# LETTERS FROM F. ENGELS ON THE FRENCH WORKERS’ PARTY
Source: PSS, Volume 33

In “Neue Zeit,” XIX, 1 (1901, February 2, No. 14, pp. 423–427), the “Letters from F. Engels on the French Workers’ Party” were published.
(((Bernstein had previously published in “Mouvement Socialiste” (No. 45) — evidently in 1900 — Engels’s letters against the Guesdists, dating from 1881, 1882, and 1883. These letters were reprinted in their original form in “Vorwarts,” Nos. 277 and 278, November 28 and 29, 1900. The opportunists subsequently made use of these letters, in which Engels, as it were, defended Clemenceau. Later, Lafargue published in “Socialiste” (No. 115, November 24, 1900) letters from 1886 to 1895, which were then reprinted in the aforementioned issue of “Neue Zeit.”))) There is nothing of theoretical significance in these letters. It is worth noting only the letter dated March 6, 1894:
“But we have the Republic in France,” the ex-radicals will say to us; “with you, things are different. We can exploit the government in our own country for socialist measures!” — To the proletariat, the Republic differs from the Monarchy only in that it represents a fully developed, perfectly suited political form for the future rule of the proletariat. You have the advantage over us of already possessing this form. We others must waste twenty-four hours in order to create it (p. 425) (Engels’s emphasis). But just as with any other form of government, the Republic too is determined by what constitutes its substance. As long as it remains the form of bourgeois democracy, it is no less hostile to us than any monarchy whatsoever (save for the specific modalities of that hostility). It is therefore an utterly unforgivable illusion to regard the Republic, in its very essence, as a socialist form. We may wrest concessions from it, but we can never entrust it with the execution of our own tasks—even if we were able to control it through a minority strong enough to transform itself overnight into a majority.”
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