| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 14 August 1894 |
ENGELS TO EDUARD BERNSTEIN
IN BROADSTAIRS
Eastbourne, 14 August 1894
4 Royal Parade
Dear Ede,
We are safely installed here and up till now, i.e. since 2.30, have been very pleased also with the way they have looked after us. Let's hope it will so continue. 393
I shall be interested to hear whether and how Liebknecht has reacted to your promptings on the subject of Arndt. The matter ought not to be passed over in silence like this. We had better wait and see what transpires. A man who behaved as he did at Zurich has no place on the Vorwärts. 394
I have returned your textile worker.[1] Dogmatism. If one wants to base oneself on that sort of dogma, one ought to secure one's allies in advance, otherwise one is likely to make an ass of oneself. 395
As to the Social Democratic Federation 44 and its special congress, I have already advised Spain[2] of the matter and shall do the same in the case of Italy and Paris, but am asking the chaps not to make too much fuss about it for the time being. For either the Social Democratic Federation issues a circular to justify the resolution and get its own brand of agitation going or we scotch the whole thing simply by means of statements in the Continental press to the effect that not a single delegate would be sent to such a congress. If, however, the circular does appear, there will be official discussions about it on all sides and that would be far preferable.
The Social Democratic Federation must have got wind of the Parliamentary Committee's 28 S061 proposal (long bruited about) to change the 1896 Congress 392 into a TRADES UNION congress and to take the requisite steps to that end in Norwich. 396 Hence they obviously wanted to be first in the field. These little schemes might well result in the Continentals saying: Neither of the two congresses is the one you ought to convoke and, since you don't want to convoke the latter, we'll simply go somewhere else and leave you to settle your squabbles between you.
It is inconceivably stupid of the Social Democratic Federation to have passed at the same time the resolution in regard to the Independent Labour Party 114 candidates, whether Socialists or not. It's the old story: either you are a Socialist, in which case you belong to the Social Democratic Federation or else you are unwilling to join the Social Democratic Federation, in which case you are no Socialist. But what seems to have entirely escaped their minds is the fact that these two resolutions, set side by side, would be bound to make the Continentals feel disinclined to have anything to do with the Social Democratic Federation's congress.
All this, incidentally, has left me comparatively unmoved. Between now and the congress all kinds of water will flow down the Thames and neither the quantity nor the quality of that water can possibly be predicated today.
I am writing to August too about all these things, incl. Arndt. Warm regards to Gine, Ernst, Käte[3] and you yourself from Louise, Ludwig and
Yours,
F.E.
Are the Mendelsons also in Broadstairs?