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Special pages :
Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 5, 1868
| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 5 December 1868 |
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43
To Engels in Manchester
London, 5 December 1868
Dear Fred,
Enclosed :
1. Letter from Schweitzer,
2. Mineworkers of Lugau,
3. Russe Serno-Solovyevich (author of the pamphlet against Goegg[1]).
So Schweitzer is determined to become king of the tailors in Germany! Good luck to him. On one point he is right—Wilhelm’s[2] incapability! His claim that the Nurembergers[3]—on pain of high treason—should enroll under his leadership is VERY COOL INDEED.[4] Wilhelm becomes stupider every day. What a lousy paper![5]
From the letter from Lugau[6] it emerges that he has so far done nothing with reference to the International. At the same time, he plays fine tricks on us. In his ‘cosy’ way, he announces that the ‘International Working Men’s Association’ costs nothing, so that all and sundry may join without paying. From Switzerland Becker complains about this absurdity.[7]
Salut
Your
K. M.
- ↑ [A. Serno-Solovyevich] À propos de la grève. Réponse à M. Goegg (signed by the pen-name A. Ébéniste).
- ↑ Wilhelm Liebknecht's
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ A reference to Schweitzer’s reply of 2 December 1868 to Marx’s letter of 13 October 1868. Schweitzer defended the draft Statutes of the Lassallean trade unions (which Marx had criticised) and the political course of the General Association of German Workers which he headed. Schweitzer declared that he had more reason for leadership of the German workers’ movement than Liebknecht, and claimed that control should be concentrated in his hands. As he put it, a reconciliation between Liebknecht and him was possible only if Marx, whom both sides recognised as the ‘spiritual Eminence’ should personally intervene to support Schweitzer against Liebknecht.
- ↑ Demokratisches Wochenblatt
- ↑ A reference to the letter from the Saxon miners of Lugau, Nieder-Würschnitz and Oelsnitz, dated 15 November 1868, which expressed their wish to join the International, was sent to Marx and read at the General Council meeting of 24 November 1868.
- ↑ In his letter to the General Council of 29 November 1868, written on behalf of the Central Committee of the German-speaking sections in Geneva, Johann Philipp Becker wrote that Bebel, President of the Union of the German Workers’ Associations, had stated in his circular letter that societies could join the International Working Men’s Association without paying membership dues. Bebel’s purpose in doing so was to popularise the resolution on joining the International passed by the Nuremberg Congress. This question was discussed at the General Council meeting on 15 December 1868, at which Marx stated that he had requested Liebknecht to remove that point from the circular letter.