Letter to Victor Adler, September 27, 1892

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 27 September 1892


First published in Victor Adlers Aufsätze, Reden und Briefe, Erstes Heft: Victor Adler und Friedrich Engels, Wien, 1922
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO VICTOR ADLER

IN VIENNA

London, 27 September 1892

Dear Victor,

Barely had my (registered) letter gone off yesterday[1] than a messenger arrived from the Crédit Lyonnais[2] and handed me the £15 in question in settlement of my loan. Receipt of this is hereby gratefully acknowledged.

The Marseilles Trades Unions (syndicats) Congress,[3] which preceded the one held by the Workers' Party,[4] resolved not to send delegates to the Eight Hours Congress in Glasgow[5] convoked by the TRADES UNIONS, but instead to invite the TRADES UNIONS to Zurich. Lafargue writes to say that the party congress will pass a similar resolution. Were your trades unions to make a pronouncement along the same lines, it would create an impression over here. In the eyes of the bumptious gentlemen of the old TRADES UNIONS, resolutions adopted by political working men's congresses don't count!

Regards from Louise to your wife[6] and children and yourself, and likewise from

Your

F.E.

  1. ↑ See this volume, pp. 539-41.
  2. ↑ See this volume, pp. 519-20, 522-24, 528-29, 530-31 and 533-35.
  3. ↑ The fifth congress of the National Federation of Trade Unions, held in Marseilles, 19-23 September 1892, discussed, among other matters (the questions of the general strike, of May Day celebrations, of women's and child labour in industry), the decision of the Glasgow Congress of British Trades Unions (see Note 540). The congress resolved to stay away from the international congress on the eight-hour working day called by the British trades unions and instead invite their representatives to the 1893 International Socialist Workers' Congress in Zurich (see Note 541).
  4. ↑ The tenth congress of the French Workers' Party was held in Marseilles from 24 to 28 September 1892. It discussed the party's position and activities, in particular its work in the countryside, the celebration of May Day, the party's participation in the International Socialist Workers' Congress in Zurich in 1893 (see Note 541) and in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, and other matters. The congress adopted an agrarian programme which contained a number of specific demands reflecting the interests of the farm labourers and small peasants. The congress decided against the party's participation in the international congress called by the British trades unions to discuss the eight-hour working day (see Note 540) and for inviting British trade unionists to the Zurich Congress.
  5. ↑ See Note 540.
  6. ↑ Emma Adler