Interview given to the New Yorker Volkszeitung

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Engels gave this interview to a representative of the New Yorker Volkszeitung on September 19, 1888 at the end of his tour of the USA. Unwilling to meet certain members of German socialist organisations in America, towards which he had a negative attitude, Engels travelled incognito and did his best to avoid any kind of contacts with the press. However, Jonas, editor of the New Yorker Volkszeitung, who had learned about Engels' stay in New York, arranged an appointment for him with Theodor Cuno, former activist of the First International, as his representative. The interview was published by the newspaper without obtaining Engels' approval of the text. It was reprinted by the Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung on September 25 and Wochenblatt der New Yorker Volkszeitung on September 29. Later, on October 13, it was also reprinted by the Sozialdemokrat.

Question: Is socialism in England moving forward — that is, do the English working men’s organisations accept the socialist critique of economic development more readily than they used to, and do they aspire—to any extent worth mentioning—to the “ultimate aims” of socialism?

Engels: I am quite satisfied with the progress of socialism and the workers’ movement in England; but this progress mainly consists in the development of the proletarian consciousness of the masses. The official workers’ organisations, the trade unions, which were threatening in places to become reactionary, are obliged to limp along behind, like the Austrian Landsturm.

Question: What is the position in this respect in Ireland? Is there anything there—apart from the national question — that could arouse hope among socialists?

Engels : A pure socialist movement cannot be expected from Ireland for quite a long time yet. First people want to become small landowning farmers, and when they are, along comes the mortgage and ruins them all over again. Meanwhile that is no reason why we shouldn’t help them to free themselves from their landlords—that is, to make the transition from a semi-feudal to a capitalist condition.

Question: What is the attitude of the English workers to the Irish movement?

Engels: The masses are for the Irish. The organisations, like the workers’ aristocracy in general, follow Gladstone and the liberal bourgeois, and go no further than they.

Question: What do you think about Russia? That is, how far have you modified your view—which you and Marx expressed some six years ago when I was in London—that because of the nihilist, terrorist successes of the day the impulse for a European revolutionary movement would probably come from Russia?

Engels: On the whole I am still of the opinion that a revolution or even just the convocation of some kind of national assembly in Russia would revolutionise the whole European political situation. But today this is no longer the most obvious possibility. To make up for it, we have a new William.

To the question of how he would characterise the present European situation, Engels answered: “I have not seen a European paper for seven weeks now, so I am in no position to characterise anything that is going on over there.”

This concluded the discussion.