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Special pages :
Letter to the Editors of the Volksfreund, 1891
| Author(s) | Frederick Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 13 November 1891 |
Printed according to the newspaper hecked with the rough manuscript
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 27
Engels received an invitation to take part in the tenth anniversary celebrations of the Volksfreund newspaper to be held in Brunn (now Brno) on November 22, 1891 in a letter from the editorial board despatched in early November. The celebrations, which were to be in the nature of a political demonstration against the reactionary Austrian press laws, were banned by the police authorities.
London, November 13, 1891
My dear comrades,
Accept my heartiest thanks for your friendly invitation to the tenth anniversary celebrations for the Volksfreund. Unfortunately I shall be unable to come myself, since my work on the third volume of Marx’s Capital, which must finally be published, keeps me here. These lines must represent me.
I can however congratulate you heartily on this momentous occasion. I know what it costs to keep alive a militant Social Democratic paper like the Volksfreund for ten years under the Austrian press and police laws, and I know too, at least in general, the sacrifices which have had to be made to do this. That you have succeeded despite everything is all the more praiseworthy as the Austrian press laws, drafted in realisation that by and large the organs of the propertied classes are not dangerous, appear to aim at ruining or taming the workers‘ papers by pressure upon their financial resources. And therefore, if the workers of Brunn have managed, despite this financial pressure, to maintain their paper for ten years without in any way denying their banner, this is once again proof of the tenacity and readiness for sacrifice which is to be found today only amongst the workers.
I cannot end this letter without expressing once again my pleasure that, while young Czech[1] and old German bourgeois are everywhere at loggerheads, the Czech and German workers are fighting united, shoulder to shoulder, for the liberation of the entire proletariat.
Once again, heartiest thanks and best wishes from your old
Fr. Engels
- ↑ The Young Czechs, the Czech bourgeois-liberal party which championed the interests of industrial bourgeoisie. It initially formed the liberal wing of the National Party; in 1874, the Young Czech established an independent "free-thinking" party, which in the 1890 sbecame the Czech leading bourgeois party. They demanded that Austria-Hungary become a triune Austro-Hungarian-Czech monarchy and campaigned to strengthen the economic and political position of the Czech bourgeoisie by weakening that of the Austrian bourgeoisie. The Young Czechs were hostile towards Social Democracy and sought to undermine its influence among the workers.