Letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, March 8, 1872

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 8 March 1872


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
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE

IN HOBOKEN

[London,] 8 March 1872
33 Rathbone Place, W.C.[1]

Dear Sorge,

Have only received today the German Rules[2] sent by Liebknecht and they cannot be sent off until Monday[3] Over there people seem to imagine that the General Council just conjures up everything out of a hat, whereas the contrary is the case: without the private contributions of its members and their personal friends, absolutely nothing could be done. I notice the same comments in letters from Speyer, Boite and yourself, as I do in correspondence from other countries. Every country believes that our entire time can be devoted to it alone. If we wanted to grumble about every single detail, we could, e.g., complain that your REPORTS to us appear simultaneously in the Volksstaat.

Since I was commissioned by the General Council at long last to report on the SPLIT in America[4] (the matter had had to be postponed from one meeting to the next on account of the chaos within the International in Europe)—I have carefully gone through all the correspondence from New York together with everything that appeared in the papers and have discovered that we were by no means duly informed in time about the elements that brought about the breach. A portion of the resolutions I have proposed[5] has already been accepted, the rest will be passed next Tuesday[6] and the final judgment will then be sent off to New York.

You will receive 1,000 copies of the German Rules. Hales will send 500 in English. I am sending 200 French ones, which have all been ordered.

Eccarius says that the things were sent to Gregory[7] (his private correspondent) because you had written to him that you were resigning from office but had not named a new correspondent.

The complaint about the French having their 'own' correspondent is quite unjust,[8] since the Germans also had one of their own and Eccarius, the SECRETARY for the UNITED STATES, can certainly deal with correspondence in German and English, but not in French. Moreover, the complaint was politically ill-advised, since it seemed to justify the view of the French members of the COUNCIL that Section I aspired to dictatorial authority over the other sections.[9] It arrived here at the same time as the complaint from the COUNTER-COMMITTEE that Section I was represented on the old committee in numbers exceeding those stipulated by the Rules.

The cost of the Rules was higher for the COUNTER-COMMITTEE because import duties had to be paid (at least, that is what they maintain).

I hope that your committee will be satisfied with the decision of the COUNCIL. We are having a pamphlet against the DISSENTERS[10] printed in Geneva, which will be almost as big as the one on the CIVIL WAR. In the meantime the dissenters have drawn in their horns in their last circular, so as to dull the polemic.[11]

IN ALL HASTE.

Yours,

K. Marx

  1. ↑ The letter was written on a letterhead of the General Council bearing its previous address, 256 High Holborn, London, W.C. Marx crossed it out and wrote in the new address, 33 Rathbone Place, W.C.
  2. ↑ K. Marx, Allgemeine Statuten und Verwaltungs Verordnungen der Internationalen Arbeiterassoziation.
  3. ↑ 11 March
  4. ↑ A reference to the split in the Central Committee of the International Working Men's Association for North America, which occurred in December 1871.
    After the London Conference of 1871 strife flared up within the Committee between the proletarian and the bourgeois-reformist elements. As a result of the split two committees were formed, the Provisional Federal Council (Committee No. I), which comprised representatives of the 14 sections adhering to the proletarian stand (Friedrich Adolph Sorge, Friedrich Boite, etc.), and the separatist council (Committee No. II), headed by Victoria Woodhull and other bourgeois reformists belonging to Section No. 12. At its meetings of 5 and 12 March the General Council voiced its support for the proletarian wing of the North American Federation; Section No. 12 was suspended from the International pending the next Congress. On 28 May 1872 the General Council declared the Provisional Federal Council the sole leading body of the North American sections. The congress of the North American Federation held in July 1872 elected the standing Federal Council which included all members of the provisional body (see Engels' 'The International in America' and Marx's 'American Split', present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 177-83, 636-43).
  5. ↑ K. Marx, 'Resolutions on the Split in the United States' Federation Passed by the General Council of the I.W.A. in Its Sittings of 5th and 12th March, 1872'.
  6. ↑ 12 March
  7. ↑ At the General Council meeting of 20 February 1872 Johann Georg Eccarius reported that he had sent copies of the General Rules and Administrative Regulations to the address of J. W. Gregory, a member of the International in New York. Following Gregory's death in January 1872 the International's documents fell into the hands of petty-bourgeois elements in sections Nos. 12 and 9.
  8. ↑ The Provisional Federal Council of the International Working Men's Association for North America protested against the appointment by the General Council of a special secretary for the French sections in the USA. In a letter to Marx of 8 March 1872 Sorge wrote that the protest originated from the Irish members of the International.
  9. ↑ A reference to German Section No. 1 in New York, which was the oldest section of the International in the USA, and originated from a Communist Club set up in 1857 by German revolutionary émigrés. The nucleus of this club consisted of former members of the Communist League and Marx's associates. Its members played a leading role in the New York General Association of German Workers, which propagated Marxism. In December 1869 the General Association of German Workers affiliated to the International and took the name of Section No. 1. The Section engaged in an active struggle against bourgeois reformers.
  10. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, Fictitious Splits in the International
  11. ↑ Probably a reference to the letter sent by the Committee of the Jura Federation to the Belgian Federal Council on 7 February 1872, which reported on the decision of the Committee to renounce its demand for an immediate Congress of the International.