FREDERICK ENGELS
[ON THE LONDON DOCK STRIKE]
I envy  you  your  work  in the
Dock Strike. It is the movement  of the greatest promise  we
have had for years, and I am proud  and glad to have lived
to see it. If Marx had lived to witness this! If these poor
downtrodden men,  the dregs of the proletariat, these odds
and ends of all trades, fighting every morning  at the dock
gates for an engagement, if they can combine, and terrify
by  their resolution the mighty  Dock Companies,  truly then
we  need not  despair of any section of the working  class.
This is the beginning  of real life in the East End, and if
successful will transform the whole character of the East
End. There— for want of self-confidence, and of organisation among  the poor  devils grovelling in stagnant misery—
lasciate ogni speranza.... If the dockers get organised, all
other sections will follow. ... It is a glorious movement  and
again I envy  those that can share in the work.
between August  20 and 26, 1889
Published in The Labour Elector, Printed according
Vol. II, No.  35, August  31, 1889  to the newspaper text