Letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, August 17, 1889

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 17 August 1889


First published, slightly abridged, in Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Job. Phil. Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx u. A. an F. A. Sorge und Andere, Stuttgart, 1906, and, in full, in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow, 1940
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE

IN MOUNT DESERT

Eastbourne, 17 August 1889
4, Cavendish Place

Dear Sorge,

Letters of 1 August received.[1] So we are both taking a summer holi- day—a summer of which the main feature over here is plenty of nice fresh rain.

I can't send any papers, since these are forwarded to me only at very irregular intervals from London. Just the Labour Elector, a paper which is now assuming some importance. It was started by Champion in oppo- sition to Hyndman, but kept afloat with suspect funds (from a Liberal- Unionist quarter[2] ), and hence was egregiously pro-Tory and inanely anti-Irish, so that one had to be very wary of it; but because it was suspect and already so notoriously Tory-Socialist[3] people stopped buying the thing. This, however, brought about a revolution. The Tory funds would seem to have run out and thus Champion—au fond[4] a no less unreliable bloke than Hyndman—found himself forced to do some- thing he had long resisted, namely accept the terms offered by a commit- tee—Burns, Bateman (typographer), Mann (engineer), Cunninghame- Graham—whereby the said committee became proprietor of the paper and Champion its temporary editor. The names of the committee members are a guarantee that all association with other parties and their funds has been broken off, and the paper, which is clearly on the up and up, is said to be almost paying its way. The Tory and anti-Irish nonsense has ceased, while the paper has done us yeoman service in the matter of the congress.[5]

The plan of Hyndman and Co's gang was to cast doubt on the creden- tials—which they alleged to be false—of the Marxist congress. Hence their unacceptable terms for fusion. The same old Bakuninist tactics as of yore, but specially adapted for English consumption. That it wouldn't be much of a catch on the Continent was plain, but all one to them; provided it caught on here in England, their position would, for a time, be secure—and here all the odds were in their favour. But our vigorous offensive brought the business to an abrupt conclusion—Burns' article[6] and mine[7] (on the Austrian credentials) in the Labour Elector have, I think, robbed them of all desire to cast doubt on other people's credentials, an activity in which the Possibilists themselves have recently indulged to such good purpose as to leave small scope for anyone else.

There is now some prospect that a viable socialist organisation may be formed here which will gradually undermine the Social Democratic Federation[8] or else absorb it. Nothing can be done with the League;[9]

they're just a bunch of anarchists and Morris is their lay figure. The idea is to agitate for an eight hour day among the democratic and radical clubs[10] —our recruiting grounds here—and the Trades Unions, and to organise the May the First 1890 demonstration. Since the latter was decided upon at our congress, the Social Democratic Federation must either adhere to it—i.e. submit to our resolutions—or oppose it and thus commit suicide. As you can see from the Labour Elector, the movement is at last taking hold amongst the Trades Unions[11] , and the star of Broadhurst, Shipton and Co. would seem to be rapidly on the wane. By next spring we shall, I believe, have made considerable progress.

Russian jiggery-pokery continues amain. First the Armenian atroci- ties, followed by others on the Serbian border. Next, for the benefit of the Serbs, magic lantern slides of the Greater Serbian Empire, and hints about the necessity of a Serbian military convention with Russia. And now the Cretan fracas which began, strangely enough, with internecine carnage among the Cretan Christians, until the Russian consul contrived to get them to sink their differences and massacre the Turks. And the stupid Turkish government goes and sends Shakir Pasha to Crete, a man who spent 8 years as Turkish ambassador to Petersburg and, while there, was bought by the Russians! The whole of this Cretan affair was intended, amongst other things, to prevent the British concluding an alliance with the Prussians.[12] That is why it was launched when William came over here[13] —so that Gladstone could return to his hobby of philhellenism and the liberals wax enthusiastic about the Cretan sheep stealers. Little Willie wanted to be 'one up' on the Russians, wangle Crete for the Greeks as a dowry for his sister[14] and, by the magic of his presence, induce the Sultan[15] to abdicate. But once again the Russians have shown him that, by comparison with them, he is but a babe in arms. If Greece gets Crete, it will be by the grace of Russia.

Thanks for the news about Hartmann. I'd very much like to have further details as I want to put paid to this Prussian pack of lies in the Evening News.

It's very sensible of your son[16] to want to find a post. I only wish my Rosher nephew[17] could also be persuaded to do so. These young gentle- men imagine the whole world's made of money and that we old folk are simply too stupid to pick the stuff up. By the time they have learnt how things really are it will have cost a fortune.

Warm regards to you and your wife. Schorlemmer left here on Wednesday for Germany.

Your

F.E.

  1. ↑ The reference is to two letters from Sorge in which he confirmed the receipt of the newspapers sent to him by Engels. They reported on a denial, sent to Schlüter, of the assertion of the newspaper New-Yorker Volkszeitung about the alleged presence of Engels at the Paris Congress, as well as a denial of the report carried by The Evening News and Post on Lev Hartman's trip to Europe (see note 476).
  2. ↑ The Liberal-Unionists were a J. Chamberlain-led group which in July 1886 broke away from the Liberal Party, because of differences over the draft of Home Rule legislation (April 1886) tabled by the Liberal government for Ireland which provided for a restoration of the autonomous bicameral parliament, with the British government continuing its control over the Irish economy. The Liberal-Unionists came out for the preservation of the Anglo-Irish union which had been in existence from 1801. They made common cause with the Conservative Party and officially joined it several years later.
  3. ↑ By 'Tory-Socialists' Engels meant the left wing of the Conservative Party; this faction comprised mainly representatives of the big industrial bourgeoisie and intellectuals (men-of-letters, lawyers, etc).
  4. ↑ at bottom
  5. ↑ The International (Socialist) Working Men's Congress was in session in Paris on 14-20 July 1889, on the centennial of the storming of the Bastille. In fact, it became a constituent Congress of the Second International. Taking part were 393 delegates, representing the worker and socialist parties of 20 countries of Europe and America.
    The Congress heard the reports of representatives of the socialist parties on the situation in the labour movement in their countries; it outlined the principles of international labour legislation in respective countries by supporting demands for a legislative enactment of an 8-hour working day, prohibition of child labour and steps toward the protection of the work of women and adolescents. The Congress stressed the need of political organisation of the proletariat and of a struggle for implementation of democratic demands of the working class; it spoke out for a disbandment of regular armies and their replacement by armed detachments of the people. It resolved to hold, on 1 May 1890, demonstrations and meetings in support of an 8-hour working day and labour legislation.
  6. ↑ J. Burns, 'The Paris International Congress', The Labour Elector, 3 August 1889
  7. ↑ F. Engels, 'Possibilist Credentials'
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ The Socialist League was founded in December 1884 by a group of English socialists who had withdrawn from the Social Democratic Federation (see note 62). The League's organisers included Eleanor Marx Aveling, Ernest Belfort Bax and William Morris. 'The Manifesto of the Socialist League' (see The Commonweal No.1, February 1885) stated that its members advocated 'the principles of Revolutionary International Socialism' and sought 'a change in the basis of Society ... which would destroy the distinctions of classes and nationalities'. The tasks of the League included the formation of a national socialist party, the conquest of political power through the election of socialists to local government bodies, and the promotion of the trade union and co-operative movement. In the League's early years its leaders took an active part in the working-class movement. However, in 1887 the League split into three factions (Anarchist elements, 'parliamentarists and 'anti-parliamentarists'). With sectarian tendencies growing stronger, the League gradually distanced itself from the day-to-day struggle of the British workers and finally disintegrated in 1889-90.
  10. ↑ Radical Clubs began to emerge in London and other cities in the 1870s. They consisted of bourgeois radicals and workers. In the Clubs of London's poorer areas, such as the East End, the workers predominated. The Clubs criticised the Irish policy of Gladstone's Liberal government and urged an extension of the suffrage and other democratic reforms. From the early 1880s they engaged in socialist propaganda. In 1885 London's Radical Clubs united in the Metropolitan Radical Federation.
  11. ↑ In August 1889 the Labour Elector published material on the forthcoming Trades Union Congress at Dundee; its agenda included issues of labour legislation, specifically, a law on an 8-hour working day.
  12. ↑ Engels referred to events of the 1880s, in particular the arbitrary actions of the Turkish authorities with regard to the Armenian population. A special government commission (Commission of Inquiry) which was dispatched there suggested that victims of the reprisals should go to Constantinople (Istanbul) to have the conflict settled. However, the Turkish courts failed to settle the conflict. In July 1889 the population of several rural communities in Crete rose in rebellion against the Turkish authorities. This revolt escalated into bloody clashes between the Muslim and Christian populations of the island. The Russian government sent a message to Turkey in which it demanded action on her commitments with respect to the ethnic groups and nationalities inhabiting that country. To restore order, the Turkish government sent Shakir Pasha, a former Turkish ambassador to Russia, as a new ruler of Crete. The bloodshed between the Muslim and Christian communities on the island continued till December 1889. About the Anglo-Prussian union, see note 349.
  13. ↑ William II stayed in England from 2 to 8 August 1889
  14. ↑ Princess Sophia of Prussia, who was engaged to the Crown Prince of Greece in October 1889
  15. ↑ Abdul Hamid II
  16. ↑ Adolf Sorge
  17. ↑ Percy Rosher