Letter to Karl Marx, September 2, 1867

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 2 September 1867


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


ENGELS TO MARX10

IN LONDON

Manchester, 2 September 1867

Dear Moor,

The £5 banknote enclosed. You will have received the booklet 'TRANSACTIONS' [OF THE] R[OYAL] SOCIETY.4M Can you send me the July and August Free Presses, as promised?

Things appear to have taken a very sharp turn in Paris; every day all the papers are following Girardin's example in recalling 1829 and 1847,[1] and the Lille speech, full of resignation, appears to prove that there is nothing to be done in South Germany and Austria precisely now when he[2] needs it, obviously solely in consequence of the sorry state of the latter. 'And hence' it is only 'weak governments' which incline to use foreign conflicts as a means of avoiding internal difficulties.[3] Then, the constantly reiterated allusions to mon fils[4] do not appear to imply any very significant confidence in the longevity of the père quem nuptiae demonstrant[5] either. You must press ahead with the second volume,[6] things may soon start to happen.

On Saturday I saw a Californian newspaper, which suggested the 8 HOURS-MOVEMENT must have had an enormous impact amongst the BUILDING TRADES there. The MASTERS are forming a 10-HOURS- ASSOCIATION to oppose it and are setting up a considerable wailing. Contracts for l'/'2 million dollars are said to have been withdrawn as a result of the 8 HOURS business.[7]

Gumpert is back and says that in Electoral Hesse the rage at the Prussians is as furious as in Hanover, though less demonstrative. The moment the military were to leave, every 'Prussian' would be slaughtered. Amongst other things the Prussians have confiscated the officers' widows and pension fund in Kassel which derived from compulsory contributions from the officers. He found things even hotter in Hanover than I did.

Kugelmann also wanted to attend the Lausanne Congress,[8] i.e., as a SPECTATOR, perhaps it would be a good thing to inform Eccarius of this. He will probably encounter Schorlemmer, who left yesterday (via Grimsby), at the Naturalists' Congress in Frankfurt.

Moore is travelling to Thuringia in approx. 3 weeks, to learn German for 6 weeks; I have sent him off there so that he may get off the TRACK of the BRITISH TOURISTS. Kindest regards.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ This is apparently a reference to Emile de Girardin's articles in La Liberté of which he became the owner in June 1866. Girardin treated the situation in France at that time as similar to that during the pre-revolutionary years 1829 and -1847.
  2. ↑ Napoleon III
  3. ↑ The report on the Geneva Congress of the International (see Note 375) was published in English in The International Courier, Nos. 7-15 of 20 February, 13, 20 and 27 March, and 3, 10 and 17 April 1867 and in French in Le Courrier international, Nos. 8-16 of 9, 16, 23 and 30 March and 6, 13, 20 and 27 April 1867.
  4. ↑ 'my son' (Eugene Bonaparte)
  5. ↑ father, who became so by marriage
  6. ↑ According to the arrangement with the publisher that Marx mentions in his letter, he planned after the publication of Volume One of Capital (appeared in September 1867) to publish Book Two and Book Three as Volume Two, and Book Four, which contained a critical history of economic theories, as a concluding Volume Three.
    After Marx's death, Engels prepared for the press and published manuscripts belonging to Book Two and Book Three as Volumes Two and Three of Capital; he died before he could prepare for the press Book Four, Theories of Surplus Value (Volume Four of Capital) and have it published (see also Note 227).
  7. ↑ When the Civil War ended, the movement for the legislative introduction of an eight-hour working day intensified in the USA. Leagues of struggle for the eight-hour day were set up throughout the country; in California alone there were over 50. The National Labour Union, founded at a congress in Baltimore (see Note 383) in August 1866, joined the movement. Attaching great importance to the demand for the eight-hour working day Marx included it in the agenda of the Geneva Congress. In his 'Instructions for the Delegates of the Provisional General Council' he emphasised the need to raise it 'to the common platform of the working classes all over the world' (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 187). This point as formulated by Marx was adopted as a congress resolution.
    On 25 June 1868, the US Congress which was forced to reckon with the mass movement, adopted a law on an eight-hour working day for the employees of all governmental and federal bodies.
  8. ↑ The Lausanne Congress of the International was held from 2 to 8 September 1867. Marx took part in the preparations but he was unable to attend the congress, since he was busy reading the proofs of Volume One of Capital.
    The Congress was attended by 64 delegates from six countries (Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy). Apart from the report of the General Council (see present edition, Vol. 20), the Congress heard reports from the local sections which showed the increased influence of the International on the proletariat and the growing strength of its organisations in different countries. The delegates holding Proudhonist views, especially those from France, sought to change the orientation of the International's activity and its programme principles. Having managed, despite the efforts of the General Council's delegates, to impose their agenda on the Congress, they sought to get the Congress to revise the Geneva Congress resolutions in a Proudhonist spirit. They did succeed in carrying through a number of their own resolutions, in particular the one on co-operation and credit, which they regarded as the principal instruments of changing society by means of reform.
    However, the Proudhonists failed to achieve their principal aim. The Congress retained as valid the Geneva Congress resolutions on the economic struggle and strikes. The Proudhonist dogma on abstaining from political struggle was countered by the resolution on political freedom passed by the Lausanne Congress which emphasised that the social emancipation of the working class was inseparable from its political liberation. The Proudhonists likewise failed to seize the leadership of the International. The Congress re-elected the General Council in its former composition and retained London as its seat.