Letter to Louis Pio, March 7, 1872

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 7 March 1872


First published in Die Neue Zeit, Bd. 1, Nr. 23, Stuttgart, 1921
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO LOUIS PIO[1]

IN COPENHAGEN

[London,] 7 March 1872

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.[2] 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,[3] 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.[4] 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,[5] and the General Council has defended this position. Resolution IX of the Conference[6] sparked off the dispute,[7] 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[8] ; 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).[9] 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[10] —and that was all. In the meantime, the General Council has produced a reply to these intrigues,[11] 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.[12]

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),[13] 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[14] —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.

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ It contained report on the General Council meeting of 20 February 1872.
  3. ↑ See this volume, p. 340.
  4. ↑ 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).
  5. ↑ K. Marx, 'Inaugural Address of the Working Men's International Association'.
  6. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'Resolutions of the Conference of Delegates of the International Working Men's Association Assembled at London from 17th to 23rd September 1871'. IX. Political Action by the Working Class.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ 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 Vive!, 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).
  11. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, Fictitious Splits in the International
  12. ↑ K. Marx, General Rules and Administrative Regulations of the International Working Men's Association.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ 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.