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Special pages :
Obituary (1870)
| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | January 1870 |
First published in L'Internationale, No. 53, January 16, 1870
Printed according to the newspaper
Translated from the French
Published in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 21
Robert Shaw, a member of the General Council, a house-painter, died on December 31, 1869. At a General Council meeting on January 4, 1870 Marx was included in a deputation to attend the funeral on January 5. The General Council resolved that the news of Shawâs death should be communicated to the sections of the International. Marx, who corresponded on behalf of the General Council with De Paepe, leader of the Belgian sections, included this obituary in a letter to him dated January 8, 1870. The obituary was published by LâInternationale, No. 53, January 16, with an editorial note: âNews from Londonâ.
In English the obituary was published for the first time in The General Council of the First International. 1868-1870, Moscow, 1966.
Citizen Robert Shaw, Correspondent of the London General
Council for North America, and one of the founders of the International, died this week of pulmonary tuberculosis.
He was one of the most active members of the Council. A pure heart, iron character, passionate temperament, truly revolutionary intelligence, quite above any petty ambition or personal interest. A poor worker himself, he could always find a worker poorer than himself to help. As meek as a child in personal affairs, he indignantly rejected all manner of compromise in his public life. It is principally due to his constant efforts that the TRADES UNIONS have rallied around us. But this same work made him plenty of implacable foes. The English TRADES UNIONS, all of local origin, all originally founded with the exclusive purpose of maintaining wages, etc., were all more or less afflicted by the narrowness that characterised the medieval guilds. There was a little conservative party that wanted at all cost to preserve the basic framework of unionism. Since the foundation of the International, Shaw made it his lifeâs aim to break these voluntary chains and transform the unions into organised centres of the proletarian revolution. Success almost always crowned his efforts, but ever since that moment his life became a terrible battle in which his feeble health had to give way. He was already dying when he left for the Brussels Congress (September 1868). After his return, his good bourgeois masters banned him from all their works. He leaves a wife and daughter in poverty, but the English workers will not leave them in the lurch.