ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 30 September 1868
Dear Moor,
Once you have entered into contact with Schweitzer in your capacity as Secretary FOR GERMANY,[1] I do not see how you could do anything except observe complete neutrality between him and Wilhelmchen—at least in official conduct. As far as I know, the Lassalleans accepted your programme in Hamburg,[2] so more cannot be expected. One must simply leave it to Schweitzer to destroy himself; if we ourselves were in Germany, things would be different.
Even from the previous Social-Demokrat I saw that he wanted to transfer his 'tight organisation' to the TRADES UNIONS[3] ; now we have to wait and see whether he succeeds, which I do not believe. TRADES BUSINESS is money business, and there dictatorship ends of itself. And the substitution won't work as easily as the bonhomme[4] [5] believes.
The COUNCIL can and may only take sides when it is itself attacked directly or indirectly, or when the principles of the Association are infringed. This is precisely how it acted at the time with regard to the Parisians.[6]
Moreover, what is Wilhelmchen's organisation[7] so far, what has been the effect of the Nuremberg decision? Have societies really affiliated, paid subscriptions, etc.? I know nothing about it. And what does Wilhelm want to do in relation to Schweitzer's STRIKE organisation?[8] What else does he want to organise? All this is still very unclear to me.
Furthermore: What practical effect would it have if you and the General Council issued a declaration against the Lassalleans? I believe very little, at most the sect as such would stick together the more firmly. And what can they be reproached with? That they do not follow W. Liebknecht? As long as the fellows have trust in Schweitzer, and as long as Liebknecht and Schweitzer squabble, all sermonising about unity is sheer folly.
To attack the Lassalle stuff in literary form is quite another matter. But to proscribe him, so to speak, would only consolidate a sect which is otherwise in disintegration.
I suggest you also find occasion to give Schweitzer a piece of your mind concerning his dictatorial ambitions, if you write to him at all. After all, he wanted to send you the drafts first.[9]
Apropos. The letter from Eichhoff[10] was not enclosed.
Vogt. I could not write to you about this since Schorlemmer was in the LAKES, and I myself naturally asked no questions. So far, I only heard yesterday that the lecture did not cover the expenses, that Vogt, though he has always given the same lecture for the past year, nevertheless spoke very stumblingly and sloppily, often repeated himself, etc. After the lecture some people sat with him in the dining room, where the good Vogt was, however, so pressed with questions about the monkey trial by the Unitarian preacher Steinthal (brother of Weerth's[11] ), by Kalisch, an old boring language teacher, and by yet another fellow, that he was absolutely overwhelmed and sneaked off at the first opportunity. He is said to have felt altogether very uneasy and uncomfortable here, while in Bradford he was very feted and buoyant. He made a few remarks to Davisson which caused the latter to note afterwards that he must be quite a nasty fellow, capable of anything. I shall be hearing more. In any case, he will not come here again.
Your
F. E.
You will probably be hearing from Borkheim shortly, otherwise from me in re nervi rerum.[12]
- ↑ See this volume, p. 76.
- ↑ The General Association of German Workers—a political organisation of German workers founded in Leipzig on 23 May 1863, at a meeting of workers' societies. Its foundation was an important step in the advancement of an independent nation-wide working-class movement in Germany and promoted the workers' emancipation from the ideological domination of the liberal bourgeoisie. However, Lassalle, who had been elected chairman, and his followers chose to direct the Association's activities along reformist lines, restricting it to a public campaign for universal suffrage. One of the items on the programme was the establishment of production cooperatives financed by the state, which were expected to resolve social contradictions. The Lassallean leadership of the Association supported the Prussian government's policy of the unification of Germany from above, through dynastic wars.
Thanks to the experience of the working-class movement, and especially the International, and supported by Marx and Engels, the more advanced section of the Association began to drift away from the Lassallean dogmas. The Lassallean leaders, who were afraid to lose their influence among the workers, were forced to manoeuvre. The programme of the Hamburg Congress of the Association (which in its final version appeared in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 98, 21 August 1868) contained points that went against Lassalle's doctrine, i.e., advocated complete political freedom, positively assessed Marx's Capital, and urged the international cooperation of the working class. In the letter 'To the President and Executive Committee of the General Association of German Workers" (see present edition, Vol. 21), a reply to the invitation which had been extended to him, Marx gave his opinion of the programme and, as he remarked in a letter to Engels of 26 August, congratulated the members of the Association on 'having abandoned Lassalle's programme (see this volume, p. 90).
The Hamburg Congress (22-26 August 1868) adopted important decisions: it approved the strike movement in principle, unanimously acknowledged that 'Marx had rendered outstanding services to the working class with his work Capital, and pointed to the necessity for joint action by the workers of different countries. In fact, however, the Lassallean leaders continued to oppose its affiliation with the International and adhered to their former standpoint.
At the Gotha Congress (May 1875), the General Association of German Workers merged with the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party (the Eisenachers) founded in 1869 and headed by August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. The united party assumed the name of the Socialist Workers' Party.
- ↑ Engels presumably means the article 'Zum Allgemeinen deutschen Arbeiter Congress. Berlin, 24. September' in Der Social Demokrat, No. 112, 25 September 1868.
- ↑ good man
- ↑ F. Engels, 'On the Dissolution of the Lassallean Workers' Association'.
- ↑ A reference to the conflict in the Paris Section of the International which was discussed at the General Council sittings on 24 January, 7, 21 and 28 February, and 7 and 14 March 1865. This was the first occasion when the General Council acted as arbiter in a section's internal affairs.
The Paris Section, which was founded at a meeting held on 28 September 1864 at St. Martin's Hall, where the International had been inaugurated, began its work in late December 1864. It was headed by an Administration comprising three correspondents approved in London, Proudhonist workers Henri Tolain, Fribourg and Charles Limousin. Alongside with Tolain's group, a lawyer and bourgeois republican Henri Lefort also claimed to be a founder and leader of the International Working Men's Association in France. Lefort's followers accused Tolain and other members of the Paris Administration of being in contact with the Bonapartists (Marx and Engels exposed this insinuation in the statement to Der Social-Demokrat, see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 36). Nevertheless, wishing to draw into the International the workers grouped around Lefort and trying to reduce his influence on them, Marx supported the Central Council resolution of 7 February 1865 on Lefort's appointment as 'Counsel for the literary defence' of the International in France. Those present at the meeting of the Paris Section, however, lodged a protest against this decision, and sent Tolain and Fribourg to London on 28 February to speak on this point at the Central Council meeting. The Council referred the problem to the Standing Committee, which discussed it on 4 and 6 March. Marx proposed a draft resolution which actually annulled the previously adopted decision on Lefort's appointment. This resolution has survived in his notebook (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 330). When Marx drew it up, he tried to protect the French organisation of the International from attacks by bourgeois elements and to strengthen the leadership of the Paris Section by bringing in revolutionary proletarians. The draft formed the basis for the Central Council resolution on this issue which was passed on 7 March 1865 (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 82).
- ↑ Engels is referring to the Union of German Workers' Associations, which was set up at the workers' educational societies' congress in Frankfurt am Main on 7 June 1863, in opposition to the Lassallean General Association of German Workers (see Note 104). Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel were actively involved in its activities, heading the workers' movement for a revolutionary and democratic way of Germany's unification and against the influence of the liberal bourgeoisie, which was quite strong in the first years of the Union's existence. At the Nuremberg Congress (see Note 135), it in fact affiliated itself with the International. Later, the Union was instrumental in the formation, at the Eisenach Congress of 1869, of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (see Note 373).
- ↑ A reference to the general congress of the General Association of German Workers convened by Schweitzer and Fritzsche on 26-29 September 1868 in Berlin with the permission of the Hamburg Congress of the Lassallean Association to discuss the establishment of trade unions (see Note 104). Represented at the congress were mostly workers from North German towns. The workers' societies comprising the Nuremberg organisation headed by Bebel and Liebknecht were refused permission to send their members to the congress. As a result the Berlin congress promoted the foundation of a number of unions built after the pattern of the sectarian Lassallean Association and brought them together in a single general union. Schweitzer became president, while the most prominent members of the General Association of German Workers headed the individual, and for the most part newly-established, unions. Marx sharply criticised Schweitzer for such an organisation of the congress, which brought about a split in the German trade unions (see this volume, pp. 134, 135), and for the adoption of the Statutes, which went completely against the goals and nature of the trade-union movement.
- ↑ In a letter of 15 September 1868, Schweitzer wrote to Marx: 'I consider you to be the head of the European working-class movement — not only through democratic election but by the will of God. You can also be assured that I will promote your intentions as best I can. Of course no prestige is great enough to prevent one, under certain circumstances, from adhering to one's own opinion. I believe, however, that conflict does not arise easily. When it appeared to me that you were not right, subsequent consideration showed me, at least until now, that I was mistaken myself. Yet I cannot find much in common with your followers—at least with some of them.
'...I intend to get you the Statutes which we want to propose to the organisation at the congress after they have been discussed by a limited number of persons, so that before the congress has started you will have a chance to note the points which may not tally with the spirit of the [congress's] organisation, although this shouldn't occur.
'It may happen that it will be too late to send the Statutes to you; however, I shall try to make the dispatch possible.'
- ↑ A reference to Eichhoff's letter to Marx of 27 September 1868.
- ↑ The brother of Weerth's principal is meant.
- ↑ with regard to vital (here: money) matters