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Special pages :
Statement on the Closure of L'Egalité
| Author(s) | Paul Lafargue Frederick Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | February 1883 |
First published in Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 11, March 8, 1883
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 24
Note from MECW :
This statement, written before February 26, 1883 probably by a staff member of L'Egalité (perhaps by Paul Lafargue) in view of the closure of the newspaper of the French Workers' Party, was sent by Engels to the Sozialdemokrat editorial board. It was enclosed with the letter of February 27-March 1, 1883 to the editor, Eduard Bernstein. "L'Egalité has gone shut again," wrote Engels, "and I would ask you to publish the following facts (see enclosed slip of paper) in the Sozialdemokrat" (MECW, Vol. 46). The translation of this statement into German was probably made by Engels.
The facts cited relate to the fourth and fifth series of L'Égalité, whose publication was terminated and resumed several times since its foundation in 1877. The fourth series appeared from October 24, 1882 and throughout 1883. The fifth series was published between February 15 and 26, 1883.
The statement appeared in Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 11, March 8, 1883, and was prefaced by the editorial note: "After a brief existence L'Egalité was unfortunately forced to close. The following has been written to us in this connection."
The editorial board of L'Egalité[1] had concluded an agreement with a printer[2] for two years, under which the latter bore the expenses and shared the profits equally with the editorial board. A sale of 6,000 copies would cover the expenses. The first issue sold 3,800 copies straightaway. But by the third issue the printer already declared that he no longer wished to pay out money in order to disseminate ideas which he did not share; henceforth he would pay only for the setting and the paper, the editorial board would have to provide the rest. Reference to the contract did not help. Accept or the paper closes (c'est à prendre ou à laisser). In return, he finally allowed the editorial board to receive the income from advertisements and sales outside Paris. Four days later the printer declared that this also had to stop; the editorial board would have to take over the newspaper on its own account. Since the board lacked the resources to do this, the newspaper was thus doomed. The editorial board will sue the man for breach of contract, but the newspaper remains dead and buried. The whole secret is that the man is being given a large Orleanist paper to print and has evidently been told that he must first show thedamned socialists the door; after all, they had committed the crime of advocating the confiscation of the Orleans fortune.