Letter to Theodor Cuno, July 5, 1872

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 5 July 1872


First published in Die Gesellschaft, No. 11, Berlin, 1925
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO THEODOR CUNO[1]

IN LIÈGE

London, 5 July 1872 Dear Cuno,

I sent some English and Spanish newspapers to Herman for you yesterday.

The Belgians make the same impression on everyone who comes in contact with them. The whole International there is just so much hot air and nothing more. This is chiefly the fault of the leaders, of whom only De Paepe is really capable, although indolent, while Hins is empty-headed, but cunning, scheming, ambitious and energetic. Through his Russian wife Hins is in direct contact with Bakunin and on the latter's instructions he has devised a salubrious project to abolish the General Council.[2] Hins is at present in Verviers. You would be doing us a service if you could keep an eye on him.

There is also a German section in Verviers which is in correspondence with the Volksstaat. I wrote to their correspondent, P. Schlehbach, rue de Pont 2, (on 14 June)[3] and also sent a copy of the Scissions,[4] [5] but have had no reply up to now. It would be a good idea if you could slip over there and establish contact with them. I have written to Hepner[6] saying that they should send you a mandate from Germany for the Congress.[7] To be on the safe side, however, it would be good if you could also get the German section in Verviers to give you a mandate from them in case they do not send someone of their own. Bakunin & Co. will make every effort to beat us at the Congress, and as these gentlemen have no scruples about methods, we must take precautionary measures. They will send delegates from a hundred different societies not belonging to the International at all, and will try to obtain a seat and a vote for these persons as delegates of the International in order to place the General Council in the minority with the aid of a coalition of the most heterogeneous elements. Schweitzer and Hasenclever have already concluded an avowed alliance with the scoundrels over here—Vésinier, Landeck, Smith, Schneider, etc.— while the latter, in turn, are corresponding with the Jurassians and the American rogues (see the Emancipation[8] I sent yesterday).

How have the Scissions been received there? I have sent Herman 5 copies in all, but they must be distributed. Is Herman doing that? And how is he doing in general? I heard that at the last Belgian Congress he spoke out very vigorously in favour of the General Council.

It is questionable whether you can qualify for Belgian citizen- ship. American citizenship is only obtainable by prior registration and five years' residence in the country.

The Congress will be held in any event. On the Continent there is never any guarantee against police interference; but then we will have to get aboard a steamer, go to England, and hold it there. It would be inexpedient to convene it in England from the very start, for although it would be quite safe from police interference here, it would nevertheless be subjected to attacks by our enemies. The General Council, they would say, is convening the Congress in England because only there does it possess an artificial majority.

Bakunin has issued a furious, but very weak, abusive letter in reply to the Scissions.[9] That fat elephant is beside himself with rage because he has finally been dragged from his Locarno lair out into the light, where neither scheming nor intrigues are of any more use. Now he declares that he is the victim of a conspiracy of all the European—Jewsl

What will break the old scoundrel's neck is the continued existence of the 'Alliance'10—at least in Spain—as a secret society. Not only do we have proof of this, but the affair has now become quite public in Madrid, etc., so that there can be no denying it any more. This gentleman, who everywhere acted as the most devoted champion of the International, organised this quiet conspiracy to seize overall control and, with the assistance of his initiated Jesuit brothers, to lead the broad masses of workers by the nose like a blind herd! If this had been tolerated, I wouldn't have remained in the International for a day. To be Bakunin's sheep—that would have been the limit! The hardest blow of all for him is that we have uncovered this whole story and are threatening to expose him at the Congress. And now Lafargue (Marx's son-in-law, who has been in Madrid for 8 months) is accusing him, Bakunin, of having drawn up by his own hand and sent to Spain the secret instructions on how the International was to be run there![10]

The enclosed letter arrived today. Give my best wishes to Herman, is he quite well again?

Yours,

F. E.

  1. ↑ After a certain decline, the movement for recognition of the French Republic (see Note 108) gained fresh momentum in Britain at the end of December 1,870.
  2. ↑ The congress of the Belgian Federation held in Brussels on 19-20 May 1872 considered the draft Rules which had been drawn up by the Belgian Federal Council on the instructions of the Federation's congress held on 24- 25 December 1871 (see Note 404). Under this draft, which was written by Eugène Hins, the powers of the General Council to all intents and purposes were to be annulled and the Council turned into a mere correspondence and statistical bureau. After heated debates the congress decided to submit the draft for discussion by the sections, and then for approval by the Federation's extraordinary congress scheduled for July 1872 (see Note 568).
  3. ↑ This letter by Engels has not been found.
  4. ↑ The Landwehr—a second-line army reserve formed in Prussia during the struggle against Napoleonic rule. In the 1870s, it consisted of men under forty years of age who had seen active service and had been in the first-line reserve. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Landwehr was used in military actions on a par with the regular troops.
  5. ↑ From mid-January to early March 1872 Marx and Engels wrote 'Fictitious Splits in the International. Private Circular from the General Council of the International Working Men's Association' (see present edition, Vol. 23). Marx set forth its principal propositions at the meeting of the General Council on 5 March 1872.
    The circular was issued as a pamphlet in French at the end of May 1872; it was signed by all members of the General Council and sent to all federations of the International.
  6. ↑ See this volume, pp. 403 04.
  7. ↑ 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
  8. ↑ The reference is to the article 'La burguesia y la Internacional en los Estados-Unidos' carried by La Emancipation, No. 54, 22 June 1872. The article exposed the attempt by bourgeois reformists to use the International's organisation in the USA to promote their own ends. It was based on the materials sent by Engels to Paul Lafargue.—-407
  9. ↑ Bakunin's letter 'Réponse du citoyen Bakounine. Aux compagnons rédacteurs du Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne' was printed by the Bulletin on 15 June 1872 (No. 10-11). See Note 551.
  10. ↑ P. Lafargue, 'Aux citoyens rédacteurs du Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne', L'Egalité, No. 11, 1 June 1872, reprinted in Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, No. 10 11, 15 June 1872.