Letter to Laura Lafargue, May 21, 1887

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 21 May 1887


First published, in the language of the original (English), in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. 2 (1887-1890), Paris, 1956
Reproduced from the original in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 21 May 1887

My dear Laura,

A few words in a hurry. There is hope of a place for Martignetti in Hamburg—correspondence about this has kept me busy to-day.[1] You will have seen injustice how Hyndman has tried to bring out Edward's American bother,[2] but has apparently got more than he expected[3] —his retreat in this week's No. is undignified enough.[4] A 3rd Circular on this affair is in the printer's hands.[5] 1 have had some droll correspon- dence with Liebknecht about the letter from him it will publish. In New York we are completely victorious and that is the chief point; and our final circular I hope will settle the business.

Paul's success is though externally negative, still quite satisfactory.[6] Only the ballotage seems to have been attempted on rather too Parisian grounds. However it gives him a better standing for the future.

I confess the success of Brousse and Co. is inconceivable to me.[7] It is no use crying after a new journal quotidien[8] after having been kicked out of ever so many and after having secured so little permanent effect out of it while our friends had it.[9] But all the same the next best thing to a victory of our people is the entry of Brousse and Co. into the City Council—there they will have to show what they are. Cremer, Howell and Co. were never lower in London than now since they are in Parliament.

My congratulations to Paul for having cudgelled one of his electors. Ça doit avoir produit un effet[10]

My eye is considerably better since I have taken to smoke different cigars. There was the determining cause of the whole affair. You may laugh but I shall as soon as I have time explain to Paul medicinally that the thing was entirely caused by applying too much guano to the tobacco-fields of the Vuelta Abajo, Of course I have to be very careful still, limit reading and writing. I am rather curious to see how the Ministerial crisis in France will end[11] —unless it brings in Clemenceau, it will be the old affair over again, and I doubt whether Clemenceau will go in just now. He is the last resource of the bourgeois republic and would be soft to go in without a dissolution.

Edward and Tussy speak to-day in an open air meeting in Victoria Park, Hackney; the weather was boisterous and wet though, showery up to 4 p.m., now better. Don't know the hour of meeting, but hope it's late in the afternoon. Their agitation in the East End is going on quietly and steadily.[12] Next Sunday Delegate Conference of the League.[13] Will decide its fate. Both League and Federation[14] are in a bad way; Hyndman is in very bad odour again amongst his lot, has fallen out with Champion, and Burns goes about preaching an independent union of the working men of both societies leaving Hyndman, Morris, Aveling and Co. to fight out their quarrels themselves.

So much for to-day - the implacable Nim calls with the dinner-bell.

Affectionately yours

F. Engels

  1. ↑ See previous letter
  2. ↑ An item headlined 'A Costly Apostle', published in Justice No. 172, 30 April 1887, reproduced the contents of the circulars of the Executive of the Socialist Labor Party of North America attacking Edward Aveling (see notes 32 and 98). Aveling answered in a Letter to the Editor, published in Justice, No. 174. 14 May 1887.
  3. ↑ See 'Dr Aveling and the Socialist Labour Party in America', Justice, No. 174, 14 May 1887
  4. ↑ On 21 May 1887, Justice, No. 175, carried an editorial note in the 'Tell Tale Straws' column which gave the following resume of Aveling's latest Letter to the Editor (see Justice, No. 174, 14 May 1887): 'The gist of it is that the Board of Supervisors in America exonerate him from all blame, and that Mr. Friedrich Engels, Mr. F. A. Sorge, and Mr. Wilhelm Liebknecht (who writes a letter to that effect) are ready to answer for Dr. Aveling's correct behaviour in the matter of his expenditure on his American trip'.
  5. ↑ Aveling's answer to the second circular of the Executive of the Socialist Labor Party (see note 98) was printed in the form of a pamphlet, containing Aveling's statement of 27 May 1887 (a detailed reply to the charges levelled at him); a statement by Eleanor Marx-Aveling of 24 May, confirming her husband's arguments and adding certain details; a statement by Wilhelm Liebknecht in defence of Aveling of 16 May.
  6. ↑ Engels means the municipal elections in Paris held on 8 May 1887. Lafargue stood for election in the Fifth arrondissement (Jardin des Plantes). In the first ballot he received 568 votes and was third. In the second, on 15 May, he got 685 votes and was second.
  7. ↑ Six Possibilists (see note 19), including Paul Brousse, were elected to the Paris Municipal Council in a second ballot on 15 May 1887.
  8. ↑ daily newspaper
  9. ↑ After Jules Guesde, Gabriel Deville and other members of the French Workers' Party had resigned from the editorial board of the Cri du peuple and after the Voie du peuple, the paper they had started, also ceased publication (see note 18), the Party's weekly La Socialiste likewise closed down (the last issue appeared on 26 March 1887). The Party's paper resumed publication on 11 June 1887.
  10. ↑ This must have created a stir
  11. ↑ On 17 May 1887, in a debate at the French Chamber of Deputies, the budget committee opposed the draft budget for 1888 submitted by Rene Goblet's Radical Cabinet (see note 200). The majority of deputies supported the committee, thus forcing the Cabinet to resign. The government crisis lasted for 13 days. On 30 May 1887 Maurice Rouvier formed a Cabinet composed mostly of Rightists.
  12. ↑ After their return from the USA (see note 3) Eleanor Marx-Aveling and Edward Aveling launched a large-scale socialist propaganda campaign in London's Radical Clubs (see note 22). Their purpose was, among other things, to familiarise the British workers with the experience of the US labour movement.
  13. ↑ On 29 May 1887 the third annual conference of the Socialist league (see note 21) was held in London. Delegates from 24 sections attended. The anarchists gained the upper hand; a resolution was adopted saying: 'This conference endorses the policy of abstention from parliamentary action, hitherto pursued by the League, and sees no sufficient reason for altering it.
  14. ↑ The Social Democratic Federation was a British socialist organisation, the successor of the Democratic Federation, reformed in August 1884. It consisted of heterogeneous socialist elements, mostly intellectuals, but also politically active workers. The programme of the Federation provided for the collectivisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange. Its leader, Henry Hyndman, was dictatorial and arbitrary, and his supporters among the Federation's leaders denied the need to work among the trade unions. In contrast to Hyndman, the Federation members grouped round Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Edward Aveling, William Morris and Tom Mann sought close ties with the mass working-class movement. In December 1884, differences on questions of tactics and international co-operation led to a split in the Federation and the establishment of the independent socialist league (see note 21). In 1885-86 the Federation's branches were active in the movement of the unemployed, in strike struggles and in the campaign for the eight-hour day.