ENGELS TO CARLO GCAFIERO”! 

London, 16 July 1871 

My dear Friend, 

I hope you have received my letter of 3 July’ which I sent to 
Barletta. I got yours of 28 June the day after sending mine, and I 
was pleased to hear that you have received the Address,° which is 
currently being translated into Italian and will be published in that 
language. As for the Russian translation, urge the lady by every 
possible means to finish it, because the sooner it is done and 
published the better.*** Besides, the German, Dutch and Spanish 
translations are being published in Madrid, the French translation 
will be published in Geneva and perhaps another in Brussels.” 
Thus despite all the persecutions of the continental Government it 
is satisfying to recognise that our Association has greater means of 
international publishing than the semi-official press of any 
European Government. 

When your letter arrived mine to Florence had not yet been 
sent, and considering the position I thought it better not to write 
directly there. A letter containing printed documents sent from 
London to a shoemaker in Florence, whose name had appeared in 
the Address to the Commune,”* would naturally arouse suspicion, 

a K. Marx, ‘Mr. Washburne, the American Ambassador, in Paris’. - > See this 
volume, pp. 161-65. -¢ K. Marx, The Civil War in France. -4 See this volume, 
pp. 161-62. 

whereas the same letter addressed to a doctor of law in Naples* 
would appear quite normal. I am therefore enclosing herewith: 
. Inaugural Address and Provisional Rules of 1864 
Regulations established by the Congress” 

Resolutions of the 1866 and 1868 Congresses 

Two Addresses of the General Council on the War 
Address on the Civil War in France. 2nd Edition 

. Idem on Mr Washburne.‘ 3 copies. 

Perhaps you will be so good as to send certain of these 
documents as you can afford to Florence and keep the rest for 
your own use. I do not know exactly which documents our 
secretary* gave you before you left. If you require further copies 
of some or all of these kindly let me know and they will be sent to 
you as soon as we have them. In any case, you now have enough 
material to communicate whatever information about the present 
state of our Association may be requested by our friends in 
Florence. It will perhaps be a good idea if, for the moment, I do 
not correspond with them except through you, until the present 
persecutions are over, because it would not be advantageous to 
compromise anyone more than is necessary. Meanwhile, and until 
their society is reconstituted, they could form a section of our 
Association right away among their closest friends, from six to a 
dozen, and write us a letter stating that they are affiliating and 
nominating their secretary, with whom I shall then enter into 
correspondence. This section could at a later date be merged into 
the reconstituted society. As soon as the letter arrives the list of 
names will be transcribed and sent for publication. 

We are pleased to hear that you and other friends do not fear 
the persecutions but welcome them as the best means of 
propaganda. This is my opinion and it seems we are destined to 
have an abundance of such persecutions. In Spain many people 
have been imprisoned and others are in hiding. In Belgium the 
government is trying with all its might to give free rein to the law 
and even more against us. In Germany the followers of Bismarck 
are starting to play this game too, except that there more than in 
Spain they are impeded by the forceful resistance of our men who 
have been much more fortunate. No doubt you will still have your 
share in Italy, but we are satisfied that these persecutions will be 
met in a different spirit from that of Caporusso and his friends.?*’ 

De 69 NO 

4 Carlo Cafiero - » ‘Administrative Regulations’ in Rules of the International Working 
Men’s Association, London, [1867]. - © K. Marx, ‘Mr. Washburne, the American 
Ambassador, in Paris’. - ¢ P. Giovacchini 

It is truly remarkable that these partisans of Bakunin should 
display such cowardice as soon as there is the slightest sign of 
danger. The Spanish Bakuninists, who recently wrote to tell us 
that their practice of abstention from political affairs had been a 
huge success, so much so that the socialists were no longer feared, 
but considered completely innocent people (!!), have not behaved 
at all well in the face of the recent persecutions, and we are not 
able to find a single one of them from any nation who has at any 
time allowed himself of his own will to be exposed to danger 
either on a barricade or elsewhere.—It will be good for us to get 
rid of them altogether, and if you can find people in Naples or in 
some other town who are not connected to this current in Geneva 
it will be so much the better— Whatever we manage to do or 
whatever congress we prescribe these men will always form, in 
reality if not in name, an internal sect in our society, and the men 
of Naples, Spain, etc., will give more weight to our communications 
received through their own headquarters than to anything else our 
Association can do. Thus if they come back into our Association we 
think it will be for a short time only and once again the disputes 
will arise that will lead to their exclusion. We have had proofs of 
the fact that they still intend to form their own International 
within the Great International and they can rest assured that 
neither the General Council nor the Congress will warrant any 
violation of our Rules. 

What you say about the state of the population in the south of 
Italy does not surprise us. Even here in England, where the 
movement of the working classes is almost as old as this century, 
one meets with apathy and ignorance in abundance. The 
trade-union movement has become more an obstacle to the 
general movement than an instrument of its progress, and outside 
the trade unions there exists here a huge mass of workers in 
London who for several years have kept quite apart from the 
political movement and are consequently very ignorant. But on the 
other hand they are also exempt from many of the traditional 
prejudices of trade-unionists and other old sects and thus 
constitute excellent material upon which to work. They are about 
to be mobilised by our Association, and we have recognised that 
they are intelligent. 

I can understand perfectly your position in Naples. It is the 
same position as some of us were in 25 years ago in Germany, 
when we first founded the social movement. At that time we had 
among the proletarians the only few men in Switzerland, France 
and England who had absorbed socialist and communist ideas; we 

had very few means with which to work on the masses and, like 
you, we had to find supporters among the _ schoolmasters, 
journalists and students. Luckily in this period of the movement 
such men, not belonging exactly to the working class, were easy to 
find. Later, when the working people as a mass are in command 
of the movement, they certainly become rarer. 

With the freedom granted by 1848, with the press and with the 
register of meetings and associations, this first phase of the 
movement was naturally much curtailed, and no doubt in a year 
or two you will be able to give us a different report of the state of 
affairs in Naples. 

We thank you also for your resolution to tell us the facts as they 
really are. Our Association is strong enough to show itself willing 
to know the real truth, even when it seems unfavourable, and 
nothing can weaken it more than exaggerated reports without a 
real foundation. Act in this way and you will never receive from 
me any report which might in the slightest way make you see 
things differently from the way they are. 

I enclose the report of the meeting of the Council on 4 July’ 
with all the facts relating to Major Wolff.”* Since the man is well 
known in Italy it will be a good thing to publish them there. 

May I add that we have a rule for all periodical newspapers 
published by our organisation: two copies must be sent regularly 
to the Council here, one for the archive where they are all kept, 
one for the secretary of the country where they are published. 
Would you trouble yourself to see to this as soon as there is an 
Italian organ of the Association? In the case of Italian translations, 
too, a number of copies should be sent here. 

We now have Italian refugees here who fought in Paris for the 
Commune and are being helped by our refugee fund. 

Fraternal greetings. 

F. Engels