Letter to Paul Lafargue, March 23, 1871

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 23 March 1871


First published, in the languages of the original (English and French), in Annali, an. 1, Milan, 1958
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO PAUL LAFARGUE

IN BORDEAUX

London, 23 March 1871

Dear Paul,

I enclose Serraillier's declaration in the Courrier de l'Europe, 18 March, 1871—(this French paper is published at London) in regard to the impudent mystification of the Paris-Journal of March 14, of which you are probably aware.[1]

The following is published in The Times of 22nd March 1871 under the title ' The International Association':

'M. Karl Marx asks us to contradict the statement contained in a letter published by us on the 16th of March, from our Paris correspondent, that

"Karl Marx has written a letter to one of his principal affiliés in Paris, stating that he is not satisfied with the attitude which the members of that society have taken up in that city, that they violate the Statutes of the Association in dabbling in politics, that they disorganise labour instead of organising it, etc."

'M. Karl Marx says this statement has evidently been taken from the Paris-Journal of the 14th of March, where also the publication in full of the pretended letter is promised, and that the Paris-Journal of the 19th of March contains a letter dated London, February 28, 1871, purporting to be signed by him, which letter M. Marx declares is from beginning to end an impudent forgery.'"[2]

I come now to the second trick of that dirty Parisian reactionary press. When we were informed of the pretended exclusion of the German Internationals by the Paris 'Internationals', we wrote to the frères et amis at Paris, who replied that this story was nothing but an invention of the Paris press scum. Meanwhile, the false news spread like wildfire through the London press which indulged in long leaders upon that pleasant event proving at the same time the decomposition of the International and the incorrigible perversion of the Paris workmen.

In to-day's Times (23 March, 1871) the following declaration of the General Council is published:

The Anti-German League[3] of Paris
To the Editor of "The Times"

'Sir,

'A statement has gone the round of the English press that the Paris members of the International Working Men's Association had in so far joined the so-called Anti-German League as to declare all Germans to be henceforth excluded from our association.

'This statement is the very reverse of fact. Neither the Federal Council of our association in Paris, nor any of the Paris sections represented by that council, have ever passed any such resolution. The so-called Anti-German League, as far as it exists at all, is the exclusive work of the upper and middle classes; it was started by the Jockey Club,[4] and kept up by the adhesions of the Academy, of the Stock Exchange, of some bankers and manufacturers, etc. The working classes have nothing whatever to do with it.

'The object of these calumnies is evident. A short time before the outbreak of the late war the International was made the general scapegoat for all untoward events. This is now repeated over again. While the Swiss and Prussian press accuse it of having created the late outrage upon Germans in Zurich,[5] French papers, such as the Courrier de Lyon, Le Courrier de la Gironde, La Liberté, etc., tell of certain secret meetings of Internationals having been held at Geneva and Bern, the Prussian ambassador in the chair, in which meetings a plan was concocted to hand over Lyons to the united Prussians and Internationals for the sake of common plunder.[6]

'By order of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association

'J. G. Eccarius,
General Secretary' London, March 22

I have to-day still so many letters to write that I must shut up. Tell Laura that I was greatly delighted with her letter.

Yours,

K. Marx[7]

Your letter to Jenny has just arrived. It is not my youthful ardour, as you believe, but manifestoes published by the Federal Council of Paris during the war and communicated to us officially, that made the GENERAL COUNCIL believe in the possibility of such a foolish thing as the exclusion of the German Internationals by the Parisian Internationals! I have today sent to the Volksstaat in Leipzig (Liebknecht's newspaper) and the Zukunft in Berlin (Dr Jacoby's organ) a statement on the fantasies of the Paris-Journal and the alleged exclusion of the German Internationals by the Parisians, which has caused a great commotion in the German bonne presse. I concluded this statement with the words:

'It is quite natural that the important dignitaries and the ruling classes of the old society who can only maintain their own power and the exploitation of the productive masses by national conflicts and antagonisms, recognise their common adversary in the International Working Men's Association.'[8]

  1. ↑ This letter by Marx has not been found.
  2. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'To the Editor of The Times'.
  3. ↑ The French newspaper Paris-Journal, in issue No. 71, 14 March 1871, carried an article, 'Le Grand Chef de l'Internationale', alleging that it had in its possession a letter from Marx to Auguste Serraillier testifying to strife between the French and German members of the International; on 19 March this forged letter attributed to Marx was published in the newspaper. The slanderous statement was reprinted in bourgeois newspapers of various countries, including The Times. The attempts by the Paris-Journal to split the French and German members of the International were exposed by Marx at the General Council meeting of 21 March 1871 and also in a letter Engels wrote at his request to The Times (for the Times version of this letter see present edition, Vol. 22, p. 285). In addition, at Marx's request Serraillier wrote a letter on 16 March 1871 exposing the slander of the Paris-Journal (a clipping from the Courrier de l'Europe with the text of Serraillier's letter was enclosed by Marx with his letter to Paul Lafargue).
    At its meeting of 21 March 1871 the General Council exposed another provocative invention of the French reactionary press—the alleged expulsion of persons of German nationality from the Paris sections of the International.
  4. ↑ In the first half of March 1871, the French bourgeois papers, notably the Paris-Journal and the Gaulois, actively campaigned for the foundation of a so-called Anti-German League.—122 The Jockey Club—an aristocratic club founded in Paris in 1833.
  5. ↑ A meeting of Germans belonging to the propertied classes was held in Zurich in March 1871 to celebrate Germany's victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The meeting was the scene of a clash between a group of French officers interned in Switzerland and the Germans. The reactionary press tried to put the blame on the International. The Swiss section of the International exposed the slander in a special statement.
  6. ↑ K. Marx, 'Statement by the General Council to the Editor of The Times and Other Papers'.
  7. ↑ Thus far Marx wrote in English. The rest of the letter is in French.
  8. ↑ K. Marx, 'To the Editorial Boards of the Volksstaat and the Zukunft'.