Letter to the Editor of La Verité, August 30, 1871

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 30 August 1871


First published in Le Soir, No. 862, September 3, 1871, and in other bourgeois newspapers and also in the newspapers L'Internationale, No. 139, September 10, 1871, Der Volksstaat., No. 74, September 13, 1871, and others
Printed according to the manuscript, verified with the text in Le Soir
Translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 22
Collection(s): Der Volksstaat, L'Internationale, Le Soir

Though not published in La Vérité, this statement was widely circulated. It was published in 1871 in Le Soir, No. 862, September 3, Paris-Journal, No. 236, September 4, Journal des Débats, September 4, La Favilla, No. 210, September 8 and also in the press organs of the International; L'Internationale, No. 139, September 10, Der Volksstaat, No. 74, September 13, II Proletario Italiano, No. 19, September 14, Die Tagwacht, No. 38, September 16 and L'Eguaglianza, No. 10, September 17.

International Working Men's Association

256, High Holborn, London.—W.C.

30 August 1871

Mr. Editor,

Having read in today's Daily News that M. Renaut is attributing to the International a manifesto inviting the French peasants to burn all the châteaux they can, etc.,[1] Mr. John Hales, the General Secretary of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association, immediately sent this telegram to M. L. Bigot, Assi's defence counsel:

"Incendiary proclamation attributed to the International is a fabrication. We are ready to make a sworn affidavit before an English magistrate."

I now hasten to warn the French public through your respected newspaper that all the manifestos printed in Paris in the name of the International since the entry of the French government troops into Paris—that all these manifestos without a single exception are fabrications.[2]

I make this declaration to you not only on my word of honour, but I am ready to give you an affidavit[3] sworn before an English magistrate.

I have reason to believe that these vile creations do not even emanate directly from the police, but from Monsieur B...,[4] an individual attached to one of these Parisian newspapers which The Standard (Tory newspaper) in one of its latest issues describes as organs of the demi-monde.[5]

Yours faithfully,

Karl Marx

  1. ↑ "Trial of the Communist Prisoners", The Daily News, No. 7905, August 30, 1871.— Ed.
  2. ↑ Marx spoke at the meeting of the General Council on July 11, 1871 about the fabrications presented as documents of the International. The report on the meeting and the account of Marx's speech were published in The Eastern Post, No. 146, July 15, 1871.
  3. ↑ Marx gives the English word "the affidavit" in the parentheses after the French one.— Ed
  4. ↑ Most likely, Ch. Bradlaugh.— Ed.
  5. ↑ "Paris, August 18. Evening", The Standard, No. 14681, August 21, 1871.— Ed.