| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 11 January 1887 |
ENGELS TO FERDINAND DOMELA NIEUWENHUIS4
IN THE HAGUE
London, 11 January 1887
My dear Friend,
I see from the newspapers that the Court of Appeal has upheld your conviction. So no doubt you will shortly have to make your way to gaol.5 I cannot let you go without taking my leave of you and assuring you that all my sympathy will go with you when you enter your cell, and that I hope you will return to us from your solitary confinement sound in body and unbroken in spirit to resume your activities. Please let me know whether it will be possible to communicate with you while you are in gaol, either by letter or by sending printed matter, and whether you are allowed books and to engage in literary work.
The Lafargues from Paris have been over here since Christmas, and a week ago the Avelings returned from America, bringing back a great deal of encouraging news.3 The movement over there is forging ahead in fine style and nothing can stop it. From its inevitably muddled begin- nings it has evolved with amazing speed into a political labour party. True, the programme—or rather the various programmes in New York, Chicago, etc.—are still far from clear, as is only to be expected. But the action is all that it should be and that is the main thing. When I consider how long it took the workers in France, Belgium, Spain, etc., to under- stand that a political organisation of the working class, separate from, and opposed to all other parties, could alone lead them to victory, one must admire the action of the Americans who, six months after the birth of the movement, are operating an organised party, have received 68,000 votes in New York6 and won important victories in the elections in the West.7 But once the proletariat of a country has organised itself as a militant party, it will itself be driven onwards by the ups and downs of the battle, knowing as it does the conditions of its emancipation. And particularly for so eminently practical and anti-theoretical a people as the Americans, there is no other way to understanding than by trial and error, by acquiring wisdom from the consequences of their own mistakes. And that is something they will experience and master soon enough.
In other respects, too, the movement is progressing splendidly every- where and I trust that when you get out of gaol you will find we have made a big step forward. All that can prevent us doing so is a European war, which would set us back enormously for a short while but which, like any other event, would turn out to our advantage in the end.
The English translation of Das Kapital[1] has just come out, and at precisely the right moment for America.
And now, once again good-bye. The best wishes of us all will accom- pany you into your solitude. I hope we shall see one another again in London in a year's time.
With kindest regards from the Lafargues, the Avelings and
Your
F. Engels