Letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, March 20, 1873

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 20 March 1873


First published abridged in Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen van Joh. Phil. Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engeh, 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, 20 March 1873
122 Regent's Park Road

Dear Sorge,

First of all let me convey to you our heartfelt sympathies on the great family misfortune that has befallen you.[1] We have all had to endure similar losses and know how deeply they scar a person's whole life. It takes a long time and a hard struggle to overcome them, but we know that you have the strength to do so.

Your last or rather your penultimate letter is in Marx's hands. He intended to drop you a few lines, but I doubt whether he has done so and cannot ask him today since he and Tussy have gone off to Brighton for a few days. As far as the minutes of the former General Council are concerned, they can be of no use to you, since you have already been notified of all the resolutions of general interest, and the others have lost all their validity. For us, on the other hand, they are absolutely vital in our struggle against the secessionists, if we are to be able to answer their lies and slanders. I think that the interests of the International are more important than the need to comply with a formality.—That the other secretaries[2] have failed to send in reports is indeed irregular. The one from Serraillier was in the letter that went astray. Wrôblewski is unable to send one since everything in Poland is secret and we never used to ask for details from him earlier either. How matters stand in Austria and Germany is something you know as much about as we do, since you correspond with people there directly and we do not have any further details about the position of the sections either. No report can be demanded from the secretaries who have resigned—Jung for Switzerland and Cournet for Denmark. So who else is left to report? We have not heard a word from Denmark, I am afraid that the Lassallean intrigues may have taken root there.

In France everyone seems to have been caught. Heddeghem has been the traitor, as proved by the trial in Caen, where the prosecutor actually named him as the informer. Dentraygues in Toulouse (Swarm), with his accustomed pedantry, kept a mass of useless lists which have told the police all they needed to know. His trial is now in progress,[3] we expect the reports any day. Larroque fortunately managed to escape to San Sebastian via London, from where he is attempting to renew contacts with Bordeaux. His address (to be kept secret) is:

Sefior Latraque 21, Calle de la Aduana, San Sebastian, SPAIN.

No inner envelope is necessary.

Cuno was out of luck with his resolution from Section 29. He sent it to the Alliancist Spanish Federal Council, adding that Capestro=Cuno! So why the comedy of names?[4] The Federacion of Barcelona duly printed the stuff and concluded—not without some apparent reason—that Cuno too had repented and realised that the old General Council was in the wrong.[5] That comes from mediating.

Ad vocem[6] Lodi. When your letter of 12 February arrived, they had all been released and Bignami was reinstated as editor. So I took it upon myself not to send the $20, since money was no longer needed, particularly as the General Council needs its money itself. May I ask you for instructions by return of post about whether to send it or whether you wish to dispose of it otherwise/

As far as payments for the General Council are concerned, I have not yet received a penny. You will see from the Administrative Regulations, III, Art. 4, that subscriptions do not fall due until 1 March; the almost universal practice was for them not to be paid in until shortly before or at the Congress. Until then we lived mainly from individual contributions and from credit. As to the former, I shall try to exact payments, but it will be difficult unless we wish to use up all the resources for the next Congress in advance and leave the course of the Congress itself to chance.

Send 80-100 English-language trade-union plans at once.[7] The 40 that have been sent, like most of the letters, have not yet arrived—a search is being made—and 40 is not enough for here anyway; we could distribute 30-40 in Manchester alone, since the TRADES UNIONS here are mainly local and not centralised. For the moment you could send everything for the BRITISH FEDERAL COUNCIL either to me, or to S. Vickery, the secretary, at 3 Oak Villas, Friern Park, Finchley, N. London. Or to F. Lessner, 12 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square, W. London. The present headquarters of the FEDERAL COUNCIL is itself only provisional. I could also use some copies of the French version for Italy, Holland and Belgium; I send them out individually or 2-3 at a time to strike committees wherever a strike breaks out.

I cannot obtain any addresses in Holland or Belgium at the moment. Liebers is no longer in The Hague, but in Germany; van der Hout, who is an idler, by the way, is a COAL MINER near Essen.

The resolution of 26 January[8] is very good.[9] All that is needed now to settle the matter is for you to pass a resolution after the conclusion of the Jurassian, Italian and other congresses which are due to be held in March in which the resolution of 26 January is applied to the secessionists in Spain, Belgium, England and the Jura by name. Italy could only be referred to in so far as recognised sections—Naples, Milan, Ferrara, Turin, Lodi, Aquila— might be affected by it—the others have never belonged to the International.

The Address to the Spaniards[10] will also have a very good effect. On the one hand, it is thoroughly correct from a theoretical point of view and, on the other, it avoids everything which might provide the Alliancists with a pretext to make an anarchistic song-and-dance about it, and thirdly, it is brief. In general, all your Addresses have been received very well by the workers.

I have sent the resolution of 26 January to the BRITISH FEDERAL COUNCIL, where it will be presented this evening.

The demands of the General Council (of 15 December) about the admission of sections will beyond doubt never be fulfilled in this manner. The General Council must admit every section that fulfils the conditions of the Rules and Administrative Regulations. It cannot lay down any new conditions, so No. 1 lapses in part (the General Council is entitled to require the statistics of numbers and branches of work, but not names), and No. 4 lapses entirely since Section III of the Administrative Regulations provides otherwise for the mode of payment. The best thing would be just to drop this quietly—-we here have never obtained more than is prescribed in Nos. 2 and 3, and even then only with difficulty, and where people acted reliably in good faith we were never strict about formalities. For doubtful cases, of course, it is good to have such a resolution behind one.

It will be just as impossible for Wroblewski to stick to his instructions. The authorised representative for Poland must be taken fully into your confidence, otherwise we cannot achieve anything at all there, and a detailed monthly report from him is quite out of the question.— Quant à moi,[11] I can only report about Italy that there is nothing to report apart from the fact that the Lodi section has not yet reconstituted itself and the one in Turin has probably come apart at the seams.

It really was an unfortunate idea to pass the STAMPS on to me.[12] Last year we did not receive them before March or April, now it will be even later. Le Moussu, like all Frenchmen, is bone-idle in business affairs, unless matters are really pressing, and even a good kick is of no avail. Formerly, Jung saw to the printing and that task too now falls to Le Moussu, who does not know any English.

I have sent you The International Herald and the Emancipation, the former up to No. 50 (goes off today), the latter up to No. 88; I hope they have arrived safely.

I had almost forgotten to thank you for the wine that arrived at last after a lengthy journey. It went by German STEAMER to Bremen and was then sent on carriage paid from there to here where it arrived safely after some further wanderings. I have shared it with Marx, but have only tried a few bottles myself. The SWEET Catawba pleased the ladies very well. The red is not bad and the white I have tried so far is an interesting drink somewhere between hock and DRY SHERRY. The few bottles I still have in my cellar are being saved up for great occasions. The wine is pleasant to drink but lacks the individual character of the original European wines. I am very grateful to you for having enriched my knowledge of wine by a whole hemisphere and in such an agreeable manner; I was most astonished to discover the northerly position of the Ohio vineyards on this occasion. I had supposed they lay much further to the South.

The set-to in SPRING STREET[13] about Woodhull amused me greatly. I shall spread the story to Spain, etc. Likewise, that Eccarius has ventured to describe their SHAM congress[14] in The World as a mere friendly gathering. Have received the Arbeiter-Zeitung up to No. 4. Very good, if stylistically a little rough here and there—which does no harm at all, but bears witness to its proletarian character. Very good attack on Singer Co.[15] —OUGHT TO BE CONTINUED AND EXTENDED TO OTHERS.

Otherwise, nothing new here. The Jung-Hales slanders have been going through the entire Jurassian, Belgian and other secessionist papers. Longuet intends to answer them in the Liberté, whether it will come to anything is not quite clear to me, given his laziness.[16]

Must catch the post. Best wishes.

Your

F. Engels

  1. ↑ the death of Sorge's daughter
  2. ↑ the corresponding secretaries of the former General Council in London
  3. ↑ Between 10 and 25 March 1873 a major trial of members of the International's French sections was held in Toulouse. Its organisers made wide use of the evidence received from Emile Dentraygues, a member of the Toulouse section, who gave information about the composition and activities of nearly all the International's sections in Southern France. Twenty-two out of the 38 defendants were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment; Charles Larroque, a representative of the General Council who had managed to escape to Spain under an alias of Mortimer Latraque, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in absentia. Apart from Toulouse, trials of the arrested members of the International were held in other towns of Southern France, including Cannes, Béziers, Narbonne, Perpignan, Montpellier, and Avignon.
  4. ↑ Following the Hague Congress, Theodor Cuno emigrated to the USA; involved in the campaign against anarchism, he signed the Address to the New Madrid Federation, issued by the International's Section No. 29 on 10 January 1873, using an alias, F. Capestro.
  5. ↑ 'La verdad se va abriendo paso', La Federacion, No. 183, 15 February 1873.
  6. ↑ As for
  7. ↑ In line with the Hague Congress decision on the establishment of International trade unions (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 245-46), the General Council on 26 January drafted rules for an international association, which Sorge sent to Engels on 12 February 1873. The draft rules were published in The International Herald, No. 49, 8 March 1873.
  8. ↑ 'An alle Mitglieder der Internationalen Arbeiterassoziation'.
  9. ↑ Under the resolution issued by the New York General Council on 26 January 1873, all organisations and individuals who refused to comply with the decisions of the Hague Congress thereby placed themselves outside the International Working Men's Association. Later, on 30 May, the General Council passed a new resolution which listed the federations, sections and individuals who had placed themselves outside the International.
  10. ↑ A reference to the General Council Address to the Spanish workers issued on 23 February 1873, the day a republic was proclaimed in Spain. The General Council warned the Spanish workers against being carried away by bourgeois republican ideas and urged them to work for proletarian unity in order to build 'a republic of labour and social democracy'.
  11. ↑ As for me
  12. ↑ On 22 December 1872 the General Council decided that the stamps pasted on the members' personal copies of the International's Rules as a sign that they had paid their dues (see Note 420) would be printed in London. The plates were to be made by Benjamin Le Moussu, a professional engraver. Engels was requested to supervise their production.
  13. ↑ Situated in Spring Street was the office of the separatist Federal Council.
  14. ↑ The congress, which was convened by the reformist wing of the British Federal Council, took place in London on 26 January 1873. Attended by 12 delegates only, it refused to recognise the resolutions of the Hague Congress. The Federal Council set up by the secessionists ceased to meet as early as the spring of 1873; the sections that had supported it either fell apart or rejoined the British Federation.
  15. ↑ 'Fabrikantenspiegel', Arbeiter Zeitung, No. 3, 22 February 1873.
  16. ↑ Ch. Longuet, 'Monsieur le Rédacteur, Lorsque j'ai lu l'article publié par La Liberté..., La Liberté, No. 14, 6 April 1873.