| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 7 May 1872 |
ENGELS TO THEODOR CUNO
IN SERAING
[London,] 7[-8] May 1872
Dear Cuno,
It is very good that you are writing to Bismarck about your case—this should be done, if only to induce him to compromise himself and thus afford Bebel an occasion to address the Reichstag.—By now you will have received The Eastern Post with the report on the General Council meeting at which I talked about your case[1] ; I sent that issue off on the 2nd inst. You have probably also received the newspapers sent you on 24 and 27 April. I also reported on the arson plot, but this is very badly stated in the report, which I am sending you tomorrow, as is usually the case when I don't write these things myself.[2]
I have written off to a friend in Manchester on your behalf, a cotton-spinner who will certainly do his best for you. Unfortunately, he only spends 2 days a week in Manchester now as, for the next 4 weeks or so, he has to spend the rest of his time in his father's factory in the country. He will therefore not be able to do very much for you until he has returned for good. And as misfortune would have it, another friend, a CONSULTING ENGINEER who has a lot of connections, happens to have just left for a two-month trip to Germany. So if I have nothing positive to tell you at the moment, you must put it down to these circumstances.
The secret society of the Bakuninists in Spain is a fully established fact; you will be able to read the details in the report (the second one) on the Saragossa Congress in the Brussels Liberté, which you will probably find in the Volksstaat in the next few days.[3] Luckily enough, the best of the people in it soon realised that the interests of this secret enterprise and the interests of the International were not at all identical, and as the International was dearer to them than everything else, they immediately shifted their stand and remained in the secret society solely in order to check on it and to paralyse its activity. One of them[4] was here as a delegate to the Conference[5] and saw for himself that everything they had told him down there about the intrigues, dictatorship, etc., of the General Council was empty twaddle. A short time later one of our best men—half Frenchman, half Spaniard[6] —came to Madrid, and this settled the matter. The Spaniards have an excellent organisation, of which they are rightly proud, and, as it happens, it has shown itself in the best light during the past 6 months. And now along come these jackasses from Bakunin's Alliance to the Saragossa Congress[7] and demand that they should kill off the entire organisation and render it impotent simply for the sake of the 'autonomy of the sections'! All the criticism the Jura camels made of the General Council, all the demands which they put to the General Council—the cancellation of all the powers transferred to it, the demotion of the General Council to the level of a mere correspondence bureau—all this was applied in Spain to the Spanish Federal Council. Of course, the Spanish workers simply laughed these doctrinaires out of court and in one voice bid them to be silent. This is the severest blow Bakunin has received up to now—he was undoubtedly counting on Spain—and there cannot fail to be repercussions in Italy.
I do not doubt for an instant that the same secret society exists in Italy, though, perhaps, not in as rigid a form as in formalistic Spain. The best proof of this for me is the almost military precision with which the very same slogan, issued from above, was simultaneously proclaimed in every corner of the country. (Note that these are the very same persons who always preach the principle dal basso all' alto[8] to the people, and to the International!) It is only too easy to understand that you were not initiated, for even among the Bakuninists only the leaders are admitted to this esoteric society. Meanwhile, some individual symptoms of improvement can be observed in Italy. The Ferrarese have acquiesced; they have recognised the Rules and Administrative Regulations and have sent their own Rules here for our approval,[9] something which explicitly goes against the Bakuninist slogan.[10] The damned difficulty in Italy is simply getting into direct contact with the workers. These damned Bakuninist doctrinaire lawyers, doctors, etc., have penetrated everywhere and behave as if they were the hereditary representatives of the workers. Wherever we have been able to break through this line of skirmishers and get in touch with the masses themselves, everything is all right and soon mended, but it is almost impossible to do this anywhere due to a lack of addresses. That is why it would have been of great value for you to have remained in Milan and to have been able to visit various cities from time to time—if not now, then at any rate later on. With one or two able comrades at the key points we should have managed to deal with all this rabble in 6 months or so.
As for the Spanish police, all I can tell you is that apparently they are frightfully stupid and that there is no unity at all among them. For instance, one of our best men in Madrid[11] was ordered to be deported by the Minister of the Interior,[12] but the Governor of Madrid said quod non,[13] and he remained there undisturbed.
8 May. After writing this much I have now received your letter from Seraing. I cannot understand the business with the Prussian police.[14] The police could not do anything at all to you unless you had given them an excuse for legal proceedings, something you will doubtless have taken good care not to do. Could your Papa have staged such a comedy in order to rid himself of an inconvenient son?
At all events, I enclose 50 francs in banknotes, serial numbers below. I have no addresses in Seraing, but shall write at once to César De Paepe, Hôpital St Jean, Brussels (he is a member of the Belgian Federal Council) and ask him to send you some. I shall also write to Alfred Herman, 57 Mont St Martin, Liège (though whether he is still in Liège I do not know). If you do not hear soon from De Paepe, write to him, mentioning my name. If you go to Liège, look Herman up. I enclose a few lines to him,[15] he will be able to give you everything—it is better than my writing to him through the post, he may no longer be there—you are quite close to Liège after all. An unrequested letter opened by the post might betray you.
As for Becker,[16] I shall clear up the somewhat comic mystery in my next letter. Until then,
Sincerely yours,
F. E.
The letter to Herman should only be given to him personally. He also lives with reactionary parents and brothers and sisters.
8 May, evening. As I had to go into town to get the enclosed Banque de France fifty-franc note (dated 11 October 1871, No. 2 648 626, in the upper left corner—626, in the upper right corner—Z 106), and it was too late to send this letter off by registered mail, which had to be done because of the money, I still have time to tell you the story about Becker, which is another instance of what petty intrigues go to make up world history. For a long time old man Becker has retained his own ideas of organisation, dating from the epoch before 1848: little groups, whose leaders keep in touch in a more or less organised way to give the whole movement a common thrust, a little conspiratorial activity on occasion, and the like; and then another idea, likewise dating from that period, is that the central executive organ of the German organisation must be located outside Germany. When the International was founded, and Becker took over the organisation of the Germans in Switzerland and other countries, he established a section in Geneva, which was gradually converted into the 'Mother Section of the Group of German-Language Sections' by organising new sections in Switzerland, Germany, etc. It then began to claim the top leadership, not only of the Germans living in Switzerland, America, France, etc., but also of the Germans in Germany and Austria. This was all the old method of revolutionary agitation employed up to '48, and as long as it was based upon the voluntary subordination of the sections, there could be no objection to it. But there was one thing the good soul Becker forgot: that the entire organisation of the International was too big for such methods and purposes. Becker and his friends, however, accomplished something and always remained direct and avowed sections of the International.
In the meantime the labour movement in Germany was growing, freeing itself from the fetters of Lassalleanism, and, under the leadership of Bebel and Liebknecht, it came out for the International in principle. The movement became too powerful and acquired too much independent significance for it to be able to acknowledge the leadership of the Geneva Mother Section; the German workers held their own congresses and elected their own executive organs. The relationship of the German workers' party to the International never was made clear, however. This relationship remained a purely platonic one; there was no actual membership for individuals (with some exceptions), while the formation of sections was forbidden by law. As a result, the following situation developed in Germany: They claimed the rights of membership, while they brushed aside its obligations, and only after the London Conference did we insist that henceforth they would have to comply with their obligations as well.
Now you will understand that there not only had to arise a certain rivalry between the leaders in Germany, on the one hand, and the Geneva Mother Section, on the other, but that individual conflicts also became unavoidable, especially over the payment of dues. The extent to which the General Council has been authoritarian in this affair, as in every other, you can see from the fact that it has been completely uninterested in the matter and has left both sides entirely to themselves. Each is right in some respects and wrong in others. From the very start Becker has attached great importance to the International, but has wanted to cast it in the long-obsolete mould. Liebknecht, etc., are in the right insofar as the German workers want to rule themselves, and not be controlled by an obscure council in Geneva; but in the last analysis they have sought to subordinate the International to their own, specifically German, aims and to make it serve them. The General Council would intervene solely at the request of both sides or in the event of a serious conflict.
Liebknecht evidently took you to be an agent of Becker's, travelling on behalf of the Geneva Mother Section, and this explains all the mistrust with which it seems he received you. He is also a man of '48 and attaches more importance to such trifles than they deserve. You may be glad that you did not live through this period—I have in mind not the first revolutionary wave from February to the June battle[17] (that was splendid), but the democratic bourgeois intrigues, beginning with June 1848, and the ensuing emigration of 1849-51. At the present time the movement is infinitely greater.
This, I trust, will explain the reception you got in Leipzig. No special importance should be attached to such trifles—they are all things that are overcome by themselves in time. When you meet the Belgian members of the International, you will, perhaps, again be disappointed. Above all, don't entertain too great illusions about these people. They are very good elements, but the cause has, by and large, run along in a worn-out rut, and phrases are more important to them than the cause itself. The big words autonomie and autoritarisme can attract a large audience in Belgium as well. Eh bien, vous verrez pour vous-même.[18]
Yours very truly,
F. E.