Letter to Eduard Bernstein, November 11, 1884

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 11 November 1884


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Book I, Moscow, 1924
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO EDUARD BERNSTEIN

IN ZURICH

London, 11 November 1884

Dear Ede,

The inquiry in your letter about Marx's article on Proudhon[1] has been dealt with in my preface[2] where I made direct reference to it. You must now let me know how you propose to arrange the whole; I may receive the proofs of the preface any day and shall proceed accordingly in regard to the above article, the excerpt from A Contribution to the Critique[3] and possibly the 'Speech'.[4]

You did right to stress in the Sozialdemokrat[5] that we are the only serious opponents of the Centre.[6] Only by penetrating the strongholds of the Centre — Munich, Mainz, Cologne, Aachen, Düsseldorf, Essen, etc.— shall we be able to disperse this artificially united omnium-gatherum of opposing views and compel every one of them to show their true colours. And then it will transpire that the genuinely Catholic group is simply the Catholic wing of reaction, just as in Belgium and France it constitutes the whole of reaction. And no one would suffer more from this dispersal of the Centre than Mr Bismarck, who can darned well do with a hotchpotch of a party like that.

I get little news of how the second ballots are going and then only belatedly.[7] I hope that at this juncture a good many will turn out well, for the more new elements there are in the parliamentary group just now the better. The worst of them (the eddicated) have already been elected; those still to come are most of them working men and they can only improve the company.

Judgment has been passed on the Anti-Socialist Law.[8] State and bourgeoisie have been made to look fearful asses vis-à-vis ourselves. But they are nevertheless going merrily on their way and anyone who thinks that the Law will necessarily receive its quietus as a result of this could be badly mistaken. Over here old John Russell carried on as Prime Minister for 20 years after his political demise. To abolish the Law does, after all, require a decision, and they are unlikely to make the necessary effort. At best there would be penal clauses which would cause us heavier casualties than would the Anti-Socialist Law.

We must now put forward positive proposals in regard to legislation.[9] If they are couched emphatically, i.e. without regard for petty-bourgeois prejudices, then they will be very good. But if they are Geisered and Vierecked, then they will be bad. Normal working day (10 hours gradually reducing to perhaps 8), domestic and international factory legislation (in which the domestic could go further than the international), radical revision of the legislation affecting employers' liability, accident, sickness, disabled workmen, etc.— these will provide enough and more to go on with. Nous verrons.[10]

The 1884 elections are for us what those of 1866 were for the German philistine. Then, all of a sudden, he became a 'great nation' without having had anything to do with it and, indeed, against his will.[11] Now we have become a 'great party', but by our own hard work and at the cost of heavy sacrifices. Noblesse oblige. We cannot bring the mass of the nation over to our side unless that mass undergoes a gradual process of development. Frankfurt, Munich, Königsberg, cannot suddenly become as pronouncedly proletarian as Saxony, Berlin, the industrial Ruhr. Just now the petty-bourgeois elements among the leaders may find here and there among the masses the backing they have hitherto lacked. What has hitherto been a reactionary tendency in the case of individuals may now reproduce itself as a necessary developmental element—localised — in the case of the masses. That would call for a change of tactics if the masses are to be helped on their way without, at the same time, allowing the bad leaders to gain the ascendant. Here again we shall have to wait and see.

Tomorrow I shall attend to the very tricky final editing of Part III of the 2nd book of Capital.[12] As soon as I have finished I hope to find time to rewrite the Peasant War[13] which this time will appear as a turning-point for the whole of the history of Germany and hence calls for important historical additions both at the beginning and the end. Only the account of the actual war will remain more or less as it stands. I feel that it is more important to print the Peasant War first rather than the Dühring which I shall alter little, simply adding notes or appendices. What arrangements do you propose to make about the printing?

Whatever becomes of the Anti-Socialist Law, the paper[14] and the press in Zurich must, in my view, continue to operate. They will never restore freedom to us, even of the pre-1878 variety. Your Geisers and Vierecks will be allowed complete freedom and they in turn will trot out the pretty excuse that they went as far as they could. But in our case, the requisite freedom of the press is only to be had abroad. Come to that, it is even possible that attempts will be made to curtail universal suffrage; cowardliness makes people stupid and the philistine is capable de tout.[15] Admittedly we shall receive compliments from left, right and centre and they won't in every case fall on stony ground. For friend Singer might feel inclined to show proof that, despite or because of his paunch, he is no ogre.

Karl Kautsky will have received my letter of yesterday.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ K. Marx, 'On Proudhon'.
  2. ↑ F. Engels, 'Marx and Rodbertus'.
  3. ↑ K. Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.
  4. ↑ K. Marx, 'Speech on the Question of Free Trade'.
  5. ↑ 'Unsere Bilanz', Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 45, 6 November 1884 (leader).
  6. ↑ The Centre — a political party of German Catholics formed in June 1870; it expressed the separatist and anti-Prussian tendencies that were widespread in West and South-West Germany (the deputies representing this party had their seats in the centre of the chamber). The Centre Party united different social sections of the Catholic clergy, landowners, bourgeoisie, sections of the peasantry and, as a rule, occupied an intermediate position, manoeuvring between the parties which supported the government and the Left opposition groups in the Reichstag. The Centre was in opposition to the Bismarck government from the mid-1870s to the early 1880s but still voted for the measures it took against the workers' and socialist movement. Engels described the Centre in detail in The Role of Force in History and in 'What Now?' (see present edition, Vol. 26).
  7. ↑ At the Reichstag elections on 28 October 1884 — the outcome of which August Bebel telegraphed to Engels — and at the second ballots held in early November, the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany was able to increase its number of seats to 24 as against 13 at the previous elections. It received 549,990 votes, or 238,029 more than at the 1881 elections.
  8. ↑ The Exceptional Law Against the Socialists (Gesetz gegen die gemeingefährlichen Bestrebungen der Sozialdemokratie — the Law against the Harmful and Dangerous Aspirations of Social Democracy) was introduced by the Bismarck government, supported by the majority in the Reichstag, on 21 October 1878 to counter the socialist and workers' movement. This law, better known as the Anti-Socialist Law, made the Social-Democratic Party of Germany illegal, banned all party and mass workers' organisations, and the socialist and workers' press; on the basis of this law socialist literature was confiscated and Social Democrats subjected to reprisals. However, during its operation the Social-Democratic Party, assisted by Marx and Engels, uprooted both reformist and anarchist elements and managed to substantially strengthen and widen its influence among the people by skilfully combining illegal and legal methods of work. Under pressure from the mass workers' movement, the Anti-Socialist Law was abrogated on 1 October 1890. For Engels' assessment of this law, see his article 'Bismarck and the German Working Men's Party' (present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 407-09).
  9. ↑ The election result meant that the Social-Democratic group was able to initiate legislation for the first time, since the Reichstag's rules accorded this right only to parliamentary groups with 15 or more seats.
  10. ↑ We shall see.
  11. ↑ See this volume, pp. 221-22.
  12. ↑ See present edition, Vol. 36.
  13. ↑ See this volume, pp. 212-15.
  14. ↑ Der Sozialdemokrat
  15. ↑ capable of anything