Preface to Marx-Engels Collected Works Volume (48)

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Volume 48 of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels contains Engels’ letters dated from January 1887 to July 1890.

It contains letters to participants in the working-class and socialist movement in many parts of the world, though the main focus is on Britain, France, Germany and the United States. In Germany Engels documents the struggles of the Social Democrats against the AntiSocialist Law, and their increasing success in the Reichstag elections. He also welcomes to Britain the producers of the Sozialdemokrat, exiled from Zurich. In France he urges the Socialists to organise a proper daily paper, to be less fractious in their dealings with the international movement and to make more effort to communicate with other parties. In England he castigates the old-style trade unions and warmly welcomes the development of the new unions - a development in which Eleanor Marx played a major role. He is fairly dismissive of the SDF and Socialist League, seeing the new unionism as likely to produce new leaders for the socialist movement. Many of Engels’ letters to the US concern a dispute over money between Edward Aveling and the Socialist Labour Party, in which Engels loyally takes the part of Aveling. Engels takes the view that the official socialist parties in both the US and Britain will be swept aside as the working class develops its own organisations. In summer 1888 Engels visited the US and he writes interestingly of what he observes.

Many letters in this volume concern the two 1889 International Paris Congresses organised by The Workers Party of France and the Possibilists. Engels comments trenchantly on the competing strands within the French and international movement. Following on from the success of the Worker’s Party conference, an international celebration of Mayday was organised for the following year in many European countries, which Engels also documents. These events were the beginnings of the Second International.

Other letters contain information about Engels’ work in carrying on the editing of Marx’s writings, especially Capital Volume 2. Engels writes of the difficulties of reading Marx’s writing and hits on the idea of training others to decipher it. Engels also corresponds with his US publishers about his own work, particularly the American edition of the Condition of the Working Class in Britain. Other letters concern other publishing, translating and revising projects, of work by both Marx and Engels. On many occasions Engels bemoans the fact that his involvement in the shenanigans and intrigues of the socialist and working class movement keep him from his scholarly work - as do his increasing problems with his eyes.

A recurring theme in the letters is Engels’ fear that rivalry between the great European powers will bring war, which will destroy the nascent socialist movement. He also comments on Bismarck’s relations with three generations of German emperors - both William I and Frederick III died in 1888, to be succeeded by William II, of whom Engels had a very low opinion. He is critical of both German and French nationalism, and is critical in particular of the Boulangist current in the French workers’ movement, which he see as part of the recurring French problem of Bonapartism.

These letters also show the personal side of Engels’ life, particularly in his letters to Laura Lafargue. We hear of visits from Eleanor Marx, ‘Pumps’ Rosher (Engels’ niece by marriage) Schorlemmer, and many others, and of holidays and celebrations. His affection for Helen Demuth (Nim) shines through, as does his fondness for all his (largely adopted) family, especially Marx’s daughters. Although Engels could be a formidable opponent he was clearly a very good friend.

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This volume was largely edited by Progress Publishers in Russia but, due to the changing fortunes of that company, the work has been finished in the UK by Lawrence and Wishart. This accounts for some of the slight differences in format. We have made every effort - with slightly less resources than the old Progress Publishers - to keep to the high standards of previous volumes, and hope readers will bear with us as we complete the last volumes of the Collected Works.

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The translations for this volume were made by Peter and Betty Ross, Rodney Livingstone, K. M. Cook and Stephen Smith.