Letter to Friedrich Engels, July 24, 1869

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 24 July 1869


First published considerably abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 24 JULY 1869

DEAR FRED,

I can only write you a few lines today. The thing is in full suppuration, so very painful, but will also soon be over. The swilling of arsenic will have to begin again.

This morning I received the enclosed screed from Liebknecht.[1]

Which is the more extraordinary, the stupid impudence or the impudent stupidity? This honest fellow regards official lies, such as that about non-existent resolutions of the General Council, as permissible in his own mouth, but as highly reprehensible in Schweitzer's. And why did he achieve a reconciliation with Schweitzer the Monster in Lausanne? And his theory of action! This consists of giving Mr Wilhelm the right to make 'arbitrary' use of my name and that of the General Council wherever he considers appropriate. And the courage of this honest fellow! He claims to be against Lassalle, and so takes the part of the 'true' Lassalleans against the 'false' Lassalleans! Bracke, his man, after all accuses Schweitzer of declaring Lassalle's theory of state credit to be simply an agitational tool, and of not believing in panacea. He had involved me in 'battles'! In 'scandals', I wrote to him.[2]

Salut.

Your

K. M.

I regret that I did not know the book Die Werkzeuge und Waffen, ihre Entstehung und Ausbildung, von Dr Gustav Klemm, 1858, before the publication of my first volume.[3] What I indicated in the section 'Labour Process' and later 'Division of Labour'[4] is here proved with abundant material.

  1. ↑ A reference to Liebknecht's letter to Marx of 22 July 1869.
  2. ↑ Marx's reply to Liebknecht's letter of 22 July 1869 has not been found.
  3. ↑ F. Engels, Karl Marx. See this volume, p. 325.
  4. ↑ Marx is referring to the sections 'Arbeitsprozess und Verwerthungsprozess' and the 'Theilung der Arbeit und Manufaktur' of the first German edition of Volume One of Capital. Corresponding to them in the second and subsequent German editions of this volume are Chapters V and XII (see present edition, Vol. 35). In the English edition of 1887 prepared by Engels, this material is to be found in Part III, Chapter VII, 'The Labour-Process and the Process of Producing Surplus-Value', and Part IV, Chapter XIV, 'Division of Labour and Manufacture'.