ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE
IN PARIS
London, 5 December 1887
My dear Lafargue,
Like you, I cried VictoryI yesterday morning. It is clear that, had it not been for the people of Paris, the Right would not have dreamed of voting for an impossible candidate[1] and would have rallied to Ferry with the opportunists-cum-speculators.[2] In which case—battle and, as likely as not, defeat.
The drama is unfolding in complete accordance with the rules. In 1878 victory of the people and the army over the monarchists alone;[3]
in 1887 victory over the monarchists and opportunists[4] combined. The next victory must be victory over monarchists, opportunists and radicals[5] combined.
Clemenceau would seem after all to have contributed not a little to that result by dropping Freycinet in favour of Carnot. It was the least he could do after falling headlong into Ferry's trap. But it's better than nothing. And, circumstances being what they are, a legal solution of this kind, brought about under the menacing pressure of the Parisian work- ers, is all we might wish. As in the case of most days during the great revolution, it is a period of ascent.
What attitude did the soldiers adopt—those of the line, I mean? Peaceful victories such as this are a capital way of familiarising troops with the supremacy and infallibility of the popular masses. Another day or two of the same sort and the troops will undoubtedly mutiny.
Sadi Carnot won't do much. The presidency is done for after what has happened. The president has been reduced to a puppet, appointing and dismissing ministers at the command of the Chamber.
All the same, I hope the scandals will continue to be relentlessly followed up. Things have gone too far, I think, to be halted now. The bourgeois will cry that enough is enough, that one should display generosity and let bygones be bygones—but let us hope that the
only way for the radicals to come to power is by prosecuting the thieves.
Yours ever,
F. E.
The Social Democratic Federation was supposed to be meeting in Trafalgar Square yesterday,[6] but there wasn't a word about it in the Daily News; we may be sure Hyndman didn't run any risk.
- ↑ Felix Gustave Saussier
- ↑ The reference is to the resolution of a presidential crisis in France over the exposure of speculatory machinations committed by Daniel Wilson, son-in-law of President Jules Grevy (see note 168). Under public pressure J. P. Grevy had to tender his resignation on 1 December 1887. Nominated as candidates for the presidency were the moderate republicans M. F. Sadi Carnot, Jules EC. Ferry, Charles Louis de Freycinet, among others; the ultra Right nominated Felix Gustave Saussier. Ferry's candidacy elicited sharp protests from left-wing organisations and Paris workers. The Blanquists, headed by Emile Eudes, a former general of the Paris Commune, and Edouard Vaillant, a member of the municipal council, joined hands with the Guesdists (see note 33) and organised several meetings and demonstrations against Ferry's candidature. After the first round of the election Ferry and Freycinet withdrew their candidacies in Marie Francois Carnot's favour, who was then elected president.
- ↑ Pertaining to the coup attempt of 1877 by Marshall Macmahon, President of the Republic, with the aim of restoring a monarchy in France. Yeacmahon found no support among the broad popular masses or in the army (among the soldiers and the greater part of commissioned officers), which reflected the republican sentiments of the French peasantry. The parliamentary election of October 1877 brought victory to the republicans, with a bourgeois republican government being formed; in January 1879 Macmahon resigned.
- ↑ Opportunists was the name given in France to the party of moderate bourgeois republicans upon its split in 1881 and the formation of a left-wing party of radicals under Georges Clemenceau. The name was first used in 1877 by Henri Rochefort, a journalist, after the leader of the party, L. Gambetta, had said that reforms were to be implemented at 'an opportune time' ('un temps opportun').
- ↑ The Radicals were a parliamentary group in France in the 1880s and 1890s that emerged from the party of moderate republicans ('Opportunists', see note 199). The Radicals relied chiefly on the petty bourgeoisie and to some extent on the middle bourgeoisie; they upheld the bourgeois-democratic demands: a unicameral system of parliament, separation of the church from the state, a progressive income tax, limitation of the workday, among other social issues. The Radicals were led by George Clemenceau. This group transformed itself into the Republican Party of Radicals and Radical-Socialists (parti republicain radical et radical-socialiste') in 1901.
- ↑ On 4 December 1887, London was the scene of several meetings of the unemployed, organised by the Social Democratic Federation (see note 62). Although significant police reinforcements were moved in, no clashes were reported. For an account of the meetings, see Justice Vol. IV, No. 204, 10 December 1887: The Unemployed Agitation.