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Special pages :
Letter to the Editors of Der Volksstaat, October 20, 1872
Author(s) | Karl Marx |
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Written | 20 October 1872 |
First published in Der Volksstaat, No. 86, October 26, 1872
Printed according to the newspaper
Source: Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 23
This letter was published in English for the first time in The Hague Congress of the First International. September 2-7, 1872. Reports and Letters, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978.
The leading article in No. 84 of the VolksstaatââVom Haager Kongress. IIIâ[1]âcontains a factual error concerning me which I consider it necessary to rectify, and that, be it noted, only because it has slipped into the Volksstaat. If I considered it worth the trouble to rectify the lies, calumnies, infamy and even involuntary âerrorsâ of the press which is hostile to me, I would not have a minute left for actual work!
The article cited says:
âLafargue, far from being Marxâs âadjutantâ, abstained from voting when it was a question of expelling SchwitzguĂ©bel, Guillaumeâs comrade, although the motion for expulsion[2] was tabled by Marxâ
That motion was tabled by the commission of inquiry appointed by the Congress, not by me. What I proposed at the Congress was the expulsion of the Alliance and the appointment of a commission of inquiry for that purpose. I appeared in front of this commission, just like others, as a witness for the prosecution. Only towards the end of the inquiry, at the last moment, and indeed during a sitting of the Congress, was I called upon. Previously, one of the members of the commission had desired a private meeting with me to elucidate purely factual questions. I refused, in order to avoid even the appearance of any personal influence on the commission.
When I was questioned by the commission I did not say a word about SchwitzguĂ©bel or his bell-wether, Guillaume. I mentioned only one of the Alliancists[3] attending the Congress and expressed my conviction that either he was not a member of the âsecretâ Alliance or that in any case he had for a long time been excluded from it.
I voted at the last Congress sitting for SchwitzguĂ©belâs expulsion because the proofs of his membership of the âsecretâ Alliance were exactly the same as those of Guillaumeâs. In these circumstances, SchwitzguĂ©belâs emotional poor-sinner speech could not shake my conviction. Let it be noted in passing that Mr. Guillaume liesâas incidentally every member of a âsecretâ society is obliged to do â intentionally in the Bulletin jurassienne when he avers that SchwitzguĂ©bel had declared solidarity with him.[4] On the contrary. Guillaume stated with great emphasis that SchwitzguĂ©bel would stand or fall with him, but SchwitzguĂ©bel turned a deaf ear to this cry in extremis[5]! His poor-sinner speech made no mention of Guillaume, and it was this poor-sinner speech that bribed the majority. As a member of the commission for publication of the Congress proceedings I naturally had to go very carefully into the official Minutes of the Congress.
In respect of Lafargue it must be noted that the honest Biedermann[6] is lying when he designates him as delegate for Barcelona.[7] Lafargue was delegated by the Portuguese Federal Council, the New Madrid Federation and also by a Spanish Section.
Karl Marx
- â Of October 19, 1872; the article was written by A. Hepner.â Ed
- â When publishing Marx's letter, the editors of Der Volksstaat gave the following footnote here: "Unfortunately the words 'of the Alliance' have been omitted by negligence here. Because of this misprint one could really think that Marx tabled the motion to expel SchwitzguĂ©bel, which was not the case." Marx quoted from one of the articles on the Hague Congress written by Adolf Hepner (see Note 198).
- â Tomas Morago.â Ed.
- â [J. Guillaume,] "Le CongrĂšs de la Haye", Bulletin de la FĂ©dĂ©ration jurassienne..., No. 17-18, September 15-October 1, 1872.â Ed.
- â At the point of death.â Ed
- â A pun on Biedermann, which means "honest man" and was also the name of the editor of the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.â Ed
- â The article "On the Hague Congress. Ill" criticised Karl Biedermann's article in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung saying that Paul Lafargue was the Barcelona delegate to the Hague Congress.