Letter to Karl Kautsky, September 15, 1889

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 September 1889


First published in Aus der Frühzeit des Marxismus. Engels Briefwechsel mit Kautsky, Prag, 1935
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY[1]

IN VIENNA

London, 15 September 1889
122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.

Dear Kautsky,

I am taking advantage of its being Sunday morning to write you a letter, which I should have done long since—but for interruptions! First the congress[2] and all it entailed, then Eastbourne,[3] whither the after- math of the congress in the shape of letters of all kinds still pursued me and, on top of that, six persons in one room—reflection or repose impos- sible. Then back home, only to find Paul[4] and the soldier,[5] not to mention 2 children,[6] here, then the dock strike,[7] etc. Today at last a brief respite. Longuet's two sons,[8] who have come to stay, do not disturb me.

We are all of us, Nim, Tussy, Edward and myself, tremendously sorry that your relations with Louise should have ended in so negative a fash- ion. But there's no help for it. You two alone are competent to judge, and whatever you think is right, the rest of us must accept. But what I don't understand—if I can be said to understand anything at all of this busi- ness—is your continual use of the word 'compassion'—that all you now feel for Louise is 'compassion'. Louise has conducted herself throughout with such heroism and such womanliness that we cannot admire her enough. If anyone is to be pitied in this affair, it certainly isn't Louise. And I still maintain you have perpetrated a folly which you will yet live to regret.

As I have already told Adler, this turn in your relations does nothing to alter the proposal I made you in regard to the ms. of Volume IV.[9] The work has got to be done and you and Ede are the only people to whom I can entrust it. The business of the archives[10] has, Paul tells me, like- wise now been settled which means, no doubt, that you will be coming over here again this winter, when we can discuss and make a start on what is to be done. Because of the damned congress I've been able to do no work at all on Volume III since February, and even now I am kept from it by the necessity of bringing out a fourth edition of Volume I, which I must attend to first. It's no great task but when one is not allowed to spend more than three hours a day at one's desk, it tends to be rather long-drawn-out. And then we have got two months of perpet- ual fog and darkness ahead of us.

A correspondent in St Petersburg has informed me that the Revue du Nord has published a translation of your Klassengegensätze in Frankreich and that this has caused a furore in Russia. When you come over here I shall give you a hint or two as to how you might, perhaps, extract money from Russia for your articles.

Your articles on the miners in Thuringia[11] are the best you have done so far—a genuine study that deals exhaustively with the main issues and, moreover, aims simply at investigating the facts and not, as in your paper on population[12] or that on the primaeval family,[13] at confirming a precon- ceived opinion. That is why you have succeeded in producing something substantial. The work throws light on an important part of German history and, though there may be a few minor gaps in the argument, this is of no real moment. Reading it, I realised clearly for the first time (what I had only dimly and vaguely perceived in Soetbeer[14] ) the extent to which gold and silver production in Germany (and Hungary, whence precious metals were distributed throughout the West via Germany) provided the final impulse which, between 1470 and 1530, put Germany in the lead economically in Europe, thereby making her the focal point of the first bourgeois revolution, in the religious guise of the so-called Reformation. The final impulse in the sense that the guild crafts and the commission trade reached a relatively advanced stage of development, thus turning the scales in Germany's favour rather than in that of Italy, France or England.

Liebknecht has now come to see that there's nothing to be done with the Possibilists[15] ; when you're talking to him he's not nearly so cocksure as he otherwise tends to be, particularly when he writes. How lucky it was that the Possibilists refused, since a union of the two congresses would have led to fighting and general loss of life and we should have been hugely discredited. The campaign launched by the Possibilists and the Social Democratic Federation with a view to casting doubts on our people's credentials has failed miserably.[16] Not only were Adler's reve- lations about the possibilist Austrians[17] (in the Labour Elector here) quite devastating, but in this country—and this made an even greater impact over here—the idiots had admitted Burns to the credentials committee, whereupon he mercilessly demolished the credentials of the Social Democratic Federation in the columns of the Labour Elector}[18] Hyndman represented 28 people! The entire Federation, alleged to be but 1,925 strong, consists, in fact, of less than half that number!

The Trades Union Congress[19] was Broadhurst's swan song. Burns, Mann and Bateman, the only people to know the details of the charges against Broadhurst, were tied down here by the Dock Strike, and Broadhurst benefited from it; but the congress was rigged, everything having been done to ensure that only Trades Unionists of the old type attended, as was still feasible on this occasion. Nevertheless, there is every sign that the old is in the process of disintegration.

In Denmark the old party leadership have put their foot in it badly over the matter of the congress, and the opposition, Trier, Petersen, etc., are gaining ground.[20] You ought to engage Trier as correspondent for the Arbeiter-Zeitung—Gerson Trier, Ahlefeltsgade 16, Copenhagen. The Dock Strike has been won. It's the greatest event to have taken place in England since the last Reform Bills[21] and marks the beginning of a complete revolution in the East End. The reason for the universal sympathy shown by the press, and even by the philistines, is, 1. Hatred of the monopolistic Dock Companies who, instead of writing off the non existent capital they have squandered, fleece the shipowners, business- men and workers so as to be able to declare dividends on it; 2. The knowl- edge that the Dockers are voters and need to be cajoled if the 16 to 18 East End M.P.s of Liberal and Conservative complexion wish to be re-elected (which they won't be; this time there'll be Labour M.P.s). What decided the victory was the £14,000 from Australia, whereby the Australian workers will prevent themselves from suddenly being landed with a mass influx of English workers. Burns, Champion, Mann and Tille« have earned their laurels, while the Social Democratic Federation was nowhere. The strike is to England what the coalminers' strike[22] was to Germany— it means that a new system, a vast army, has entered the labour move- ment. If we can now get by without a war, the fun may soon begin.

Guesde is standing for parliament in Marseilles, Lafargue in Saint Amand (Cher).

Kindest regards to Adler.

Your

F. Engels

As I don't know whether you still have your hedgehog's apartments[23] I am sending this to Adler, whose address is a safe one. Have received only Nos 1 and 4 of the Arbeiter-zeitung. Is it still in the land of the living? Are you still getting the Labour Elector} I'm sending you a copy.

  1. ↑ An excerpt of this letter was first published in the language of the original (English) in the book: K. Marx, E Engels, Letters on 'Capital', London, 1983.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ Engels alludes to his vacation at Eastbourne from 8 August to 6 September 1889.
  4. ↑ Paul Singer
  5. ↑ Wilhelm Liebknecht
  6. ↑ Gertrud and Theodor Liebknecht
  7. ↑ In reference to a brief note, bearing no title, carried by the newspaper Proletariat, No. 268,18 May 1889, pl, col. 5, which opened with the following words: 'Les irlando-guesdo-blanquistes assurent dans leur circulaire a 1'etranger que le Danemark leur a donne son adhesion'.
  8. ↑ Jean and Edgar Longuet
  9. ↑ of Capital. See this volume, p.257
  10. ↑ The German Social Democratic archives were set up at the Zurich Conference of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany held on 19-21 August 1882. Their purpose was to preserve the manuscripts of prominent figures in the German labour movement (including the works of Marx and Engels), and documents pertaining to the history of Germany and the international working-class movement, and the labour press. The initial site of the archives was Zurich. The first materials were collected by Eduard Bernstein. From April 1883 the archives were in the custody of Hermann Schluter. In June 1888, following the expulsion of some members of the Sozialdemokrat editorial staff and co-workers from Switzerland (see note 81), the archives were moved to London and, after the abrogation of the Anti-Socialist law (see note 52), to Berlin.
  11. ↑ 'Die Bergarbeiter und der Bauernkrieg, vornehmlich in Thüringen'
  12. ↑ This letter was first published in English, abridged, in: Frederick Engels, Paul and Laura Lafargue, Correspondence. 1887-1890,Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1960.
  13. ↑ Die Entstehung der Ehe und Familie...
  14. ↑ A. Soetbeer, Edelmetall-Produktion und Werthverhältniss zwischen Gold und Silber seit der Entdeckung Amerikas bis zur Gegenwart
  15. ↑ The Possibilists (Broussists) were a reformist trend in the French socialist movement between the 1880s and the early 20th century. Its leaders - Paul Brousse and Benoit Malon -caused a split in the French Workers' Party (see note 33) in 1882 and formed the Federation of Socialist Workers. Its ideological basis was the theory of municipal socialism. The Possibilists pursued a 'policy of the possible' ('la politique des possibilites'). At the beginning of the 20th century the Possibilists merged with the French Socialist Party.
  16. ↑ A reference to a campaign by the Possibilists in France, and their supporters from the Social Democratic Federation (see note 62), to discredit the International Working Men's Congress held by the Socialists (see note 473).
    Only a few foreign delegates attended the Possibilists Congress held in Paris at the same time as the International Working Men's Congress; the representation of most of its delegates was of a purely fictitious nature.
  17. ↑ F. Engels, 'Possibilist Credentials
  18. ↑ J. Burns, 'The Paris International Congress'
  19. ↑ Another regular Trades Union Congress took place in Dundee (Scotland) at the beginning of September 1889. Both the preparatory stage and the very course of the Congress mirrored the struggle between the old Conservative leadership with Henry Broadhurst at the head (see note 269) and representatives of the new trade unions with broad masses of general and unskilled workers as members. One of the main issues discussed at the Congress related to a legislative enactment of an eight-hour working day. However, the absence of some of the leaders or the new trade unions, because of thockers' strike in London (see note 489), had a negative effect on the overall results. The demand for a law on an 8-hour working day was turned down by 88 votes against 63. Broadhurst and the old leadership managed to retain their position. Yet ultimately Engels' prediction concerning a victory of the protagonists of the law proved correct: at its next session in Liverpool in September 1890, the Trades Union Congress adopted a resolution in favour of an enactment of an eight-hour working day.
  20. ↑ Engels is referring to the expulsion of two Leftwing members (one of whom was Trier) of the Executive Committee of the Danish Socialist Party, because they were opposed to the Socialist Party forming a bloc with Venstre, the Danish liberals, who expressed the interests of major landed proprietors and factory owners.
  21. ↑ Pertaining to the electoral reforms of 1867 and 1884 in England. According to the reform of 1867, in towns the right to vote was granted to house owners and house leaseholders, as well as to tenants with a residence record of not less than a year and paying the rent of not less than £10. In counties the property qualification was reduced to £12 rent per annum, which enabled some of the industrial workers to obtain voting rights. The electoral reform of 1884 extended the provisions of the 1867 reform to rural districts. Consequently, part of the rural population became eligible. Both reforms notwithstanding, the number of voters was only 13 per cent of the entire population. Suffrage was denied to non property owners and women.
  22. ↑ The German coal miners' strike in the Ruhr was a major event in the German working-class movement of the late 19th century. It began on 3 May 1889 in the Essen and on 4 May in the Helsenkirch coal mining districts; then it spread to the entire Dortmund area. At its height the strike action involved as many as eighty thousand miners. The main demands were: higher wages, an eight-hour working day and recognition of the worker committees. Frightened by the scope of the strike action, government bodies had the entrepreneurs make a promise to fulfil some of the miners' demands. As a result, some of the miners resumed their work in mid May. However, the mine-owners broke their promises, and a meeting ooal miners' delegates on 24 May decided to continue the strike action. The threat of reprisals and the new promises made by mine-owners resulted in the termination of the strike in the beginning of June.
  23. ↑ Engels has 'Igelwohnung', a pun on 'Igelgasse', literally 'Hedgehog Alley', the name of the street where Kautsky lived in Vienna