Letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, September 21, 1872

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 21 September 1872


First published abridged in Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Joh. Phil Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx u. A. an F, A. Sorge und Andere, Stuttgart, 1906 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE

IN HOBOKEN

[London,] 21 September 1872

Dear Sorge,

I hope that you have arrived safely in New York and that Cuno has also survived the terrors of the steerage.

Of the Congress Resolutions[1] you took the following with you:

1. the new Articles 2 and 6 of the Administrative Regulations, Section II, on the General Council";

2. the report of the Commission on the Alliance[2] ; 3. the declaration of the minority[3] ; 4. the resolution about the transfer [of the seat of the General Council] and the election of 12 members of the General Council with plenary powers to co-opt another 3, together with the list of those elected.

So what you still do not have are:

1. the resolution expressing sympathies with the martyrs of the proletariat[4] ;

2. the one about subscriptions, 3. the one about cancelling plenary powers and 4. perhaps the wording of the article in the Rules about politics. I enclose all 4.

The other papers you left behind are 1. incoming items about which nothing was decided, 2. motions that were not accepted, 3. one or two motions on procedural matters which were adopted and, having been put into effect at the Congress, are now disposed of. All these will go into the minutes and are of no interest to you.

It occurs to me that perhaps you do not have 5. Lafargue's proposal for international TRADES UNIONS, so I have translated it from the Spanish and enclose it herewith.

As soon as we have received the report you promised on the mandate debate (which, as you know, was not minuted, owing to the stupidity of the President, who failed to have secretaries nominated), the resolutions will be officially compiled and published.[5]

Lucain took the Commission's papers with him to Brussels and is now sorting out the statements of the witnesses. As soon as we receive from him the papers, promised to us by the end of the month at the latest, all the evidence about Bakunin and the Alliance will be compiled and printed. We have now received some more very nice material, which could not be laid before the Commission because it arrived too late.

Next, the minutes of the Congress for publication.[6]

For the correspondence with Germany, Italy, etc., I enclose all the addresses known to me.

Hales raised hell in the Federal Council here, proposing a motion of censure against Marx because he had said that the English workers' leaders had been sold down the river—but a local English and an Irish section have already protested, saying that Marx is in the right. The whole crew—Hales, Mottershead, Eccarius, etc.—are furious that the General Council has been taken out of their hands.[7]

Guillaume has said in Brussels to Wilmart (who has passed it on to us in writing) that the Spaniards would re-establish the Alliance since it was now more necessary than ever.

West is still stuck here—no money for the return journey. Give my warmest regards to Cuno and tell him to keep in touch with me wherever he might go. Best wishes,

Your

F. Engels

The Dutch say that the main reason they voted with the minority was that they want to be reunited with Belgium and hence have to oblige the Belgians!

Hepner has been arrested and threatened with 4 weeks gaol because, as you know, the Chief of Police in Leipzig has banned the International on his own initiative!

Resolution approved at the first public session:

The Congress of the International Working Men's Association, assembled at The Hague, expresses in the name of the world proletariat its admiration for the heroic fighters for the emancipation of labour who fell victims of their devotion, and sends fraternal and sympathetic greetings to all those who are at present persecuted by bourgeois reaction in France, Germany, Denmark and the entire world.

(Proposed by A. Schwitzguébel and 7 others.)[8]

On subscriptions:

We propose that the subscription should remain as fixed by the General Rules.

(P r o p o s e d b y E. D u p o n t a n d 3 o t h e r s — a d o p t e d o n S a t u r d a y m o r n i n g.[9] )

On the cancellation of the old plenary powers:

I propose that all powers granted by the General Council, the councils, committees and sections in the countries where the International is banned should be cancelled and that the General Council alone should have the right to nominate representatives in those countries.

(Proposed by A. Serraillier and 7 other French delegates and adopted on Saturday.)

The Lafargue motion was passed unanimously on Saturday morning. However, I have only a Spanish version which will not correspond exactly to the official wording.

On behalf of the Portuguese Federation and the New Madrid Federation I propose:

That the new General Council be charged with the special mission of organising international trade associations (TRADES UNIONS).

For this purpose it will, within one month of the conclusion of this Congress, draw up a circular which shall be printed and forwarded to all working men's associations whose addresses are in its possession, whether they are affiliated to the International or not.

In this circular the Council will invite the working men's associations to form an International union of their respective trades.

Every working men's association shall be invited to fix itself the conditions under which it proposes to enter the International Union of its own trade.

The General Council is charged with unifying all the conditions put forward by the associations which have endorsed this idea and to draw up a general plan to be submitted to the provisional acceptance of all the working men's associations wishing to enter International trades unions.

The next Congress will then formally ratify the project.

(Supported by 10 others and passed unanimously without debate.)

Germany—everything to the editors of the Volksstaat, Hepner and, at the moment, Rud. Seiffert—the addresses of the Committee, etc., are to be found in the Volksstaat.

Italy: Turin Section (Società Emancipazione del Proletario): 1. Outer envelope: M. Jean Jacques Goss, Concierge de l'église évangélique, Via Principe Tommaso No. 1, Turin; inner envelope: Signor Cesare Bert—Secretary. 2. Signor Luigi Perrini, Viale del Rè 26, Torino. Be on your guard here against that scoundrel Carlo Terzaghi.

Milan Section: (Circolo Operaio[10] ) Secretary, Mauro Gandolfi, Via Solferino 11, Milano (a member of the Alliance, and the Section is rotten. Details from Cuno). Rome Section: 1. Outer envelope: Signor Leonardo Centenari, direttore della Tipografia Rechiedei, Via Monserrato 25, Roma. Inner envelope: Signor Osvaldo Gnocchi-Viani.—Parcels—outer address: alla Libreria dell'Univer- sità, Via Staderari 38-40, inner address to O. G. Viani. Only registered 2 weeks before the Congress.

Ferrara Section: everything to be sent to Enrico Bignami, Periodico La Plebe, Via Cavour 19, Lodi, Lombardia. This and the Turin Section are the best. I know nothing about the Rome Section.

Girgenti[11] Section, Sicily: Avvocato Antonino Riggio (Bakunin- ist)—have heard nothing from there for ages.

Spain: Consejo Federal de la Région Espanola: Senor Don Julian Valero, Calle de Sorolla 35, Valencia. Inner envelope: Francisco Tomas.

Nueva Federation Madrilena: José Mesa y Leompart, San Pedro 16, 3° (third floor) Madrid (French).

Portugal: José C. Nobre-França, Travessa do Abarracamento de Péniche, No. 4, 2° andar (second floor), Lisboa, Portugal (French).

Serraillier, Auguste, 35 Gaisford Street, Kentish Town, London, N.W.

Brussels: De Paepe, César, Hôpital Saint-Jean, Bruxelles. Geneva: H. Perret or J. Ph. Becker, Temple Unique, Genève. Holland: H. Gerhardt, 472 Runstraat, Amsterdam. Art. 7a of the General Rules, adopted Saturday morning by 28 to 13 (including abstentions), i.e. with more than a two-thirds majority.—

In its struggle against the collective power of the propertied classes, the working class cannot act as a class except by constituting itself into a political party, distinct from, and opposed to, all old parties formed by the propertied classes.—This constitution of the working class into a political party is indispensable in order to insure the triumph of the social revolution, and of its ultimate end, the abolition of classes. The combination of forces which the working class has already effected by its economical struggles, ought, at the same time, to serve as a lever for its struggles against the political power of its exploiters. The lords of land and the lords of capital will always use their political privileges for the defence and perpetuation of their economical monopolies, and for the enslavement of labour. The conquest of political power has therefore become the great duty of the working class.

  1. ↑ On 19 July 1872 at the meeting of the General Council Executive Committee (Sub-Committee; see Note 435), Engels was instructed to prepare the financial report for the Hague Congress covering the period since the London Conference in September 1871. The report was read out by Engels at the Hague Congress sitting of 7 September 1872, and unanimously approved.
    Marx and Engels arrived at The Hague to take part in the Congress on 1 September 1872. On 8 September they travelled to Amsterdam, where they took part in the meeting marking the closure of the Congress. Engels returned to London on 12 September, and Marx around 17 September 1872.
    The Fifth Congress of the International Working Men's Association was held on 2-7 September 1872 in The Hague and attended by 65 delegates from 15 national organisations. Its decision to include in the General Rules (as Article 7a) the major tenet on the conquest of political power by the proletariat, and its resolutions relating to Administrative Regulations signified a victory for Marxism. The Congress took stock of the struggle Marx, Engels and their followers had waged for years against petty-bourgeois sectarianism in the workers' movement, in whatever guise it appeared, most notably against Bakuninism; Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume, the anarchist leaders, were expelled from the International. The resolutions of the Hague Congress laid the groundwork for the future formation of independent political parties of the working class on a national level.
  2. ↑ At the very first sittings of the Hague Congress a question was raised on the Bakuninist Alliance of Socialist Democracy as a secret sectarian organisation within the International. On the proposal put by Marx and other delegates, the sitting of 5 September appointed a special committee to inquire into the secret activities of the Alliance. Its members were Theodor Cuno, Roch Splingard, Lucain (Frédéric Potel), Paul Vichard and Walter (L. Van Heddeghem). On 5 and 6 September the Congress heard the evidence given by Marx, Wroblewski, Dupont, Serraillier, Guillaume, Zhukovsky, Morago Gonzalez, Marselau, Alerini, and Farga Pellicer. Engels submitted to the committee a report on the Alliance (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 228-38).
    Due to the torrent of incoming documents and a large volume of evidence, the committee could not complete the investigation but, on the basis of the material it had managed to examine, arrived at the conclusion that the Alliance was incompatible with the International, and on 7 September submitted a proposal to the Congress that Bakunin, Guillaume, Schwitzguébel, Malon, Marchand, and Bousquet be expelled from the International Working Men's Association. (The committee's report was later published in La Liberie, No. 42, 20 October 1872.) The Congress adopted the proposal on the expulsion of Bakunin and Guillaume, and passed a decision to make public the documents on the Alliance the committee had at its disposal. The committee, however, was unable to carry through this decision. The documents were sent to Marx and Engels in London and formed the basis for the pamphlet The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the International Working Men's Association (see Note 623).
  3. ↑ The Declaration of the minority (Déclaration de la minorité), a statement read out at the Congress sitting of 7 September by Victor Dave and signed by 13 anarchist delegates (four from Spain, five from Belgium, two from Switzerland and two from Holland), and also by the representative of New York Section No. 12 which the Congress had expelled from the International (see Note 332).
    The statement rejected Congress decisions aimed at strengthening discipline and promoting centralisation within the International, and declared the 'autonomy' and 'independence' of the sections to be the basic principle. The minority declared that they would recognise the General Council only as a correspondence and statistical bureau. The statement by the anarchist minority was a step towards an open split in the International Working Men's Association.
  4. ↑ A reference to the resolution of the Hague Congress passed at its eighth sitting on 5 September 1872; it was not included into the official edition of the Hague Congress resolutions.
  5. ↑ The first sittings of the Hague Congress were devoted to discussing the delegates' mandates. The results of the discussion were incorporated into a number of resolutions passed by the Congress, notably into resolutions of Section IV (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 246-48).
    The official version of the Hague Congress resolutions was written and edited by Marx and Engels, who were on the committee (together with Eugène Dupont, Léo Frankel, Auguste Serraillier and Benjamin Le Moussu) appointed to prepare the Congress minutes and resolutions for publication. The official edition appeared in November 1872 in French as a separate pamphlet; on 14 December 1872, The International Herald, No. 37, carried the official English version.
  6. ↑ The minutes of the Hague Congress were not published in Marx's and Engels' lifetime.
  7. ↑ At the British Federal Council meeting of 12 September 1872, John Hales, the Council Chairman, who was supported by the reformist majority, managed to have Marx reprimanded for the speech he had made at the Hague Congress on 3 September in defence of the mandate of Maltman Barry, a member of the British Federation. In his speech, Marx accused those who called themselves the British workers' leaders of having more or less sold out to the bourgeoisie and the government. Many sections within the British Federation protested against this decision by the Federal Council.
  8. ↑ The texts of the resolutions quoted and the first two comments in brackets are in French in Engels' letter.
  9. ↑ 7 September
  10. ↑ Workers' Circle
  11. ↑ Modern name: Agrigento.