Letter to Laura Lafargue, April 26, 1887

From Marxists-en
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 26 April 1887


First published, in the language of the original (English), in F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. II, Paris, 1956
Reproduced from the original

Published in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48
Keywords : Letter, Laura Lafargue

London, 26 April 1887


My dear Laura,

My congratulations to Paul le candidat du Jardin des Plantes—et des animaux. Being, in his quality as a nigger, a degree nearer to the rest of the animal kingdom than the rest of us, he is undoubtedly the most appropriate representative of that district.[1] Let us hope the animaux[2] will have the best of it in this struggle against the bĂȘtes.[3] I am rather surprised at Baslu’s holding back, but if a set of men succeeds in being excluded from the press altogether,[4] what can they expect? Fom Mesa’s letter in the Spanish Socialista I see that the Blanquists too are making volte-face and approaching the Possibilists[5]—another bad sign. A little success—even relative—at the elections would therefore be very welcome when our people are under such a momentary cloud. I know very well that that cloud will pass, that Parisian party life is a continual change of ups and downs, but at the same time I cannot but wish that next time they will cherish their own little weekly paper a little more than those disreputable dailies to which they work hard to give a reputation in order to be kicked out as soon as they have succeeded.

That Stanton of yours seems to be an out-and-out Yankee. But the cutest Yankee in Europe is as often and as much out of his element as the toughest Polish Jew. They misjudge the people they have to deal with.[6] The New York Executive have launched in their despair another circular against Aveling saying that his statements are lies, yet making very important admissions in our favour.[7] We shall of course reply. But the affair is practically ended, the Executive are themselves accused in New York as swindlers and liars in another affair and on their trial before the New York sections; so that whatever they have said, say, or may say, loses all importance. In the meantime the Aufsichtsbehörde[8] of the American party appeals to them (to Edward and Tussy) to let the matter drop, and from very many places they receive very nice letters both from Americans and Germans. So that matter is virtually settled. Edward and Tussy’s agitation in the East End clubs is going on very favourably. The American example has its effects; it at last offers a handle to stir up the English working people.[9]

In the League[10] the Anarchists are on the decline, as everywhere when they are seriously handled instead of being trifled with. Their last proposal yesterday in the Council was, that at the Conference of Delegates[11] all vĂ©rification des mandats should be suppressed and anybody accepted who said he was a delegate—to allow them to manufacture their usual bogus votes. This however was too much even for Morris; yet a minority of five was found to vote for such nonsense!

The Pagny affair[12] is not quite clear to me yet. The gist of the matter lies in Art. 4, No. 1, of the German Penal Code:

‘Pourra ĂȘtre poursuivi selon les lois pĂ©nales de l’empire allemand:

1) un Ă©tranger qui aura commis, Ă  l’étranger {en pays Ă©tranger) un acte de haute trahison contre l’empire allemand ou contre un des Ă©tats fĂ©dĂ©rĂ©s, ou qui aura fait de la fausse monnaie.’[13]

To apply this article to anybody but a political refugee not naturalised abroad, must produce a collision with the country of the man prosecuted. No nation in its senses will stand such treatment and if they tried it upon an Englishman, the most peaceable minister would be compelled to send at once the British fleet to the German coast. Therefore this looks as if Bismarck wanted to place France between war or humiliation. For that he was ignorant of the warrant against Schnaebelé is impossible. And yet the state of Europe is such that a war would be, for Bismarck, to play va banque. The man must be completely mad to act thus.

Perhaps a few days more will give a clue. I really cannot imagine him to be such a consummate ass.

Enclosed the cheque Paul writes for ÂŁ12.

Nim is well—was at the theatre last night with Pumps—going again this week to the Princess’s—with Edward’s ticket. Beer is flowing plentiful—I consume fully 2 bottles a day and march three miles, and for the last few Sundays have taken a glass of Port—voila, du progrùs![14]

Bien Ă  vous, je vous embrasse

  1. ↑ Engels means the municipal elections in Paris held on 8 May 1887. Lafargue stood for election in the Fifth arrondissement (Jardin des Plantes). In the first ballot he received 568 votes and was third. In the second, on 15 May, he got 685 votes and was second.
  2. ↑ animals
  3. ↑ beasts
  4. ↑ After Jules Guesde, Gabriel Deville and other members of the French Workers’ Party had resigned from the editorial board of the Cri du peuple and after the Voie du peuple, the paper they had started, also ceased publication (see note 18), the Party’s weekly La Socialiste likewise closed down (the last issue appeared on 26 March 1887). The Party’s paper resumed publication on 11 June 1887.
  5. ↑ The Possibilists (Broussists) were a reformist trend in the French socialist movement between the 1880s and the early 20th century. Its leaders - Paul Brousse and Benoit Malon -caused a split in the French Workers’ Party (see note 33) in 1882 and formed the Federation of Socialist Workers. Its ideological basis was the theory of municipal socialism. The Possibilists pursued a ‘policy of the possible’ (‘la politique des possibilitĂ©s’). At the beginning of the 20th century the Possibilists merged with the French Socialist Party.
  6. ↑ In her letter of 24 April 1887 Laura Lafargue told Engels that she was contributing to the magazine European Correspondent co-owned by the American journalist Theodore Stanton and was being paid extremely irregularly.
  7. ↑ Engels received the second circular letter of the Executive of the Socialist Labor Party of North America, dated 30 March 1887, from Friedrich Adolph Sorge on 18 April. On Aveling’s statements see notes 47 and 65. Wilhelm Liebknecht issued a statement in defence of Aveling on 16 May.
  8. ↑ auditing committee
  9. ↑ After their return from the USA (see note 3) Eleanor Marx-Aveling and Edward Aveling launched a large-scale socialist propaganda campaign in London’s Radical Clubs (see note 22). Their purpose was, among other things, to familiarise the British workers with the experience of the US labour movement.
  10. ↑ The Socialist League was founded in December 1884 by a group of English socialists who had withdrawn from the Social Democratic Federation (see note 62). The League’s organisers included Eleanor Marx Aveling, Ernest Belfort Bax and William Morris. ‘The Manifesto of the Socialist League’ (see The Commonweal No.l, February 1885) stated that its members advocated ‘the principles of Revolutionary International Socialism’ and sought ‘a change in the basis of Society ... which would destroy the distinctions of classes and nationalities’. The tasks of the League included the formation of a national socialist party, the conquest of political power through the election of socialists to local government bodies, and the promotion of the trade union and co-operative movement. In the League’s early years its leaders took an active part in the working-class movement. However, in 1887 the League split into three factions (Anarchist elements, ‘parliamentarists and ‘anti-parliamentarists’). With sectarian tendencies growing stronger, the League gradually distanced itself from the day-to-day struggle of the British workers and finally disintegrated in 1889-90.
  11. ↑ On 29 May 1887 the third annual conference of the Socialist league (see note 21) was held in London. Delegates from 24 sections attended. The anarchists gained the upper hand; a resolution was adopted saying: ‘This conference endorses the policy of abstention from parliamentary action, hitherto pursued by the League, and sees no sufficient reason for altering it.
  12. ↑ This refers to the ‘SchnaebelĂ© case’, a conflict between France and Germany engineered by the Bismarck government. On 20 April 1887 Police Commissioner SchnaebelĂ©, a French border official in Pagny-sur-Moselle, was invited onto German territory, ostensibly for negotiations, and arrested on charges of organising espionage and encouraging young people in Alsace-Lorraine to emigrate from Germany. At the same time, the German ruling quarters launched a virulent anti-French press campaign. This was taken advantage of by French revanchist circles for stepping up anti-German propaganda. However, the governments of Russia, Great Britain and Austria-Hungary refused to support Bismarck. Germany was forced to beat a retreat. On 30 April SchnaebelĂ© was released and the conflict thus settled.
  13. ↑ ‘Liable to prosecution under the penal laws of the German Empire is: 1) a foreigner who has committed, abroad (in a foreign country), an act of high treason against the German Empire or against any one of the federated States, or who has manufactured forged money.’
  14. ↑ there's progress for you
Retrieved from "https://wikirouge.net/texts/en/w/index.php?title=Letter_to_Laura_Lafargue,_April_26,_1887&oldid=99802"