Karl Marx

Political Review

\[“Das Volk” No. 16, August 20, 1859\]

London. The strike of the building workers, or, more correctly, the lock-out of the master builders, continues without any material change in the relative position of the two parties. On Tuesday the delegates of the workers held a meeting, attended also by deputies from the other trades, at which it was unanimously resolved not to take employment with any master who demanded a promise not to participate in the “Society.” At the same time a gathering of the “associated” masters took place in the Freemasons’ Tavern, to which no newspaper reporters were admitted. As was subsequently learned, after a stormy discussion, the light-shunning gentlemen agreed that no member of the Association should open his workshop until the building workers had formally renounced the “Society” and until the “hands of Mr. Trollope had put an end to their strike.” The latter point may soon be settled, for Mr. Trollope has lately entered into negotiations with the workers and has assured them in the most positive manner that the charges which had been brought against him (the dismissal of a worker who presented the nine-hours petition, etc.) were based on a misunderstanding. As for the other condition, however, the “locked-out” men will certainly not accept it unless compelled to do so by the direst necessity; they feel that to renounce the “Society,” to renounce all organisation, would be to make themselves into formal serfs of the capitalists and to throw away the little independence that the modern proletarian has left. The brutal obstinacy of the masters, who presume towards their “hands” the same authority that the American planter does towards his slaves, has aroused the disapproval even of a section of the bourgeois newspaper writers. We, of course, have no cause to be dissatisfied with the masters; they are, after all, doing everything in their power

to widen further the already broad gulf between labour and capital and to engender that concentrated, conscious class hatred which is the surest guarantee of a social upheaval.

There are altogether more than 1,000 building workshops in London. Of these only 88, but the largest, are closed. The number of lock-outs (the locked-out workers) amounts to 19,000-20,000, not 40,000 as was initially asserted. Rich money contributions are pouring into the “Society” from all parts of the country, but until now the jobless workers have refused to draw support. Honour to the brave fellows! Would the bourgeoisie, in their class interest, be capable of a similar self-sacrifice?

In the last days of the session, which ended on Saturday, the House of Commons occupied itself with almost nothing but election scandals, which sprang up like mushrooms and covered all the walls of the Palace of Parliament. There was a hideous stench of corruption, harmonising splendidly with the odours of the Thames, which should have made the honourable members retch, had they not been accustomed to such things. Now it was about individuals who had openly (and that was the crime) bought or sold herds of British voters like so many herds of sheep; now about a poor wretch who voluntarily gave up his dearly bought seat because he could not defend it against an election petition, which would have cost at least £3,000—but let us turn away. Why wallow in the filth? We shall only mention that almost all the members who were proved guilty of bribery belong to the “Liberal” party.

There is hardly anything to remark on the Queen’s Speech. It is an utterly vacuous document. With regard to the projected European Congress, it says that Her Majesty has not yet arrived at any definite decision. This is a lie. Immediately after the conclusion of the Peace of Villafranca, Lord Palmerston declared to the Russian government that he was prepared to send delegates to the Congress proposed by Russia. Thus he had already “arrived at a definite decision” four weeks ago.

Paris. We spare our readers a description of the Paris victory festival. Despite the complicated machinery that had been set in motion to erase the defeat at Villafranca, to split up the attention of the Paris population, and to make the throats of the interested parties shout, the Emperor is personally said to have been so

little satisfied with his reception that he took the desperate step of an amnesty, although his December advisers earnestly dissuaded him from it. The Paris press has also received amnesty, all “warnings” having been withdrawn.

From Berlin nothing but the old sterile phrases and the continuation of the hopeless agitation for federal reform under Prussian hegemony. The fusion of the Gothaers with the democracy is now an accomplished fact, as will be seen from the following notes.—The King’s condition has not improved.

In Eisenach on August 14 a new assembly of “German patriots” was held, in order to proclaim, with high official permission, Gothaism as the sole means of salvation. Among the assembled celebrities we find mentioned: Herr von Bennigsen from Hanover; Zabel from Berlin (see what you are!); Siegel, editor of the *Sächsische Konstitutionelle Zeitung*; Titus from Bamberg; Schulze from Delitzsch, etc. The programme drawn up for the newly formed German party of course includes: federal reform, Prussian hegemony, repeal of the Federal Diet’s decisions against the press and the right of association, etc. Finally Frankfurt was chosen as the future place of assembly, probably in order to be nearer the Paulskirche.

From Hanover, on the other hand, it is reported that the government there, in order to compete with its pro-Prussian patriots, against whom it is beginning to take police measures, has taken up the Schleswig-Holstein question again.