Letter to Johann Philipp Becker, March 24, 1877

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 24 March 1877


First published in: F. Engels, Vergessene Briefe (Briefe Friedrich Engels' an Johann Philipp Becker), Berlin, 1920
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO JOHANN PHILIPP BECKER

IN GENEVA

London, 24 March 1877

122 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

My dear old Friend,

I am sending you herewith a money-order for 50 fr. and, I think, 20 centimes and would ask you to send me in return two copies of the Geschichte der süddeutschen Mairevolution[1] and, if you can, the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne for 1876. If you can send it through a bookseller, give him the parcel addressed: F. E. care of F. Wohlauer, St. Paul's Buildings, Paternoster Row, London; in which case it will cost very little. Marx and I would like you to use the rest of the money as an additional contribution to the Précurseur.

In No. 32 of the Vorwärts there is an article of mine, 'From Italy',[2] from which you will have seen that the empire of Messieurs les Bakuninists is in a truly splendid state of disintegration. The people on the Plebe deserve every support and would certainly be glad to make a reciprocal arrangement with the Précurseur. The paper's address is La Plebe, Via Carlo Alberto No. 1, Milan. The editor is called Enrico Bignami and he has maintained correspon- dence with me for years, which only became dormant when the Bakuninists' dictatorship was at its fiercest in Italy. Even Mr Malon has defected and he, after all, was one of the first seventeen International Brethren and founders of the Alliance[3] ; one by one they are foreswearing their allegiance to the luckless Guillaume. World government is not exactly everybody's cup of tea and, as for these gentlemen's future congresses, there's every likelihood that the goings-on there will be even wilder than at The Hague.[4] Our policy of mercilessly unmasking these people and then letting them rip has been gloriously vindicated. What with Belgium's turning her back on them, the defection of the last remnant in Italy, and the lamentable role they play in Switzerland (the annual shindy in Berne with the obligatory free-for-all), they have nothing left save the minuscule Spanish Alliance which only

keeps going because they have virtually no public outlet there and double-dealings are more easily conducted in the dark.

Your little piece in the Neue Welt amused me greatly.[5] You ought to write a sequel; it's good for the young to be reminded about the earlier movements, otherwise they imagine that they are indebted to no one but themselves.

Your old friend,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ J. Ph. Becker und Ch. Essellen, Geschichte der süddeutschen Mai Revolution des Jahres 1849.
  2. ↑ See present edition, Vol. 24.
  3. ↑ In 1864, Mikhail Bakunin set up the secret anarchist Alliance de la démocratie sociale in Florence. Later, Frenchmen, Poles and others also became its members. The International Brethren formed the kernel of the Alliance, its 'élite'. In 1868, this secret organisation founded the semi-legal Bakuninist Alliance de la démocratie socialiste (see Note 201).
  4. ↑ The Hague Congress (2-7 September 1872) of the International Working Men's Association was the most representative in its history. Present at the congress were 65 delegates from 15 countries. It took stock of the campaign against Bakuninism within the International and mapped out a programme of action suited to the new conditions that had emerged after the Paris Commune. Its main decision was to endorse the London Conference (1871) resolution on the political action of the working class concisely formulated as Art. 7 of the International's Rules. The congress also reached a number of decisions aimed at consolidating the Association's organisational structure.
    After the congress, the Bakuninists declared their disagreement with its resolutions, causing what amounted to a split in the International. The Hague Congress laid the foundation for future political parties of the working class in various countries.
  5. ↑ J. Ph. Becker, 'Abgerissene Bilder aus meinem Leben'.