Letter to Wilhelm Bracke, April 28, 1870

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 8 April 1870


First published in Der Volksstaat, No. 39, 14 May 1870
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43
Collection(s): Der Volksstaat

TO WILHELM BRACKE IN BRUNSWICK[1]

[Manchester, 28 April 1870]

I was very pleased by the detailed and precise financial statement.[2] Here, in England, in front of my very eyes, so many attempts to found workers' movements and organisations have failed because of bad treasurer's work and book-keeping, and the resultant recurrent justified and unjustified charges of embezzlement and so on, that in this case I can consider myself competent to deliver judgement on the importance of this point. The workers have to deprive themselves for every farthing, so have the fullest right to know where every farthing goes, as long as they do not need and are not putting aside secret funds. And I believe that this is of special importance, particularly in Germany, since there, too, exploitation of the workers by knavish agitators has become the fashion. It is a hollow pretext to say that, by publishing such financial statements, you betray the weakness of your own party to the enemy. If the enemy wishes to judge the strength of a workers' party according to its specifically weak side — the state of its funds — it will, in any case, be out in its reckoning. And the damage done in one's own ranks by keeping such things secret is far greater than that which can arise from publication.

Bonhorst bewails the apathy of the workers[3] —but I find that things are going unexpectedly swimmingly in Germany. The individual successes naturally entail a hard struggle, and those involved naturally think things are going too slowly. But compare 1860 and 1870, and compare the present state of affairs in Germany with that in France and England — and recall the head start that these two countries had over us! The German workers have got half a dozen of their people into parliament; the French and the English not a single one. Allow me to remark, in this connection, that all of us here regard it as of the greatest importance that as many worker candidates stand as possible in the coming elections, and that as many are elected as possible.[4]

  1. ↑ On 3 May 1870, Bracke and Bonhorst requested Engels' permission to publish his letter to Bracke of 28 April in Der Volksstaat, organ of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party, saying that it was of general interest and importance to Party members. Engels was to write to them before 10 May if he did not agree. On 14 May, an excerpt from Engels' letter was published in Der Volksstaat. The editors of the present edition do not possess the original letter.
  2. ↑ On 17 March 1870, Leonhard von Bonhorst, Secretary of the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Germany, sent Engels a cashier's report for 1869, in which he wrote about the poor state of the Party's finances.
  3. ↑ On 17 March 1870, Bonhorst as Secretary of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party Committee wrote to Marx and Engels that the workers forming the basis of the party were too passive. He also stated, 'since our party is, amongst other things, the youngest of those that have entered the social and political arena, it is probably also lacking in strength.'
  4. ↑ See this volume, p. 500.