| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 26 March 1894 |
ENGELS TO PABLO IGLESIAS
IN MADRID
[Draft]
[London, 26 March, 1894]
My dear friend Iglesias!
I duly received your letter dated 24 November, and I begin my reply by stating that this letter will be the last, if you persist in addressing me as 'usted'. Indeed, I have reason to feel offended by the fact that you refuse to address me in the manner customary among old members of the International and comrades-in-arms, the form of address which Anselmo Lorenzo, and many other comrades, old and young[1] accorded me as far back as 1872. So. let us please address each other as 'tu'!
I shall continue in French: I have not written in Spanish for more than twenty years now, and it would take me all day to write a letter in Spanish. Please forgive me![2]
Well now. I am very sorry that I missed the opportunity to see you in Zurich. 189 When I arrived at the Tonhalle[3] on the Saturday morning, many friends came to talk with me in the restaurant before going in to the meeting: I asked almost all of them to go and find the Spanish delegation, and to tell you that I was waiting for you; however, no one came. After the congress ended, I was told that I would certainly see you in the afternoon, on the steamboat. However, I looked for you in vain, and now I know what had happened. On the Sunday, no one was able to tell me where you were staying. I was told time and again that you had left, and I lost all hope of meeting you. I was extremely sorry, since one of the reasons, and not the least, why I came to Zurich was the hope of seeing my old friend Iglesias face to face and shaking his hand.
Thank you for sending me regularly El Socialistae, which I read with great pleasure every Saturday evening, and from which I have the satisfaction of seeing that you are gradually spreading across the whole of Spain, that socialism is being established on the ruins of Carlism 352 in the Basque countries, and that far away provinces of Galicia and Asturia are beginning to join the movement. Good luck!
As for the anarchists, they are perhaps on the verge of killing themselves. This fever of violence, this volley of assassinations, senseless and, in the final analysis, paid for and incited by the police, cannot but open the eyes of the bourgeoisie to the nature of this propaganda of madmen and agents provocateurs. 353 Even the bourgeoisie will realise in the end that it is absurd to pay the police, and through the police the anarchists, to blow up the very bourgeois who pay them. And if now we also risk suffering from the bourgeois reaction, we shall benefit in the long run because this time we shall succeed in proving to everyone that there is a world of difference between ourselves and the anarchists.
Over here the movement is progressing quite slowly. There is certainly a strong tendency towards socialism among the working masses. However, the historical conditions in England are such that this tendency in the masses produces, among the leaders, a host of different cross-currents which even fight against each other. Here, as in France, there will only be unity when there are some socialists in parliament. Today there are only two—which is one too many, or at least, too few.
In Italy the situation is becoming critical and revolutionary. I am sending you the Critica Sociale with an article which I have written on the request of my friends from Milan. 334
In Germany we are continuing as usual. It is a well-organised and well-disciplined army which is growing every day, and which is advancing towards its goal with a sure and implacable step. In Germany we can almost calculate the day when[4] state power will fall into our hands.
In the meantime, I draw your attention to Austria. There a great battle is in the making. The ruling classes, the feudal nobility and the bourgeoisie, have exhausted their resources. An electoral reform is now inevitable. They are trying to arrange things so that the working class will not have too many representatives in parliament. But the workers are determined, they are forcing the bourgeois to retreat step by step, until they concede universal suffrage. After Zurich I visited Vienna; judging by what I saw there, the Austrian socialists have a great future.[5]
When I had reached this point, I received your letter dated 22 March. Unfortunately I am unable to send you a few lines for 1st May, since I have to finish the final editing of the third volume of Das Kapital, and am obliged to refuse any kind of collaboration, be it in connection with 18th March, or with 1st May. And what I have refused to the French, the Germans, the Austrians and others, I also cannot do for you.
Affectionately yours.