Letter to Paul Lafargue, September 20, 1890

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 20 September 1890


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 37, Moscow, 1965
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE

AT LE PERREUX

London, 20 September 1890

My dear Lafargue,

Thank you for the information about Caron.[1] Herewith my reply[2] to this amiable fellow who 'is in no doubt that my reply will be in the affirmative'. Don't talk to me of 'LONDON ASSURANCE' or YANKEE journalists' cheek. The Germans and French outdo them by far and, what's more, with an elegant effrontery that suits them to a T. However I'm not sure that it isn't my own dear countrymen who don't carry off first prize.

Nothing new to report here. Aveling must have written to you about Lavigerie.[3] However it's very curious that this individual should have in his possession a document (copy) signed by Lafargue, Guesde, Deville, etc., announcing Guesde's impending arrival in London and a letter from Coulombeau inviting Aveling and Tussy to the Lille Congress[4] on behalf of the National Committee of the Workers' Party.[5] The originals of all the documents he purports to have must have been seen by Aveling last Monday — but I've heard nothing since Sunday.

Herewith cheque for £20.

Yours ever,

F.E.

  1. ↑ In a letter dated 19 September 1890 Paul Lafargue warned Engels against allowing Charles Caron to publish Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy. Caron, he wrote, was a private publisher and had long since drifted away from the labour movement.
  2. ↑ See previous letter.
  3. ↑ See Engels' letter to Laura Lafargue of 30 July 1890 (present edition, Vol. 48).
  4. ↑ The Eighth Congress of the French Workers' Party met in Lille on 11 and 12 October 1890. It was attended by about 70 delegates, representing more than 200 party groups and trades unions from 97 towns and localities. The congress revised the party Rules and finally determined the composition and functions of the National Council. The following persons were elected to the Council for the period 1890-91: Jules Guesde, Louis Simon Dereure, Leon Camescasse, Quesnel, Georges Edouard Crépin, Paul Lafargue and Joseph Ferroul. Le Socialiste was made the party's official organ. The congress called for a peaceful demonstration to be held on 1 May 1891. It rejected the proposal for a general strike put forward by the 1888 Bordeaux trade union congress and pronounced for an international strike of miners as the vanguard of the working class capable of representing the interests of all workers. On the Workers' Party see Note 146.
  5. ↑ During the International Socialist Workers' Congress in Paris in July 1889 the French delegates, numbering 206, twice met separately from the congress. They established the National Council of the French Workers' Party, composed of Jules Guesde, Gabriel Deville, Louis Simon Dereure, Leon Camescasse, Georges Edouard Crépin, Paul Lafargue and Lenoel. The Council was to give practical leadership to the party and call its next congress.