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Special pages :
Letter to Karl Marx, November 24, 1847
First published: in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, 1913.
To Marx in Brussels
Engels sent this letter to Marx on the eve of the Second Congress of the Communist League for which they both made thorough preparations and expected to reach a final agreement concerning their stand during their meeting on the way to London. What Engels writes here on certain points, e.g. a Communist League programme not in the form of a catechism or confession of faith[1] but of a manifesto, found expression in the congress decisions.
The Second Congress of the Communist League was held in London from 29 November to 8 December 1847. It was attended by delegates from Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland and Denmark. Marx represented the League’s Brussels communities, Engels the Paris communities and Victor Tedesco the Liège communities. During many days of discussion Marx and Engels defended the principles of scientific communism on which the congress based its decisions. It was resolved that in all its external relations the League would come out openly as a communist party. The congress adopted the previously drawn up Rules in an improved form, a clause clearly defining the League’s communist aim being included. On the instruction of the Second Congress Marx and Engels wrote as the League’s programme the Manifesto of the Communist Party, which was published in February 1848.
An excerpt from this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence, 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London, 1934, and International Publishers, New York, 1935.
Paris, 23-24 November 1847[edit source]
Dear Marx,
Not until this evening was it decided that I should be coming. Saturday evening, then, in Ostend, Hôtel de la Couronne, just opposite the railway station beside the harbour, and Sunday morning across the water. If you take the train that leaves between 4 and 5, you'll arrive at about the same time as I do.
If, contrary to expectations, there is no packet-boat to Dover on Sundays, write and tell me by return. I. e., since you will receive this letter on Thursday morning, you must make inquiries at once and, should a letter be necessary, it must be posted the same evening – before five o'clock, I think – at the main post office. So if you want to make any changes as regards the meeting place there is still time. If I haven’t heard by Friday morning I shall count on meeting you and Tedesco on Saturday evening at the Couronne. We shall then have time enough to talk things over; this congress must be a decisive one, as this time we shall have it our own way.
For a long time now I have been completely at a loss to understand why you have not put a stop to Moses’ gossip. It’s been giving rise to the most devilish confusion for me here and the most tedious contradictory speeches to the workers. Entire district sittings have been wasted over it, nor is there any possibility of effectively combating this ‘vapid’ nonsense in the communities; particularly before the elections there could be no question of it.
I expect to see L. Blanc again tomorrow. If not, I shall in any case see him the day after tomorrow. If I have nothing to add at the end of this letter, you will hear the sequel on Saturday.
By the way, Reinhardt talked nonsense to me about the number of copies sold [The Poverty of Philosophy] – not 37, but 96 had been sold a week ago today. That same day I myself took your book to L. Blanc. All the copies had been despatched save to Lamartine (not here), L. Blanc and Vidal, whose address cannot be found. I have had it taken to the Presse.
By the way, Frank’s dispatch arrangements have been truly appalling.
At least see that Moses doesn’t get up to any nonsense during our absence! Au revoir, then!
Your
E.
Tuesday evening[edit source]
Verte [PTO]
Give a little thought to the Confession of Faith. I think we would do best to abandon the catechetical form and call the thing Communist Manifesto. Since a certain amount of history has to be narrated in it, the form hitherto adopted is quite unsuitable. I shall be bringing with me the one from here, which I did [Principles of Communism]; it is in simple narrative form, but wretchedly worded, in a tearing hurry. I start off by asking: What is communism? and then straight on to the proletariat – the history of its origins, how it differs from earlier workers, development of the antithesis between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, crises, conclusions. In between, all kinds of secondary matter and, finally, the communists’ party policy, in so far as it should be made public. The one here has not yet been submitted in its entirety for endorsement but, save for a few quite minor points, I think I can get it through in such a form that at least there is nothing in it which conflicts with our views.
Wednesday morning[edit source]
Have just received your letter[2] to which the above is an answer. I went to see L. Blanc. I'm remarkably unlucky with him – il est en voyage, he’s travelling and will perhaps be back today. I shall go there again tomorrow and, if necessary, the day after.
I can’t be in Ostend by Friday evening because the money won’t have been got together until Friday.
This morning your cousin Philips came to see me.
Born should make quite a good speech if you drum something into him. It’s good that the Germans are represented by a working man.[3] But Lupus must be purged of all trace of his excessive modesty. The good fellow is one of those rare people who have to be thrust into the foreground. Not Weerth, for heaven’s sake, as representative! A man who was always too lazy, until pitchforked by his succès d’un jour at the Congress.[4] And who, to boot, wishes to be an independent member He must he kept to his own sphere.
- ↑ The reference is to the congress of the League of the Just at which, as agreed between the League leaders in London (H. Bauer, J. Moll, K. Schapper) and Marx and Engels early in 1847, the League was to be reorganised. The congress was held between 2 and 9 June 1847. Engels represented the Paris communities, and Wilhelm Wolff, briefed by Marx, was a delegate of the Brussels communists.
Engels’ active participation in the work of the congress affected the course and the results of its proceedings. The League was renamed the Communist League, the old motto of the League of the Just ‘All men are brothers’ was replaced by a new, Marxist one: ‘Working Men of All Countries, Unite!’ The congress expelled the Weitlingians from the League. The last sitting on 9 June approved the draft programme and the draft Rules of the League, which had been drawn up either by Engels or with his help. Both documents and the congress circular to the League members were sent to the local communities and districts for discussion to be finally approved at the next, second congress.
This congress laid the foundation for the first international proletarian communist organisation in history.
In the summer of 1847 the London Central Authority of the Communist League distributed for discussion in the League’s local communities and districts the ‘Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith’ drawn up by Engels and approved by the First Congress. In mid-October, when Engels returned to Paris from Brussels, the League’s draft programme written in the form of a catechism was already being discussed in the Paris communities. Hess proposed to the Paris District Committee his own version of the draft, which was rejected after sharp criticism by Engels. But Engels was no longer satisfied with his own version because in drafting it he had to take into account the fact that the delegates to the League’s First Congress were still influenced by utopian communism. In a new version — ‘Principles of Communism’ — drawn up by Engels this shortcoming was eliminated and the programme principles of the working-class movement were elaborated in greater detail, but still in the form of a catechism. This new document was later approved by the Paris communities as the draft programme for the Second Congress of the Communist League. - ↑ Marx’s letter to Engels written about 22 November 1847 has not been found.
- ↑ The working man referred to was Stephan Born, who was to speak at the meeting of the Democratic Association in Brussels held to mark the seventeenth anniversary of the Polish revolution of 1830 instead of Marx who at that time was to take part in the Second Congress of the Communist League in London. Below Engels mentions Wilhelm Wolff (Lupus) and Georg Weerth as possible representatives, with Born, of the German Workers’ Society at the Brussels meeting. It was held on 29 November 1847, and Born spoke on behalf of the German workers.
A report on the meeting was published in the Deutsche-Brüsseler-Zeitung, No. 96, 2 December 1847. - ↑ The reference is to Georg Weerth’s speech at the International Congress of Economists held in Brussels on 16-18 September 1847 to discuss free trade. Marx, Engels and Wilhelm Wolff also attended the congress, intending to make use of it to criticise bourgeois economics (the free trade doctrine, in particular) and to defend working-class interests. When Weerth made a speech along these lines the congress organisers closed the discussion on 18 September without allowing Marx to speak. Excerpts from Weerth’s speech were published in a few German, British and French newspapers. It was published in full in the Belgian Atelier Démocratique on 29 September 1847. A report on the proceedings of the congress is given by Engels in his articles ‘The Economic Congress’ and ‘The Free Trade Congress at Brussels’.