Letter to Maltman Barry, September 15, 1872

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Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 September 1872


First published, in the language of the original (English), in: Friedrich Engels. 1820-1970. Referate. Diskussionen. Dokumente, Hanover, 1971
Reproduced from a handwritten copy
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44
Keywords : Letter, Maltman Barry


ENGELS TO MALTMAN BARRY[1]

IN LONDON

[London,] 15 September 1872

Dear Barry,

Marx wishes me to send you a few notes on the Hall of Science men,[2] here they are, I hope they will prove sufficient. Marx said he would send you the circular of the General Council[3] relating to these fellows, but for safety's sake I enclose you a copy which please return.

Yours truly,

F. Engels[4]

About April last a knot of men clubbed together, pretending to represent a few societies which nobody knows, and adopted the grandiloquent name of Universal Federalist Council of the I.W.M.A. and of the sections adhering to it.[5] Not one of the societies they pretended to represent belonged to the International. Not one of themselves belonged to it, on the contrary, two of them had been expelled from it. But this was the very reason why they claimed the right to supersede the then existing General Council and to [take the] direction of the International into their own hands. A circular of that General Council held them up to the ridicule of Europe and they were silent for a time. Now these very same men reappear under the name of Universal Federalist Congress. We find here again the same Landeck who entered at the last trial of the International in Paris (June 1870) into a solemn engagement with the Prefect of Police[6] not to occupy himself anymore with politics or with the International,[7] and [was] since expelled from the London society of French refugees.[8] The same Vésinier, author of a whole library of Holywell street[9] literature ad[10] Louis Napoleon, expelled from the International by a committee of the Brussels Congress in 1868, and from the London society of refugees in 1872. The same Schneider, denounced in the German Press as a disturber of workmen's meetings (the police used next morning to pay for the windows, glasses and furniture smashed by him and his helpmates) and as a swindler.[11] The same Zielinski, his right hand man, the same Adolphe Smith, etc., we find moreover a few additional pretenders to fame such as the Pole Mileski who during the conference[12] translated all speeches into Polish for the exclusive benefit of himself, he being the only Pole present most of the time, and Oudet whose harebrained tomfooleries during the Commune are still in the recollection of many. Add a few German poor workingmen from the East End and you have the whole composition of this Universal Congress of twenty five rogues and fools.

  1. ↑ This letter has survived as a certified handwritten copy made from the original by John Burns, a leading figure in the British workers' movement, among whose papers it is kept at the British Museum Library. The copy of the letter is dated 15 September 1872, which may be incorrect. The letter is likely to have been written somewhat later, since it deals with the international Federalist Congress which took place in London on 16-19 September 1872. However, it is possible that having learned in advance about the convocation and agenda of the congress, Engels decided to give a description of its participants prior to its opening.
  2. ↑ On 16-19 September 1872 the New Hall of Science, 142 Old Street, City Road, E.C., London (the headquarters of a group of radicals headed by Charles Bradlaugh), hosted an international congress convened by petty-bourgeois federalists as a gesture against the Hague Congress of the International (see Note 580). Its agenda was published in the Federation, No. 4, 14 September 1872.
  3. ↑ K. Marx, 'Declaration of the General Council Concerning the Universal Federalist Council'.
  4. ↑ Engels' signature is witnessed by the copyist.
  5. ↑ In April 1872 the Universal Federalist Council was formed in London, comprising what was left of the French Section of 1871 (see Note 338), some of the Lassalleans expelled from the German Workers' Educational Society in London, and representatives of the bourgeois Universal Republican League and the Land and Labour League. The Council proclaimed itself a 'true' leading body of the International in a pamphlet called Conseil fédéraliste universel de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs et des Sociétés républicaines socialistes adhérentes. This prompted Marx to write the 'Declaration of the General Council Concerning the Universal Federalist Council'. In September 1872 the Universal Federalist Council convened a congress in London which claimed to be a congress of the International Working Men's Association. Its subsequent activities amounted to in-fighting between the various cliques which laid claim to leadership of the workers' movement.
  6. ↑ J. Pietri
  7. ↑ See B. Landeck's statement to the Prefect of Police in Troisième procès de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs à Paris, p. 4.
  8. ↑ The society of French refugees refers to the French-Language Section in London (see Note 359). The above-mentioned (third) trial of members of the Paris Federation of the International took place in Paris between 22 June and 5 July 1870. Legal proceedings were instituted against 38 members of the International Working Men's Association. In the course of the trial, the attempts by the Bonapartist authorities to accuse them of involvement in a plot to assassinate Napoleon III collapsed. Nevertheless, the accused were given prison sentences and fined.
  9. ↑ Street in 19th century London notorious for filth and vice.
  10. ↑ on
  11. ↑ See T. Kalb, G. Beer, 'Wer ist Joseph Schneider?', Der Volksstaat, No. 14, 17 February 1872.
  12. ↑ the conference of April 1872 at which the Universal Federalist Council was established
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