London, 9 December 1871.

My dear Lafargue,

I am writing you a few lines about Spanish affairs. There must have been internal struggles in the Spanish International, struggles which have finally been decided in our favour. That is what explains to me both their continued silence and the resolution at last taken to break it.

I had written to Mora on the 25th; on the 28th Mesa wrote to you, and on the 29th Mora wrote me a letter saying that they knew nothing of the intrigues and calumnies against the General Council of which I had spoken to him, etc., but the two issues of *La Federación* that reached us afterwards published, one the resolutions of the Conference, and the other an article on Resolution No. IX taken from *La Emancipación*, with which we have every reason to be satisfied.

Mesa’s letter is even more explicit. So, in Spain the case is won. I answered Mora immediately, and I hope that all will go well henceforth.

Besides, the others had worked hard and had used pretty infamous means, as usual.

*La Révolution Sociale* of 23 Nov. gave an article from *La Federación* of Barcelona of 19 Nov., saying that the emissary of the Swiss dissenters, etc., had arrived there, and that the Barcelona sections, having convinced themselves of the revolutionary character of the dissenters’ principles, etc., had accepted the federation offered to them by the latter. We look in the issue of *La Federación* in question, but we do not find the article there. The issue of 3 Dec. explains this to us: it says that this article did not represent the opinion of the sections, nor even that of a single section, but solely that of one single editor of the paper, who had it inserted behind the back of the editorial board!

The victory won in Spain greatly reduces the ground of the struggle. There remains only the French branch not recognised here (15 members), that of Geneva, the Jurassiens as declared adversaries, and the Italians as doubtful.

But I have worked Italy well, and we have now begun to change the ground of the fight; from intrigues and private correspondence we are coming to publicity. Mazzini has given us an excellent opportunity; he made the International (in an article in his paper) responsible for the acts and words of Bakunin. So here is the opportunity to attack Mazzini and to disavow Bakunin at one stroke. I did so at once, and sent the article to all our Italian papers. At least some of them will publish it; others, I fear, are too closely tied to B. to do so. But with the article I communicated to all of them the adherence of the Spaniards to the Conference and the progress of the International in Spain as reported by Mesa. That will have its effect; they will see that the others have told them nothing but lies about Spain. Indeed, their policy was to win Spain by telling it that Italy was unanimously on their side, and vice versa.

We may still have some unpleasantness in Italy, but the decision of the Spaniards to place themselves on our side will decide the matter – upon the whole – all along the line. As to the cantankerous Jurassiens, we shall bring them to trial very shortly.

I shall be very glad when the whole business is once and for all finished. You cannot imagine how much work, correspondence, etc., it has made for us. Mohr, Serraillier and I have been able to do nothing else for weeks. And poor devil that I am, having to write long letters one after another in Italian and Spanish, two languages I scarcely understand!

In France things are going splendidly. 26 papers are offering to publish our documents.

We have a devil of a cold, and you are lucky to be able to spend the winter in a warm climate. Otherwise we are well, and so is the Marx family. Compared with their condition last winter, the health of Mohr, and that of Jenny too, is much better. Mohr no longer coughs as much; he had a small abscess under the shoulder, but the carbunculosis has ceased and has not returned; his liver will never return to its normal state at his age, but it functions much better than before, and Mohr, which is the main thing, leads a more rational life. Jenny, after the repeated pleurisies she has gone through, will probably always retain a little emphysema, but she is beginning to understand that she must take some care of herself and not try to accustom herself to the cold and bad weather, as she called it, before the time. She sings again, and her voice is clearer and stronger than ever.

I learned with much pleasure of little Schnaps’s recovery. Kiss him for me – and your wife too.

Yours ever,
F. E.
General.