Letter to Paul Lafargue, November 25, 1871

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 25 November 1871


First published, in the language of the original (French), in Annali, an. 1, Milan, 1959
Published in English for the first time in: Frederick Engels, Paul and Laura Lafargue, Correspondence, Vol. III: 1891-1895, Moscow, 1963
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE[1]

IN SAN SEBASTIAN

[London, 25 November 1871]

My dear Toole,[2]

Thank you for your letter of which I made good use on the Council. My ultimatum to the Federal Council in Madrid[3] goes off today, by registered mail; I tell them that, if they persist in their silence, debuemos procéder como nos la dictarâ el interés de la InternacionaU[4] If they fail to reply, or do so in an unsatisfactory manner, we shall at once appoint you plenipotentiary for the whole of Spain. In the meantime, our Rules confer on you, as on any other member, the right to form new sections. It is important that, in the event of a split, we should continue to have a pied-à-terre in Spain, even if the whole of the present organisation were to go over, lock, stock and barrel, to the Bakuninist camp; and you will be the only person we shall then be able to count upon. So do what you can to resume communications everywhere with the men who might be of use to us in such an event. These Bakuninists are absolutely determined to transform the Interna- tional into an abstentionist society, but they are not going to succeed.

La Federaciôn of Barcelona and La Emancipacian of Madrid arrive here only at very irregular intervals, so that I cannot know whether the intrigue has not already begun to betray its presence in these journals. But they have always preached abstention, which probably seems to them a question of far greater import than economic questions. So that's where they end up with their abstention from politics; they themselves turn politics into the most important factor!

Please convey my kind salutations to Laura, and give little Schnaps[5] a kiss from me.

Yours ever,

F. E.

  1. ↑ This letter by Engels to Lafargue is a postscript to Marx's letter to Laura and Paul Lafargue of 24-25 November 1871.
  2. ↑ Paul Lafargue's nickname
  3. ↑ F. Engels, 'To the Federal Council of the Spanish Region in Madrid'.
  4. ↑ We shall have to take such steps as the interests of the International dictate.
  5. ↑ Charles Etienne Lafargue