Letter to Wilhelm Bracke, March 24, 1870

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 24 March 1870


First published in W. Bracke, Der Braunschweiger Ausschuss der socialdemokratischen Arbeiter-Partei in Lätzen und vor dem Gericht, Brunswick, 1872
Printed according to the book
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


MARX TO WILHELM BRACKE[1]

IN BRUNSWICK

[London, 24 March 1870]

Dear Friend,

Yesterday[2] I send you 3,000 CARDS OF MEMBERSHIP addressed to von Bonhorst.[3]

I have information for you, which is not uninteresting, about the internal affairs of the Internationals. This will reach you by an indirect route.[4] In accordance with the Rules, all national committees in contact with the General Council must send it three-monthly reports on the situation of the movement. When I remind you of this, I would ask you to consider that this report is not written for the public, and should, therefore, present the facts completely factually, without make-up.

From Borkheim and from the latest letter from Bonhorst I know that the finances of the Eisenachers are in a bad state.[5] As a consolation, the information that the finances of the General Council are below zero, steadily growing negative dimensions.

  1. ↑ When publishing this letter in the book Der Braunschweiger Ausschuss der socialdemokratischen Arbeiter-Partei in Lätzen und vor dem Gericht, Brunswick, 1872, Bracke pointed out that the letter was written on a form stamped: 'General Council of the International Working Men's Association, 256, High Holborn, London, W.C.
  2. ↑ 23 March
  3. ↑ Acting on the decisions of the Eisenach Congress (see Note 373), the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Germany urged Party members to join the International Working Men's Association as private persons, since to establish the organisational links between the two bodies, it was necessary to circumvent the Law on Associations operating in Prussia. In a Committee letter of 17 March 1870, Wilhelm Bracke noted that Johann Georg Eccarius had long been commissioned with obtaining 3,000 International membership cards which could have been distributed in the Party. On receiving the letter, Marx immediately forwarded the requested membership cards to Leonhard von Bonhorst as the Committee Secretary.
  4. ↑ See this volume, p. 470.
  5. ↑ A reference to Bonhorst's letter to Marx of 21 February 1870 and Bonhorst's letter to Borkheim of 17 March 1870, which Borkheim forwarded to Marx on 21 March. Bonhorst also wrote to Engels about the financial predicament of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany (a letter of 17 March 1870).