Soweit aus der Fotokopie zu ersehen ist, besteht der Brief aus einem Bogen grauweißem Papier. Marx hat alle vier Seiten vollständig beschrieben. Schreibmaterial: schwarze Tinte.
Von unbekannter Hand: Vermerk mit Bleistift oben auf der ersten Seite: „3–8“.
I shall have you proposed by
Meanwhile I call your attention to the presence in your
committee of Robin
, Bakunine’s
agent
who, at Geneva, did all in his power to discredit the General
Council (he attacked it publicly in the
Égalité
) and to prepare
la dictature de Bakounine sur
In order to
International
but for about 1½ years. C’est un nouveau venu.
At the
Lausanne Congress (September
1868)
the
Ligue de la Paix et de la Liberté
(he was one of the executive committee of this
International middleclass Association founded in opposition to the Proletarian
International) he played one of the
mountebank
parts he delights in. He proposed a series of propositions, stupid in
themselves, but affecting an air of swaggering radicalism
calculated
to frighten les crétins bourgeois. In that way, being outvoted by the majority,
he made his noising exit from the Ligue and had this great event triumphantly
announced in the European press. He understands la réclame almost as well as
Then he entered our l’Alliance de
la Démocratie Socialiste”International Association which was to have General Congresses of its
own, which was to form an independent international body, and, at the same time, to be an integral member of our Internationale. In one word, our Association was by this
interloping secret society by and by to be converted into an instrument du Russe
Bakounine. The pretext was, that this new society was founded for the special
purpose “à faire la propagande théorique”. Very funny indeed, considering that
Bakunine and his acolytes know nothing of theory. But Bakunine’s programme was
“the theory”. It consisted, in point
1) That the
first requirement of the social Revolution
was—the abolition of inheritance,
viel’ignoramus
have
le droit d’héritage. On the other hand, if
you have not that power (and it is of course foolish to suppose such a
power), the proclamation of the abolition of
inheritance would be not a serious act, but a foolish menace,
rallying the whole peasantry and the whole small middleclass round the
reaction. Suppose f. i. that the Yankees had not had the power to
abolish slavery by the sword. What an imbecility it would have been to
proclaim the abolition of inheritance in slaves!
The whole thing rests on a superannuated idealism, which considers the
actual jurisprudence as the basis of our economical state, instead of
seeing that our economical state is the basis and source of our
jurisprudence! As to Bakounine, all he wanted was to improvise a
programme of his own making. Voilà tout. C’était un programme
d’occasion.
2) “the
égalité des différentes classes”. To suppose on the one hand the
continued existence of
classes, and on the other
the égalité of the members belonging to them,
this blunder shows you at once the shameless ignorance and
superficiality of that fellow who made it his “special mission” to
enlighten us on “theory”.
3) The working class must not occupy itself with politics. They must only organise themselves by trades unions.
One fine day, by means
Internationale
they will supplant
the place off all existing states. You see what a
carricature
he has made of my doctrines!
As the tranformation of the existing states
end, we must
allow the governments, these great Trade Unions of the ruling classes,
to do as they like, because to occupy ourselves with them is to
acknowledge them. Why! In the same way the old socialists said: You must
not occupy yourselves with the wages question, because you want to
abolish wages labor, and to struggle with the capitalist about the rate
of wages is to acknowledge the wages system! The ass has not even seen
that every class movement as a class movement,
is necessarily and was always a political
movement.
This then is the whole
theoretical
baggage of Mahomet-
His conspiracy he went secretly on with. He had some
affiliates in Spain and Italy, a few dupes at Paris and Geneva. Good old
The General Council was only informed and called upon to
sanction the statutes of the Alliance”
A few months later, the Comité
Directeur of the Alliance”Internationale
Qui ou Non!, whether we
sanctioned their principles? If not, there would be a public secession on their
part, and we would be responsible for such a misfortune!
We answered2 I/21, S. 118–119
nominally dissolved. In
fact, it continued to form an imperium in imperio. Its branches had no connexion
at all with the General Council, but that of conspiring against it. It acted
under question
d’héritage. We accepted the challenge. On the other side, he conspired
everywhere to discredit us and to have the Gener
Albert Richard
,
otherwise a very active and wellmeaning youngster, is his
acolyte.)
Where the fellow got the money for all his secret machinations,
as
At the Congress he was baffled. After the Congress he
commenced to attack us publicly by his private Moniteur,
Le Progrès
(de
Locle); edited by his valet Égalité
2 I/21, S.
159-165Varlin
Ge
Alliance
Égalité. The Federal Council of Gene
Meanwhile
Herzen in
got (although a millionaire) received certainly
Cloche”a rather and “propagande Russe” a rather large sum
from the “Panslavistes démocrates” in Russia. Although a fierce enemy de
“l’héritage” Bakounine wanted to inherit Herzen’s posotion.
On the other hand there had grown up at Geneva an emi
Russian” writings he propagates
doctrines quite contrary to the principles of the Internationale
On th The late Swiss Romand Congress at La Chaux
de Fonds (5 April) an c’est un d intrigues de
Bakounine. His La Solidarité”written
principle” of that paper
is “Bakounine”. Both parties have appealed to the General Council.
Thus this
He hopes to be strongly represented at our next
Congress. To direct
You are now sufficiently informed to counteract
My thanks to
A Propos. Look whether you possess still the
article
of the
Queen’s
Messenger
on