The unification and brotherhood of nations is a phrase on the lips 
of all parties today, especially those of bourgeois free traders. A 
certain kind of brotherhood does of course exist among the 
bourgeois classes of all nations. It is the brotherhood of the 
oppressors against the oppressed, of the exploiters against the 
exploited. Just as, despite the competition and conflicts existing 
between the members of the bourgeoisie, the bourgeois class of one 
country is united by brotherly ties against the proletariat of that 
country, so the bourgeois of all countries, despite their mutual 
conflicts and competition on the world market, are united by 
brotherly ties against the proletariat of all countries. For the peoples 
to be able truly to unite, they must have common interests. And in 
order that their interests may become common, the existing property 
relations must be done away with, for these property relations 
involve the exploitation of some nations by others: the abolition of 
existing property relations is the concern only of the working class. It 
alone has also the means for doing this. The victory of the proletariat 
over the bourgeoisie is, at the same time, victory over the national 
and industrial conflicts which today range the peoples of the various 
countries against one another in hostility and enmity. And so the 
victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie is at the same time the 
signal of liberation for all oppressed nations. 

The old Poland is lost in any case and we would be the last to wish 
for its restoration. But it is not only the old Poland that is lost. The 
old Germany, the old France, the old England, the whole of the old 
society is lost. But the loss of the old society is no loss for those who 
have nothing to lose in the old society, and this is the case of the great 
majority in all countries at the present time. They have rather 

On Poland 389 

everything to gain by the downfall of the old society, which is the 
condition for the establishment of a new society, one no longer based 
on class antagonisms. 

Of all countries, England is the one where the contradiction 
between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is most highly devel- 
oped. The victory of the English proletarians over the English 
bourgeoisie is, therefore, decisive for the victory of all the oppressed 
over their oppressors. Hence Poland must be liberated not in Poland 
but in England. So you Chartists must not simply express pious 
wishes for the liberation of nations. Defeat your own internal 
enemies and you will then be able to pride yourselves on having 
defeated the entire old society. 

ENGELS’ SPEECH 

Allow me, dear friends, to speak here today as an exception in my 
capacity as a German. For we German democrats have a special 
interest in the liberation of Poland. It was German princes who 
derived great advantages from the division of Poland and it is 
German soldiers who are still holding down Galicia and Posen. The 
responsibility for removing this disgrace from our nation rests on us 
Germans, on us German democrats above all. A nation cannot 
become free and at the same time continue to oppress other nations. 
The liberation of Germany cannot therefore take piace without the 
liberation of Poland from German oppression. And because of this, 
Poland and Germany have a common interest, and because of this, 
Polish and German democrats can work together for the liberation 
of both nations.—I also believe that the first decisive blow which will 
lead to the victory of democracy, to the liberation of all European 
nations, will be struck by the English Chartists. I have lived in 
England for a number of years now and openly aligned myself with 
the Chartist movement during this period. The English Chartists will 
be the first to rise because it is precisely in England that the struggle 
between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is the most intense. And 
why is it the most intense? Because in England, as a result of modern 
industry, of the introduction of machinery, all oppressed classes are 
being merged together into a single great class with common 
interests, the class of the proletariat; because as a consequence, on 
the opposite side all classes of oppressors have likewise been united 
into a single class, the bourgeoisie. The struggle has thus been 
simplified and so it will be possible to decide it by one single heavy 
blow. Isn’t this so? The aristocracy no longer has any power in 

England; the bourgeoisie alone rules and it has taken the aristocracy 
in tow. But the whole great mass of the people stands opposed to the 
bourgeoisie, united in a formidable phalanx, whose victory over the 
ruling capitalists draws nearer and nearer. And you have to thank 
machinery for this elimination of opposed interests which previously 
divided the different sections of workers, for this levelling of the 
living standards of all workers. Without machinery no Chartism, and 
although machinery may temporarily. worsen your position it is 
nevertheless machinery that makes our victory possible. But not only 
in England; in all other countries it has had the same effect on the 
workers. In Belgium, in America, in France, in Germany it has 
evened out the position of all workers and daily continues to do so 
more and more; in all these countries the workers now have the same 
interest, which is the overthrow of the class that oppresses them—the 
bourgeoisie. This levelling of living standards, this identification of 
the party interests of the workers of all nations is the result of 
machinery, and so machinery is an enormous historical advance. 
What follows from this for us? Because the condition of the workers 
of all countries is the same, because their interests are the same, 
their enemies the same, they must also fight together, they must 
oppose the brotherhood of the bourgeoisie of all nations with a 
brotherhood of the workers of all nations.