasurer all in one, and you can see from the report in today's International Herald[618] that he is doing as he pleases. The only thing we can do is to hold the better elements together until those crooks clash with each other, which will happen soon enough. GIVE THEM ROPE ENOUGH AND THEY WILL HANG THEMSELVES. YOU will now be receiving The International Herald regularly so that you can see for yourselves how Hales is giving himself airs and acting as if he were the GENERAL COUNCIL. As soon as an opportunity presents itself — a breach of the Rules or something of the sort — and, as an intimate and correspondent of the Jurassians, Hales will provoke one soon enough, our people will split off and form a federation of their own, perhaps one together with the Irish. Unfortunately MacDonnel is leaving for America, but even so we have a very good successor to him in De Morgan, one, moreover, who travels all over England as a LECTURER. He is completely in the picture about the situation.
In order to ensure here the desired publicity for your proclamations, etc., it would be good if the General Council could officially put me in charge of these matters for England. The FEDERAL COUNCIL undoubtedly suppresses as much as it can, and although Riley of The International Herald is an honest fellow and has left the FEDERAL COUNCIL in DISGUST, he is weak and somewhat dependent on the FEDERAL COUNCIL for the sale of his paper. So if I can show him a resolution to that effect he will be covered and will do everything.
I leave it to you to decide whether you wish to send me plenary powers for Italy.[619] In view of the struggle there, in which our people are in a tiny minority, swift intervention would be very desirable. I do indeed maintain my private correspondence with them and also write for the Plebe, but without plenary powers I cannot exert any influence on the sections, which, like the one in Turin, appear to be going to seed entirely and do not communicate at all, something which happens all too often in Italy.
Marx is on a visit to Longuet and his wife in Oxford for a few days[620] so as to go through a part of the French translation of Capital^a with Longuet. He will probably not be back before Monday."
In my opinion you should in any case delegate plenary powers for France to Serraillier.[621] This sort of correspondence cannot possibly be conducted from over there; only, you should require him to send you monthly reports. You will not find anyone better; Dupont is too negligent unless he is spurred on daily and we frequently do not see him here for a fortnight at a time.
As to the Jurassians, it is our view that the best way to proceed is simply to declare that they had disqualified themselves from membership of the International by the resolutions of their congress in Saint-Imier,*[93] which contravene such-and-such articles of the Rules and Administrative Regulations, and then simply to notify the other federations of this fact. Incidentally, things are going badly for them. In Biel, where they no longer had a single member (see Scissions*b), a new section has been formed but it has affiliated itself to Geneva, and their model section in Moutier (see Scissions) has repudiated the resolutions of Saint-Imier. As you see, the Hague resolutions[580] are already bearing fruit everywhere.
As for Germany, it would be good if Marx were to have plenary powers — just in case of emergencies with the Schweitzerians.
All these are matters that you must consider. I am up to my eyes in work here. The fact that Mesa has started to translate the Manifesto has forced me to send him a revised version of the French translation from the Socialiste.6ii The version
269. Engels to Jenny Longuet. 19 November
you brought with you in manuscript turned out to be very useful in this, as it is much better, although still based on Woodhull's English.[609] I am taking the opportunity this -provides to put the French translation in order altogether. In addition I have articles to do for Volksstaat, Emancipation and Plebe; and as soon as Lafargue, who is now here, has found somewhere to live, we shall make a start on the Alliance business.[623] Lucain still has a lot of papers in Brussels and now writes that he will send them at the end of next week, because he wants to copy them!a
What is that scamp Cuno up to?
Your
F. Engels
269
ENGELS TO JENNY LONGUET
IN OXFORD
[London,] 19 November 1872 122 Regent's Park Road
My dear Jenny,
Mohr tells me you and Longuet are coming over here on Thursday.b Lafargue tells me he will remove to his new residence 'perhaps' on Thursday. So, in order to avoid overcrowding, Lizzie and myself again place a room or two in our house at your disposal and hope you will avail yourselves of it — Capital lodgings, front top bedroom and front parlour, what more can you desire?
Lafargue is just dropping in. I tell him what I am writing, he says he thinks he will have removed by Thursday but on the whole seems to coincide with me. I tell him to mention it to Mohr and so I think this business is as good as disposed of, and the rooms will be got ready.
Viele Grüsse an Deinen Mann.
Dein altera
General
270. Marx to Nikolai Danielson. 25 November
My dear friend,
The letter sent over to me has been duly received and has done its work.[574]
If I have not written earlier, and if, even at this moment, I do not send but these few lines, it is because I want you to send me another — if possible—strictly commercial address under which I may write to you.
In consequence of the extradition of Nechayev[624] and the intrigues of his master Bakunin, I feel very anxious on your behalf and that of some other friends. Those men are able of every infamy.
I cannot enough express ray gratitude for the interest taken in my work and labours by you and other Russian friends.
Yours most sincerely
A. Williamsb
Please reply to those lines as soon as possible.
271. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 7 Decembera
Dear Sorge,
Today I am sending you the Emancipation 76, The International Herald 36 and the Blanquist pamphlet,b which is quite unobtainable here and which I was only able to acquire this morning in a roundabout way. Serraillier has written off in answer to the Liberie in Brussels and the Egalité in Geneva, but those jackasses from the Égalité say it is too personal and refuse to print it!
On 3.12. I sent you the Emancipation 74/75, the Plebe 117 and The International Herald 33-35.
MacDonnel sailed for New York on Wednesday, I gave him a few lines for you.[45] If the Fenians there[625] should still mistrust him, you would be doing a service if you could reassure them; he helped us here very ably and quite selflessly.
1. Holland. Van der Hout arrived here the day before yesterday; the Dutch bourgeois will give him no more work, so he wants to look for some here. He says that the Jurassians had invited the Dutch Federation to a new separatist congress.[595] Whereupon they held a Dutch congress[626] at which they resolved: 1. to stand by the General Council, 2. to send a delegate to the separatist congress, but only to report, not to vote, 3. not to recognise any congress but the legitimate one of September 1873 and only to put their complaints, etc., to it. So this amounts to the divorce of the Dutch and the separatists.
2. Spain. You will have seen from the Emancipation that all is going well there. Apart from those known to you, Lérida, the new federation of Cadiz, a large proportion of the Valencians and Pont de Vilumara have come out against the Federal Council. After the Spanish Federal Council directly contravened both the General and the special Spanish Rules by convening a congress in Cordoba on 25 December" to choose between the resolutions of The Hague and Saint-Imier, the New Madrid Federation announced that the Federal Council had forfeited its mandate, and is calling for the election of a new provisional Federal Council.[62] This decisive step will soon clarify the position. In the meantime, a section of our people in Spain, above all the Catalan factory workers, think that the issue should be fought out at the congress in Cordoba, and so will not join in for the present. The Alliance people are hurrying matters along so as to have a majority in Cordoba and they will most probably succeed in their aim, after which the Catalans will formally come over to us.
3. France. Despite the intrigues of the Jurassians and the Blanquists things are going well in the South, where there will be a congress in the next few days which will endorse the Hague resolutions and will probably issue an address to the General Council.[628] However, they demand that there should be someone here with plenary powers who can also delegate temporary powers for France. There is a whole pile of money to be raised which can only be collected by a fully authorised agent on the spot. Larroque, our best man in Bordeaux, is now asking Serraillier and myself to grant him such authority to collect monies there, and I think I am justified in doing so by virtue of the money-raising powers conferred on me, until such a time as this is confirmed or cancelled by the General Council. Since it is vital that there should be somebody at the congress I have just referred to who does have some sort of authority emanating from the General Council, I am taking it upon myself to issue it to him,a and if you disapprove you should inform me at once so that it can be withdrawn without delay.—Lyons is the only place where the Jurassians have some support, thanks to the indolence of the Genevans, but otherwise they have only individuals on their side. You will have seen that the Bulletin jurassien has taken the side of that policeman, Bousquet, and has declared him to be a man of honour.[629]
4. England. The opposition to Hales is growing. Murray, Milner and Dupont have come onto the FEDERAL COUNCIL and will be joined by others. Riley has declared that he no longer wishes to have The International Herald as the official organ of this FEDERAL COUNCIL and, as you will see, the relevant part of the title has disappeared. However, it will probably be a while before the swindle finally collapses. The Hague resolutions'b will appear in the next International Herald, as will also some reports by us on the course of events in the International.[630]
We do not even have a complete set of the minutes.c Hales still has some. It would be a very good thing therefore if you could authorise Marx to take possession of all the papers belonging to the International and/or the old General Council, and particularly the minutes.[651]
A letter of authority for Serraillier for France is absolutely indispensable,[6] ' unless you want everything to fall apart once more. Serraillier is continuing to conduct his correspondence energetically and we are finding the money for him to do so, but he is nothing but a private individual as long as he has not received proper authorisation; and for all their autonomy, the French do want to be directed by someone who has been duly authorised by the General Council. We have nobody else but Serraillier for the job here; Dupont is much too unreliable for such an extensive correspondence and is too busy with his patent.
Greetings from Marx together with his family and from my wife.a Lafargue and Longuet are both here now so that père Marx is surrounded by his entire family.
Your
F. E.
Greetings to Cuno. Why does the scamp not write?
272. Marx to Nikolai Danielson. 12 December[165]
Dear Friend,
From the enclosed you can see the results of the Hague Congress.[632] I read out the letter to Lyubavin [574] to the Commission
d'enquêteb on the Alliance[584] in the strictest confidence and without divulging the name of the addressee. Nevertheless, the secret was not kept, firstly because the Commission included Splingard, the Belgian lawyer, among its numbers, and he was in reality no more than an agent of the Alliancists; secondly, because Zhukovsky,
Guillaume et Co. had already earlier — as a preventive measure— recounted the story all over the place in their own way and with apologist interpretations. This was how it came about that, in its report to the Congress,a the Commission was compelled to pass on the facts relative to Bakunin that were contained in the letter to Lyubavin (of course, I had not revealed his name, but Bakunin's friends had already been informed on that score by Geneva). The question that presents itself now is whether the Commission appointed by the Congress to publish the minutes (of which I am a member) may make public use of that letter or not? That is for Lyubavin to decide. However, I may note that — ever since the Congress — the facts have been going the rounds of the European press, and this was none of our doing. I found the whole business all the more distasteful since I had reckoned on the strictest discretion and solemnly demanded it.
As a consequence of the expulsion of Bakunin and Guillaume, the Alliance, which had control of the Association in Spain and Italy, has unleashed a campaign of vilification, etc., against us everywhere. It is joining forces with all the disreputable elements and attempting to force a split into two camps. However, its ultimate defeat is assured. Indeed, the Alliance is only helping us to purge the Association of the unsavoury or feeble-minded elements who have pushed their way in here and there.
It is a fact that Bakunin's friends in Zurich have tried to murder poor Outine. Outine himself is in a very critical state of health at the moment. This scurvy deed has already been reported in a number of papers belonging to the Association (including the Emancipaciôn in Madridb) and will figure in detail in our official Compte rendu of the Hague Congress.[633] The same scurvy gang has made two similar attempts on the lives of their opponents in Spain. Its misdeeds will soon be exposed to the view of the world at large.
The fate of our dear 'MUTUAL FRIEND' C has been of the very greatest interest to my entire family. I have a plan to obtain help for him from Constantinople — through diplomatic channels.[63] It may work.
I still have the manuscript you sent me,[1] for Outine is not in a position to see to the printing, while Elpidin is just a scoundrel belonging to the gang. It is very interesting.[573]
I am eagerly looking forward to the promised review (in manuscript),[635] as indeed to anything printed you have in this LINE. One of my friends wants to write something on the way my booka
was received in Russia.
The publication of the French translation[436] has been interrupted by unpleasant ACCIDENTS, but will be resumed in a few days.
An Italian translation is in preparation.[636]
Lastly, a request: My son-in-law, Dr Lafargue M.D. (a refugee), would — if possible — be happy to contribute to some Russian Review, etc. ; he could supply articles either on the natural sciences or on the state of affairs in Spain and Portugal (as well as France).[637] However, his circumstances would not permit him to do this gratis and he could only submit articles in French.
I should very much like to see a copy of the book by Prof. Sieber (Kiev) on Ricardo's, etc., doctrines of value and capital,b
which also contains a discussion of my book.
Yours very sincerely,
A. Williams c
In Volume II of Capital I shall, in the section on landed property, deal in great detail with the Russian form.[638]
One last point. I would like to publish something on Chernyshevsky's life and personality, etc., so as to create some interest in him in the West. d But I need information for it.
273. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 14 December
Dear Sorge,
I confirm my letter of the 7th inst.a and am sending today 1 copy of the Emancipaciôn with the article on Bakunin [640]
containing information you too will not have had, and The International Herald with the Congress resolutions.b That jackass Riley has left out the voting figures.
In Lodi, No. 118 of the Plebe, which contained your Address, has been confiscated and Bignami, the editor, has been arrested.[641]
It looks as though the Leipzig high treason trial[274] may be about to repeat itself there. We shall, of course, make as much capital as possible from the affair; it will appear at once in the Volksstaat and the Emancipaciôn[642] as proof of whom the governments regard as the greater threat: the General Council and its adherents or the Alliancists. It is the best thing that could have happened to us in Italy.
You should have some brief reports on the meetings of the General Council printed in the Oestliche Post and in the American press, and send the relevant issues to the Volksstaat, Egalité and The International Herald, as well as one or two copies here, so that we can use them for Spain and Italy as well as for the French sections; the Danes and Dutch would also print them.
The letter of authority for Serraillier becomes more urgent every day.[621] The Jurassians on one side and the Blanquists on the other, are burrowing away all over France and are making progress while Serraillier is already starting not to receive replies from various quarters anymore because he can only write as a private individual. If you continue to delay out of consideration for Dereure, who has been more than suspect since the resignation of the Blanquists,[604] or for any other reason, we shall lose the greater part of France and the tables will be turned on us at the next Congress. In haste.
Your
F. E.
274. Marx to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 21 December[137]
Dear Sorge,
Just a few words in great haste. The ostensible majority on the British Federal Council (consisting to a very large extent of SHAM SECTIONS numbering a few individuals and founded by that scoundrel Hales merely for the purpose of sending delegates) has SECEDED from the minority (which alone represents the large English sections in London, as well as in Manchester, Birkenhead, etc.).[643] The fellows secretly put together a circular to the Federation(1) (will be sent to you), (dated the 10th of this month), in which they summon the sections to a congress in London to make common cause with the Jurassians, with whom Hales has kept up contact ever since The Hague.
Our people — who now constitute the only legal Federal Council — at once sent out printed postcards to all the sections, advising them to delay any decision until they had received their counter-manifesto, to consult about which they all assembled in my house yesterday (to draw up the main points). You will get it without delay.[3] It will be printed at the beginning of next week. They will also adopt a formal resolution to recognise the Hague Congress[580] and the General Council.
At the same time Engels, at the request of one of the Manchester sections, has prepared for them a replya to the circular of the scoundrels (who include among their number that vain idiot Jung, who has been unable to stomach the removal of the General Council from London and who has for a long time now been Hales' TOOL). They will receive it in their meeting today and will print it without delay.
My view is that you should confine yourselves to the role of observers as much as possible for the time being, and leave the battle to the sections on the spot. In the meantime of course circulars like the one to Spain that I found in the Emancipaciânb
c [644] are very good.
Apropos. On my advice The International Herald and its proprietor, Riley (a member of the Federal Council), have gone independent.[630] We shall probably agree a contract whereby we shall publish our own international supplement to it once a week. I am sending you a copy today in which Engels and I open a polemic against Hales et Co.d
As for Poland, your letter cannot be sent there. The old General Council was only able to obtain Poland's accession on the condition (essential, given the situation in the country) that it dealt exclusively with Wroblewski, who lets us know what he thinks would be appropriate or necessary.
In this situation you have no choice. You must grant Wröblewski the same unlimited authority as we did, or else renounce Poland's membership.[645]
Because of the French translation,[436] which makes me more work than if I had to do it without the translator, I am so overworked that I have not been able to write to you, as I have wanted for such a long time.
Cuno has promised to provide details of the meeting of the Committee of Enquiry in The Hague.[584] Tell him that if he does not do so immediately, we cannot wait for him any longer and that his personal honour is at stake in the matter.
With best wishes from the whole family.
Your
Karl Marx
275. Marx to William Riley. 23 December[646]
Dear Riley,
When Hales sends his reply, the best thing will be to communicate it at once to me so that his letter and our reply may appear together in the same number.[647] At the same time, you would then do well, to state in an editorial remark that after the things that have happened, especially his postcard,[6]*(1) the columns of the Herald' will no longer be open to him.
Yours fraternally
Karl Marx
276. Engels to Adolf Hepner. 30 December[649]
Dear Hepner,
[...] and provides a direct refutation of Sybel,a in such a way, moreover, as presupposes independent and quite accurate thought of his own. Both Marx and I were delighted with the article,*b even though it contains minor inexactitudes here and there. Of course, I was not in a position to know what Schramm is like otherwise, but he certainly knows his economics.
4. In contrast, of the two articles on the 'Revival of the Reform Movement',c the first is good, while the second is in direct conflict with the facts. The many wretched little congresses, which are taken seriously in this article only because they are taken seriously by The Bee-Hive, which has sold out to the bourgeoisie, have no other purpose than as preparations for the impending parliamentary elections. All the reform leagues listed in the article are of absolutely no importance and, moreover, consist, for the most part, of the very same people. And what people? With a few exceptions, they consist of the labour leaders whom Marx branded as corrupt at The Hague![590] It is impossible to judge the movement here from over there, taking The Bee-Hive and Reynolds's as your guides. The fact that a few TRADES UNIONISTS attend such congresses does not mean that the TRADES UNIONS are thinking of becoming political, which they (at least most of them, including the biggest ones) couldn't do at all without totally revising their rules. [...In] reality the movement here is lousier than ever, as is only to be expected with such industrial prosperity.
[...] Whenever we send [articles] or pamphlets to Spain, [Italy] or elsewhere, we regularly receive in return a number of copies of them, without our asking for them, and a further quantity is put at our disposal, as is indeed right and proper. The only administration that makes an exception here is that of the Volksstaat. I had to buy a copy of my Peasant Wara myself. As for my Housing Question, I see Part I announced daily in the Volksstaat, but do not have even a single complete copy here to enable me to reply to Miilberger,b
since Frankel had managed to mislay the copy of the Volksstaat
which contained the concluding section, and the offprint sent to me had the last page missing! If Marx had not finally succeeded in finding his copy of the issue in question, I would have been quite unable to reply. I would put a lot of this down to sheer carelessness, e.g. the fact that a bill was sent to me for the copies of the Manifestoc; but in the long run it is going too far, and if a stop is not put to this truly shoddy treatment of us soon, the
Volksstaat will have no reason to be surprised if one fine day Marx and I simply go on strike. It just will not do for us to have to beg for free copies or buy from the bookseller our own things which we have let you have for nothing. People in other countries immediately send us copies of all pamphlets, etc., because they know full well that we do more to publicise them and make them known [...] is not expressly requested.
First published, in Russian, in Marx-Printed according to the original Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932 . Published in English in full tor the first time 1873
277
Endnotes
[4 0 0] On 23 December 1871 the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 300, and on 28 December, the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 302, printed a report on the 1871 London Conference, including the texts of its resolutions. At Marx's request Eleanor Marx informed Liebknecht on 29 December (see this volume, p. 571) that the report was a falsification. On 30 December Der Volksstaat, No. 104, printed a statement in its 'Politische Uebersicht' column pointing out that the above-mentioned resolutions were falsified. Engels referred to it as the 'Stieberian escapade' after Wilhelm. Stieber, the 22-556 organiser of the trumped-up Communist trial in Cologne (1852). On the trial, see Note 138.—288, 571
[401] Engels is referring to Liebknecht's letter of 23 December 1871.—288
[83] Ferdinand Freiligrath wrote this poem on 25 July 1870, and The Pall Mall Gazette printed it on 20 August 1870.—55
[402] The Federal Diet (Bundestag), the central body of the German Confederation, was founded in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna. It consisted of representatives of the German states and met in Frankfurt am Main under the chairmanship of the Austrian delegate. Having neither an army nor financial means at its disposal the Diet did not have any real power; it ceased to exist in 1866.—288
[236] The Party of Progress was formed by members of the Prussian liberal bourgeoisie in June 1861. It advocated the unification of Germany under Prussian supremacy, the convocation of an all-German parliament, and the establishment of a liberal ministry responsible to the Chamber of Deputies. In 1866, after a split in the Party of Progress, its Right wing, the National Liberals (see Note 229), formed a separate party. Following the unification of Germany in 1871, the Left wing declared themselves the party of opposition, but this opposition remained only on paper.—166, 289
[405] In his letters to Marx and Engels of 2, 9 and 29 December 1871 and 1 and 4 January 1872, Maltman Barry proposed that a new secretary of the General Council be elected, since John Hales had been elected secretary of the British Federal Council (see Note 330).—291
[406] The Labour Representation League was founded in November 1869. It embraced trade union leaders who sought to have working-class candidates elected to the House of Commons by making a deal with the Liberals. The League ceased to exist around 1880.—291
[407] In a letter to Engels dated 4 December 1871 Carlo Terzaghi applied for financial assistance for II Proletario Italiano newspaper, of which he was publisher. Engels drafted a reply after 6 January 1872. However, before the letter was despatched Engels read in the Gazzettino Rosa of Terzaghi's support for the demand of the Bakuninist Jura Federation that a General Congress be convened without delay. Thus, on 14[-15] January Engels wrote another letter with only the first two paragraphs of the old draft left more or less intact. The remainder was written partly between the deleted lines of the first draft and partly on a clean sheet. Engels wrote in German across Terzaghi's letter: 'Answered on 6 January 1872-14 January.' The second version of the letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx and Engels, Selected Correspondence, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1955.— 291
[4 0 8] In December 1871 in the Turin Workers' Federation (Federazione operaia), set up in late September of that year, a split occurred between the supporters of the International (including the Bakuninists) and the Mazzinians. The Mazzinians' opponents left the Federation to form a society called the Emancipation of the Proletarian (La Emancipazione del Proletario), which declared itself a section of the International. It consisted of workers from the railway workshops, the machine-building works and the arsenal. The Bakuninist Carlo Terzaghi was elected secretary. Later he was dismissed from the position and exposed as a police agent.—292
[4 1 0] A reference to the 'Réponse du Comité fédéral romand à la Circulaire des 16 signataires, membres du Congrès de Sonvilliers', resolutions of Thirty Sections in Geneva (see Note 398), and the 'Déclaration de la rédaction' directed against the Sonvillier circular. They appeared in L'Égalité, No. 24, 24 December 1871.—292
[411] A reference to the report of the Bakuninist committee to the Sonvillier congress of 5 October 1871. The committee, after the split in the Romance Federation in April 1870, continued illegitimately to call itself the Romance Federal Committee. The report cited facts about the anarchist sections supporting the Bakuninists (mostly in highland Jura).—293
[412] A reference to the statement carried by the Gazzettino Rosa, No. 360, 28 December 1871, as part of the 'Movimento operajo' review that the Emancipation of the Proletarian society in Turin had resolved, under Terzaghi's influence, to support the Sonvillier circular of the Jura Federation.—294
[413] 41S Engels means the publication of the resolutions passed by the congress of the Belgian Federation (see Note 404) by Die Tagwacht, No. 1, 6 January 1872 (in the 'Belgien' column), and by La Emancipation, No. 30, 7 January 1872.—296
[4 1 4] On 5 January 1872 Liebknecht wrote to Engels asking when the next Congress of the International was to take place, and suggested Germany or a country bordering on it as its venue.—297
[41] The Pan-Slavic Congress met in Prague on 2 June 1848. It was attended by representatives of the Slavic countries forming part of the Habsburg Empire. The Right, liberal moderate wing, sought to solve the national problem through autonomy of the Slavic countries within the framework of the Habsburg monarchy. The Left, radical wing, wanted to act in alliance with the revolutionary-democratic movement in Germany and Hungary. Mikhail Bakunin affiliated with the Left. Radical delegates took an active part in the popular uprising in Prague (12-17 June 1848), directed against the arbitrary rule of the Austrian authorities, and were subjected to cruel reprisals.—26
[424] The bourgeois radical Charles Bradlaugh made slanderous attacks on Marx in a public lecture delivered on 11 December 1871 and in a letter to The Eastern Post printed in its second edition on 16 December. At the General Council meeting of 19 December Marx pointed to the close link between Bradlaugh's behaviour and the harassment of the International by the ruling circles and the bourgeois press. Replying to the slanderous letters printed in January 1872 by The National Reformer, which was edited by Bradlaugh, Marx sent several statements exposing The Eastern Post (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 62-63, 71, them to 72-73).—299, 567, 574
[4 2 5] In a letter to Engels of 21 December 1871 Pyotr Lavrov asked for two works by Alexander Bain, The Senses and the Intellect and The Emotions and the Will, and for The Principles of Psychology by Herbert Spencer. He also requested Engels to look for Sh. H. Hodgson's A New System of Philosophy (the title is inaccurate; the reference is either to Hodgson's Philosophy of Reflection, published in 1870, or to another of his philosophical works).—300
[426] This is a reply to Lafargue's letter of 7 January 1872, in which he wrote that the Spanish Federal Council had rejected the Bakuninists' proposal on the convocation of an extraordinary Congress but supported the decision of the Belgian Federation to consider the revision of the General Rules at the next Congress. Knowing that Marx and Engels were working on the Fictitious Splits in the International, the General Council's reply to the Sonvillier circular, Lafargue warned them against being too personal. In conclusion he wrote that he had made arrangements with José Mesa to have Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy translated into Spanish (see Note 456). The letter was published in English for the first time in: Frederick Engels, Paul and Laura Lafargue, Correspondence, Vol. I: 1868-1886, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1959.—301
[427] By the old German section Engels means the German Workers' Educational Society in London (see Note 135).—302
[428] Engels is referring to the Romance Federal Committee's official reply to the Sonvillier circular, which was approved at the meeting of 20 December 1871 (see Note 410), and to the article headed 'Die Internationale' and carried by Die Tagwacht, No. 1, 6 January 1872. Below, Engels quotes this article in French.—303
[26] Mitrailleuse—a multi-barrelled, rapid-fire gun mounted on a heavy carriage. The mitrailleuse used in the French army in 1870-71 had 25 barrels that fired in succession by means of a special mechanism. It could fire up to 175 shots a minute with carbine cartridges. However, the experience of the Franco-Prussian War showed the mitrailleuse to be unsuited to battlefield conditions due to construction inadequacies.—12, 35
[4 2 9] This is Engels' reply to several letters from Theodor Cuno, including that of 11 January 1872 in which Cuno wrote that he had lost his job as an engineer since the owner of the factory made his continued employment conditional on his withdrawal from the International. He also wrote that he was threatened with deportation from Italy if, as the police had warned him, he did not 'modify' the nature of his public speeches. This letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx and Engels, Selected Correspondence, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1955.—
[430] In a letter of 27 December 1871 Cuno asked Engels for information concerning a 'retired captain with the wooden leg'. The latter, according to one of Cuno's friends, had a membership card issued by the General Council and was corresponding with London; Cuno suspected him of being a police agent.— 306
[309] -j-jje London Conference adopted a decision to put out a new authentic edition of the International's Rules and Administrative Regulations in English, French and German (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 3-20). This edition appeared in English as a pamphlet published in London in November 1871. The French edition appeared in December 1871. The official German edition appeared in Der Volksstaat on 10 February 1872, and as a separate publication in Leipzig in 1872.—217, 221, 236, 270, 282, 305
[8] Marx is alluding to Léo Frankel's article 'Ein belauschtes Zwiegespräch' in the Volkswille, No. 10, 2 April 1870, in which Frankel evolved a 'formula' that, he thought, explained the essence of value. See also Marx's letter to Engels of 14 April 1870 (present edition, Vol. 43).—4
[418] The Congress of Saxonian Social-Democrats was held in Chemnitz on 6-7 January 1872. It was attended by 120 delegates, among them Bebel and Liebknecht, representing nearly 60 local organisations. In closed session the congress considered its attitude to the Sonvillier circular (see Note 374) and the battle against the anarchists in the International. Having rejected the circular and approved the resolutions of the London Conference, the congress gave its unanimous support to the General Council.—298, 304, 310, 577
[432] In a letter of 14 January 1872, Carlo Terzaghi informed Engels about the split in the Workers' Federation (Federazione operaia) and the founding of a society called the Emancipation of the Proletarian (see Note 408). He appealed to the General Council not to recognise the Workers' Federation as a section of the International Working Men's Association. He also asked the General Council officially to disavow the statements made by Giuseppe Beghelli, one of the leaders of the Workers' Federation.—312
[433] A copy of this letter, written by Marx in reply to Jozewicz's letter of 6-7 December 1871, was discovered in the Prussian Secret State Archives among the documents of Berlin's Police Presidium.—314
[15] In his letter of 18 July 1870, Eugen Oswald, a German refugee, asked Marx to sign an Address on the Franco-Prussian War drawn up by a group of French and German democratic refugees. The Address was published as a leaflet on 1870; the editions that followed were signed by Marx, Engels, 31 July Liebknecht, Bebel and other members of the International. Marx and his associates agreed to sign it on conditions outlined by Marx in his letter to Oswald of 3 August 1870 (see this volume, p. 34). Oswald enclosed with his letter an excerpt from Louis Blanc's letter in which he called for the Address on the Franco-Prussian War to be signed by as many people as possible.—9, 11, 31, 35, 36, 37, 64
[434] At the General Council meeting of 24 October 1871 Hermann Jung read out Benoît Malon's letter of 20 October to the Council, in which the latter repeated his request that the Section of Propaganda and Revolutionary Socialist Action be admitted to the International. Having obtained the opinion of the Romance Federal Committee, which strongly opposed recognition of this section, the General Council confirmed its earlier decision to refuse admittance.—315
[437] This is a reply to the request from the firm Asher & Co. (contained in a letter of 12 February 1872) to send them a copy of the English edition of the Inaugural Address of the Working Men's International Association. This letter was published in English for the first time in Unbekanntes von Friedrich Engels und Karl Marx. Part I: 1840-1874. Ed. by Bert Andreasjacques Grandjonc, Hans Pelger. Papers of the Karl-Marx-Haus, Trier, 1986.—318
[438] In a letter to Engels of 16 January 1872, Liebknecht enquired about the amount of tax revenues for the benefit of the poor received in various parishes of London. He needed the figures for a criticism of the unequal distribution of poor-tax proceeds in the different parts of the German Empire.— 318
[135] x h e German Society in London was founded in February Workers' Educational 1840 by Karl Schapper, Joseph Moll and other members of the League of the Just. The Society's leaders played a prominent part in founding the Communist League (1847). In 1847 and 1849-50, Marx and Engels took an active part in the Society's work, but on 17 September 1850 Marx, Engels and a number of their followers temporarily withdrew because the sectarian and adventurist faction led by August Willich and Karl Schapper had increased its influence in the Society. In the late 1850s Marx and Engels resumed their work in the Society. When the International was established the Society became its German Section in London and from late 1871 it was a section of the British Federation. The German Workers' Educational Society in London existed until 1918, when it was closed down by the British Government.—96, 178, 233, 279,
[442] On 20 January 1872 Becker wrote to Engels that he was forwarding to Friedrich Lessner the dues for the International's Milan section which he had received from Theodor Cuno. Becker further asked for 100 stamps to be sent to Cologne for the admission of new members to the Cologne section of the Association.—321
[444] A reference to the search of Nikolai Utin's (Outine's) flat on 26-28 January 1872 by the Geneva police who had invented his alleged participation in forging Russian banknotes. Utin's papers, including some documents of the International he was keeping, were confiscated, and only the intervention of a progressive-minded lawyer prevented the Swiss authorities from handing them over to the Russian government.—322
[4 4 5] A reference to the Administrative Resolutions passed by the Basle Congress of 1869 (see Note 399).—323
[4 4 6] A reference to Article 14 of the Administrative Regulations adopted by the Geneva Congress of the International (1866), which states that the rules and bye-laws of individual sections must not contain anything contrary to the General Rules and Regulations of the International. This article corresponds to Article 12 of the English edition of the Regulations (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 446).—323
[4 4 7] A draft of this letter was written by Engels across Burrs' letter to him of 19 February 1872. The former letter, as well as Engels' draft letters to J. Molesworth (written after 5 June) and to Th. Smart & Co. (3 July), are replies to enquiries by the relevant companies regarding E. Glaser de Willebrord's solvency and his reliability as a potential partner (see this volume, pp. 391 and 406).—324
[448] When this letter was first published in Die Gesellschaft magazine (from the manuscript copy kept in the Prussian Secret State Archives), it was erroneously believed to be addressed to Fritz Milke. It is in fact a reply to Jozewicz's letter of 10 February 1872. This letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx, On the First International Arranged and edited, with an introduction and new translations by Saul K. Padover. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1973.—325
[2] This refers to the letter which Ludwig Kugelmann wrote to Marx on the eve of France declaring war on Prussia (18 July 1870). He expressed his conviction that any further aggravation of Franco-Prussian relations would lead to war and criticised the proclamation adopted at a meeting of Brunswick workers held on 16 July 1870. He considered it to be a mistake to demand categorically of the French workers that they overthrow the Empire in order to avert war. The meeting was called by the leaders of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party (the Eisenachers) in protest against war preparations by the ruling classes and to express solidarity with the manifesto issued by the Paris members of the International (see Le Réveil, 12 July 1870). Despite certain shortcomings the proclamation as a whole was internationalist in spirit. It is quoted by Marx in the 'First Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War' (see present edition, Vol. 22).—3
[449] The reference is to Resolution X of the 1871 London Conference, 'General Resolution as to the Countries Where the Regular Organisation of the International Is Interfered with by the Governments' (see present edition, Vol. 22, pp. 427-28).—325
[451] Resolution VI of the 1871 London Conference, 'General Statistics of the Working Class', stated in Article 2: 'Every local branch is bound to appoint a special committee of statistics' (see present edition, Vol. 22, p. 425).—325
[264] Marx is referring to the planned publication of the proceedings of the third court martial, which was to try a group of Paris Communards (see Note 268). Owing to financial difficulties the proceedings were not published.—188,
[261] This refers to Jung's letter to the editor of the bourgeois-democratic newspaper L'Echo de Verviers, in reply to the libellous attacks made on the International's leaders by the petty-bourgeois journalist Pierre Vésinier in the paper. Jung's letter, dated 15 February 1866, had been edited by Marx (see present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 392-400).—186
[453] A reference to the regular meeting of the General Council due to be held on 27 February 1872; Council members were unable to get to the meeting because of a public procession on that day to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales.—326
[454] 464 Marx is apparently referring to Lafargue's letter to him written between 17 and 24 February 1872.—327 456 Maurice Lachâtre, the publisher of Volume I of Capital in French, intended to
[455] include a biography of Marx. Passing on Lachâtre's wish in a letter of 12 December 1871, Laura Lafargue also wrote that Paul Lafargue would undertake to write the biography. Lachâtre subsequently approached Engels with this proposal (see this volume, pp. 478-79).—327
[458] A reference to Lafargue's repeated requests for assistance in establishing ongoing contacts between La Emancipaciôn and Der Volksstaat edited by Wilhelm Liebknecht. We do not know whether Marx wrote to Liebknecht as he had promised Lafargue.—327
[459] In his letters to Marx written in February 1872 Lafargue proposed to get Lopez de Lara, a Spanish businessman residing in London, to finance publication of the International's official documents.—328
[460] This excerpt is part of Engels' non-extant reply to Borkheim's letter of 24 February 1872. Borkheim wrote about Friedrich Adolph Sorge's request to recommend him books on the history of Ireland written from the materialist standpoint. Replying to Sorge on 15 March Borkheim quoted Engels' letter. This excerpt was published in English for the first time in: Marx and Engels, Ireland and the Irish Question, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1971.— 329
[461] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972. See also Note 118.—329
[325] At the sitting of the London Conference on 20 September 1871 Vaillant tabled a draft resolution stressing the need for political action by the working class. In the course of the discussion of this resolution and Serraillier's and Frankel's addenda to it Marx and Engels made speeches which provided the basis for the resolution 'Political Action of the Working Class' (IX). To draw up the resolution a special commission of the General Council was set up which included Engels, Martin and Le Moussu. The resolution was then discussed at the General Council's meeting of 16 October. Marx was asked to prepare it for the press.—231, 331
[464] A reference to the parliamentary elections to be held on 24 September 1872. Louis Pio and Paul Geleff, leaders of the Danish Federal Council, were nominated workers' candidates in Copenhagen. At the time of the elections they were in prison, having been arrested on 4 May, and failed to win the required number of votes.— 332
[465] A reference to one of the groups formed following the collapse of the French Section of 1871 (see Note 338). The General Council refused to admit this group to the International, since its Rules were at odds with the principles behind the General Rules.—333
[466] The letter was written on a letterhead of the General Council bearing its previous address, 256 High Holborn, London, W.C. Marx crossed it out and wrote in the new address, 33 Rathbone Place, W.C.—333
[467] At the General Council meeting of 20 February 1872 Johann Georg Eccarius reported that he had sent copies of the General Rules and Administrative Regulations to the address of J. W. Gregory, a member of the International in New York. Following Gregory's death in January 1872 the International's documents fell into the hands of petty-bourgeois elements in sections Nos. 12 and 9 . - 3 3 4
[468] The Provisional Federal Council of the International Working Men's Association for North America protested against the appointment by the General Council of a special secretary for the French sections in the USA. In a letter to Marx of 8 March 1872 Sorge wrote that the protest originated from the Irish members of the International.—334
[354] A reference to German Section No. 1 in New York, which was the oldest section of the International in the USA, and originated from a Communist Club set up in 1857 by German revolutionary émigrés. The nucleus of this club consisted of former members of the Communist League and Marx's associates. Its members played a leading role in the New York General Association of German Workers, which propagated Marxism. In December 1869 the General Association of German Workers affiliated to the International and took the name of Section No. 1. The Section engaged in an active struggle against bourgeois reformers.— 251, 334
[469] A reference to the poem 'jLeed y estremeceos!' enclosed by Lafargue with his letter to Engels of 11 February 1872.—339
[470] A reference to Engels' account of the report of the Danish Federal Council and of Pio's article 'Om vore Landboforhold' (Socialisten, No. 17, 4 November 1871), made at the General Council meeting of 5 December 1871. The account was included in the report on the General Council meeting carried by The Eastern Post, No. 167, 9 December 1871. The translations of these items which Engels sent to Spain and Portugal were published in La Emancipation, No. 31, 14 January 1872, and O Pensamento Social, Nos. 1 and 2, February and March 1872.—340
[471] During discussion of the split in the Central Committee of the International Working Men's Association for North America (see Note 422) at the General Council, Johann Georg Eccarius spoke out against Article 2 of Resolution III, specifically against the part reading: 'For these reasons the General Council recommends that in future there be admitted no new American section of which two-thirds at least do not consist of wage-labourers'.— 341
[104] In May 1870 Napoleon Ill's government held a plebiscite in an attempt to strengthen the tottering regime of the Second Empire. The issues put to the vote were formulated in such a way that disapproval of the policy pursued by the Second Empire could not be expressed without opposing all democratic reforms at the same time. Despite this, 1.5 million votes were cast against the government, with 1.9 million abstentions.—67, 342
[50] This refers to the French Branch in London, founded in the autumn of 1865. Besides proletarian members (Eugène Dupont, Hermann Jung, Paul Lafargue and others), the Branch also included petty-bourgeois refugees (Victor Le Lubez and later Félix Pyat). In 1868, after the General Council had adopted a resolution proposed by Marx (7 July 1868) condemning Pyat's provocative calls for terrorist acts against Napoleon III (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 7), a split occurred in the Branch, and its proletarian members resigned. But Pyat's group, having lost virtually all ties with the International, continued to call itself the French Branch in London. It also repeatedly gave support to anti-proletarian elements opposing Marx's line in the General Council. On 10 May 1870 the General Council officially dissociated itself from this group (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 131).—33, 64, 141, 342
[189] A new German edition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party being prepared, Wilhelm Liebknecht, on behalf of the editors of Der Volksstaat, requested Marx and Engels to write a new preface for it, which they duly did at the close of June 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23).—135, 248, 319, 343, 390
[474] -p n e facsimile of this letter was published as the preface to the French edition of Capital (see Note 436). In English it appeared for the first time in: Karl Marx, Capital, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954.—344
[4 7 5] This letter was written on the basis of the information received from Vitale Regis. In the second half of February 1872, on the instructions of the General Council, Regis (under the pseudonym of Etienne Pechard) spent ten days in Milan and Turin, where, acting on Engels' instructions, he was to acquaint himself with the actual state of affairs in the International's sections. Regis described his trip in a letter to Engels of 1 March; he wrote about Carlo Terzaghi's expulsion from the Turin section of the International — the Emancipation of the Proletarian society — and his suspicions of Terzaghi's contacts with the police. This information prompted Engels to demand that Terzaghi explain his behaviour (see this volume, p. 352). The original is mistakenly addressed to Carlo Bert and not Cesare Bert. Engels wrote across the letter: 'London, 21 March 1872. To C. Bert, Turin.'—345
[476] A reference to Article 5 of Section II of the Administrative Regulations published on the decision of the 1871 London Conference; this article corresponds to Administrative Resolution V passed by the 1869 Basle Congress (see Note 399).—345
[477] Part of this letter (without the appendix) was published in English for the first time in: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972.—346
[254] An allusion to the preliminary conference held in London on 25-29 September 1865 instead of the congress of the International Working Men's Association planned for Brussels. In line with a resolution of the Basle Congress (1869), the next congress of the International Working Men's Association was to be held in Paris. However, the persecution of the International's sections by the police in France compelled the General Council to move the next congress to Mainz (see Note 40). The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War made the congress impossible; nor was it possible to hold it in the atmosphere of severe reprisals against the members of the International during the civil war in France, especially after the suppression of the Paris Commune. In these circumstances, the majority of national federations agreed that the congress be postponed and the General Council be empowered to fix the date of its convocation. At the same time the urgent tasks to be undertaken in the struggle against the Bakuninists and other sectarian elements, as well as other pressing problems, demanded the adoption of collective decisions. At its meeting on 25 July 1871 the General Council, at Engels' suggestion, resolved to convene a private conference of the International in London on the third Sunday of September. The majority of the federations agreed to the proposal. The London Conference was held from 17 to 23 September 1871. Twenty-two voting, and ten non-voting, delegates took part in its work. The countries unable to send delegates were represented by the corresponding secretaries. Marx represented Germany, Engels — Italy. In all, nine sessions were held. The most important decision of the Conference was formulated in Resolution IX, 'Political Action of the Working Class', which declared the need to found, in each country, an independent proletarian party whose ultimate goal was the conquest of political power by the working class.—178, 187, 308, 326,
[479] On Marx's final assessment of Joseph Roy's translation, as well as on Marx's participation in preparing the French edition of Volume I of Capital, see 'Afterword to the French Edition' (present edition, Vol. 35), Note 436, and pp. 385, 515, 578 of this volume.—347
[482] In a letter of 10 March 1872 Terzaghi asked Engels to remember him to Pietro Savio, an Italian refugee Communard.—353
[484] A reference to the Eleventh Congress of Italian pro-Mazzini Workers' Associations held in Naples on 25-27 October 1864. At the congress, Gennaro Bovio, representative of the Workers' Association of Trani, suggested that international workers' congresses be regularly convened, and that common Rules be worked out for them.—354
[485] A piece Engels wrote on the persecution of Cuno was carried by The Eastern Post, No. 187, 27 April, and by the Gazzettino Rosa, No. 127, 7 May 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 151-52). Acting on Engels' advice, on 3 May Cuno wrote a letter to Der Volksstaat, which was published in No. 38 of 11 May 1872; a report on Cuno also appeared on 7 May in L'Égalité, Nos. 9 and 10.—356
[487] The congress in Bologna was the first congress of anarchist groups from Mirandola, Genoa and Mantua, as well as representatives of the International's section in Naples and of the Romagna's workers' unions (Fascii opérai), held on 17-19 March 1872. A number of congress resolutions bore the imprint of Bakuninism; in particular, the congress opposed participation in the elections and declared that it regarded the General Council and the Jura Federal Committee as mere correspondence bureaus.—358
[488] A reference to one of the democratic societies in Ravenna, which, through the offices of Lodovico Nabruzzi, Sesto Montanari and Resta Luca, who were on II Romagnolo editorial board, requested Engels in late October 1871 to help them organise a section of the International. Engels replied to Nabruzzi in early November (the letter has not been found). On November 25 the latter wrote to Engels about considerable successes in spreading the ideas of the International. However, that is where the correspondence ended. On 3 December 1871 L'Internationale, No. 151, in its 'Bulletin de l'intérieur' column, carried a notice about the establishment of a section in Ravenna. Bakunin had managed to win Nabruzzi over to his side.—358
[335] -phg t r; ai 0f Bracke, Bonhorst, Spier and other members of the Committee of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party took place in the Brunswick district court in November 1871. (On their arrest see Note 115.) The main point of the indictment was their membership of the International. The court found Bracke and Bonhorst guilty of 'infringing public order' and sentenced them to 16 months in prison. In February 1872, however, the court of appeal quashed the sentence as groundless and cut the term of imprisonment from 16 to 3 months, also deducting the period of preliminary detention; this virtually amounted to an acquittal.—237, 242, 360
[490] On 14 March 1872 at the trial in Leipzig, replying to the question of defence counsel Freytag II from Plauen about the strength of the International in Germany, August Bebel quoted the figure of 1,000 members.— 360
[491] In his letters to Engels of 28 and 30 March 1872, Liebknecht wrote about violations of legal procedure at the Leipzig trial (the pressure placed on the jury by the prosecuting counsel, who constandy mixed with the jury and visited inns with them, etc.), and asked him about the corresponding English procedure. Engels mentions the Tichborne trial in London against adventurer Arthur Orton who, posing as Roger Charles Tichborne, tried to obtain a legacy by means of forgery and fabricated evidence; the trial began on 11 May 1871 and lasted until April 1872.—360
[116] n 6 Demagogues in Germany were the participants in the students' opposition movement after the liberation of the country from Napoleonic rule. After the 1830 Revolution in France the opposition movement of the so-called demagogues became more intense in Germany and gave rise to renewed police repression and arrests and increased emigration.—77, 85, 228, 360
[493] The penny press became widespread in England after the abolition, in 1855, of the stamp tax which greatly increased the price of newspapers.—361
[495] Probably a reference to Police Terrorism in Ireland, a leaflet issued by the General Council of the International around 9 April 1872, and either to Propaganda Fund for Ireland (April 21st, 1872), a leaflet by the General Council Corresponding Secretary for Ireland Joseph Patrick MacDonnel, or to his To the Irish Sections of the International and the Working Classes in General (March 1872).—362 26th,
[4 9 9] In a letter to Eccarius of 30 November 1871 J. W. Gregory, a member of the International in the USA and supporter of the bourgeois reformists, accused Section No. 1 (see Note 354) of divisive activities.—363
[502] Der Volksstaat, Nos. 35 and 36, 1 and 4 May 1872, printed the first two instalments of the article by the French lawyer Emile Acollas translated as 'Die Republik und die Gegenrevolution' (first published in the Suisse Radicale, and later as a pamphlet).— 365
[503] Liebknecht used the materials received from Engels in the 'Politische Uebersicht' column of Der Volksstaat, No. 40, 18 May 1872.—366
[505] A reference to the arrest of members of the Danish Federal Council of the International, including Louis Pio, editor of the Socialisten, Harald Brix and Paul Geleff, which took place in the night from 4 to 5 May 1872. They were charged with the propagation of socialist ideas 'threatening public order'. In March 1873 the Danish court sentenced the local leaders of the International to various terms of imprisonment.— 366
[5 0 6] Engels reported on the Italian government's attempt to place the blame for the fire at the Milan Agricultural Academy on members of the International at the General Council meeting of 30 April 1872. Cuno had informed him of the fact on 25 April 1872. Engels' speech was included in the report on the meeting carried by The Eastern Post, No. 188, 4 May 1872.—368
[507] On 3 March 1872 a letter was despatched to Engels informing him about the establishment of the Society of Ferrarese Workers and its intention to declare itself a section of the International. After its Rules were revised to conform with the General Rules of the Association, the General Council on 7 May 1872 admitted the Society of Ferrarese Workers to the International.— 369
[508] Cuno wrote to Engels on 6 May 1872 that he had been forced to flee from Germany to Belgium, having learnt that he was wanted by the Prussian police.— 369
[509] The reference is to the uprising of the Paris proletariat of 23-26 June 1848 (see Note 113).—372
[480] M a rx sent Lafargue excerpts from a private circular entitled Fictitious Splits in the International and written by Engels and himself between mid-January and early March 1872, but not yet published at the time this letter was posted (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 79-123). The extracts enclosed with the letter correspond in content to the relevant section in Part IV of the Fictitious Splits. However, these extracts, apart from certain omissions and changes as compared to the published version, contain a number of remarks by Marx (he enclosed some of them in square brackets) that were not included in the pamphlet. In the present edition, the passages that are taken verbatim from the published version are enclosed in inverted commas. Besides, since the circular refers to the articles of the original Rules, published in English in 1867 (see present edition, Vol. 20, Appendices), Marx adds in brackets the corresponding articles of the official version of the General Rules published in late 1871 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 3-20).—348
[510] A reference to the letter written by Pierre Schlebach to Liebknecht on behalf of the German refugee section of the International in Verviers in late April 1872 and sent on to Engels on 8 May. Schlebach wrote about the position of Eugène Hins, one of the leaders of the Belgian Federal Council, who had recommended the German members of the International in Belgium to adopt the organisational structure of the Lassallean General Association of German Workers.—373
[511] In a letter to Liebknecht of 17 April 1872, Sorge wrote that Eccarius' behaviour was strengthening the positions of the bourgeois reformist elements in the North American Federation (see Note 496).—374
[512] On 8 May 1872 Liebknecht wrote to Engels: 'We now have 5,500 subscribers, an increase of 800 this quarter'.— 374
[513] A reference to the editorial in the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, No. 6, 10 May 1872, a reply to Paul Lafargue's report 'Congrès de Saragosse' featured by La Liberté on 5 May (see Note 501). The editorial disclosed that Pablo Farga was Lafargue's pseudonym in Spain.— 374
[5 1 5] On 15 May 1872 Liebknecht wrote to Engels: 'You will have to get a new edition of your Condition of the Working-Class etc. printed, since the old one is pretty well sold out.' The first edition of The Condition of the Working-Class in England was issued in early June 1845 by Otto Wigand's publishing house in Leipzig (see present edition, Vol. 4). In his letter, Liebknecht also mentioned the prospects of publishing Marx's and Engels' collected works.— 375
[516] Engels is referring to Resolution IX of the Saragossa Congress of the Spanish Federation. The resolution declared that the congress supported the decision of the congress of the Belgian Federation that the International's General Rules should be revised.—376
[452] The Dresden Congress of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party held between 12 and 15 August 1871 decided on Hamburg as the Party Committee headquarters.—326, 376, 508
[51] Marx wrote this letter on a form from Borkheim' s office bearing its address: 9 Billiter Square, E.C.—36
[166] This is Marx's reply to letters he had received from Wilhelm Liebknecht's wife Natalie, dated 18 January, 22 and 27 February 1871. Natalie Liebknecht informed Marx that she could not send a receipt for monies received for the benefit of the families of the leaders of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party who had been arrested in Germany. Such a receipt, she wrote, might have been used as additional evidence against Liebknecht and Bebel who had been charged with high treason. One of the points on the indictment was the affiliation of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party to the International Working Men's Association since Prussian laws banned participation of German political parties and associations in any international organisation.—115
[518] A reference to the letters from Johann Georg Eccarius and John Hales to the members of New York Section No. 12, which had been expelled from the International by the General Council, in which they stated their disagreement with this decision. Hales' letter was printed by Le Socialiste on 18 May 1872.—378
[519] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Marx and Engels on the United States, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1979.—380
[520] A reference to Johann Georg Eccarius' letter to Liebknecht of 20 May 1872 dealing with the discussion in the General Council of the stand adopted by John Hales and himself on the split in the Central Committee of the International Working Men's Association for North America. See this volume, pp. 363 and 579-81.—380
[122] This is the last letter in the sustained correspondence between Marx in London and Engels in Manchester. After retiring from the Ermen & Engels firm in Manchester, Engels moved to London on 20 September 1870 and settled not far from where Marx lived. After that they wrote to each other only occasionally, when one of them left London.—84, 380
[331] Eccarius was appointed the General Council's Corresponding Secretary for the USA (French sections excluded) at the Council's meeting of 2 October 1871.—236, 382
[521] A reference to the Judicial Committee elected at the General Council meeting of 13 February 1872, which consisted of Armand Arnaud, Gabriel Ranvier, Frederick Bradnick, George Milner, Karl Pfänder, Hermann Jung and Walery Wrôblewski, with the latter as chairman.— 382
[330] The 1871 London Conference, on Marx's initiative, instructed the General Council to establish a Federal Council for England. The General Council itself had acted as such from the International's foundation to the autumn of 1871. In October 1871 a provisional London Federal Council was formed from representatives of the International's London Section and some of the trade unions. From the outset it was dominated by a group of reformists headed by John Hales, Secretary of the General Council. They attempted to set the Federal Council against the General Council. Following the Hague Congress of 1872 the left wing of the Federal Council, supported by Marx and Engels, constituted itself the British Federal Council.—234, 302, 382
[522] A reference to the appeal of the separatist Federal Council (Committee No. II) in New York, which was published in the Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly, No. 25/103, 4 May 1872. A detailed analysis of this appeal was made by Engels in his article 'The International in America' (present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 177-83).—383
[5 2 3] At the meeting held in Apollo Hall, New York, on 9-11 May 1872, the followers of Victoria Woodhull nominated her for the post of US President.—
[525] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx & Frederick Engels, Letters on 'Capital'. Translated by Andrew Drummond. New Park Publications, London, 1983.—385
[526] Between 1872 and 1875 Marx presented the British Museum Library with three editions of Volume I of Capital: the second German, the Russian and the French edition. On 9 August and 15 November 1873 Marx received letters from J. Winter Jones, the principal librarian of the British Museum, expressing gratitude for the gift: 'I am directed by the Trustees of the British Museum to inform you that they have received the Present..., which you have been pleased to make to them; and I have to return you their best thanks for the same.'—385
[527] In a letter of 15 (27) March 1872 Danielson informed Marx that after eleven months in prison, Hermann Lopatin had been released on condition that he did not leave Irkutsk.— 386
[528] Marx's letter to V. O. Baranov has not been found. As can be inferred from Baranov's reply of 10 (22) June 1872, Marx had asked him for information about the progress of Bakunin's translation into Russian of Volume I of Capital (see Note 574).—386
[530] 630 At the General Council meeting of 28 May 1872 John Hales read out a report on the work of the Provisional Federal Council (Committee No. I) of the North American sections for April 1872, which had been signed by the Council Secretary Charles Praitsching on 5 May. The report dealt with the unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement with the separatist council on the basis of the General Council resolutions of 5 and 12 March 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 124-26).—388
[531] Under the resolution passed by the General Council on 28 May 1872 the Provisional Federal Council of the North American sections of the International was recognised as the only lawful one.—388
[532] In late May 1872 the Supreme Court of Appeal in Dresden confirmed the verdict reached by the Leipzig court in March 1872 at the trial of August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht (see Note 274).—389
[5 3 3] A reference to the list of members of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party who were to liaise with the General Council of the International during Bebel's and Liebknecht's imprisonment. The list was cited by Liebknecht in his letter to Engels of 4 June 1872.—390
[534] This draft of Engels' reply to Molesworth was added to the letter which he posted to Engels in Leicester on 5 June 1872. On the reasons which prompted Engels to write this letter, see Note 447.—
[535] Engels is referring to a notice in the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, No. 6, 10 May 1872, stating that the editorial board was in possession of Engels' letters written in the autumn of 1871 to 'his Italian friends'. These letters had been handed over by Carlo Cafiero to the newspaper's editor James Guillaume.—
[536] A reference to Engels' letter to Cuno of 22[-23] April 1872 (see this volume, pp. 356-59). It was addressed to Düsseldorf and arrived there on 25 April but apparendy missed Cuno and was forwarded to him in Seraing (Belgium).—393
[540] Engels is referring to Nikolai Utin's article, 'Le fédéralisme ou la centralisation. Voulons-nous la souveraineté républicaine ou la dictature monarchique?', featured by L'Égalité, No. 9-10, 7 May 1872. Utin opposed the trends towards centralisation evident in the new draft Constitution of the Swiss Confederation.—396
[36] The Garde mobile (Mobile National Guard)—special armed forces introduced in France in 1848. From 1868 onwards it was made up of men who had reached call-up age but were not enlisted for active service or in the reserve; it was assigned to frontier defence, and to rear and garrison service. In 1870 it was called up for active service for the first time and formed the core of the French armed forces after the fall of the Empire. The Garde mobile was abolished in 1872.—21
[541] Probably a reference to the work by Johann Philipp Becker, Neue Stunden der Andacht (Geneva, 1875) on which he worked intermittently from 1857 to 1875. The work was permeated with the spirit of militant materialism and atheism, and was a biting political pamphlet.—396
[542] This letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972.—397
[5] In July and August 1870, the town of Blois was the scene of a major political trial. Seventy-two people, among them such prominent Blanquists as Charles Victor Jaclard, Edme Marie Gustave Tridon, Gustave Paul Flourens, Théophile Charles Gilles Ferré, as well as Félix Pyat, were charged with conspiring to assassinate Napoleon III and stage a coup d'état. The Supreme Court sentenced most of the accused to penal servitude and to terms varying from 5 to 20 years in prison and exile.— 3
[54] Boustrapa—a nickname of Louis Bonaparte, composed of the first syllables of the names of cities where he staged putsches: Boulogne (6 August 1840), Strasbourg (30 October 1836) and Paris (coup d'état of 2 December 1851, which led to the establishment of a Bonapartist dictatorship in France).—38, 51
[5 3] Marx and his family were on vacation in Ramsgate from 9 to 31 August 1870.—38, 56, 60, 64, 82, 555, 557
[5 4 4] La Emancipaciân, No. 43, 6 April 1872, carried the General Council's resolutions of 5 and 12 March 1872 on the split in the Central Committee of the International Working Men's Association for North America. The editorial introduction noted the great importance of these resolutions to the campaign against the attempts by bourgeois politicians to use the working-class movement to further their own ends.—399
[546] Marx quotes and partly renders in his own words Nikolai Danielson's letter of 23 May (4 June) 1872. The information concerning the publication and circulation of Volume I of Capital is also taken from this letter.—399
[246] In his letter dated 28 June 1871 Cafiero informed Engels that for liaison with the Florentine Società Democratica Internationale he should write to Francesco Piccini, a shoemaker.—170
[547] On 7 June 1872 Sorge wrote to Marx that Nicholson, the treasurer of the Provisional Federal Council of the North American sections, had stopped attending the Council's meetings and disappeared altogether.—400
[548] Marx's letter is a reply to Suetendael's letter of 20 June 1872. He thanked Marx for having sent him the General Council's circular on Fictitious Splits in the International, inquired about Eugène Hins' draft, and wrote about the dissent within the International's Brussels section.—400
[549] Pietists, adherents of a mystical Lutheran trend which originated in Germany in the 17th century and placed religious feeling above religious dogmas.—402
[550] Hepner wrote on 29 June 1872 that he was forwarding Engels Karl Boruttau's letter requesting the recommendation of material for the campaign against Bakunin.—404
[551] A reference to the special issue of the Bulletin de la Federation jurassienne, No. 10-11, 15 June 1872, which featured replies from a number of Bakuninists to the General Council's circular Fictitious Splits in the International (including those from James Guillaume, Benoît Malon, and Mikhail Bakunin), as well as the reply of the editorial board to Paul Lafargue's letter in which he had exposed the activities of the secret Alliance in Spain.—405
[552] On 29 June 1872 Hepner wrote to Engels requesting that he ask the Wigand publishing house in Leipzig to return the remaining copies of the first edition of Engels' The Condition of the Working-Class in England for transmission to Der Volksstaat publishers.— 405
[554] The reference is to the article 'La burguesia y la Internacional en los Estados-Unidos' carried by La Emancipation, No. 54, 22 June 1872. The article exposed the attempt by bourgeois reformists to use the International's organisation in the USA to promote their own ends. It was based on the materials sent by Engels to Paul Lafargue.—-407
[555] Bakunin's letter 'Réponse du citoyen Bakounine. Aux compagnons rédacteurs du Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne' was printed by the Bulletin on 15 June 1872 (No. 10-11). See Note 551.—408
[58] The defeats of the French army at Forbach (Spicheren) and Werth led to spontaneous anti-government demonstrations in Paris, Lyons, Marseilles and other cities on 7-9 August 1870. These revolutionary actions almost coincided with the anniversary of the popular insurrection in Paris (10 August 1792) which had led to the overthrow of the monarchy in France and the foundation of the First Republic. On 10 August 1870 The Pall Mall Gazette published a report on the events in Paris entitled 'Affairs in Paris. Prospects of Revolution'.—41
[559] This is Engels' reply to the letter from the Workers' Union (Fascio Operaio) in Florence of 27 June 1872 signed by Ugo Bartorelli. Engels made a note on the letter in German and Italian: 'Florence, 27 June 1872. Workers' Union. Answered 18 July. Reply enclosed'—411
[560] Engels goes on to quote Article 4 of Section II ('The General Council') of the Administrative Regulations. This article corresponds to Administrative Resolution IV passed by the Basle Congress (1869) of the International.—411
[561] Article 1 of Section V ('Local Societies, Branches, and Groups') of the Administrative Regulations corresponds to Article 14 of the Regulations adopted by the Geneva Congress (1866) of the International (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 446).—411
[86] In his letters Sorge informed Marx that Robert William Hume, the General Council's correspondent in the USA, used his powers for self-advertisement. In the 'membership cards' of the International, which he issued without the knowledge of the General Council, Hume distorted the aims and tasks of the International Working Men's Association. Marx informed the General Council about Sorge's letter on 6 September 1870. Eccarius, the Corresponding Secretary for the United States, was instructed to demand from Hume that he abide strictly by the Rules of the International Working Men's Association.—57, 60
[562] The letter contains the text of Article 8 adopted at the General Council meeting of 23 July 1872 on the suggestion of Edouard Vaillant during the discussion of the new draft General Rules and Administrative Regulations (see Note 570). The Hague Congress incorporated it into the General Rules as Article 7a (see present edition, Vol. 23, p. 243). Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx, On the First International Arranged and edited, with an introduction and new translations by Saul K. Padover. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1973.—413
[566] When discussing the possible consequences of a new European war inspired by the militarists, Engels surmised that in the course of such a conflict the German Empire could collapse in a manner similar to the Bonapartist Second Empire in France, which fell two days after the defeat at Sedan on 1-2 September 1870.—415
[569] The protest against the venue of the Congress was sent by Adhémar Schwitzguébel to the General Council on 15 July 1872 on behalf and on the instructions of the Jura Federation.— 419
[570] "The General Council, having included revision of the General Rules and Administrative Regulations in the agenda of the Hague Congress, began discussing the changes to be made in these documents on 25 June 1872. As a result, new draft Rules and Regulations were adopted (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 198-204), including, as Article 8, Resolution IX passed by the 1871 London Conference, 'Political Action of the Working Class'; its text was re-edited (see this volume, p. 414). The draft also incorporated articles specifying more precisely and extending the functions of the General Council. The Hague Congress, which did not consider the draft Rules and Regulations in their entirety, incorporated the resolution 'Political Action of the Working Class' into the Rules as Article 7a; it also included in the Rules several administrative resolutions (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 243-53).—420
[571] This letter is a draft of Engels' complaint to the Judicial Committee of the General Council (see Note 521). Engels decided to appeal because at the Council meeting of 6 August 1872, during the discussion of his draft address (see Note 563), John Hales accused him of falsifying the information received from Spain. Engels' complaint was discussed at the Committee meeting in late August 1872; however, due to the Hague Congress and the subsequent transfer of the General Council to New York, the investigation of this matter was not completed.—421
[572] A reference to Danielson's letter to Marx of 20-25 July (1-6 August) 1872.—422
[575] All that has survived of Engels' letter to Glaser de Willebrord is a long excerpt copied by Nikolai Zhukovsky from Glaser de Willebrord's letter to Désiré Brismée of 21 August 1872, in which he quoted the bulk of what Engels had written. The copy made by Zhukovsky was published by Nettlau in his lithographic biography of Bakunin (M. Nettlau, Michael Bakunin. Eine Bio-graphie, Vol. Ill, Ch. 57, pp. 613-15) and, in an abridged form, by James Guillaume (J. Guillaume, L'Internationale. Documents et souvenirs (1864-1878), Vol. II, Société nouvelle de librairie et d'édition, Paris, 1907, pp. 318-19).—424
[11] 1 The Landwehr—a second-line army reserve formed in Prussia during the struggle against Napoleonic rule. In the 1870s, it consisted of men under forty years of age who had seen active service and had been in the first-line reserve. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Landwehr was used in military actions on a par with the regular troops.— 7, 12, 20, 117
[579] In a private circular of 7 July 1872 the Spanish Federal Council, which was dominated by the Bakuninists, suggested that all sections elect a delegation to the Hague Congress from a single list, and that a binding mandate be drawn up. As a result the Spanish Federation sent four Bakuninists as its delegates to the Hague Congress (Tomas Morago Gonzalez, Nicola Marselau, Alonso Charles Alerini and Rafael Farga Pellicer).—426
[577] A reference to the Union de las très clases de vapor (Union of the Three Categories of Factory Workers), one of the first trade unions in Catalonia, which embraced weavers, spinners and other workers employed in the textile industry. The Union was a collective member of the International.—425, 426
[581] This letter has survived as a certified handwritten copy made from the original by John Burns, a leading figure in the British workers' movement, among whose papers it is kept at the British Museum Library. The copy of the letter is dated 15 September 1872, which may be incorrect. The letter is likely to have been written somewhat later, since it deals with the international Federalist Congress which took place in London on 16-19 September 1872. However, it is possible that having learned in advance about the convocation and agenda of the congress, Engels decided to give a description of its participants prior to its opening.—428
[582] On 16-19 September 1872 the New Hall of Science, 142 Old Street, City Road, E.C., London (the headquarters of a group of radicals headed by Charles Bradlaugh), hosted an international congress convened by petty-bourgeois federalists as a gesture against the Hague Congress of the International (see Note 580). Its agenda was published in the Federation, No. 4, 14 September 1872.—428
[583] The society of French refugees refers to the French-Language Section in London (see Note 359). The above-mentioned (third) trial of members of the Paris Federation of the International took place in Paris between 22 June and 5 July 1870. Legal proceedings were instituted against 38 members of the International Working Men's Association. In the course of the trial, the attempts by the Bonapartist authorities to accuse them of involvement in a plot to assassinate Napoleon III collapsed. Nevertheless, the accused were given prison sentences and fined.—
[585] The Declaration of the minority (Déclaration de la minorité), a statement read out at the Congress sitting of 7 September by Victor Dave and signed by 13 anarchist delegates (four from Spain, five from Belgium, two from Switzerland and two from Holland), and also by the representative of New York Section No. 12 which the Congress had expelled from the International (see Note 332). The statement rejected Congress decisions aimed at strengthening discipline and promoting centralisation within the International, and declared the 'autonomy' and 'independence' of the sections to be the basic principle. The minority declared that they would recognise the General Council only as a correspondence and statistical bureau. The statement by the anarchist minority was a step towards an open split in the International Working Men's Association.—430
[587] A reference to the resolution of the Hague Congress passed at its eighth sitting on 5 September 1872; it was not included into the official edition of the Hague Congress resolutions.—430
[589] The minutes of the Hague Congress were not published in Marx's and Engels' lifetime.—430
[592] This is a reply to van der Willigen's letter of 2 October 1872 in which the Dutch reporter asked Marx when and where the official account of the Hague Congress would be published. The original of Marx's letter is kept at Karl-Marx-Haus in Trier.—434
[596] On the decision of German Section No. 6 (New York), Engels represented it at the Hague Congress. The above-mentioned report he wrote has not been found.—436
[597] The pamphlet Les théoriciens du socialisme en Allemagne. Extrait du Journal des Economistes, Paris, 1872, was a review by Maurice Block of Volume I of Capital. A copy with Marx's marginal notes is extant. Marx gave his opinion of the pamphlet in his letter to Nikolai Danielson of 18 January 1873 (see this volume, p. 470).—438
[598] Reviews of the Russian edition of Volume I of Capital were featured by Peterburgskiye Vedomosti, No. 97, 8 (20) April 1872; Novoye Vremya, No. 106, 23 April (5 May) 1872; Birzheviye Vedomosti No. 147, 30 May 1872. Syn Otecheslva, Nos. 97 and 98, 28 and 29 April 1872, carried the article 'The Teachings of Modern Socialism and Communism'; Otechestvenniye Zapiski, No. 4, April 1872, printed the article 'Concerning the Russian Edition of Karl Marx's BookJ written by N. K. Mikhailovsky and published anonymously. Reviews of Capital also appeared in other Russian periodicals.— 438
[600] In his letter, John Hales proposed the establishment of direct contacts between the British and the Belgian federation and accused the old General Council of 'authoritarianism'. This was in fact a declaration of support for the anarchists' campaign against the General Council.—441
[602] This is a reply to Jenny Marx-Longuet's letter of 27 October 1872. Thanking Engels for sending her two issues of La Emancipacion with a critical article about Proudhon, Jenny wrote that 'Proudhon's unworthy disciple and mutual friend of ours' had read it with a bitter smile, which was a hint at Charles Longuet.—442
[603] The wedding of Jenny Marx and the French socialist Charles Longuet took place on 10 October 1872. The newly weds settled in Oxford.—442
[605] Knoten (boors, louts, yokels), a label Marx and Engels often used in their letters to describe the members of the German Workers' Educational Society in London. The subject of Marx's lecture has not been established.—443
[606] Associazione degli opérai e degli agricoltori della Bassa Lombardia (Association of Workers and Agricultural Labourers of Lower Lombardy), the International's section in Lodi, and Consociazione dei liberi Lavoratori Abruzzesi (Society of Free Abruzzi Labourers), the International's section in L'Aquila, were both formed in October 1872 under the direct influence of Enrico Bignami. Bignami informed Engels of their formation and the adoption of appropriate Rules on 28 October 1872. On 22 December 1872 the New York General Council these sections to the International on Engels' application. In admitted December 1872-January 1873 their activities were banned by the government.—
[610] The reference is to the 'Address of the General Council. To the federations, affiliated societies, sections and all members of the International Working Men's Association. New York, October 20 th 1872', the first official Address of the new General Council. It was published in The International Herald, No. 34, on 23 November 1872.—446
[611] In June 1872 the Democratic Association of Victoria was established in Australia and announced that it was joining the International Working Men's Association.—446
[612] The Bakuninist Spanish Federal Council issued a private circular which announced the convocation of a congress in Cordoba earlier than scheduled and arbitrarily changed the agenda, demanding that a choice be made between the resolutions of the Hague Congress and those of the anarchist congress in Saint-Imier. In this connection, on 1 November 1872, the New Madrid
[613] Federation issued an Address, 'La Nueva Federaciön madrilena â todas las federaciones, secciones é individuos de la Asociaciôn Internacional en Espafia', which was signed 'Victor Pages' and published in La Emancipation, No. 73, 9 November 1872. The authors of the Address proposed the election of a new Federal Council which would act in conformity with the International's Rules and the resolutions of its General Congresses. The Nueva Federation madrilena (New Madrid Federation) was founded on 8 July 1872 by the members of the Emancipation editorial board expelled from the Madrid Federation by its anarchist majority. An important part in the foundation and work of the Federation was performed by Paul Lafargue. On 15 August 1872 the General Council recognised it as an equal member of the International (see present edition, Vol. 23, p. 215). The New Madrid Federation resolutely opposed the anarchist influence in Spain and spread the ideas of scientific socialism.— 447 618 The Cercle d'Études Sociales (Circle for Social Studies) was set up in London by refugee Communards in late 1871-early 1872 with the active participation by the French-speaking section formed in London in October 1871. International members Gabriel Ranvier, Hippolyte Lissagaray and Adolphe Hubert contributed greatly to the work in the Cercle. On their suggestion, Marx was unanimously admitted to the Cercle on 3 February 1872 and took part in its work until the autumn of that year.—447
[614] A reference to the private 'Circular â todas las federaciones locales' issued in 1872 in Valencia by the Bakuninist Spanish Federal Council. It called for an extraordinary congress of the Federation with a view to declaring its agreement with the decisions of the Bakuninist congress in Saint-Imier. The circular included the report of the four Spanish delegates to the Hague Congress, which had originally appeared in La Federation, No. 162, on 21 September 1872.—
[615] A general assembly of the Gratia Federation was held on 4-6 November 1872. Having heard the report on the Hague Congress delivered by Charles Alerini, one of the leaders of the Alliance, the assembly censured the attitude of the Spanish delegates at the Congress, rejected the anarchists' proposal to support the resolutions of the Saint-Imier congress and approved by a majority vote the resolutions of the Hague Congress. The meeting of the Valencia Federation was held on 9 November 1872. It voted down the Alliancists' proposal to include the demand that the Saint-Imier resolutions be approved in the binding mandate given to the delegate to an extraordinary congress in Cordoba (see Note 627).—448
[616] Engels learned about the success in the struggle against the Alliance in Spain from José Mesa. Presumably Mesa had enclosed with his letter the information received from Francisco Mora, who was in Barcelona at the time.—449
[618] The International Herald, No. 33, 16 November 1872 featured a report, signed by John Hales, on the meeting of the British Federal Council held on 7 November.—449
[619] By the General Council decision of 5 January 1873, Engels was appointed temporary representative of the Council for Italy and received the appropriate powers and instructions.—450
[620] Marx stayed with Jenny and Charles Longuet in Oxford between 15 and 18 November 1872.—450
[93] Marx may have had in mind rumours circulating in the press about Russia's pro-French orientation and the favourable reception given the French Ambassador, General Fleury, at the Russian court.—59
[609] At Engels' request, Sorge brought with him to the Congress the handwritten text of a French translation of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, which had been prepared in the summer of 1872 by a Frenchman residing in the USA. The translator had used the English edition of the Manifesto in Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly (see Note 440).—446, 451
[623] Since the committee appointed by the Hague Congress to inquire into the secret activities of the Alliance did not manage to examine the bulk of the documents submitted to it (see Note 584), Marx had the idea back at the time of the Congress of writing an exposure of the Bakuninist organisation. The Hague Congress decided to publish the documents pertaining to the Alliance (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 249-50). The documents were passed on to the committee appointed to prepare the Congress minutes and resolutions for publication, which included Marx and Engels among its members. In April 1873 they started work on The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the International Working Men's Association, as the Congress had resolved. The bulk of the work involved in the collection of additional material, its comparison and analysis was carried out by Engels and Paul Lafargue. The concluding part of the pamphlet was written by Marx (see this volume, p. 521). The pamphlet appeared in French in late August-early September 1873 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 454-580). In the summer of 1874 it was published in German in Brunswick in Samuel Kokosky's translation entitled Ein Complot gegen die Internationale Arbeiter-Association.—451, 517, 523
[624] Sergei Nechayev, who was living in Zurich at the time, was arrested on 14 August 1872 by the Swiss authorities and in the autumn of the same year extradited to Russia as a criminal. Sentenced to 20 years' hard labour, Nechayev was kept at the Alexeyevsky Ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg where he died ten years later.—452
[625] A reference to the Irish sections of the International Working Men's Association in the USA. Their members were mostly former Fenians (see Note 6).—453
[626] A reference to the congress of a number of the Dutch sections of the International held in Amsterdam on 24 November 1872. It was convened by the Dutch Federal Council as a response to the anarchist campaign against the resolutions of the Hague Congress.—453
[62] Marx wrote this letter to Jung after he had received resolutions from the Central Committee of the German-speaking sections in Switzerland which endorsed the General Council's proposal to defer the regular congress of the International due on 5 September 1870. A copy, handwritten by Marx, of the resolution of the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party was enclosed with the letter.—44
[628] On 25 December 1872 a private conference of the International Working Men's Association's branches in Southern France was held in Toulouse and attended by delegates from Toulouse, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Béziers, Sète, Agen, Narbonne, Bayonne, Avignon, Castelnaudary, Lavardac, Perpignan, etc. The conference was to endorse the resolutions of the Hague Congress and put up a fight against the Bakuninists. These plans, however, were foiled by arrests of the International's members, which began at that time in Southern France.—454, 466
[629] Engels is referring to Jules Montels' letter protesting at the expulsion from the International's Béziers section of anarchist Abel Bousquet, a police officer. The de la Fédération jurassienne, No. 20-21, letter was published in Bulletin 10 November 1872.—454
[651] The Manchester Foreign Section of the International Working Men's Association was formed in August 1872, mostly of emigrant workers. It resolutely opposed the reformist wing of the British Federal Council and supported Marx's and Engels' efforts to strengthen the British Federation and purge it of the elements that were disorganising its work. The circular mentioned by Engels was written by him at the request of the Manchester section in reply to the circular of 10 December 1872 drawn up by the reformist wing which had seceded from the British Federal Council. After the section had approved it, Engels' circular was published as a leaflet and sent to all members of the International in Great Britain (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 304-08).—464
[165] p a r t 0f this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx, On the First International Arranged and edited, with an introduction and new translations by Saul K. Padover. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1973.—115, 377, 421, 455, 469, 488
[632] At Danielson's request Marx sent him the resolutions of the Hague Congress of 1872 (see Note 588).—455
[633] -phe beating up of Nikolai Utin (Outine) by members of the Alliance's Slav Section, which was to prevent him from completing the report he was writing for the Hague Congress on Bakunin's splitting activities, is described by Marx and Engels in The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the International Working Men's Association (see present edition, Vol. 23, p. 485).—456
[63] By a decision of the Vienna Congress of 1815, the northern regions of Savoy (Chablais, Faucigny and Geneves), which formed part of the Sardinian Kingdom, were declared a neutral zone. After Savoy and Nice had been annexed by France in 1859, Switzerland laid claim to these neutral regions.—45
[573] Danielson sent Marx a copy of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's unpublished article 'Letters Without an Address' written in 1862. Marx wanted to publish this work in Geneva with the help of Nikolai Utin. 'Letters Without an Address' was first published in 1874 in Zurich by Pyotr Lavrov. Marx showed great interest in the article and made a detailed synopsis.—422, 457
[635] A reference to the manuscript of the article by the Russian bourgeois economist Yuli Zhukovsky, 'Karl Marx and His Book about Capital', which was subsequently published in Vestnik Yevropy, Vol. V, September 1877, pp. 64-195. A critical review of this article by an ideologist of Russian Narodism (Populism) Nikolai Mikhailovsky, which appeared in the Otechestvenniye Zapiski magazine in October 1877 ('Karl Marx Before the Tribunal of Mr Zhukovsky'), prompted Marx to write a 'Letter to Otechestvenniye Zapiski' (see present edition, Vol. 24).—457
[636] Marx is referring to the intention of Napoléon La Cecilia, a Communard and member of the International, and Enrico Bignami, editor of La Ptebe, to translate and publish Capital in Italian. However, they did not succeed in carrying out this plan.—457
[637] In a letter of 15 (27) December 1872 Danielson outlined a basis for Lafargue's work for Russian magazines, including Znaniye, and asked him to send a trial article. Fruitful cooperation between the Russian magazines Ustoi, Otechestvenniye Zapiski and Seventy Vestnik and Lafargue began only in the 1880s.—457,
[638] Marx intended to use the results of his research into agrarian relations in Russia in the section devoted to rent (in accordance with his plan, in the second book of Volume II of Capital). After Marx's death Engels published the first and second books of this volume as Volumes II and III of Capital.— 457
[640] Engels is referring to the article probably written by José Mesa, who drew on the materials he had been sent by Lafargue or Engels himself.—458
[641] On 21 November 1872 the Royal prosecutor in Lodi announced that issue No. 118 of La Plebe of 17 November 1872 had been sequestrated for publishing the General Council's Address of 20 October (see Note 610). Prosecutor Gerli simultaneously announced that proceedings had been instituted against Enrico Bignami, the paper's editor. In December 1872 Bignami and three of his friends were arrested and charged with high treason and propagating the ideas of the International Working Men's Association.—458,
[642] Bignami's arrest and the sequestration of issue No. 118 of La Plebe were reported in Der Volksstaat, No. 101, 18 December 1872. The paper probably used the information supplied by Engels. La Emancipation did not carry the report.—458
[604] A reference to the various groups of French refugees in London. The 'purs' are the Blanquists headed by Edouard Marie Vaillant. In November 1872 the Blanquists issued a pamphlet Internationale et révolution aimed against the decision of the Hague Congress to transfer the seat of the General Council to New York, in which they accused the leaders of the International of having renounced the idea of revolution. The pamphlet was signed by Armand Arnaud, Frederic Cournet, Edouard Margueritte, Constant Martin, Gabriel Ranvier and Edouard Vaillant, who simultaneously stated that they were withdrawing from the International. However, as Eugène Dupont informed Marx on 6 November 1872, Ranvier was unaware that his name had been used. The 'impurs' are probably a group of French refugees headed by Pierre Vésinier and Bernard Landeck.—443, 447, 458, 467
[643] After the Hague Congress the reformist wing of the British Federal Council refused to recognise the Congress resolutions. To counter the reformists' actions, the revolutionary wing of the Council (Samuel Vickery, William Riley, George Milner, Frederick Lessner, Eugène Dupont and others) vigorously supported Marx and Engels. In early December 1872 a split occurred; the wing of the Council that remained loyal to the Hague Congress resolutions was established as the British Federal Council in late December 1872. The British Federal Council existed until early 1874.—459, 464, 498
[644] A reference to the General Council Address issued on 20 November 1872, which exposed the slander directed against the Hague Congress by the Spanish delegates.—460
[645] By a decision of 2 February 1872, Walery Wröblewski, who from October 1871 and throughout 1872 had been Corresponding Secretary for Poland of the London General Council, was appointed representative for Poland by the New York General Council.—460
[646] This letter was published in English for the first time in Unbekanntes von Friedrich Engels und Karl Marx. Part I: 1840-1874. Ed. by Bert Andreas, Jacques Grandjonc, Hans Pelger. Papers of the Karl-Marx-Haus, Trier, 1986.—461
[647] The reference is to the reply by John Hales to Marx's and Engels' letter of 20 December 1872 to the editor of The International Herald, which exposed the divisive activities of the reformist wing of the British Federal Council. Hales' reply written on 30 December was published in The International Herald, No. 40, 4 January 1873. 'Our reply' is a reference to the 'Address of the British Federal Council to the Sections, Branches, Affiliated Societies and Members' adopted at the Federal Council meeting of 23 December (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 309-14). It was written by Marx and distributed as a leaflet signed by ten Council members in response to the reformist circular of 10 December.—461
[649] The manuscript of this letter has been seriously damaged; the words that have been deciphered are in square brackets. Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Letters to Americans 1848-1895. A Selection. International Publishers, New York, 1953.—462
[374] The Congress of the Bakuninist Jura Federation held in Sonvillier on 12 November 1871 adopted the Sonvillier circular, 'Circulaire à toutes les fédérations de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs'. It was directed against the General Council and the 1871 London Conference, and countered the Conference decisions with anarchist phrases about the sections' political indifferentism and complete autonomy. The Bakuninists proposed that all the federations demand the immediate convocation of a congress to revise the General Rules and to condemn the General Council's actions. The International's sections in Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, the USA, and also the Section in Milan, came out against the circular. Engels gave the Bakuninists a vigorous rebuff in his article 'The Congress of Sonvillier and the International' (present edition, Vol. 23).—270, 289, 292, 299, 310, 318,
[399] A reference to the 1869 Basle Congress Administrative Resolutions, which extended the rights of the General Council; Resolution V gave the Council the right to refuse admission to new sections; Resolution VI gave it the right to suspend individual sections until the next congress. These resolutions were incorporated into the International's Administrative Regulations after the 1871 London Conference.—285, 289, 292, 296, 308, 313
[404] In its discussion of the Sonvillier circular (see Note 374), the congress of the Belgian Federation of the International Working Men's Association held on 24-25 December 1871 in Brussels declined to back the demand of the Jura Federation that a General Congress of the International be convened without delay, yet at the same time instructed the Belgian Federal Council to draw up new draft Rules for the Association. Those behind the project were motivated by the desire to deprive the General Council of its powers. A short report on the congress was published in L'Internationale, No. 155, 31 December 1871, and also in Der Volksstaat, No. 5, 17 January 1872.—289, 296, 310, 374, 568, 574
[3] This refers to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.— 3
[4 0 9] The Mordecaians— see this volume, p. 246.-292, 305, 357
[415] On 7 January 1872 the Neuer Social-Demokrat, No. 3, printed a letter written by a number of Lassalleans. It was signed by Heinrich Schenck and Christian Winand, who had been expelled from the German Workers' Educational Society in London (see Note 135), and contained libellous attacks on Marx and the General Council. On 27 January 1872 Der Volksstaat, No. 8, carried a reply signed by A. Caulaincourt, secretary of the German Workers' Educational Society, under the heading 'Die Gegner der Internationalen Arbeiterassoziation'. Der Volksstaat, No. 14 (17 February 1872), printed an article headed 'Wer ist Joseph Schneider?' criticising the Lassallean views expounded by Schneider in his article 'An die Socialdemokraten Deutschlands'. Directed against the International (see Note 386), it had appeared in the Neuer Social-Demokrat, No. 67, 3 December 1871.—297, 320
[416] A reference to the editorial statement in the 'Sucesos de la semana' column published by La Emancipation, No. 31, 14 January 1872, which described the Neuer Social-Demokrat as a newspaper which had sold out to Bismarck. This piece was translated by Engels and published by Der Volksstaat, No. 10, 3 February 1872.—297, 302
[386] After the 1871 London Conference the Lassalleans in the German Workers' Educational Society in London began campaigning against the General Council. They acted jointly with the Bakuninists and the petty-bourgeois refugees from the French Section of 1871. Joseph Schneider's article 'An die Socialdemokraten Deutschlands' was published in No. 67 of the Neuer Social-Demokrat, 3 December 1871. In it he calumniated Marx, Bebel and the International, citing, in particular, the 'Protestation' of 15 members of the French Section of 1871 (see Note 358). The Neuer Social-Demokrat, Nos. 68 and 69, 6 and 8 December 1871, published contributions by 'a socialist living in London' which contained attacks on the International. They could have been written by E. J. Weber. In December 1871 the Lassalleans were expelled from the Society, and it declared its solidarity with the General Council and the decisions of the London Conference.—279, 297, 320
[417] In April 1872 the Universal Federalist Council was formed in London, comprising what was left of the French Section of 1871 (see Note 338), some of the Lassalleans expelled from the German Workers' Educational Society in London, and representatives of the bourgeois Universal Republican League and the Land and Labour League. The Council proclaimed itself a 'true' leading body of the International in a pamphlet called Conseil fédéraliste universel de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs et des Sociétés républicaines socialistes adhérentes. This prompted Marx to write the 'Declaration of the 22» General Council Concerning the Universal Federalist Council'. In September 1872 the Universal Federalist Council convened a congress in London which claimed to be a congress of the International Working Men's Association. Its subsequent activities amounted to in-fighting between the various cliques which laid claim to leadership of the workers' movement.—297, 418, 424, 428,
[4 1 9] Membership of the International could be either collective or individual. In countries where its activities were officially banned (Germany, for instance), the General Council issued membership cards to each new recruit individually. The Congress of Saxonian Social-Democrats (see Note 418) passed a resolution in favour of recruiting individual applicants to the International.—
[420] Resolution IV of the 1871 London Conference introduced penny stamps for the payment of membership dues. 'These stamps are to be affixed to a special sheet of the livret or to the Rules which every member is held to possess' (see present edition, Vol. 22, p. 424). Consequently, the General Council ceased to issue membership cards.—298, 306, 314, 315, 319, 332, 447
[421] Luigi Stefanoni, a bourgeois democrat and member of the Bakuninist Alliance of Socialist Democracy, presented himself in November 1871 as the initiator of the Universal Society of Rationalists (Società Universale dei Razionalisti) allegedly intended to put into practice the principles of the International but free of 'its negative features'. Stefanoni advanced as a social panacea the Utopian idea of buying land from the landlords and establishing agricultural colonies. The draft programme of the Society was printed by II Libero Pensiero, No. 18, 2 November 1871. Later, Stefanoni published a number of slanderous articles directed against the General Council and Marx and Engels personally. Marx's and Engels' writings (e.g. Engels' letter to the editors of the Gazzettino Rosa, Marx's article 'Stefanoni and the International Again', present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 74-75, 160-63), which exposed Stefanoni's real ambitions, contributed to the failure of Stefanoni's attempts to subject the workers' movement in Italy to bourgeois influence.—298, 319
[395] Laura Lafargue, in her letter to Marx of 12 December 1871, and Paul Lafargue, in his letter to Engels of the same date, reported on the results of their preliminary negotiations with Maurice Lachâtre, a French publisher, concerning the publication of the French translation of Volume I of Capital (see also Note 147). Laura wrote that Lachâtre had stated that not more than 4,000 francs would be needed to start work on the publication, of which the author had to pay one half. Lafargue had accepted these conditions and offered to pay the sum himself.—283, 298, 301, 314
[422] A reference to the split in the Central Committee of the International Working Men's Association for North America, which occurred in December 1871. After the London Conference of 1871 strife flared up within the Committee between the proletarian and the bourgeois-reformist elements. As a result of the split two committees were formed, the Provisional Federal Council (Committee No. I), which comprised representatives of the 14 sections adhering to the proletarian stand (Friedrich Adolph Sorge, Friedrich Boite, etc.), and the separatist council (Committee No. II), headed by Victoria Woodhull and other bourgeois reformists belonging to Section No. 12. At its meetings of 5 and 12 March the General Council voiced its support for the proletarian wing of the North American Federation; Section No. 12 was suspended from the International pending the next Congress. On 28 May 1872 the General Council declared the Provisional Federal Council the sole leading body of the North American sections. The congress of the North American Federation held in July 1872 elected the standing Federal Council which included all members of the provisional body (see Engels' 'The International in America' and Marx's 'American Split', present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 177-83, 636-43).—298, 334, 341,
[423] The second congress of the Spanish Federation of the International was held in Saragossa on 4-11 April 1872, attended by 45 delegates representing 31 local federations. The congress voted down the demand of Swiss Bakuninists that a General Congress be convened without delay, but, under the influence of the anarchists, decided to support the revision of the General Rules proposed by the Belgian Federation with a view to granting greater autonomy to the local sections. Opposing the Bakuninists, the congress ruled the expulsion of the editors of La Emancipation from the Federation to be illegal and restored their rights. However, when it came to electing the new Federal Council the Bakuninists managed to fill it mostly with members of the Alliance.—299, 301,
[396] In his letter to Marx of 28 November 1871 Meissner wrote that almost the whole of the first German edition of Volume I of Capital, issued in 1867, had been sold out. He suggested that Marx should start preparing the second German edition (see Note 145).—283,298, 301, 314,327, 343,347, 374, 379, 396,
[338] The French Section of 1871 was formed in London in September of that year by French refugees. The leaders of the Section established close contacts with Bakuninists in Switzerland. The Rules of the French Section of 1871, published in Qui Vivel, its official newspaper, were submitted to the General Council at its extraordinary meeting on 16 October 1871 and referred to a special commission (see Note 341). At the General Council meeting of 17 October Marx tabled a resolution on behalf of the commission (present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 24-27), recommending that the Section bring several paragraphs of its Rules into line with the Rules of the International. In its letter of 31 October signed by Augustin Avrial, the Section rejected the General Council resolution. This reply was discussed in the commission and at the General Council meeting of 7 November 1871. Auguste Serraillier, Corresponding Secretary for France, submitted a resolution written by Marx, which was adopted unanimously by the Council (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 37-42). In December 1871 the French Section of 1871 split up into a number of groups. In some of his letters Marx called this section French Section No. 2 to distinguish it from the French Section in London, established in 1865 (see Note 50).—241, 256, 267, 278, 280, 302, 309,
[359] The reference is to the French-Language Section in London, formed in November 1871 by the proletarian elements from among the Paris Commune refugees. On 18 November 1871 the Section adopted its Rules, which were approved by the General Council in February 1872. The French-Language Section in London included Marguerittes, Le Moussu, De Wolf fers, etc., and supported the General Council in its campaign against the petty-bourgeois stand adopted by some of the French refugees (Vermersch, etc.).— 256, 269, 280, 302
[4 5] This letter by Engels has not been found.—29, 43, 125, 156, 159, 185, 277, 305,
[481] On Vitale Regis' (Etienne Pechard's) trip to Milan and Turin, see Note 475.—
[280] In 1869 Nechayev established contacts with Bakunin and began setting up a secret organisation called Narodnaya Rasprava (The People's Judgment) in a number of Russian cities. Having received from Bakunin the credentials of the 'Alliance révolutionnaire européenne', Nechayev passed himself off as a representative of the International. When members of Nechayev's organisation were arrested and put on trial in St Petersburg in the summer of 1871, the adventurist methods he had used — blackmail, intimidation, deception, etc.—were brought out into the open. The bourgeois press used the Nechayev case to discredit the International. On 22 September 1871 the London Conference charged the General Council to declare publicly that the International Working Men's Association had nothing to do with Nechayev's activities. On October 16 the General Council adopted an appropriate resolution drafted by Marx (see present edition, Vol. 23, p. 23).—201, 311, 436
[118] This letter was written on a letterhead of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association.—78, 100, 121, 125, 190, 248, 315, 341, 354,
[9] At a congress of the Romance Federation held in La Chaux-de-Fonds between 4 and 6 April 1870, there occurred a split between the Bakuninists and the General Council supporters. The Bakuninist delegates, having usurped the name of the Romance Congress, elected their own Federal Committee and transferred its seat to La Chaux-de-Fonds. The General Council supporters continued their work under the leadership of the Romance Federal Committee residing in Geneva. On 28 June the General Council passed a resolution, submitted by Marx, which recognised the Geneva Committee as the Federal Committee of Romance Switzerland (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 136); the resolution was sent to both Federal Committees by Jung and published in La Solidarité, No. 16, on 23 July 1870, and in Le Mirabeau, No. 53, on 24 July 1870.—5, 26, 179, 285, 316
[435] The Sub-Committee (Standing Committee), or Executive Committee, grew out of the commission set up at the time of the International's inauguration in 1864 to draw up its rules and programme. It comprised corresponding secretaries for various countries, the General Council Secretary, and its treasurer. The Standing Committee, which had not been envisaged in the Rules of the International Working Men's Association, functioned as a working executive body. In the summer of 1872 the General Council decided to entrust all organisational matters to the Sub-Committee (which in June 1872 was renamed the Executive Committee). As Corresponding Secretary of the General Council for Switzerland, Jung received a large number of letters dealing with the campaign waged by the Romance Federation against the divisive Bakuninist sections; the letters were referred to the Sub-Committee for consideration.—316, 341, 383
[436] The surviving manuscript copy of the letter does not bear the name of the addressee. However, its contents and Marx's correspondence on the subject indicate that it was addressed to the heads of the Lachâtre publishing house in Paris. On 13 February 1872 Marx received a reply from the manager Juste Vernouillet, who informed him about the despatch of copies of the agreement on the publication of the French translation of Volume I of Capital. The agreement was signed on 15 February by Marx on one side, and Maurice Lachâtre and Juste Vernouillet on the other. It stipulated that the French edition was to be published in 44 instalments, and sold five instalments at a time. The French authorised edition of Volume I of Capital was published between 17 September 1872 and November 1875. The translation was done by Joseph Roy, who began in February 1872 and completed work in late 1873. The quality of the translation largely failed to satisfy Marx; besides, he was convinced that the original needed to be revised to adapt it to French readers.—316, 319, 328, 343, 362, 367, 374, 377, 379, 385, 396, 399, 405, 409,
[4] The issue of Le Réveil with the article in question has not been found.—3
[4 5 0] On 11 June 1872, on Marx's suggestion, the General Council resolved to convene a regular Congress in Holland on 2 September 1872 and decided on the principal item on the agenda, the consolidation of the International's organisation (revision of the General Rules and Administrative Regulations). At its next meeting on 18 June the Council decided on The Hague as the venue for the Congress and appointed a special commission (Engels, Edouard Vaillant, Joseph MacDonnel) to prepare an official announcement of the forthcoming Congress. The announcement was written by Engels and despatched to The International Herald, which published it on 29 June 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 170-73).—325, 366, 372, 374, 376, 392, 396, 398, 401, 404, 407, 409, 411-13, 415, 417, 418, 422, 425, 426
[17] This letter by Marx has not been found.—10, 15, 26, 33, 65, 70, 106, 176, 192,
[57] Engels worked on The History of Ireland in the latter months of 1869 and during the first half of 1870. However, this work remained unfinished. Engels wrote the first chapter ('Natural Conditions') and part of the second chapter ('Old Ireland'), which are contained in Volume 21 of the present edition; the preparatory materials for the book will be found in part in Volume 21 and also in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Ireland and the Irish Question, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978.—40, 329
[463] Probably a reference to the letter sent by the Committee of the Jura Federation to the Belgian Federal Council on 7 February 1872, which reported on the decision of the Committee to renounce its demand for an immediate Congress of the International.—331, 335, 337
[381] This letter was published in English for the first time in: Frederick Engels, Paul and Laura Lafargue, Correspondence, Vol. I: 1868-1886, Moscow, 1959.—277,
[440] The Manifesto of the Communist Party was published in English on 30 December 1871 in the American Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly, No. 7. Chapter IV, except for the last four paragraphs, was omitted. The first and second chapters of the Manifesto were published in French in the weekly Le Socialiste, the organ of the French sections of the International in the USA, in January-March 1872 under the heading 'Manifeste de Karl Marx' (Nos. 16-17, 19-24 and 26 of 20 and 27 January, 10, 17 and 24 February, and 2, 9, 16 and 30 March 1872).—319, 343, 378
[473] The General Council meeting of 20 February 1872 approved Hermann Jung's proposal to mark the anniversaries of the Paris Commune with mass rallies in London. Still, the public meeting, for which 5,000 French and British democrats had gathered, did not take place, since at the last moment the owner of the hall where it was to be held refused admission. The meeting then elected 150 delegates who made their way to Frances Street, where the Cercle d'Études Sociales was housed (see Note 613), and marked 18 March, the first anniversary of the Paris Commune, with a ceremony. At the suggestion of Commune members Albert Theisz and Zéphirin Camélinat and General Council member George Milner, the delegates adopted three short resolutions written by Marx (see present edition, Vol. 23, p. 128).—343, 347, 362
[150] p a r t of this letter was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895. A Selection, International Publishers, New York, 1953.—101, 356, 367, 393, 398, 407, 414
[486] Yhe Fascio Operaio (Workers' Union) was founded on 27 November 1871 in Bologna with Erminio Pescatori as its leader. The Union did not directly declare that it was joining the International, but its manifesto, which was approved on 4 December, did proclaim the principle of international solidarity of the working people. The Union acted as a governing centre for similar organisations formed at the turn of 1871-72 in a number of towns in the Emilia-Romagna (Imola, Forli, Lugo, Rimini, etc.). It did not maintain regular contacts with the International.— 358, 391, 419
[489] "phis assessment of the outcome of the Saragossa congress (see Note 423) was based on the information Engels received from Paul Lafargue. Following the receipt of more accurate information on the congress, specifically, on its decision to support the Belgian Federation's demand that the General Rules be revised, Engels changed his opinion. He wrote to Wilhelm Liebknecht about this on 22 May 1872 (see this volume, pp. 375-76).—358, 361, 375
[10] The International Alliance of Socialist Democracy (L'Alliance internationale de la démocratie socialiste)—an international anarchist organisation founded by Mikhail Bakunin and his followers in Geneva in October 1868. The programme of the Alliance called for the immediate abolition of all states, the equalisation of classes, and the abolition of the right of inheritance. The leaders of the Alliance sought admission to the International as an autonomous international organisation within the International Working Men's Association. Their claims were rejected by the General Council (see the resolution written by Marx and approved by the General Council on 22 December 1868: 'The International Working Men's Association and the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy', present edition, Vol. 21); and only after the leaders of the Alliance had expressed their readiness to dissolve it were its sections admitted to the International, on the common terms, in 1869. Having publicly declared the dissolution of the Alliance, the Bakuninist leaders actually preserved it as a secret, conspiratorial organisation and sought to use it to boost their influence in the International as a counter to the General Council. The struggle of the revolutionary proletarian wing of the International against the Bakuninist sectarians gained momentum after the Paris Commune, and became especially sharp after the London Conference of 1871. By a decision of the Hague Congress of the International (1872), at which the existence of the secret Bakuninist Alliance and its divisive activities were exposed, its chief leaders, Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume, were expelled from the International Working Men's Association.—5, 26, 163, 181, 233, 255,
[274] Following the arrest of Bebel, Liebknecht and Hepner (17 December 1870), Bismarck's government started preparations for a trial of the leaders of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party, who were charged with 'high treason' (see Note 134). The trial was held in Leipzig between 11 and 26 March 1872. Though the charges brought against them had not been proved, Bebel and Liebknecht were condemned to two-year imprisonment in a fortress (with the deduction of the two months they had spent in prison before the trial); Hepner was acquitted. Following the trial in Leipzig, early in July 1872 Bebel was again brought before the court 'for insulting His Majesty', which he had allegedly done when addressing workers in Leipzig. Bebel was sentenced to additional 9 months in prison and deprived of his seat in the Reichstag.—196, 360, 365,
[492] Responding to the slanderous article, 'Wie Karl Marx citirt', written by the German bourgeois economist Lujo Brentano and published in the Concordia magazine, No. 10, 7 March 1872, Marx wrote a letter to Der Volksstaat on 23 May, which the newspaper carried on 1 June 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 164-67). Following the publication of Marx's reply in Der Volksstaat, Concordia, No. 27, 4 July 1872, featured another anonymous article (also written by Brentano), 'Wie Karl Marx sich vertheidigt'. Marx's reply to the second article was published in Der Volksstaat, No. 63, 7 August 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 190-97).—360, 376, 410, 415
[494] In a letter to Engels of 19 April 1872, Liebknecht again wrote that the editorial board of Der Volksstaat intended to publish the Manifesto of the Communist Party as a separate pamphlet and requested the preface to this edition as promised. Marx and Engels wrote the preface to the new edition on 24 June 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 174-75).—361, 374
[145] 146 The second German edition of Volume I of Capital appeared between July 1872 and April 1873 in nine separate instalments, and in June 1873 it was published as a book. While preparing this edition Marx partly revised the text and introduced some changes in its structure.—100, 362, 367, 377, 385, 409, 21*
[360] The Russian edition of Volume I of Capital was published at the end of March 1872; the edition of 3,000 copies was rather large for that time. It was sold very quickly, contrary to the Tsarist censors' expectations; they considered Capital to be a work 'difficult to understand', and that was the reason they allowed its publication (see also Note 146).—256, 283, 362, 377, 385, 396, 399,
[496] This is a reply to Eccarius' letter of 2 May 1872, which he had written following the General Council's discussion of his behaviour in dealing with the split in the Central Committee of the International Working Men's Association for North America. After the General Council meetings of 5 and 12 March 1872 had approved the relevant resolutions proposed by Marx, John Hales (Council Secretary) and Eccarius (Corresponding Secretary for the USA) took up a conciliatory position towards the American bourgeois reformist elements. Eccarius opposed the expulsion of Section No. 12 and spoke out against Article 2 of Resolution III (see Note 471), accusing Friedrich Adolph Sorge and Section No. 1 (see Note 354), which he headed, of divisive activities. He refused to send the above-mentioned resolutions to the USA, stating in a number of letters (e.g. to petty-bourgeois activist John Elliott) that he strongly disapproved of them. On 23 April 1872 the General Council meeting instructed Marx to prepare a detailed report on Eccarius' stand. Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx, On the First International Arranged and edited, with an introduction and new translations by Saul K. Padover. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1973.—363, 379
[497] In early February 1866 on Marx's insistence and contrary to the wishes of trade union leaders, Eccarius was appointed editor-in-chief of The Commonwealth, the official organ of the International Working Men's Association. In September-October 1867, the General Council discussed the clash between Peter Fox and Eccarius. Fox had accused Eccarius of insulting some of the delegates to the Lausanne Congress in his reports published in The Times on 6, 9, 10 and 11 September.—363, 380
[498] A reference to Eccarius' article on the 1871 London Conference in the World, which quoted some of its resolutions American newspaper The despite the Conference's decision not to make them public without special instructions from the General Council. Following investigation of this fact by the commission appointed by the Council on 10 October (with Hermann Jung as chairman, George Milner and George Harris), Eccarius was reprimanded at the General Council meeting of 30 January 1872.— 363, 381
[501] This is a reference to Lafargue's reports on the Saragossa Congress of the Spanish Federation which appeared in La Liberté, Brussels. The first report, dated 9 April, was printed in No. 17 of 28 April 1872, and also carried by Der Volksstaat, No. 36, 4 May 1872. The second report, 'Congrès de Saragosse', written on 12 April, contained revelations about the secret Alliance and was published in La Liberté, No. 18, 5 May, and reprinted, in part, by Der Volksstaat, No. 41, 22 May 1872. On Lafargue's exaggeration of the successes scored by the General Council supporters at the Saragossa congress, see Note 489.— 365, 368, 375
[504] so4 Der Volksstaat, Nos. 10-13, 15 and 19 of 3, 7, 10, 14 and 21 February and 6 March 1872, reprinted from the Austrian workers' newspaper Volkswille a series of anonymous articles under the heading 'Die Wohnungsfrage'. The author of the articles was a doctor of medicine, the Proudhonist Arthur Mülberger. On 22 May Engels sent Liebknecht his reply to Miilberger's articles, which formed Part I of his work The Housing Question (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 315-37).— 366,
[137] This letter was first published in English in full in: Karl Marx, On the First International Arranged and edited, with an introduction and new translations by Saul K. Padover. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1973.—97, 106,
[524] The congress of the Belgian Federation held in Brussels on 19-20 May 1872 considered the draft Rules which had been drawn up by the Belgian Federal Council on the instructions of the Federation's congress held on 24-25 December 1871 (see Note 404). Under this draft, which was written by Eugène Hins, the powers of the General Council to all intents and purposes were to be annulled and the Council turned into a mere correspondence and statistical bureau. After heated debates the congress decided to submit the draft for discussion by the sections, and then for approval by the Federation's extraordinary congress scheduled for July 1872 (see Note 568).— 384, 387, 393,
[529] A reference to the so-called Nechayev trial (see Note 280, as well as present edition, Vol. 23, p. 23).—386, 422
[1] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934].—3, 30, 38, 61, 127
[537] La Emancipaciân, Nos. 52 and 53, 8 and 15 June 1872, featured an article entitled 'El proyecto belga de Estatutos générales', which sharply criticised the draft Rules drawn up by the Belgian Federal Council.—394, 399, 401
[538] On 15 June 1872 Wilhelm Liebknecht began to serve in the Hubertusburg fortress the prison sentence to which he had been condemned at the Leipzig trial (see Note 274). He remained in prison until 15 April 1874.—394, 425,
[539] On 12 May 1872 a plebiscite rejected the government draft bill under which the Constitution of the Swiss Confederation, adopted on 12 September 1848, was to be revised. The draft bill, which provided for the introduction of a uniform army, school and legislation for the entire country, caused disagreement within the International's sections in Switzerland, with the supporters of stronger central authority on one side, and those who advocated retention of the cantons' autonomous rights on the other.—395, 418
[545] Marx is referring to Resolution IV, 'Contre la suppression du Conseil Général', adopted by the Fourth Congress of the International's Romance Federation, which was held in Vevey on 2-3 June 1872. It appeared in L'Égalité, No. 12, on 13 June 1872. The Congress unreservedly supported the resolutions of the 1871 London Conference and turned down the proposal of the Belgian Federal Council for a revision of the General Rules of the Association.— 399,
[4 3] Marx is referring to the articles by Sigismund Borkheim, 'Russische Briefe. VIII-X. Michael Bakunin, XI. Ein russischer penny-a-liner', which were published anonymously in Die Zukunft between July and November 1869. Analysing Bakunin's articles which had appeared in Russian, Borkheim criticised the author mainly for his Pan-Slavist ideas and the idealisation of the Russian peasant commune.—27, 404
[385] 386 From mid-January to early March 1872 Marx and Engels wrote 'Fictitious Splits in the International. Private Circular from the General Council of the International Working Men's Association' (see present edition, Vol. 23). Marx set forth its principal propositions at the meeting of the General Council on 5 March 1872. The circular was issued as a pamphlet in French at the end of May 1872; it was signed by all members of the General Council and sent to all federations of the International.—278, 284, 294, 393, 404, 407, 412, 415
[121] This letter was first published in English in full in: Karl Marx, Letters to Dr. Kugelmann, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow-Leningrad [1934].—81, 91, 108, 131, 157, 176, 243, 409, 412,
[556] 656 Marx and Engels were on holiday in Ramsgate between 9 and 15 July 1872.—409, 410
[567] In discussing the draft Rules drawn up by the Belgian Federal Council (see Note 524), the members of the German section of the International in Verviers voiced their firm support of the General Council. In response, as Cuno wrote to Engels on 26 July 1872, the Bakuninist majority on the Belgian Federal Council tried to blacken the character of one of the section's members and demanded that he be expelled from the International. The section in question having refused to comply, it was expelled from the Belgian Federation by the Federal Council.—416
[563] 663 The reference is to the address entitled 'The General Council to All the Members of the International Working Men's Association' (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 205-10), drafted by Engels on the instructions of the Sub-Committee (see Note 435). At the General Council meeting of 6 August 1872 the draft provoked a lively discussion, with some of the Council's members opposing publication of the address pending an investigation into the Alliance's activities. The draft proposed by Engels was accepted by a majority vote. The document has survived in Engels' handwriting in English and in French. It did not appear in Der Volksstaat.— 415, 417, 420
[564] Following the exposure by Paul Lafargue in April-early May 1872 of the existence of the secret Alliance in Spain, Engels requested Lafargue, José Mesa, Francisco Mora and the other editors of La Emancipaciôn to let him have documentary proof of the Alliance's activities. By early August 1872 Engels received from Spain a copy of Bakunin's letter to Mora of 5 April 1872, the statutes of the Alliance in Spain, and other documents. These materials were used by Engels when drafting the above-mentioned address of the General Council.— 415, 420
[574] A reference to the letter written by Sergei Nechayev to Nikolai Lyubavin in the spring of 1870 on Bakunin's instructions in the name of the non-existent Bureau of Foreign Agents of the Russian Revolutionary Society The People's Judgment In this letter, Lyubavin was threatened with reprisals if he did not release Bakunin from the commitments he had undertaken with regard to the translation of Volume I of Capital into Russian. (Under the agreement concluded through Lyubavin with the publisher Nikolai Polyakov, Bakunin was to receive 1,200 roubles for the translation, 300 roubles of which had been paid to him on account on 28 September 1869.) Nechayev's letter was forwarded to Marx by Lyubavin on 20 August 1872 and figured among the documents passed on by Marx and Engels to the committee appointed by the Hague Congress to inquire into the activities of the secret Alliance.—422, 452,
[576] The Rimini Conference (4-6 August 1872) was a conference of Italian anarchists which Bakunin helped prepare. A national Italian anarchist organisation was formed in Rimini which illegitimately assumed the name of the Italian Federation of the International. In a special resolution passed on 6 August the Conference declared that it was rupturing all solidarity with the General Council and urged the International's sections to send delegates to the separatist Bakuninist congress, scheduled for 2 September 1872 in Neuchâtel, rather than to the regular congress at The Hague. This divisive proposal was not backed by any of the sections of the International.— 424, 426
[580] On 19 July 1872 at the meeting of the General Council Executive Committee (Sub-Committee; see Note 435), Engels was instructed to prepare the financial report for the Hague Congress covering the period since the London Conference in September 1871. The report was read out by Engels at the Hague Congress sitting of 7 September 1872, and unanimously approved. Marx and Engels arrived at The Hague to take part in the Congress on 1 September 1872. On 8 September they travelled to Amsterdam, where they took part in the meeting marking the closure of the Congress. Engels returned to London on 12 September, and Marx around 17 September 1872. The Fifth Congress of the International Working Men's Association was held on 2-7 September 1872 in The Hague and attended by 65 delegates from 15 national organisations. Its decision to include in the General Rules (as Article 7a) the major tenet on the conquest of political power by the proletariat, and its resolutions relating to Administrative Regulations signified a victory for Marxism. The Congress took stock of the struggle Marx, Engels and their followers had waged for years against petty-bourgeois sectarianism in the workers' movement, in whatever guise it appeared, most notably against Bakuninism; Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume, the anarchist leaders, were expelled from the International. The resolutions of the Hague Congress laid the groundwork for the future formation of independent political parties of the working class on a national level.—427, 430, 438, 450, 460, 475, 489, 491,
[584] At the very first sittings of the Hague Congress a question was raised on the Bakuninist Alliance of Socialist Democracy as a secret sectarian organisation within the International. On the proposal put by Marx and other delegates, the sitting of 5 September appointed a special committee to inquire into the secret activities of the Alliance. Its members were Theodor Cuno, Roch Splingard, Lucain (Frédéric Potel), Paul Vichard and Walter (L. Van Heddeghem). On 5 and 6 September the Congress heard the evidence given by Marx, Wroblewski, Dupont, Serraillier, Guillaume, Zhukovsky, Morago Gonzalez, Marselau, Alerini, and Farga Pellicer. Engels submitted to the committee a report on the Alliance (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 228-38). Due to the torrent of incoming documents and a large volume of evidence, the committee could not complete the investigation but, on the basis of the material it had managed to examine, arrived at the conclusion that the Alliance was incompatible with the International, and on 7 September submitted a proposal to the Congress that Bakunin, Guillaume, Schwitzguébel, Malon, Marchand, and Bousquet be expelled from the International Working Men's Association. (The committee's report was later published in La Liberie, No. 42, 20 October 1872.) The Congress adopted the proposal on the expulsion of Bakunin and Guillaume, and passed a decision to make public the documents on the Alliance the committee had at its disposal. The committee, however, was unable to carry through this decision. The documents were sent to Marx and Engels in London and formed the basis for the pamphlet The Alliance of Men's Association (see Socialist Democracy and the International Working Note 623).—430, 455, 460
[588] The first sittings of the Hague Congress were devoted to discussing the delegates' mandates. The results of the discussion were incorporated into a number of resolutions passed by the Congress, notably into resolutions of Section IV (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 246-48). The official version of the Hague Congress resolutions was written and edited by Marx and Engels, who were on the committee (together with Eugène Dupont, Léo Frankel, Auguste Serraillier and Benjamin Le Moussu) appointed to prepare the Congress minutes and resolutions for publication. The official edition appeared in November 1872 in French as a separate pamphlet; on 14 December 1872, The International Herald, No. 37, carried the official English version.—430, 437, 441
[590] At the British Federal Council meeting of 12 September 1872, John Hales, the Council Chairman, who was supported by the reformist majority, managed to have Marx reprimanded for the speech he had made at the Hague Congress on 3 September in defence of the mandate of Maltman Barry, a member of the British Federation. In his speech, Marx accused those who called themselves the British workers' leaders of having more or less sold out to the bourgeoisie and the government. Many sections within the British Federation protested against this decision by the Federal Council.—431, 436, 462
[591] On 19 September 1872 a strike was launched at all Lisbon foundries, which was joined by carpenters, caulkers, and workers in other trades, who demanded shorter working hours. The strike was supported by the Portuguese Federation of the International. On 17-18 September the Lisbon Federal Council wrote a letter to the British Federal Council (c/o Engels), requesting it to act without delay to prevent strike breakers being brought to Portugal from Britain.—434, 439, 440
[593] On 15 September 1872 an extraordinary congress of the Jura Federation was held in Saint-Imier, Switzerland, with 16 delegates attending. The congress voted down the resolutions of the Hague Congress; a report on it was printed by the Bulletin de la Federation jurassienne, Nos. 17 and 18, 15 September-1 October 1872. The Jura Federation congress was held immediately before an anarchist congress in Saint-Imier, which likewise opposed the decisions of the Hague Congress (see Note 599).—435, 441, 450
[595] Engels ironically applied the name Sonderbund (a separate union) to the emerging bloc of anarchists and their supporters who opposed the decisions of the Hague Congress. The original Sonderbund was a separatist association of reactionary Swiss Catholic cantons that existed in the 1840s.—436, 453
[599] On 15-16 September an extraordinary congress of organisations comprising the Bakuninist Alliance was held in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. The congress decided not to recognise the resolutions of the Hague Congress and the powers of the General Council. It concluded the 'Pacte d'amitié de solidarité et de défense mutuelle' for the purpose of campaigning against the federations and sections of the International Working Men's Association which supported the decisions of the Fifth Congress at The Hague. The anarchist congress also adopted a special resolution rejecting political struggle on the part of the working class and denying the need to establish an independent proletarian political party. The congress issued an address to the sections of the International urging them to convene, six months later, an 'anti-authoritarian' congress.— 441, 448,
[601] The Lafargues arrived in London from The Hague, where they had gone from Spain to attend the International's congress.—442, 443
[60] The Schiller Institute, founded in Manchester in November 1859 to coincide with the celebrations of Schiller's centenary, was conceived as a cultural and social centre for the city's German colony. In 1864 Engels became a member of its Directorate and later President of the Institute, devoting much time to it and exercising considerable influence over its activities. In September 1868 while Engels was away from Manchester, the Directorate invited Karl Vogt, who had connections with Bonapartist circles, to give a lecture at the Institute. This caused Engels to resign his positions (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 18). In April 1870 Engels was again elected a member of the Directorate, but he no longer took an active part in its work.—43
[621] By a decision of 22 December 1872, Auguste Serraillier, who in 1871 and 1872 was Corresponding Secretary of the London Council for France, was appointed temporary representative of the General Council for France, and received his mandate and instructions.—450, 455, 458
[630] In conformity with the agreement signed by the publisher and proprietor of The International Herald William Riley and the British Federal Council, from 11 May 1872 (No. 6) the paper functioned as the Council's official organ. It was at Marx's suggestion that Riley broke the agreement on 30 November 1872 and refused to give the reformist majority of the British Council an opportunity to use the newspaper against the General Council. After the revolutionary wing of the British Federal Council formed a new Council in late December 1872 (see Note 643), the paper resumed its functions as the Council's mouthpiece. The Hague Congress resolutions were published in The International Herald, No. 37, 14 December 1872. Reports on the International's activities on the Continent written by Engels were published between mid-January and mid-February 1873 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 409-13).—454, 460
[6] The Fenians were Irish revolutionaries who named themselves after the 'Féne'—the name of the ancient inhabitants of Ireland. Their first organisations appeared in the 1850s in the USA among the Irish immigrants and later in Ireland itself. The secret Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, as the organisation was known in the early 1860s, aimed at establishing an independent Irish republic by means of an armed uprising. The Fenians, who expressed the interests of the Irish peasantry, came chiefly from the urban petty bourgeoisie and intelligentsia and believed in conspiratorial tactics. The British Government attempted to suppress the Fenian movement with drastic police action.—3