ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
AT LE PERREUX
London, 27 October 1891
Mein liebes[1] Löhr,
Das ist ja ein ganz famoses Resultat[2] Paul heading the Poll — pretty Poll —you see enthusiasm makes me half mad and drives me into Pantomime puns, but when I came to 'pretty Poll' and remembered your name was Kakadou, that brought me to a dead stop, I might be accused of blasphemy and what not! Au, au, sagt der Jud' in Berlin, wenn der christliche Germane auch einmal versucht einen Witz zu machen.[3]
Well, if I only knew le nombre des électeurs inscrits,[4] I should make a shrewd guess. The Défense de Lille bragged with 6,000 monarchist and clerical votes, that I doubt very much, and so think Paul almost safe. We drank success to him last Sunday in 1868 Port, and I am sure at least the 5 votes over the 5,000 are due to our efforts. Never mind, next Sunday week we'll try another and more successful sort and that is sure to smash up all his opponents. What a fine country France is to be locked up! You attack the government, the government makes you M. P. (Pélagie) but Pélagie makes you M. P. (Parliament).[5] In Germany it's the other way about. You get elected into Parliament and then you may well write behind you name M. P. because that means Member of Plötzensee — the new monster prison near Berlin.
But trêve de bêtises[6] . I am very glad indeed you and Paul like my ar- ticle.[7] But will the Kuddelmuddel[8] people of the Almanac[9] be of the same mind? Never mind (another Pantomime effort, I shall soon be M. P. (Pantomime)), it can then go in the Socialiste.
Old Sorge who does not want to have the Socialiste without paying for it asks me to send 10s. for his subscription. I send a postal order, they sell readily in Vienna, as Louise tells me, so no doubt they will be legal tender in Paris.
Things in Erfurt went very well.[10] The execution of the insolent young student and commis-voyageur lot was very necessary. They will soon disappear now, and the next lot of the same sort will be less cheeky.
But now it's post-time and dinner-time too. Give Paul a hearty cheer in our name when you come into Pélagie, and take a hearty embrace yourself from Louise and
Your old incorrigible
General
- ↑ My dear
- ↑ The result is absolutely splendid.
- ↑ Oh, oh, says the Jew in Berlin, if the German Christian ventures as much as once to make a joke.
- ↑ the number of registered electors
- ↑ In connection with Paul Lafargue's nomination as a candidate for the French Chamber of Deputies Louise Kautsky called him M. P. In her letter to Engels of 16 October 1891 Laura Lafargue jokingly remarked in this context that in France M. P. meant 'membre de Pélagie' — an allusion to the fact that Paul Lafargue was serving a sentence at Ste Pélagie prison. Engels plays on this joke.
- ↑ enough of stupidities
- ↑ On 23 September 1891 Laura Lafargue, on behalf of the French Workers' Party, requested Engels to write an article for the Almanack du Parti Ouvrier pour 1892. As a theme, she said, Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue had suggested 'Socialism in Germany'. Engels replied positively. The article he wrote, 'Le Socialisme en Alle magne', appeared in Almanack in early December 1891. Somewhat later Engels translated it into German for Neue Zeit, adding a brief introduction and a conclud ing section. The article was published in Die Neue Zeit, 10. Jg. 1891/92, 1. Bd., Nr. 19 under the heading 'Der Sozialismus in Deutschland' (see present edition, Vol. 27, pp. 235-50).
- ↑ mixed up
- ↑ Almanack du Parti Ouvrier
- ↑ The Erfurt Congress of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany met from 14 to 21 October 1891. It was attended by 258 delegates. The congress was preceded by a sharp ideological struggle between the party's revolutionary hard core and the Right- and Left-wing opportunists, who had stepped up their activities and created the atmosphere of a party crisis in German Social-Democracy. There had been sharp debates at meetings and in the press on the party's pro gramme and tactics, set off by the public pronouncements of Georg von Vollmar, leader of the Bavarian Social-Democrats, who sought to impose an opportunist re formist tactics and lead the party away from class proletarian positions (see Note 270). Vollmar's campaign provided a pretext for fresh attacks on the party (summer and autumn 1891) by the Jungen, a petty-bourgeois semi-anarchist opposition group within German Social-Democracy formed in 1890. Their stronghold being the Social-Democratic organisation of Berlin, they were also known as the Berlin opposition. The group's specific character was determined by students and young literati claiming the role of the party's theoreticians and leaders. Foremost among them were Paul Ernst, Hans Müller, Paul Kampffmeyer, Bruno Wille, Karl Wil- derberger and Wilhelm Werner. The Jungen ignored the fact that the repeal of the Anti-Socialist Law had changed the conditions the party was operating in. They denied the need to employ legal forms of struggle, opposed Social-Democracy's participation in parliamentary elections and use of the parliamentary platform and demagogically accused the party and its Executive of protecting the interests of the petty bourgeoisie, of opportunism and of violating party democracy. The leaders of the Berlin opposition levelled especially fierce attacks at the party's leaders— Bebel and Liebknecht. The sectarian anarchist activities of the Jungen held a grave danger to the party's unity. The paramount task facing the Erfurt Con gress was to overcome the crisis in the party and consolidate its ranks. The congress discussed the report of the party Executive, the activities of So cial-Democratic deputies in the Reichstag, the party's tactics, the draft of its new programme, and various organisational questions. The ideological struggle continued at the congress too, especially over party tactics. A report on this issue was presented by Bebel. He — in his report and speeches — as well as other speakers (above all Singer, Liebknecht and Fischer) gave a resolute rebuff both to the Left and to the Right opportunist elements. By a majority vote the congress endorsed Bebel's draft resolution on tactics. It pointed out that the main objective of the working-class movement was the conquest of po litical power by the proletariat and that this end would be attained not through a chance concatenation of circumstances but through persevering work with the masses and skillful employment of every form and method of proletarian class struggle. The resolution emphasised that the German Social-Democratic Party was a fighting party employing the traditional revolutionary tactics. Vollmar and his supporters, finding themselves in isolation, were forced to retreat. The congress expelled two leaders of the Jungen — Werner and Wilderberger — from the party for their splitting activities and slander; a number of other Jungen leaders an nounced their resignation from the party and walked out of the congress. The main achievement of the congress was the adoption of a new programme for German Social-Democracy. A report on it was presented by Liebknecht. The Erfurt Programme being essentially Marxist, was an important step for ward compared with the Gotha Programme. The Lassallean reformist dogmas had been dropped. The new programme scientifically substantiated the inevitability of the collapse of capitalism and its replacement with socialism, and pointed out that, in order to be able to restructure society along socialist lines, the proletariat must win political power. At the same time, the programme had serious shortcomings, the principal one being its failure to state that the dictatorship of the proletariat was the instrument of the socialist transformation of society. Also missing were propositions concerning the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a democratic republic, the remoulding of Germany's political system and other important matters. In this respect, the criticisms made by Engels in A Critique of the Draft Social-Democratic Programme of 1891 (see present edition, Vol. 27, pp. 217-34) also apply to the ver sion of the programme adopted in Erfurt. The resolutions of the Erfurt congress showed that Marxism had firmly taken root in Germany's working-class movement.