London, 20 November 1889, 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Citizen Guesde, 

I have just had a letter from Mrs Aveling who asks me to write to you 
if I should happen to have your address. Luckily it had been given me 
by Bonnier and hence I am doing so without delay. The case is as 
follows: 

In Silvertown, a London suburb, Mrs Aveling is conducting a strike**? 
in Messrs Silver’s works where rubber goods, etc., are produced. The 
strike, in which three thousand working men and women are involved, 
has been going on for ten weeks and has every prospect of success. That 
it should succeed is important, for its failure would mean the interrup- 
tion of the long series of successes scored by the workers since the dock 
strike,? and would spell victory for the English employers whose 
rapidly dwindling confidence would thus be restored. 

A few days ago, the Silver company received very urgent orders they 
would not possibly be able to carry out with 3,000 out of their 3,500 
work people on strike. Furthermore, there was an order for a consider- 
able quantity of submarine cables, which was to be shared out between 
four factories, among them Silver’s. They will miss their chance, if the 
strike continues. They made tempting offers to some of the strikers, but 
to no avail. They then played their last card. 

Messrs Silver (a joint stock company which operates under that name) 
owns a similar establishment at Beaumont-Persan near Paris, where 
Frenchmen work under English foremen. Some of them were brought 
over to England. It is known for certain that 70 working men and 
women from Beaumont have arrived at the docks, but whether they have 
been introduced into the Silvertown factory is not yet known. It is now 
imperative that a stop be put to this. They were probably induced to 
come over under false pretences, without having been told that it was 
because of a strike. 

Mrs Aveling at once telegraphed to Lafargue and Vaillant but, the 
matter being urgent, we are also addressing ourselves to you, with the 

request that you do everything in your power to prevent the French 
workers from coming to replace the Silvertown strikers, and that you 
make known the true situation, thus calling upon the class feeling of 
your workers. It would be frightful were the strikers’ resistance to be 
broken by the arrival of a number of French Blacklegs. There would be 
a revival of old national animosities and no means of suppressing them. 
For the past four months the workers of London’s East End have not 
only given themselves to the movement body and soul; they have also 
provided, for their comrades in all other countries, an example of disci- 
pline, self-sacrifice, courage and perseverance equalled only by the 
Parisians when under siege from the Prussians.>°° Just imagine what the 
effect would be if now, in the midst of the struggle, they were to find 
French workers fighting under the standard of the English bourgeoisie! 
No, that is unthinkable! Only let the true situation be known in France 
and it will, on the contrary, be thanks to the action of the French prole- 
tariat that the English strikers will achieve victory. 

When, during the dock strike, we sent Anseele a telegram informing 
him that the employers were bringing in Belgian workmen, he immedi- 
ately took the necessary action and his letters and telegrams went a long 
way towards reviving the sometimes flagging spirits of the combatants. 

If you feel able to offer similar encouragement to the people of 
Silvertown, you should write direct to Mrs Aveling, 65 Chancery Lane, 
London, W. C., which would create an excellent impression. 

I hear from Bonnier that your health has greatly improved and that 
the Marseilles campaign>>! has strengthened your constitution instead of 
weakening it. I am delighted, for we need every ounce of your energy. It 
is good news that your slogan ‘Neither Ferry nor Boulanger’ should 
have excluded the renegades and traitors of both these camps from the 
Socialist Workers’ Party*>? in the Chamber. 

With cordial and fraternal greetings, 
F. Engels