Letter to August Bebel, April 12, 1886

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 12 April 1886


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO AUGUST BEBEL

IN LEIPZIG

London, 12 April 1886

Dear Bebel,

Thank you for the debate on the Anti-Socialist Law—it pleased me tremendously.[1] Here again we have something that does credit to the movement and this is the impression it gives from beginning to end. Even Liebknecht was quite his old self again; competition from the French seems to have had a good effect on him.[2] I like the spectacle of the whole gang—or pack of dogs ramer—crowding round you barking and snapping, only to be beaten off by the lash of a whip. What a mercy that, apart from you and Liebknecht, only Vollmar spoke a word or two, and that Singer, the victim of a concerted attack, was compelled to hit back hard, while the tractable majority held their tongues.

The gentlemen's fears about regicide are too ludicrous. Surely they or their fathers have all of them sung:

Has ever man had such hard luck
As our poor Burgomaster Tschech,

[3] [4]

True, the German bourgeoisie still had some vitality in those days; another example of the difference is that 1844 saw the appearance of Das Lied von Freifrau von Droste-Vischering,[5] whereas now the Kulturkampf[6] is being waged with the most humdrum weapons wielded by the most flaccid hands.

The socialists here have been acquitted.[7] I am sending you today's copy of the highly Conservative Standard (also a Cri du Peuple) containing an account of the final hearing. You will be able to see from it how a judge goes about his business in England (though admittedly not in Ireland}.). Translated from legal jargon, what he said was: The law on seditious speeches applies to the accused, but the law is outdated and invalid in practice. Otherwise you would have to convict every radical spokesman and minister. All you have to ask yourselves, therefore, is this: Was it, or was it not, the intention of the accused that there should be looting on 8 February?[8] And Cave is one of England's 16 principal judges.

The verdict is a fine advertisement for Hyndman, but it has come too late. He has contrived to ruin his organisation beyond hope of repair; in London it's fizzling out, while in the provinces the various organisations have adopted a neutral, wait-and-see attitude to the rifts down here. Summa summarum the two organisations—FEDERATION and LEAGUE 346—have a combined paid-up membership of less than 2,000 and their papers0 a combined readership of less than 5,000—the majority being sympathisers in the persons of bourgeois, priests, literati, etc. As things are now, it is truly fortunate that these immature elements are failing to penetrate the masses. They must first complete the process of fermentation, after which all may be well.

For the rest, one might almost be back in the days of the International. Only this morning a whole stack of German, French, Spanish and Belgian papers arrived and are taking up time I ought to be devoting to the English translation of Capital.[9] I only hope there isn't a bust-up before I've managed to finish the 3rd volume—after that it can come, so far as I'm concerned.

Things are going splendidly in Decazeville.[10] You will see from the report (Cri du Peuple) of last Sunday's meetingd (a week ago yesterday) which I am sending you today how skilfully those Parisians, who have been decried as revolutionary braggarts, contrive without relinquishing their revolutionary posture to advocate calm and lawfulness during the strike. It is indicative of the progress the French have made, thanks to the revolutionary soil on which they stand, that in their case there is a complete absence of that mass of sophistries and second thoughts which still confuse the minds of so many people in Germany. That one should proceed lawfully or unlawfully, depending on the circumstances, is taken entirely for granted over there and no one sees anything inconsistent in it. As to Paris, it is significant that up till yesterday the Cri du Peuple had raised 35,000 frs for Decazeville, but Rochefort's Intransigeant less than 11,000.

Bismarck, who appears to have been in a frightful rage, though obviously speaking for the benefit of the Crown Prince,[11] will doubtless get a reply from Laura and Tussy to the ludicrous insinuations he made about Marx.[12] Of the other speeches, Hänel'sb was the best from a legal viewpoint;[13] he came out with the absurd demand that a citizen should conform to the law not only outwardly but also inwardly—that such a thing should be called for, that the mere intention and the public expression thereof, could be held punishable by deprivation of rights shows how debased all middle-class concepts of legality have become in Germany—not that they have ever prevailed over there save in the case of the oppositional bourgeoisie; what has, in fact, always prevailed is the illegality of a police state, which in other countries (always excepting Ireland) could only assert itself shamefacedly and in the guise of a coup de main.

Must close because registration time (5 o'clock) draws near.

Your

F.E.

  1. ↑ The reference is to the Reichstag repeated debates on the prolongation of the Anti- Socialist Law held on 30 and 31 March and 2 April 1886. Engels is alluding to the bold interventions by the leaders of the German Social Democrats. Speaking on 31 March, for example, August Bebel stated that the government would not require any anti-socialist law if it was in a position to halt the proletarianisation of the masses but — since it was not in a position to do so — no anti-socialist laws would help it. In his speech of 2 April Wilhelm Liebknecht severely criticised Bismarck's speech in which he had accused Bebel of advocating terror, and compared Bismarck's regime with that of the Second Empire in France. On 2 April 1886 the Anti-Socialist Law was prolonged for two years at the third reading by 169 votes to 137.
  2. ↑ See this volume, pp. 424 25.
  3. ↑ He shot at Fatty two paces away
  4. ↑ And yet his bullet went astray.
  5. ↑ Engels is quoting from a popular satirical song dating from 1844-45. Tschech's Attentat relates to the unsuccessful attempt on the life of Frederick William IV staged on 26 July 1844 by H. L. Tschech, the mayor of Storkow. The second song, Freifrau von Droste-Vischering, is a parody directed against the Catholic clergy in Trier.
  6. ↑ The reference is probably to the German Workers' Educational Society formed in London in 1840 by Karl Schapper, Johann Moll, Heinrich Bauer, and other members of the League of the Just. Marx and Engels took part in its activities in 1847 and 1849-50. The name of the society was changed in the following years, and from the 1870s it was called Communist Workers' Educational Society (Kommunistischer Arbeiterbildungsverein). Soon after the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law (see Note 37), a group of extremist-minded members gained the upper hand in the society. They opposed the tactics employed by the German Social Democrats against the background of the Anti-Socialist Law, came out against a combination of legal and illegal methods of struggle, against the Social Democrats working in Parliament and for individual acts of terrorism. In March 1880 a considerable number of members left the society and formed their own organisation retaining the previous name. The refounded society announced that it intended to act in accord with the principles and tactics of the German Social Democrats. The remaining members, including the supporters of Most, continued to adhere to Leftist views and were active under the same name.
  7. ↑ The supporters of protective tariffs, including pro-Conservative trade union officials (S. Peters, T. M. Kelly, W. Kenny and T. Lemon, who were expelled at the Trades Union Congress in Manchester in 1882) held a meeting in Trafalgar Square on 8 February 1886. The Social Democratic Federation (see Note 300) organised a meeting and unemployed demonstration in opposition to the Conservative campaign for protective tariffs. This demonstration (see this volume, pp. 403-04 and 406-08) was joined by the lumpenproletarian elements, who began to behave in an unruly manner and loot shops. The police subsequently arrested Henry Mayers Hyndman, John Burns, Henry Hyde Champion and John Edward Williams, the leaders of the Federation, on a charge of making 'inciting speeches'. The trial ended on 10 April with their acquittal.
  8. ↑ See this volume, pp. 403 04, 406 08. c Justice and The Commonweal 6 Le Cri du Peuple, No. 888, 4 April 1886.
  9. ↑ The idea of translating Capital into English occurred to Marx as early as 1865, when he was working on the manuscript (see Marx's letter to Engels of 31 July 1865, present edition, Vol. 42). The British journalist and member of the International's General Council, Peter Fox, was to help Marx find a publisher. However, this matter was not settled due to Fox's death in 1869. The English translation of the first volume of Capital, edited by Engels, did not appear until after Marx's death, in January 1887, and was published by Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., London. The translation was done by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling between mid-1883 and March 1886. Eleanor Marx-Aveling took part in the preparatory work for the edition (see also this volume, pp. 33 and 127-28).
  10. ↑ 3,500 miners went on strike in Decazeville (department of Aveyron) on 26 (27?) January 1886 in response to the ruthless exploitation to which they were exposed by the owners of the Aveyron Association of Coalmines and Foundries. At the beginning of the strike, the miners killed Watrin, the manager of the collieries, who had refused to heed their demands. The government sent troops to Decazeville. The strike continued until mid-June and evoked a broad response in France; the events led to the formation in the Chamber of Deputies of a workers' group which supported the miners' demands. The strike ended in the surrender of the company to the miners; an increased rate was promised, and the obnoxious officials dismissed.
  11. ↑ Frederick William
  12. ↑ In the Reichstag discussion on the prolongation of the Anti-Socialist Law on 31 March 1886, Bismarck turned TO AUGUST BEBEL and said that, although he could not prove that Marx had engaged in 'training murderers', Ferdinand Blind — who had made an attempt on his life on 7 May 1866 — was a pupil of Marx. At Engels' insistence, Laura Lafargue and Eleanor Marx-Aveling made a statement on the matter in which they categorically rejected this false allegation. The statement was published in Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 16, 15 April 1886 and reprinted in Le Socialiste, No. 35, 24 April 1886.
  13. ↑ A. Hand's speech in the Reichstag on 31 March 1886 (Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstags. VI. Legislaturperiode. II. Session 1885/86, Vol. III, Berlin, 1886, pp. 1766 1770).