Letter to the Committee for the International Meeting for the Claims of Labour

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Author(s) Frederick Engels
Written 9 April 1891


First published in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XVI, Part II, 1936
Printed according to the rough manuscript
Translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 27
Keywords : Italy, Labor movement, Letter

This is Engels’ reply to the letter from the Committee for the International Meeting for the Claims of Labour to be convened on April 12, 1891 in Milan. The Committee was formed by Milan’s democratic organisations and comprised prominent members of the Italian working-class and socialist movement. Seeking to give the forthcoming meeting a broad international character, the Committee sent out invitations to take part in it, or to express solidarity with it in writing, to workers‘ and socialist organisations of different countries, including the Social-Democratic Party of Germany and the French Workers‘ Party, as well as to many prominent socialists. Besides the official invitation, Engels was also sent a special letter (on Apri 12, 1891), which read: “You are one of the most known warriors in this battle between liberty and oppression. You are one of the most prominent men—as regards socialism—both in Germany and in England; and your letter of adhesion to our Meeting will have a great influence upon all working people.

“But your presence in Milan, on the 12th of April and—we hope—your speaking in favour of freedom and independence of workmen would have a greater influence both upon your countrymen and upon our comrades of other nations.”

Dear citizens,

I deeply regret that I am unable to accept your kind invitation, which does me great honour, to attend your meeting of the 12th inst. I regret it all the more since I feel a particular attachment to your country after holding the position of secretary for Italy twenty years ago on the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association.[1] Since then the International has disappeared in its official form; but in the spirit of solidarity with the working class of all countries it has always lived on; today it is more alive and more powerful than ever, so powerful that its old official form from 1864 to 1875 would no longer be able to contain the millions of European and American workers who are gathered around the red banner of the militant proletariat. I hope, as you do, that your meeting of April 12 will bring new columns of fighters into the great army of the worldwide proletariat; that it will contribute greatly to strengthening the bonds of solidarity which unite the Italian workers with their brothers beyond the Alps—French, German, Slav; and that it will finally mark a new stage in the emancipatory advance of the Italian proletariat.

We have made tremendous progress in the last twenty years; but there still remains much to be done before we can aspire to an immediate and certain victory. Dunque, avanti, sempre avanti![2]

London, April 9, 1891

F. E.

  1. ↑ Engels was the General Council's corresponding secretary for Italy in 1871-72 and the representative of the General Council for Italy in 1873.
  2. ↑ "Thus forward, always forward!"— Ed.
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