Letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, May 15-22, 1872

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 May 1872


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT

IN LEIPZIG

London, 15[-22] May 1872

Dear Liebknecht,

Thanks for the letter from Verviers.[1] It confirms our information from other sources and. as far as Hins is concerned, it is agreeable to learn that his preference for the Neuer[2] not only makes itself felt in the Liberie but is also expressed directly. In this Hins, as a Bakuninist thanks to his wife, is quite consistent. It is good that all the scoundrels should meet up with each other.

I passed on the relevant information to Eccarius, who replied: Tell Liebknecht that I shall discuss corresponding with him again once he has answered my letter of last July.—What Sorge writes to you[3] is at present the subject of charges levelled at Eccarius, who has lost much ground here thanks to his repeated indiscretions.

It goes without saying that nothing can be decided at present about the location of the Congress.[4]

I am delighted to hear that the Volksstaat is selling so well.[5] As soon as time permits I shall contribute articles more frequently, but you can have no idea how hard-pressed we are, because Marx, myself and 1 or 2 others have to do absolutely everything.

We shall attend to the Preface for the Manifesto[6] at the first possible opportunity.[7] Marx has a terrific amount of work to do on the French translation[8] ; much has to be altered in the opening part.[9] And then he has also to read the proofs of the 2nd German edition.[10]

The article on the housing shortage[11] will be done today or tomorrow.

The Fédération Jurassienne publishes a swinish little paper: Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, subscription obtainable from Adhémar Schwitzguébel, Sonvillier, Jura Bernois, 4 frs per annum, 2 frs a half-year. You should take it and hit them hard from time to time, it is Bakunin's Moniteur. In the last issue Lafargue, who is in Madrid under an assumed name, was directly denounced to the Spanish police.[12]

Enclosed is a cutting from The Eastern Post—you will probably be sent the first edition, in which, thanks to Hales' indolence, the most important things are missing, as usual. If that is the case, drop me a couple of lines for the PUBLISHER SO that he can send you the second edition. Otherwise you will still be in the dark. What I said about the Saragossa Congress is accurate enough, but Lafargue forgot to tell us that at the same time a resolution had been passed recognising and adopting the resolutions of the Belgian Congress (of 25 December 1871).[13] So that the victory was by no means as complete as he described it to us.[14] I am awaiting further details about this last resolution.

That the Alliance has survived as a secret society, in Spain at least, is proved and recognised. Our own people were in it, because they knew no better and thought they had to be. This is a very serious matter for Mr Bakunin.

Don't forget to publish Lafargue's 2nd report on the Saragossa Congress from the Liberté.[15] It has put the Jurassians into a fury and their last issue contains a public attack on Lafargue, myself, Marx and Serraillier. But they are as quiet as mice on the subject of the revelations about their secret society. This is the tell-tale point and so we must noise it abroad as much as possible. I am convinced that this secret organisation of the Alliance has branches in Switzerland and in Italy too. It will not be easy to obtain proof, however.—The next issue.of Egalité will include a statement by Lafargue against the Jurassians.[16]

22 May. In the interim I have been writing the enclosed article on housing. Your Proudhonist[17] will be satisfied with it.

I shall write to Wigand about my Condition of the Working- Class.[18] But there can be no question at all of my attending to it before the Congress is over; my hands are full until then.

The Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher are unobtainable, except, perhaps, second-hand; that should be perfectly clear to you. The same goes for the Misere de la philosophie (although Vieweg in Paris, Frank's successor, may still have a few). A collection of essays is an old plan of ours but it also needs time. Mr Knapp will find sufficient instruction in Capital; once he has digested that he will doubtless know whether he is on our side or not, and if he still does not know, not even Moses and all the Prophets will be able to do anything for him. The crux of the matter is to be found in Chapters II and III of Capital and he should know where he stands on that before calling for further nourishment.

Your request for clarification about Proudhon should be satisfied for the moment by the enclosed article.

Enclosed the report on Spain in The Eastern Post,[19] which you are unlikely to have received. Please do not publish it. It was based on Lafargue's letters, but since the Jurassians are interpreting another resolution of the Congress in their own favour,[20] and since Lafargue's initial reports of victory were somewhat exaggerated in any event, it would be desirable for them not to circulate with a seal of approval from the General Council. I am not sending it to Italy or Spain either.

I shall now see what can be done about the Preface to the Manifesto. Marx is in the CITY checking on the quotation from the Concordia; those gentlemen have got a big surprise coming to them.[21]

Best wishes and hopes for a speedy quashing.

Your

F. E.

What view does the 'Committee' in Hamburg[22] take of the International? We must now try and clear up the situation there as quickly as possible so that Germany can be properly represented at the Congress.[23] I must ask you straight out to tell us frankly how the International stands with you.

1. Roughly how many stamps have been distributed to how many places, and which places are involved? The 208 counted by Fink[24] are surely not all there are?

2. Does the Social-Democratic Workers' Party intend to be represented at the Congress and IF SO how does it propose to place itself en règle[25] with the General Council in advance so that its mandate cannot be queried at the Congress? This would mean a) that it would have to declare itself to be the German Federation of the International in reality and not merely figuratively and b) that as such it would pay its dues before the Congress. The matter is becoming serious and we have to know where we are, or else you will force us to act on our own initiative and to consider the Social-Democratic Workers' Party as an alien body for whom the International has no significance. We cannot allow the representation of the German workers at the Congress to be fumbled or forfeited for reasons unknown to us, but which cannot be other than petty. We should like to ask for a clear statement about this quickly.

Receipt for Fink shortly. Notabene. It would perhaps be a good idea, if at all possible, to send me proofs of the article, but I leave it up to you. However, an essential prerequisite for my collaboration is 1) no marginal comments of any kind and 2) it must be printed in long instalments.

  1. ↑ A reference to the letter written by Pierre Schlebach to Liebknecht on behalf of the German refugee section of the International in Verviers in late April 1872 and sent on to Engels on 8 May. Schlebach wrote about the position of Eugène Hins, one of the leaders of the Belgian Federal Council, who had recommended the German members of the International in Belgium to adopt the organisational structure of the Lassallean General Association of German Workers.
  2. ↑ Neuer Social Demokrat
  3. ↑ In a letter to Liebknecht of 17 April 1872, Sorge wrote that Eccarius' behaviour was strengthening the positions of the bourgeois reformist elements in the North American Federation (see Note 496).
  4. ↑ This letter by Engels has not been found.
  5. ↑ On 8 May 1872 Liebknecht wrote to Engels: 'We now have 5,500 subscribers, an increase of 800 this quarter'.
  6. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'Preface to the 1872 German edition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party'.'
  7. ↑ In a letter to Engels of 19 April 1872, Liebknecht again wrote that the editorial board of Der Volksstaat intended to publish the Manifesto of the Communist Party as a separate pamphlet and requested the preface to this edition as promised. Marx and Engels wrote the preface to the new edition on 24 June 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 174-75).
  8. ↑ of Volume I of Capital
  9. ↑ The surviving manuscript copy of the letter does not bear the name of the addressee. However, its contents and Marx's correspondence on the subject indicate that it was addressed to the heads of the Lachâtre publishing house in Paris. On 13 February 1872 Marx received a reply from the manager Juste Vernouillet, who informed him about the despatch of copies of the agree ment on the publication of the French translation of Volume I of Capital. The agreement was signed on 15 February by Marx on one side, and Maurice Lachâtre and Juste Vernouillet on the other. It stipulated that the French edi tion was to be published in 44 instalments, and sold five instalments at a time. The French authorised edition of Volume I of Capital was published between 17 September 1872 and November 1875. The translation was done by Joseph Roy, who began in February 1872 and completed work in late 1873. The quality of the translation largely failed to satisfy Marx; besides, he was convinced that the original needed to be revised to adapt it to French readers.
  10. ↑ A reference to the 'Circulaire à toutes les fédérations de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs' adopted at Sonvillier on 12 November 1871 (see Note 374). It was printed in La Emancipation, the organ of the Spanish Federal Council, on 25 December 1871.
  11. ↑ F. Engels, The Housing Question.
  12. ↑ A reference to the editorial in the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, No. 6, 10 May 1872, a reply to Paul Lafargue's report 'Congrès de Saragosse' featured by La Liberté on 5 May (see Note 501). The editorial disclosed that Pablo Farga was Lafargue's pseudonym in Spain.
  13. ↑ December 1871 in Brussels declined to back the demand of the Jura Federation that a General Congress of the International be convened without delay, yet at the same time instructed the Belgian Federal Council to draw up new draft Rules for the Association. Those behind the project were motivated by the desire to deprive the General Council of its powers. A short report on the congress was published in L'Internationale, No. 155, 31 December 1871, and also in Der Volksstaat, No. 5, 17 January 1872.
  14. ↑ This assessment of the outcome of the Saragossa congress (see Note 423) was based on the information Engels received from Paul Lafargue. Following the receipt of more accurate information on the congress, specifically, on its decision to support the Belgian Federation's demand that the General Rules be revised, Engels changed his opinion. He wrote TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT about this on 22 May 1872 (see this volume, pp. 375-76).
  15. ↑ This is a reference to Lafargue's reports on the Saragossa Congress of the Spanish Federation which appeared in La Liberté, Brussels. The first report, dated 9 April, was printed in No. 17 of 28 April 1872, and also carried by Der Volksstaat, No. 36, 4 May 1872. The second report, 'Congrès de Saragosse', written on 12 April, contained revelations about the secret Alliance and was published in La Liberté, No. 18, 5 May, and reprinted, in part, by Der Volksstaat, No. 41, 22 May 1872. On Lafargue's exaggeration of the successes scored by the General Council supporters at the Saragossa congress, see Note 489.
  16. ↑ P. Lafargue, 'Aux citoyens rédacteurs du Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne. Madrid, 17 mai 1872', L'Égalité, No. 11, 1 June 1872; Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, No. 10-11, 15 June 1872.
  17. ↑ Arthur Mülberger
  18. ↑ On 15 May 1872 Liebknecht wrote to Engels: 'You will have to get a new edition of your Condition of the Working-Class etc. printed, since the old one is pretty well sold out.' The first edition of The Condition of the Working-Class in England was issued in early June 1845 by Otto Wigand's publishing house in Leipzig (see present edition, Vol. 4). In his letter, Liebknecht also mentioned the prospects of publishing Marx's and Engels' collected works.
  19. ↑ Account of Engels' speech on the Saragossa Congress and the situation of the International in Italy. From the newspaper report on the General Council meeting of 7 May 1872.
  20. ↑ Engels is referring to Resolution IX of the Saragossa Congress of the Spanish Federation. The resolution declared that the congress supported the decision of the congress of the Belgian Federation that the International's General Rules should be revised.
  21. ↑ Responding to the slanderous article, 'Wie Karl Marx citirt', written by the German bourgeois economist Lujo Brentano and published in the Concordia magazine, No. 10, 7 March 1872, Marx wrote a letter to Der Volksstaat on 23 May, which the newspaper carried on 1 June 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 164-67). Following the publication of Marx's reply in Der Volksstaat, Concordia, No. 27, 4 July 1872, featured another anonymous article (also written by Brentano), 'Wie Karl Marx sich vertheidigt'. Marx's reply to the second article was published in Der Volksstaat, No. 63, 7 August 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 190-97).
  22. ↑ The Dresden Congress of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party held between 12 and 15 August 1871 decided on Hamburg as the Party Committee headquarters.
  23. ↑ On 11 June 1872, on Marx's suggestion, the General Council resolved to convene a regular Congress in Holland on 2 September 1872 and decided on the principal item on the agenda, the consolidation of the International's organisation (revision of the General Rules and Administrative Regulations). At its next meeting on 18 June the Council decided on The Hague as the venue for the Congress and appointed a special commission (Engels, Edouard Vaillant, Joseph MacDonnel) to prepare an official announcement of the forthcoming Congress. The announcement was written by Engels and despatched to The International Herald, which published it on 29 June 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 170-73).—325, 366, 372, 374, 376, 392, 396, 398, 401, 404, 407, 409, 411-13, 415, 417, 418, 422, 425, 426
  24. ↑ Marx wrote this letter on a form from Borkheim' s office bearing its address: 9 Billiter Square, E.C.
  25. ↑ to arrange matters