Letter to Paul Lafargue, September 15, 1890

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 September 1890


First published in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. II, Paris, 1956
Printed according to the original translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE

AT LE PERREUX

London, 15 September 1890

My dear Lafargue,

In great haste. Bonnier has written to me about the 1891 congress and the convocation drawn up by the Belgians.[1] I have replied in a letter[2] which I asked him to send on to Guesde so that he can discuss it with you, Deville, etc., as well as with our Blanquist allies, and then inform me of everyone's views.

What has happened is that the Belgians have played a trick on us which places our entire congress in jeopardy. They have invited the Liverpool TRADES UNIONS and the latter have accepted with alacrity. Needless to say, we weren't there to invite them ourselves! Why are we always conspicuous by our absence whenever there is something vital to be done! Why have we been so stupid as to leave the arrangements for the next congress to the Belgians and Swiss!

Tussy and Aveling tell me that the English will undoubtedly attend the Belgian, i. e. the Possibilist,3 congress and that there isn't the remotest chance of getting it into their heads that there will be another and much better congress! I myself obviously share that opinion. The English will proceed en masse, with the enthusiasm of neophytes, to the first international congress they have been invited to.

There is only one way in which we can parry this, namely by proposing a merger. If it is to take place, the essential conditions must be: basis of complete equality, convocation by the mandatories of both 1889 congresses, the 1891 congress to have complete sovereignty in regard to its actions; method of representation to be determined jointly in advance — assuming these are met, we shall easily gain the upper hand. If it does not take place, the Possibilists will be to blame. We shall have shown the working-class world that they alone are the cause of splits and then there might be a chance of our successfully reopening the campaign here in England.

If the French approve this in principle, I propose that we take advantage of the Halle Congress of 12 October to settle the preliminaries. One or two Frenchmen will be going, D. Nieuwenhuis, Adler[3] from Vienna, probably a Swiss, perhaps a Belgian. Tussy would attend so as to explain how things stand in England. It would be quite a conference! A plan of action could very well be roughed out and matters put in train.

The point is that here we have an outstanding chance, probably the last for the next five to ten years, of forming an alliance of Frenchmen, Germans and Englishmen. If we let it slip, don't be surprised if the movement over here sinks completely into the rut now occupied by the SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC Federation[4] and the Possibilists.

Our rivals are active and astute. They have always been our superiors in this respect. We, in our international dealings, have abused the right to be lazy.[5] That must stop. Let's get up and bestir ourselves!

As soon as I hear that you all approve, I shall write to the Germans.

I believe I did a stupid thing in writing to Bonnier, who is at Templeuve, instead of to you directly. But it was his letter which persuaded me to attend to this matter and, as I sat pen in hand, the subject simply expanded. Give Laura a kiss.

Yours ever,

F.E.

  1. ↑ In the autumn of 1890 the General Council of the Belgian Workers' Party, acting on a mandate from the Possibilist congress (see Note 53), sent out invitations for an international workers' congress to be held in Brussels in 1891. Since the executive committee of Swiss socialists set up on the instructions of the 1889 Paris International Socialist Workers' Congress (see Note 51) for the purpose of convoking another congress had failed to take any action until September 1890, the danger arose of two international congresses being held simultaneously in 1891.
  2. ↑ F. Engels, The International Workers' Congress of 1891.
  3. ↑ Victor Adler
  4. ↑ The Social Democratic Federation, set up in August 1884, consisted of English socialists of different orientations, mostly intellectuals. For a long time the leadership of the Federation was in the hands of reformists led by Hyndman, an opportunist sectarian. In opposition to them, the revolutionary Marxists within the Federation (Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Edward Aveling, Tom Mann and others) worked for close ties with the revolutionary labour movement. In the autumn of 1884 — following a split and the establishment by the Left wing of an independent organisation, the Socialist League (see Note 49) — the opportunists' influence in the Federation increased. However, revolutionary elements, discontented with the opportunist leadership, continued to form within the Federation, under the impact of the masses.
  5. ↑ An allusion to Paul Lafargue's pamphlet Le Droit à la Paresse. Refutation du 'Droit au Travail' de 1848.