London, 20 November 1876 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Becker, 

We have duly received your circular addressed to the Zurich 
section”! and are likewise of the opinion that the time has come 
to oppose the Bakuninists’ pretensions to form an International 
off their own bat.*°? Whether it is possible to achieve reorganisa- 
tion on the basis you propose, namely a federation of the big 
organised national bodies, is, ] should say, very doubtful, since 
legislation in most countries prohibits such associations from 
corresponding, let alone amalgamating, with associations abroad. 
But that is a side issue and could easily be got round or altered, 
once people are fully convinced that the continued existence of 
each one of those big organisations is of greater importance than 
its formal entry into an international society. As it is, you will 
encounter in the Germans the same Platonic indifference which, as 
a party, they invariably evinced towards the old International. 

My chief purpose in writing to you today is to propose a fresh 
field of activity for you in this connection. The Portuguese, with 
whom I still correspond and who are very well organised, 
complain loudly of the lack of attention shown them by our 
friends. They say that the German-Swiss, Germans, Austrians, 
Americans, etc., have not only failed to pass on information to 
them, but have not even replied to their letters, whereas they have 
been regularly inundated with parcels, invitations to congresses, 
felicitations, etc., by the Jurassians, Bakuninist Spaniards, Italians 
and Belgians, so that the Portuguese workers have come to regard 
these as the only people who still have any interest left either in 
the International or the Portuguese movement. As you will realise, 
they must be stout fellows indeed who nonetheless don’t let 
themselves be side-tracked, and that such is the case will be 
apparent to you from the following letter which they sent to the 
Bakuninist Congress in Berne: 

‘We have been invited by the Federation of Cadiz to send representatives to the 
Berne Congress and have since then read, in the Bulletin jurassienne, the circular 

convening that Congress and setting forth its agenda. Not having received this 
invitation until very late on, the Portuguese socialists are unable to send any 

delegates; nevertheless, their Federal Council has resolved that we assure you of 
our moral solidarity with socialist workers all over the world, and state that we 
never have called that solidarity in question, nor ever shall let it be called in 
question; accordingly, the express compact of solidarity which you propose to conclude seems 
to us a formality that could well be dispensed with. 

‘Subscribing as we do most ardently to the unification of all proletarians, we 
send you our fraternal greetings. Long live the International Working Men’s 
Association!’ 

Well, I shall write and tell these people about your plan and also 
send them one of your circulars, although it’s doubtful whether 
they understand German. But you would be well advised to get in 
touch with them immediately. You can write to them in French; 
should they reply in Portuguese, I can translate the answer for 
you. 

You might get the above letter published in the Tagwacht, 
likewise the fact that on 5 January and the following days they are 
going to hold a congress in Lisbon* and will present a new party 
programme for discussion.” 

The address is: 
E.C. Azedo Gnecco 

Rua do Bemformoso 110, 2° 
Lisbonne, Portugal. 

That’s where their paper, O Protesto, is brought out; it’s been 
going for over a year. 

I hope that you will achieve something worthwhile and, if we 
can lend you a hand by providing addresses, etc., we shall gladly 
do so. Only you mustn’t overburden us. Both of us, Marx and I, 
have quite specific theoretical work to do, of which, so far as we 
can now see, no one else would be capable, even if they were 
willing, and we must make use of the present universal lull to 
complete it. Yet who knows how soon some event won’t suddenly 
involve us in the practical movement again? All the more reason 
for us to make use of the brief respite to carry the no less 
important theoretical side a little bit further. 

Apropos. We have paid through Frankel for 12 instalments of 
the 12 copies of Stunden der Andacht? ordered by Marx and myself; 
hence we still have to pay for 3x12 instalments a@ 25 cts.=9 fr. If 
that is correct, let me know and [ll send you a money order. 

The Vorwdarts will shortly be publishing a critique of Dühring by 
me.° They had pestered me dreadfully before I took on this 

* [Notice about the forthcoming congress of Portuguese socialists on 5 January 1877.] 
Die Tagwacht No. 96, 2 December 1876.-> J. Ph. Becker, Neue Stunden der 
Andacht. - < F. Engels, Anti-Dühring,