Letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, September 12, 1871

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 12 September 1871


First published in Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Joh. Phil. Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx u. A. an F. A. Sorge und Andere, Stuttgart, 1906
Printed according to the original in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE[1]

IN HOBOKEN

[London,] 12 September 1871

Dear Mr Sorge,

Kindly convey the enclosed letter from our Irish secretary, MacDonnell, to John Devoy.

I had no time to reply to you in greater detail. We are so extremely busy here at the present time that I have been compelled for the past 3 months (and still am) to interrupt some very urgent theoretical work.

I shall merely say in regard to the Rules that the English EDITION is the sole authentic one.[2] The conference[3] will issue authentic versions in English, French and German,[4] which is also necessary because various Congress resolutions relating to the Rules must be incorporated in them.

The CENTRAL COMMITTEE in New York must not forget:

1. That the General Council had contacts in America long before the Committee was established;

2. That, as far as the Address[5] is concerned, it was on sale in London, and hence anybody had the right to send it to his friends in America at his own expense. The first shipment to New York was so small because the first edition was sold out in two days, which is why I did not get the number of copies allotted for my shipments.

3. In Par. 6 of the Rules it is expressly stated that 'NO INDEPENDENT

LOCAL SOCIETY SHALL BE PRECLUDED FROM DIRECTLY CORRESPONDING WITH THE GENERAL COUNCIL', and in Washington, for example, the branch declared that it did not want to enter into contact with New York.[6]

Salut fraternel,

Karl Marx

  1. ↑ This is Marx's reply to Sorge's letter of 8 August 1871. Sorge had informed Marx of the growing conflict in the International's Central Committee for North America with bourgeois reformists who were seeking to establish their influence over the organisations of the International.
    This letter was first published in English in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895, International Publishers, New York, 1953.
  2. ↑ Rules of the International Working Men's Association, London, [1867].
  3. ↑ This refers to the London Conference of the International Working Men's Association held between 17 and 23 September 1871 (see Note 254).
  4. ↑ The London Conference adopted a decision to put out a new authentic edition of the International's Rules and Administrative Regulations in English, French and German (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 3-20). This edition appeared in English as a pamphlet published in London in November 1871. The French edition appeared in December 1871. The official German edition appeared in Der Volksstaat on 10 February 1872, and as a separate publication in Leipzig in 1872.
  5. ↑ K. Marx, The Civil War in France.
  6. ↑ The International's Central Committee for North America proposed that all sections submit to the Committee lists of their members with addresses and occupations. Washington's Section No. 23 responded by declaring that it preferred to maintain direct contact with the International's General Council residing in London rather than with the Central Committee.