Letter to Paul Lafargue, March 20, 1886

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 20 March 1886


First published in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. I, Paris, 1956
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47
Translated from the French


ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 20 March 1886

My dear Lafargue,

Herewith the cheque for £12. Yesterday I was again disturbed. It always happens when there is an urgent task to be done.

Monday's[1] vote in the Chamber was a great victory.[2] For the first time a French Chamber has sided with labour against capital — greatly against its will! But Basly & Co. have been valiantly support- ed by the monarchist gents who, after their relative victory at the polls,[3] are in a state of high excitement and evidently believe— notably in their capacity as capitalists, shareholders, etc.—that they can do anything they please. Placed as they are between an ultra- monarchist group and the revolutionary workers, they had to plump for the latter. At least they are Republicans and, after all, low fi- nance, as represented by the Opportunists and Radicals,[4] has no desire to restore the régime of high finance that was toppled with MacMahon and Thiers.[5]

It was what I suspected—this reappearance of Malon's behind the scenes.[6] A parliamentary party embracing every shade of possibil- ism with Malon for secret leader—what a beautiful dream! The same old Bakuninist tactics which, so far as these intriguers are concerned, are now much more deeply ingrained than the bombastic language of anarchism! A firm stand must be made against these endeavours. If you can ensure that Basly and Camélinat—even on their own—carry on as they have begun and refuse to let themselves be persuaded to join a party where they would form an impotent minority, then the game is won. Any negotiations on their part would be the ruin of them and could only further the Radical cause. So long as they go forward with a firm tread and pay no heed to the honeyed words of the moderators and mediators, all this confusion will be swept away, like it or not. It is not good will that activates these gentry; rather it is fear and fear alone that has created such little good will as they have and this, when all is said and done, is the good will to spoil what Basly has begun and nothing else. Moreover such a party is out of the question. Either Basly or Camélinat will turn traitor, which I don't believe, or they will be forced to part company with these gentry as soon as the first important problem arises. It would therefore be better not to en- ter into an alliance with them.

Your article in the Revue nouvelle[7] gave me much pleasure. Obviously one makes some 'ALLOWANCE' for what you are permitted to say in a periodical of that kind. Even so, I was surprised at the num- ber of risqué allusions you were allowed to get away with—but she[8] is a woman, she has a definite standpoint. Had the editor-in-chief been a man, you would have found yourself up against a much more fero- cious brand of morality.[9] What with the Journal des Economistes, the Revue philosophique and Juliette, you are now well launched in lit- erature of a primarily official nature.[10] And since you write better French (because more 16th-century and less Parisian) than others, you ought to succeed.

Juliette amused me much with her high foreign policy.[11] This is Blowitz to the life, though less grotesque in form.

Fortunately the SOCIALIST LEAGUE is dormant for the time being. Our good Bax and Morris, craving to do something (if only they knew what?), are restrained only by the fact that there is absolutely nothing to do. Moreover they have far more truck with the anarchists than is desirable. Their celebrations on the 18th were held in concert with the latter[12] and Kropotkin spoke there—twaddle, or so they tell me. All this will pass, if only because there is absolutely nothing to be done over here just now. But with Hyndman, who is well versed in political imposture and capable of all sorts of folly when his self-advancement is at stake—with the said Hyndman on the one hand and our two political babes in arms on the other, prospects are by no means bright. Yet now we have socialist papers abroad proclaiming at the top of their voices that socialism in England is marching forward with gigantic strides! I am very glad to say that what passes for socialism here in England is not on the march— far from it.

Yours ever,

F.E.

By the way, Bax has published a short history of philosophy that has some very good stuff in it.[13]

  1. ↑ of 15 March
  2. ↑ See previous letter.
  3. ↑ At the elections held on 4 October 1885 to the French Chamber of Deputies, nu merous candidates failed to receive the number of votes required for election, so that a second ballot was scheduled for 18 October. This ballot brought a republi can majority, comprising representatives of the party of moderate republicans ('Opportunists') and the party of Radicals (see notes 236 and 429). The Chamber of Deputies was made up of 382 republicans (including 180 Radicals) and 202 monarchists.
  4. ↑ The Radicals — in the 1880s and 1890s a parliamentary group which had split away from the party of moderate republicans in France ('Opportunists', see Note 236). The Radicals had their main base in the petty and, to some extent, the middle bourgeoisie and continued to press for a number of bourgeois-democratic demands: a single-chamber parliamentary system, the separation of the Church from the State, the introduction of a system of progressive income taxes, the limitation of the working day and settlement of a number of other social issues. The leader of the Radicals was Clemenceau. The group formed officially as the Republican Party of Radicals and Radical Socialists [Parti républicain radical et radical- socialiste) in 1901.
  5. ↑ The reference is to an attempted coup aimed at restoring the monarchy in France and staged in 1877 by Marshal Mac-Mahon, President of the Third Republic. However, Mac-Mahon failed to gain support not only from large sections of the general public but also from a section of the officers and rank-and-file soldiers, who reflected the republican sentiments among the French peasantry. The parliamen tary elections of October 1877 brought victory for the republicans and the forma tion of a government made up of bourgeois republicans; Mac-Mahon resigned in January 1879.
  6. ↑ On 17 March 1886 Paul Lafargue wrote to Engels that Benoît Malon, one of the Possibilist (see Note 237) leaders, was seeking to set up a parliamentary group made up of socialists of all complexions except those who were 'too red'.
  7. ↑ P. Lafargue, 'Le Matriarcat. Étude sur les origines de la famille', La Nouvelle Revue, Vol. 39, March April 1886, pp. 301 36.
  8. ↑ Juliette Adam
  9. ↑ On 1 March 1886 La Nouvelle Revue, whose editor-in-chief was Juliette Adam, published Paul Lafargue's article 'Le Matriarcat...'. On 17 March 1886 he wrote to Engels, 'You will have received the copy of La Nouvelle Revue which I sent you yesterday. So as to correspond to the magazine's level of publications I have made the theoretical part much shorter; in the proofs Mme Adam has abridged it even more... However one should not blame her since she has dropped rather serious things which would have shocked brave philistines who subscribe to it. The prud ery of the Parisian journals is incredible...'
  10. ↑ In 1884 the Journal des Economistes. Revue de la science économique et de la statistique carried the following articles by Lafargue: in Nos. 7 and 8, 'Le blé en Amérique, production et commerce'; in No. 9, 'La théorie de la plus-value de Karl Marx et la critique de M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu'; in No. 11, 'Le "Capital" de Karl Marx et la critique de M. Block'. The Revue philosophique de la France et de l'étranger, Vol. XX, September 1885, published Lafargue's article 'Recherches sur les ori gines de l'idée du bien et du juste'.
  11. ↑ Each issue of La Nouvelle Revue contained a section headed 'Lettres sur la polit ique extérieure' and signed 'J. Adam'.
  12. ↑ On 18 March 1886 South Place Chapel in London was the venue for a meeting to commemorate the anniversary of the Paris Commune. The meeting was addressed by representatives of the Socialist League (see Note 346) (Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Frank Kitz and others), the Social Democratic Federation (see Note 300) (Tom Mann, Harry Quelch and others), Friedrich Lessner from the German Workers' Educational Society (see Note 162) and also a number of anarchists, including Pyotr Kropotkin.
  13. ↑ E.B. Bax, A Handbook of the History of Philosophy for the Use of Students.