Letter to Theodor Cuno, August 4, 1872

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 4 August 1872


First published in Die Gesellschaft, No. 11, Berlin, 1925
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO THEODOR CUNO

IN LIÈGE

London, 4 August 1872

Dear Cuno,

The Belgian Federal Council could not have done us a greater favour than by taking action against the German section in Verviers.[1] By doing that it shows how necessary it is to have a General Council in order to defend the autonomy of the sections against the Federal Councils. The Belgian Federal Council, how- ever, cannot exclude the German section from the International, but only from the Belgian Federation:

'Administrative Regulations Section IV: Federal Councils or Committees, Article 4. Any Federation may refuse to admit or may exclude from its midst societies or branches. It is, however, not empowered to deprive them of their International character.'[2]

Thus as an independent section, the German section in Verviers has, under Art. 7 of the General Rules (end of the Article), the

right to correspond directly with the General Council. Please draw their attention to this fact and urge them to write to us; up to now nothing has arrived here.

Has Schlehbach in Verviers received my letter[3] and why does he not reply?

I am sending you an issue of the Emancipaciôn and a circular in Spanish by Lafargue (Marx's son-in-law)[4] and would like you to study it carefully. You will see from it what was at stake for Bakunin: a secret society within the International to gain control of the latter. Fortunately, the plan has now come to light and just in time. This business will break Bakunin's neck. The General Council will issue an Address devoted to it on Tuesday,[5] also indicting the Spanish Federal Council, which has 5 members of the Alliance sitting on it.[6]

In all haste—I have to edit this Address and have a terrible amount of other work for the International in preparation for the Congress.[7]

Yours,

F. E.

Tell Herman that I have looked around for work for him, but have not come up with anything yet. There is no point in going to Jackson & Sons after my last experiences there in February. Tell Herman to write to his friend Prigneaux here: he is the right man.

  1. ↑ In discussing the draft Rules drawn up by the Belgian Federal Council (see Note 524), the members of the German section of the International in Verviers voiced their firm support of the General Council. In response, as Cuno wrote to Engels on 26 July 1872, the Bakuninist majority on the Belgian Federal Council tried to blacken the character of one of the section's members and demanded that he be expelled from the International. The section in question having refused to comply, it was expelled from the Belgian Federation by the Federal Council.
  2. ↑ See present edition, Vol. 23, p. 12. Engels quotes in French; the italics by him.
  3. ↑ See this volume, p. 407.
  4. ↑ P. Lafargue, A los internacionales de la region espanola.
  5. ↑ 6 August
  6. ↑ The reference is to the address entitled 'The General Council to All the Members of the International Working Men's Association' (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 205-10), drafted by Engels on the instructions of the Sub- Committee (see Note 435). At the General Council meeting of 6 August 1872 the draft provoked a lively discussion, with some of the Council's members op posing publication of the address pending an investigation into the Alliance's activities. The draft proposed by Engels was accepted by a majority vote.
    The document has survived in Engels' handwriting in English and in French. It did not appear in Der Volksstaat.
  7. ↑ On 11 June 1872, on Marx's suggestion, the General Council resolved to convene a regular Congress in Holland on 2 September 1872 and decided on the principal item on the agenda, the consolidation of the International's organisation (revision of the General Rules and Administrative Regulations). At its next meeting on 18 June the Council decided on The Hague as the venue for the Congress and appointed a special commission (Engels, Edouard Vaillant, Joseph MacDonnel) to prepare an official announcement of the forthcoming Congress. The announcement was written by Engels and despatched to The International Herald, which published it on 29 June 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 170-73).—325, 366, 372, 374, 376, 392, 396, 398, 401, 404, 407, 409, 411-13, 415, 417, 418, 422, 425, 426