Letter to Laura Lafargue, May 14, 1889

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 14 May 1889


First published, in the language of the original (English), in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. 2 (1887-1890), Paris, Ed. sociales, 1956
Reproduced from the original
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

AT LE PERREUX

London, 14 May 1889

My dear Laura,

Could not your people in Paris, now that things are mending and going on swimmingly, look with a little less morosity upon what we are trying to do in order to help them? Nobody has asked them to enter into polemics with the Star, nor write long refutations. But supposing Vaillant wrote to the Star: 'In your No.- you assert, on the strength of Possibilist assertions made to you, that I... (did so and so, Star, May 7th).[1] I have not the time nor you the space to refute in detail such rubbish. I merely ask you to allow me to state, in your next issue, that this is an infamous calumny' (or something of the sort).

And supposing the Treasurer, Chairman, or Secretary of Boulé's Committee[2] wrote: 'In your issue etc. you say that Boulé's election was supported by Boulangist money. As Chairman (or whatever he was) of Boulé's Committee, I know where the very small amount of money we could dispose of, has come from—all from working men's subscriptions. I therefore declare the above assertion which was made to you by Possibilists, to be an infamous lie' etc.

And so a few more by different people. That would strengthen our hands with the Star very much.

Especially at this moment. This morning's Star has Paul's invitation[3] —I am afraid, put in in order to give him[4] an excuse not to put in the official Convocation with all the signatures. Still, Bernstein shall try him again with that (copy enclosed) in a day or two. And Edward and Bonnier saw him this morning, when he promised to put in a letter of Bonnier's tomorrow[5] , and asked Bonnier to dinner for next Monday when Bonnier must try and work him. You see the iron is still a little hot and may be welded if only we could be supported by a few blows from Paris. If we do not strike now, it will be too late soon.

You say the Paris Committee[6] will work by its numerous proclamations and that is better than letters to the Editor. Most certainly; but the letters to the Editor are wanted exactly for the purpose of getting him to insert the proclamations when they come. What use will be all the proclamations here when we cannot get them into any paper except the Labour Elector, which does perhaps more harm than good if it is the only paper to notice them?

As part of the conversation with Massingham was carried on in English, not understood by Bonnier, I do not yet know all that happened. Anyhow I hope you will see that our plan of campaign—to maintain the position we had from the beginning and to keep the Star open for communications from our side—was the only one possible, and not quite so absurd as our Paris friends seem to think. We know that at the Star office great weight is laid upon such bombardments with letters from the outside public, and in this case it is the more important as you know yourself that Possibilists, Smith Headingly and Hyndman all'unisono shout into Massingham's ears that the whole affair is a personal affair of the Marx family and nothing else.

I have written to Bebel[7] to write to Danes and Austrians to hurry on with their signatures, and through the Danes, work on the Swedes and Norwegians, and also I have consoled him about his fear of not getting lodgings and meals in Paris at the impending festive time. Bebel never having seen anything bigger than Berlin (for here he was only a few days and under good protection) is a little kleinstädtisch[8] in these matters. The sooner the circular with all the signatures appears, the better; that will tell best with people here.

I am sure your people in Paris have every reason to be content. They have got what they wanted, and there is plenty of time left for everything. Why then should they be so anxious to take revenge on friend and foe alike, look glum at every proposal made to them, try to find out difficulties where there are none and grumble like John Bulls? Surely tout le gaîté française ne s'est pas évanouie[9] —let them become French again, the road to victory is open before them; it is we here that have suffered defeat but this is not the decisive position and as you see we keep fighting on as well as we can.

Ever yours

F.E.

  1. ↑ See this volume, p.313
  2. ↑ In the by-election scheduled for 27 January 1889 in Paris (see notes 328, 329), the following candidacies were nominated: Georges Boulanger - from the Right-wing groups, Edouard Jacques - from the Republican Party (this candidature received support from the Possibilists as well), and the labourer Boule - from the Workers Party (see note 33) and the Blanquists. In a bitter electoral struggle, General Boulanger received about 250,000 votes, Boule 7,000 votes.
  3. ↑ On 14 May 1889, the newspaper The Star, in the section The People's Post Box carried An Invitation, signed by P. Lafargue, and containing a precis of the circular in connection with the convocation of an International Working Men's Congress in Paris (see note 414).
  4. ↑ Henry William Massingham, the Editor of the Star
  5. ↑ Ch. Bonnier, 'The Paris Congress', The Star, No. 40, 15 May 1889
  6. ↑ A reference to the Organising Committee for the Convocation of an International Working Men's Congress. Set up in Paris on the eve of 1889, it included representatives of the Syndicates Federation (Boule, Besset, Feline, Monceau, Roussel), of a group of socialists - members of the Paris Municipal Council (Longuet, Vaillant, etc.) and of a socialist group from the Chamber of Deputies (Ferroul, Planteau). Paul Lafargue and Besset became its secretaries.
  7. ↑ The whereabouts of this letter of Engels is not known.
  8. ↑ provincial
  9. ↑ not all French gaiety has vanished