Apropos of the London Dockers' Strike

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This is an excerpt from Engels’ letter apparently addressed to Eleanor Marx. The excerpt was printed by The Labour Elector and published in German translation in the New Yorker Volkszeitung on September 25, 1889 and the Berliner Volks-Tribüne on October 26, 1889.

The London dockers’ strike from August 12 to September 14, 1889 was a major event in the British working-class movement of the late 19th century. Taking part in it were 30,000 dockers and over 30,000 workers of other trades; the majority were unskilled labourers who did not belong to any trade union. The strikers obtained higher wages and better working conditions. The dockers’ strike introduced more organisation into the movement: a, dockers’ and some other unions were set up which embraced a large number of unskilled workers and came to be known as the New Trade Unions

I envy you your work in the Dock Strike. It is the movement of the greatest promise we have had for years, and I am proud and glad to have lived to see it. If Marx had lived to witness this! If these poor down-trodden men, the dregs of the proletariat, these odds and ends of all trades, fighting every morning at the dock gates for an engagement, if they can combine, and terrify by their resolution the mighty Dock Companies, truly then we need not despair of any section of the working class. This is the beginning of real life in the East End, and if successful will transform the whole character of the East End. There—for want of selfconfidence, and of organisation among the poor devils grovelling in stagnant misery—lasciate ogni speranza. ... If the dockers get organised, all other sections will follow... It is a glorious movement and again I envy those that can share in the work.