Letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, July 26, 1873

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 26 July 1873


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
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE

IN HOBOKEN

London, 26 July 1873

Dear Sorge,

I telegraphed yesterday, cost £1,16: ENGELS TO SORGE, BOX 101, HOBOKEN, NEW YORK. Serraillier YES'2 Therefore, send Serraillier instructions and the material at once so that he has enough time to prepare himself and doesn't have to appear without having read the papers. Ditto the money.

Neither Marx nor I could have taken on the task without setting off the old hue and cry again: they are up to their old tricks, it is Marx who is behind it all, as usual, and he is just using the New-Yorkers as a front! It was only with difficulty that I could persuade Serraillier to take it on; he has found a position at last that can feed him decently and first had to cover himself there; hence the 3 days' delay.

Have sent an invitation to the Congress to Bignami, who is at liberty once more.[1] Have also informed Serraillier, but as I have already mentioned,[2] he no longer has any correspondents in France.

Am sending off to you by today's post 2 parcels d 16 copies of Congress resolutions.[3] You could have had them long since had you asked. But since you had no French sections, I thought that those I had sent for the use of the General Council would suffice.—8 or 10 have been sent off to Buenos Aires.[4]

Have still not received any money. The issue of The International Herald with the English transla- tion of the Congress resolutions is no longer to be obtained. Moreover, Riley has seceded and gone over to the republican camp, and the reports of the FEDERAL COUNCIL are appearing once again in The Eastern Post, to the great annoyance of Jung and Hales, whose organ this was up to the time of the Manchester Congress[5] ; the Congress, however, finished them off. For this reason I have not ordered The International Herald for Meyer.[6]

The statement about the French mandates has gone off to Italy, Portugal and Spain.[7]

Marx and I would welcome mandates from there. We shall presumably have to go, for various reasons, although we would, of course, prefer to stay here.

Marx will send on the instalments of Capital,[8] if he has not done so already. Four instalments of the French translation are out already,[9] the publisher[10] is afraid, and not without reason, that under the present clerical regime it may be confiscated, hence the slow appearance.

Admission for TRADES UNIONS varied. Some paid Id per member, others a lump sum; yet others only enrolled the CENTRAL COUNCIL directly and they too paid a lump sum. In conformity with the relevant article in the Rules, affiliation was approved by simple resolution and a certificate was issued to them.— For lsh. they could receive a printed illustrated version of it to hang on the wall.

The Demokratische Taschenbuch and the Geheimnisse von Europa might be obtainable if further details about the time and place of publication were available; the book-lexica do not stretch to such things and it is hardly worthwhile searching through 20 half-year issues of Hinrich's Bibliography[11] in order to discover finally that they are not there (which is all too likely to be the case with books of this sort).

I still have the Geneva money in my pocket, thanks to the impossible instructions you have lumbered me with. How am I to discover an address to send money to for the widows and orphans of the Commune? This part of the money really must be retained here for your further instructions, since we simply cannot carry out your orders. I would suggest transferring it to Serraillier with a request to devote it to the purpose specified, if at all possible, but otherwise using it for any refugees of the Commune in general. Or else transferring it to the International, which can certainly put it to good use.—The refugees here who have still not been fixed up are a pretty worthless lot. I shall send £10 to Geneva and hold the rest here, pending further instructions from you.[12]

Oberwinder.[13] We are entirely of your opinion as far as we can judge from the published documents.[14] Oberwinder has always been a TRIMMER who may have made too much of the backwardness of Austrian conditions in order to have an excuse to act as mediator. Andreas Scheu, on the other hand, is a muddle-headed fellow at best, who wants to stand out as a man who 'goes as far as possible' and whose ambition quite certainly outstrips his abilities. We have long suspected him of being in contact with the Bakuninists, and now, in his programme (Volksstaat No. 59), he has used the phrase taken directly from Bakunin that all other parties constitute a single reactionary mass vis-à-vis the proletariat.[15]

We shall reserve our judgment until we learn more. Very suspect too is the fact that Heinrich Scheu, who was present at The Hague, has been here for 4 weeks and only looked up Marx after Mrs Marx had met him in the street. Up to now we have taken care not to discuss the matter with him, otherwise he behaves quite decently and heaps abuse on Bakunin and the Blanquists, but it is peculiar all the same.

Würtz was described to me by Pihl as a vain, importunate fellow who imagines he is indispensable and whose indiscretion in pushing himself forward has done them considerable harm. THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT is that, thanks to the Lassalleans in Flensburg and others in North Schleswig, the Danes lean more towards the General Association of German Workers[16] and have got them- selves into a mess as a result. Hence their silence. The devil take the socialists of all these peasant countries, they, are always fooled by fine phrases.

Look at our Bakuninists in Spain, for example. On Bakunin's orders they abolished the state in Alcoy (the so-called atrocities were, of course, reactionary inventions), and set up a Comité de salut public[17] (which includes Severino Albarracin, a member of the Bakuninist Federal Council of Valencia and of the Correspon- dence Commission that has now been established in Cordoba[18] ). So what happens? At the suggestion of some deputies anxious to mediate, peace is concluded; on the one hand, an amnesty, on the other, all resistance is abandoned and the troops move in amidst the jubilation of the bourgeois![19] In Barcelona they are neither strong nor courageous enough to attempt anything of the sort, but wherever they are, they strengthen 'anarchy', general confusion, and—they smooth the way for the Carlists.[20]

The report on the Alliance[21] is in print—I read the first proofs yesterday. It is supposed to be ready in a week but I very much doubt that it will. It will be some 160 pages long, I shall advance circa £40 for the printing costs. Edition of 1,000—price: 2 francs=l/9d sterling. I shall send you the first copies to come off the press. But since the thing simply has to be sold so as to recover our costs, please let me know right away how many copies can be ordered for you over there; we shall then have a few more sent. Could you also look around for a reliable bookseller who would distribute it over there. Because of the additional expenses you will probably have to fix the price at about 60-75 cents in your CURRENCY—c'est votre affaire[22] —at any rate, we here have to receive l/9d per copy, with the exception of those sold through the bookseller since his discount will have to be subtracted, otherwise we shall not recover our costs. The book will hit the autonomists like a bombshell, and if anyone at all can be broken, it will finish off Bakunin. Lafargue and I wrote it together; only the conclusion is by Marx and myself. We shall send it to the entire press. You yourself will be surprised at the infamies revealed in it; even the people from the Commission[23] were quite astonished.

The FEDERAL COUNCIL here proceeds on its somnolent way. Apart from the printed reports I see and hear little of them. At all events, Jung, Hales, Mottershead and Co. are finished as far as their pseudo-International is concerned.

Get some Copenhagen addresses for me through Würtz right away, so that I can send there a few copies of the Alliance report. Have not heard another word from Pihl, so that I do not know if his address is still valid.

Apart from that things are jogging along here. My wife[24] is in Ramsgate and Mrs Marx was due to go there today too. Jenny Longuet will probably enlarge the family in a week or two (do not write to Marx or Mrs Marx about it until you receive official notice, THEY ARE VERY PARTICULAR ABOUT FAMILY MATTERS). Lafargue and Le Moussu have started up an ENGRAVING business, based on a patent.[25]

Dupont too is attempting to exploit his patent in BRASS INSTRUMENTS, but keeps coming up against obstacles, mostly of his own making, since he knows as much about business as my dog. All this between ourselves. You have no idea how sensitive these people are about private communications, moreover their sensitivity is in direct proportion to their own tendency to gossip.

Finally, it would still be best if one of you were to come. How can we possibly represent the General Council here as effectively as this would be done by one of its members?

Your

F. Engels

  1. ↑ On 21 November 1872 the Royal prosecutor in Lodi announced that issue No. 118 of La Plebe of 17 November 1872 had been sequestrated for publishing the General Council's Address of 20 October (see Note 610). Prosecutor Gerli simultaneously announced that proceedings had been insti tuted against Enrico Bignami, the paper's editor. In December 1872 Bignami and three of his friends were arrested and charged with high treason and propagating the ideas of the International Working Men's Association.
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 507.
  3. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'Resolutions of the General Congress Held at The Hague from the 2nd to the 7th September, 1872'.
  4. ↑ Sorge wrote to Engels on 20 June 1873 that three new sections had been set up in Buenos Aires, the French, the Italian and the Spanish, numbering 130, 90 and 45 members respectively. He asked Engels to send them the resolutions of the Hague Congress.
    The first section of the International in Buenos Aires was set up on 28 January 1872 and comprised the Paris Commune refugees. The International's organisation in Buenos Aires grew with the arrival of delegate to the Hague Congress, Raimond Wilmart, who corresponded with Marx and Engels. In 1873, a number of new sections were set up in Buenos Aires, consisting mostly of emigrants.
  5. ↑ The Second Congress of the International's British Federation was held in Manchester on 1-2 June 1873. The congress was attended by 26 delegates from 23 sections. The congress heard the report of the British Federal Council and passed resolutions on the organisation of the British Federation, on propagan da, and on the need to set up an international Trades' Union. They voted that the Red Flag be declared the banner of the British Federation, and the land and all means of production be nationalised. Of particular importance was the resolution 'On Political Action, which stressed the need to establish an independent proletarian political party in Britain.
  6. ↑ Hermann Meyer
  7. ↑ A reference to the General Council's statement on the credentials for France of 23 May 1873, which countered attempts by the Bakuninists and the Lassalleans to place the blame for L. Van Heddeghem's and Emile Dentraygues' betrayal on the General Council. The English translation of the statement was the work of Engels, who also edited the French translation by Lafargue.
  8. ↑ In early February 1871, at Marx's request, Harney sent a written inquiry to the General Land Office in Washington (see The Harney Papers. Ed. by F. G. Black and R. M. Black, Van Gorcum and Co., Assen, 1969, pp. 267-69).
  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. ↑ Maurice Lachâtre
  11. ↑ Halbjahrskatalog der im deutschen Buch handel erschienenen Bücher, Zeitschriften und Landkarten.
  12. ↑ On 11 August 1873, replying to Engels' letter, the General Council instructed him to pass on the money collected in the USA for the widows and orphans of Communards to Auguste Serraillier.
  13. ↑ See this volume, p. 491.
  14. ↑ Engels is replying to Sorge's questions prompted by the editorial 'Zur Spaltung der Arbeiterpartei in Oesterreich' in Der Volksstaat, No. 48, 14 June 1873, which sharply criticised Heinrich Oberwinder's opportunistic stand. The editorial board termed the actions of Oberwinder's group 'an open betrayal of the workers' cause'.
  15. ↑ A reference to a report from Vienna published in Der Volksstaat, No. 59, 16 July 1873, which quoted in full the resolution proposed by Andreas Scheu on 29 June 1873 at a workers' meeting in Wiener-Neustadt where the reorganisation of the Austrian Social-Democratic Workers' Party was discussed. Alongside consistently democratic demands and calls for the introduction of standard working hours and legal restrictions on women's and child labour, the resolution contained the statement that 'all other parties constituted a single reactionary mass vis-à-vis the proletariat'.
  16. ↑ The General Association of German Workers was founded on 23 May 1863 at a meeting of workers' societies in Leipzig. The establishment of this political organisation promoted the advance of the German workers' movement. However, Ferdinand Lassalle and his followers directed the activities of the Association along reformist lines.
    With the formation of the International, the sectarian and nationalistic line adopted by the Lassallean leadership became an obstacle to the involvement of the German workers in the international proletarian movement. Thanks to the persistent campaign by Marx, Engels and their followers against Lassalleanism, the foremost German workers had parted company with it by the early 1870s. At the Gotha Congress held in May 1875 the General Association of German Workers merged with the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Eisenachers).
  17. ↑ Committee of Public Salvation
  18. ↑ The congress in Cordoba, attended only by Spanish anarchists (48 delegates), took place on 25 December 1872-2 January 1873. The congress rejected the resolutions of the Hague Congress and the General Rules of the International Working Men's Association, disbanded the Federal Council and replaced it with a federal commission with severely restricted powers. It also aligned itself with the resolutions of the international anarchist congress in Saint-Imier (see Note 599), which were hostile to the International.
    On the Address of the New Madrid Federation, see Note 612.
  19. ↑ In Alcoy, a small but industrially important Spanish town, the workers' decision to declare a general strike on 7 July 1873 led to the armed uprising of 8 July, as a result of which power passed into the hands of the Bakuninists. The Public Welfare Committee they had set up (Engels refers to it as the Comité de salut public after the central body of revolutionary government in France during the Jacobin dictatorship of 1793-94) displayed total passivity and on 12 July surrendered the town to government troops without putting up any resistance. These events were thoroughly analysed by Engels in The Bakuninists at Work (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 590-95).
  20. ↑ The Carlists, a clerical absolutist group which in the first half of the 19th century supported Don Carlos, brother of King Ferdinand VII and pretender to the Spanish throne. In 1833-40, the Carlists unleashed a civil war known as the First Carlist War. After Don Carlos' death in 1855 they transferred their support to his grandson, Don Carlos Jr. In 1872 they stepped up their activities which culminated in another civil war in 1873 (the Second Carlist War). The war lasted until 1876.
  21. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the International Working Men's Association.
  22. ↑ that's your business
  23. ↑ The Commission appointed to prepare for publication the minutes and resolutions of the Hague Congress. Apart from Marx and Engels, it included Eugène Dupont, Léo Frankel, Auguste Serraillier and Benjamin Le Moussu.
  24. ↑ Lydia Burns
  25. ↑ In 1873 Lafargue together with Benjamin Le Moussu and George Moore tried to open up in London an association dealing in the production of engravings. After Lafargue had resigned from the business in late summer 1873, he was replaced by Marx. The association fell apart in the spring of 1874.