Letter to Friedrich Engels, August 29, 1868

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Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 29 August 1868


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43
Keywords : Letter, Friedrich Engels


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 29 August 1868

DEAR FRED,

The £20 received with BEST THANKS. Tussy had a great shock today. She found Dicky dead in his cage although he was still singing merrily yesterday. He has been buried with full honours.

Dupont has received the mandate from Naples to represent the Neapolitan branch.[1] Since the Mentana business, as we see from Italian reports, there has been a general reactionary trend in domestic affairs, and in particular the workers' right to meet and form societies has almost been done away with.1

In Paris, happily, we still have our old people, behind bars. The committee there will send a délégué to Brussels, but against that the various corps de métier[2] will send 8-9.[3] Our people have written to us from prison suggesting that these corps de métier MEN should be 'compromised politically' so that there should be no way back for them. Just to show the sort of methods to which the Paris police have recourse: A gentleman calling himself 'Eugène Dupont' from London visited the wives of several of the prisoners to pump them. He was a police agent, but his play-acting did not work anywhere.

Eccarius left for Nuremberg as our délégué today.[4] From there he will go to Brussels. He is correspondent of The Times in both cases.[5]

The so-called branche française,[6] under the leadership of Messrs Pyat and Vésinier, is sending a delegate to Brussels in order— horribile dictu[7] — to put us in the dock!

Apropos. If Moore is still there, tell him it would be good if he could pay to me his USUAL CONTRIBUTION to the INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION by Tuesday[8]. We are weakly represented in Brussels, and every shilling that we can raise now will be used to send one MEMBER MORE there. TUESDAY NEXT IS OUR LAST SITTING this year before the congress.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ In 1868, the members of the International in Naples maintained contacts with the International Working Men's Association through Eugene Dupont, member of the General Council, who was their delegate at the Brussels Congress.
    The Neapolitan branch of the International became finally established in 1869. It was the first section of the International Working Men's Association in Italy, and quite a large one at that; it had many workers among its members. It was under the strong influence of the Bakuninists. Early in 1871, however, it disintegrated; with the help of Cafiero, who received instructions from Engels, it was reorganised and maintained regular contacts with the General Council. Cafiero kept its members informed about Engels' letters and the Association's documents. Soon, it became the International's principal centre in Italy, but was routed by the police in August 1871.
  2. ↑ trade societies
  3. ↑ Since the members of the second bureau of the International's Paris sections (see Note 91) had been arrested, more than ten representatives to the Brussels Congress (see Note 138) were sent mostly by the French professional unions affiliated with the International. Among them were mechanics, tin-smiths, cotton printers, bookbinders, house painters, marble and bronze workers.
  4. ↑ The Nuremberg Congress of the Union of German Workers' Associations led by Bebel was held on 5-7 September 1868. In all, 115 delegates from 93 sections in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were present. Apart from Georg Eccarius, the official representative of the General Council, several other members of the International attended. By 69 votes against 46, the Congress resolved to join the International Working Men's Association and adopted a programme recognising its basic principles. It also elected a committee of 16 to carry out this resolution. On 22 September 1868, the General Council approved the committee membership giving it the status of the Executive Committee of the International Working Men's Association in Germany. On 7 September liberal bourgeois members, who found themselves in the minority and were opposed to the Congress resolutions, announced their withdrawal from the Union. The Nuremberg Congress also resolved to organise trade unions and heard Liebknecht's report on armaments, in which he demanded that standing armies be disbanded. The Congress was an important step towards the foundation of a proletarian party in Germany.
  5. ↑ The Times published five reports by Eccarius on the work of the Brussels Congress of the International. They appeared on 9, 11, 14, 15 and 17 September 1868 under the heading 'International Working Men's Congress (From a Correspondent)'.
    Eccarius' reports on the Nuremberg Congress of the Union of German Workers' Associations (see Note 135) were not printed by The Times.
  6. ↑ A reference to the French Section of the International in London, founded in the autumn of 1865. Besides proletarian elements (Eugène Dupont, Hermann Jung, Paul Lafargue), the branch included representatives of the petty-bourgeois emigres (Le Lubez, Pierre Vésinier and later Félix Pyat). See also this volume, p. 62 and Note 89.-45, 62, 63, 75, 78, 83, 91, 173, 272, 481, 488, 497
  7. ↑ horrible to say
  8. ↑ 1 September
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