Speech at a Social-Democratic Meeting in Vienna

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Author(s) Frederick Engels
Written September 1893


First published in the Neue Freie Presse, No. 10440, September 15, 1893 and Arbeiter-Zeitung, No. 38, September 22, 1893
Printed according to the Arbeiter Zeitung, checked with the Neue Freie Presse
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 27
Collection(s): Arbeiter-Zeitung (Vienna), Neue Freie Presse
Keywords : Social democracy, Speech, Vienna

[NEWSPAPER REPORT][1]

Esteemed Comrades! I cannot leave this hall without expressing my deepest, heartfelt thanks for the undeserved reception given to me this evening. I can only say that unfortunately it is my fate to reap the fame of my departed friend. It is in this spirit that I accept your ovations. If I have been able to do anything for the movement in the fifty years I have belonged to it, I ask no reward. You are the finest reward! We have our people in the prisons of Siberia, we have them in the gold mines of California—everywhere, even as far afield as Australia. There is no country, no large state, where Social Democracy is not a power to be reckoned with. Everything that happens all over the world happens with due consideration to us. We are a great power that is to be feared, on which more depends than on the other great powers. That is my pride! We have not lived in vain, and can look back on our efforts with pride and satisfaction. In Germany they tried to stifle the movement by force, and each time the Social-Democratic movement has answered in ways which the bourgeoisie least expected.[2] The repeated elections, this steady, irresistible growth of the Social Democratic vote frightens the bourgeoisie, frightens Caprivi, and frightens all the authorities. (Tumultuous applause.) The previous speaker[3] observed that the Social-Democratic movement has always been underestimated abroad. My esteemed comrades, I have walked through the streets of Vienna and seen the wonderful buildings which the bourgeoisie has been kind enough to build for the proletariat of the future (tumultuous amusement) and I was also shown the magnificent arcaded building of the town hall, of which you have so deservedly taken possession. After that takeover of power no one will ever again underestimate you. (Vigorous applause.) That day was epoch-making. I saw the terror of the English newspaper correspondents— I was in London at the time—when they reported that on July 9 the proletariat ruled Vienna,[4] ruled it better than it has ever been ruled before. (Uproarious, persistent applause and hand-clapping. Constantly renewed cries of “Long live Engels”.)

  1. ↑ On his way back from Switzerland (in the company of August Bebel) after the Zurich congress, Engels stopped off for a few days in Vienna. On September 11, the Austrian Social Democrats held a reception in their honour, at which, according to the report in the Arbeiter-Zeitung (September 15, 1893) about 600 guests were present. On September 14, a meeting was held to discuss the results of the Zurich congress, with about 2,000 people taking part. Engels made the concluding speech. Apart from the Arbeiter-Zeitung and the Neue Freie Presse, the speech was reproduced in the Vorwärts, No. 219, September 17, 1893. It was first published in English in an abridged form in: K. Marx, F. Engels, V.I. Lenin, The Communist View on Morality, Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, Moscow, 1974, p. 68.
  2. ↑ Instead of this sentence, the report in the Neue Freie Presse has: “You are currently fighting for universal suffrage; that is one of the most powerful weapons in the hands of the proletariat. Universal suffrage is the sole means of gauging the power, the strength of the party. The history of Germany over the past twenty years teaches us this.”— Ed.
  3. ↑ Karl Leuthner. — Ed.
  4. ↑ Engels is referring to the mass demonstration of Viennese workers demanding universal suffrage, which was organised by the Austrian Social Democrats and held on July 9, 1893. In the course of the demonstration, in which over 40,000 people took part, a number of workers ‘meetings were held, including one in Vienna city nail.
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