London, 12 February 1873 

Dear Friend, 

Up to now the first 8 instalments of the German edition of 
Capital have appeared.” Since the last part will come out in two 
or three weeks as well, I shall send the whole thing off at once (i.e. 
from instalment 5) to you and other friends in New York. As for 
an English edition, this is no doubt assured now, as a result of the 
French version. Nevertheless, I look forward to it with some 
concern. The revision of the French translation is causing me 
more work than if I had done the whole translation myself. So if I 
am unable to find a completely competent English translator I 
would have to take the thing into my own hands, and the French 
edition has already prevented me—and, until I am through with 
it, will continue to prevent me—from working on the final version 
of the second volume. 

Engels and I will, as far as our time permits, contribute to both 
the German and the Federal paper.™ 

The secessionists in England—Mottershead, Huber, Roach, 
Alonzo, Jung, Eccarius & Co.—have in recent weeks repeated the 
farce of the London Unrversat Feperauist Councn.*™ in the form of a 
so-called Congress of the British Federation.°* The gentlemen 
consisted only of themselves; two of them, Jung and Pape, had 
already been unseated by their sections, Middlesborough and 
Nottingham, and so did not even nominally represent anything. If 
you add all these HOLE-AND-corner sections together, which these 
people have invented, they will certainly not come to 50. With the 
exception of a small notice which Eccarius as a wage-slave of The 
Times managed to smuggle into that paper,” the congress passed 
unnoticed, but will be exploited by the secessionists on the 
Continent. Jung’s speech at the congress surpasses everything in 
its stupidity and infamy. It is a gossipy tissue of lies, distortions 
and idiocy. The vain fellow seems to have suffered a softening of 
the brain. That is the way things are and one just has to get used 

a [J. G. Eccarius,] ‘An English International Congress, The Times, No. 27598, 
28 January 1873. 

to it; the movement wears people out and as soon as they feel 
themselves to be on the outside, they lapse into meanness and try 
and persuade themselves that it is someone else’s fault that they 
have become scoundrels. 

In my opinion the General Council in New York has made a 
great mistake by suspending the Jura Federation.©* These people 
have already left the International by their declaration that the 
International’s Congress and Rules do not exist for them; they 
have formed the centre of a conspiracy to set up a Counter- 
International, following their congress at Saint-Imier*” similar 
congresses have taken place in Cérdoba,”’ Brussels and 
London, and lastly the Alliancists in Italy will hold a similar 
congress.°” 

Everyone and every group has the right to withdraw from the 
International, and when that happens the General Council has only 
to record their departure officially; it is not in any way its function 
to suspend them. Suspension is provided for where groups (sections 
or federations) merely dispute the authority of the General 
Council, or infringe one or another of its Rules or Regulations. 
However, the Rules have no article concerning groups which 
reject the organisation in its entirety—for the simple reason that, 
according to the Rules, it is self-evident that such groups no longer 
belong to the International. 

This is by no means a pure formality. 

The secessionists have resolved at their various congresses to 
convene a general secessionist congress to constitute their new 
organisation, which would be independent of the International. 
Such a congress is to take place in the spring or summer.”! 

At the same time these gentlemen would like to keep a door 
open in case of failure. This emerges from the bulky circular of 
the Spanish Alliancists.°"* If their congress is a failure, they reserve 
the right to attend the Geneva Congress,’ a plan which the 
Italian Allhancist Gambuzzi ... was naive enough to reveal to me 
back during his stay in London. 

So if the New York General Council does not alter its 
procedure, what will be the consequences? 

The Council will follow up its suspension of the Jura by 
suspending also the secessionist federations in Spain, Italy, 
Belgium and England. Result: all the riff-raff will turn up again in 
Geneva and paralyse all serious work there, just as they did in The 
Hague, and they will once again compromise the whole work of 
the Congress for the greater good of the bourgeoisie. The great 
achievement of the Hague Congress was to induce the rot- 

ten elements to exclude themselves, i.e. to leave. The procedure 
of the General Council now threatens to invalidate that achieve- 
ment. 

These people do no harm when they openly oppose the 
International, the latter only benefits by it; but as hostile elements 
within the International they spell the ruin of the movement in 
all the countries where they have managed to obtain a foot- 
hold. 

The work they and their emissaries cause for us in Europe can 
scarcely be imagined in New York. 

In order to strengthen the International in those countries 
where the struggle is chiefly being carried on, what is needed 
above all is vigorous action from the General Council. 

Now that the mistake has been made with the Jura, it would 
perhaps be best simply to ignore the others entirely for the time 
being (unless our own federations demand the opposite), and then 
to bide our time until the general secessionist congress, when we 
can announce that all its constituencies have withdrawn from the 
International, that they have excluded themselves from it and from 
now on are to be treated as alien and even hostile associa- 
tions. Eccarius very naively stated at the London hole-and-cor- 
ner congress that they must make politics with the bourgeoisie. His 
soul has been longing to sell itself for some considerable time 
now. 

The news of the great misfortune that has befallen Sorge* has 
affected us very deeply. My very best regards to him. 

Salut fraternel. 

Karl Marx