ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE*” 

{London, 25 November 1871] 

My dear Toole,’ 

Thank you for your letter of which I made good use on the 
Council. My ultimatum to the Federal Council in Madrid” goes off 
today, by registered mail; I tell them that, if they persist in their 
silence, debuemos proceder como nos la dictard el interés de la 
Internacional.. If they fail to reply, or do so in an unsatisfactory 
manner, we shall at once appoint you plenipotentiary for the 
whole of Spain. In the meantime, our Rules confer on you, as on 
any other member, the right to form new sections. It is important 
that, in the event of a split, we should continue to have a 
pied-a-terre in Spain, even if the whole of the present organisation 
were to go over, lock, stock and barrel, to the Bakuninist camp; 
and you will be the only person we shall then be able to count 
upon. So do what you can to resume communications everywhere 
with the men who might be of use to us in such an event. These 
Bakuninists are absolutely determined to transform the Interna- 
tional into an abstentionist society, but they are not going to succeed. 
La Federacién of Barcelona and La Emancipacién of Madrid arrive 
here only at very irregular intervals, so that I cannot know 
whether the intrigue has not already begun to betray its presence 
in these journals. But they have always preached abstention, which 
probably seems to them a question of far greater import than 
economic questions. So that’s where they end up with their 

a Paul Lafargue’s nickname - » F. Engels, ‘To the Federal Council of the Spanish 
Region in Madrid’. - ° We shall have to take such steps as the interests of the 
International dictate.