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Special pages :
Letter to Friedrich Engels, August 2, 1869
| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 2 August 1869 |
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 2 August 1869
DEAR FRED,
Because of Kugelmann my whole travel plan has been thrown to the winds.
If I visited him before he went to Karlsbad,[1] he would move heaven and earth to take me with him to this boring and expensive place—or I would hinder him in carrying out his own plan, which he must carry out for the sake of his health.
I have therefore written to him[2] that I must go to Holland on family business at the end of August, and from there I would perhaps have the opportunity to see him in Hanover after his return. I really knew no other way of arranging things. Other reasons for delaying the journey:
Firstly: the Lafargue FAMILY may be coming to London soon. Secondly: If I left here now, the General Council would be completely at a loss with the necessary work with regard to the Basle Congress.[3]
Tussy appears to want to stay on in Manchester. During the 14 days of your absence the excuse for this is plausible. Your drawing will be sent to her from a local (English) seaside resort.[4]
Enclosed letters from Bebel and Wilhelm.[5]
You will I hope also be coming to London on your journey.
Your
Moor
So far I have not seen that Meissner has announced the 18th Brumaire. His motto: Chi va piano va sano?[6]
- ↑ Karlovy Vary
- ↑ See the previous letter.
- ↑ A reference to the Congress of the First International held in Basle on 6-11 September 1869. It was attended by 78 delegates from England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Spain and North America. Marx was not present at the Congress but took an active part in preparing it. The General Council Minutes include his speeches dealing with individual items on the Congress's agenda: the agrarian question (6 July), the right of inheritance (20 July) and public education (10 and 17 August) (see present edition, Vol. 21).
The question of the right of inheritance was entered on the agenda, which was approved on 22 June 1869, at the suggestion of the Geneva Section headed by the Bakuninists. They proposed to annihilate the right of inheritance, believing this to be the only means of eliminating private property and social injustice.
At the General Council meeting of 3 August, Marx read out a Report of the General Council on the Right of Inheritance, prepared by him,which was approved and submitted to the Congress on behalf of the Council. However, at the Congress itself the question of the right of inheritance provoked a heated debate. Despite the opposition of Liebknecht and De Paepe, Bakunin managed to win some of the delegates over to his side. No resolution concerning this matter was passed.
After discussing the land question for a second time (the first discussion of land ownership took place at the Brussels Congress [see Note 138]) the majority of the Basle Congress delegates voted for abolishing private property in land and converting it over into common property; the Congress also passed resolutions on the unification of trade unions at the national and international levels.
The Basle Congress was the scene of the first clash between supporters of Marx and Engels, and the followers of Bakunin's anarchist doctrine. The latter failed to assume leadership in the International Working Men's Association. The Basle Congress confirmed that the General Council was to remain in London.
In order to consolidate the unity and organisation of the International, the General Council was granted a right to expel from the International any section that did not comply with its Rules, on condition that the Federal Council and the Congress approved. - ↑ See this volume, p. 336.
- ↑ A reference to the letters of August Bebel of 30 July 1869, and Wilhelm Liebknecht, late July 1869. Bebel's letter was a reply to Marx's letter (not extant) of 27 July 1869 (see this volume, p. 332). Bebel and Liebknecht supported Marx's critical attitude to Becker's plan for a workers' organisation in Germany (see Note 409) and advocated its formation on the basis of the International's principles.
- ↑ Who goes slowly goes surely.