ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE*” 

AT LE PERREUX 

London, 7 May 1889 

My dear Laura, 

I was very glad to receive this morning the Convocation.*"# As you 
say, there is no time to lose, and Paul who seems boiling over with virtu- 
ous indignation had made me expect an interminable series of bureau- 
cratic difficulties and delays. Now, as there has been such quick and 
determined action, everything is all right. The Convocation is short and 

sweet, contains the needful and no more, and all the fault I can find with 
it is that it would have been better to state zz it, that the second circular 
with the signatures of the foreigners, unobtainable on account of want 
of time, would follow. Moreover I hope that the announcement, that the 
Socialist League”! had beforehand adhered to the Hague resolutions,** 
is founded upon fact and not upon a misunderstanding, as a disavowal 
on their part would be awkward. As to obtaining their signature, we ought 
to be informed of the contents of Morris’ reply to Paul, so as not to be 
quite in the dark. 

Now will you make an English translation and Paul put at the 
bottom: ‘For the English translation, Paul Lafargue’—and will he autho- 
rise me to do the same with a German translation to be made by me? We 
will then get them printed here at once and spread them by the thousand; 
also forward you copies as you may require them. 

The loss of time is entirely due to Liebknecht who considers himself, 
or would like to figure as, the centre of the international movement, and 
who, being cocksure of bringing about a union, allowed himself to be led 
by the nose by the Belgians for six or eight weeks. Even now he is certain 
that if only be shows himself on the scene at Paris, the union will follow. 
But as it is not too late now, the lost time is not lost in reality. It has 
rallied round to the date desired by the French the mass of foreigners 
who at first objected and certainly would have abstained, had the date 
been settled without these preliminaries and against their wishes. 
Nobody suffers in reality through Liebknecht’s action, but we here, 
who, having entered upon our campaign with uncommon success, were 
entirely left to our own resources, as all the letters addressed by the 
working men here whom we had stirred up against the Possibilist 
congress, were replied to in the most uncertain and vague way by Danes, 
Dutch, Belgians and Germans; and nobody could tell them anything 
about the other congress, in consequence of which they fell into the 
hands of Smith Headingley and Hyndman. Well, as soon as the English 
Convocation is out, we must begin afresh and I hope with better success. 

But if Paul thinks we can cram down people’s throats, here in 
England, the fictio juris* that the Possibilists are no socialists, that conse- 
quently their congress does not exist at all or does not count, he is 
strangely mistaken. He says Bonnier’s letter to the Labour Elector* was 
a bétise because it did not start from that point of view. Now I am 

@ legal fiction — > a blunder 

responsible for that bétise as I wrote the letter and Bonnier only signed it. 
The Possibilists may be all that Paul says, and I believe him, but if he 
wants us to proclaim that publicly, he ought to have proved it first 
publicly, and before there was any question of a congress. Instead of that, 
our people made a conspiration du silence against themselves, left the 
whole wide world of publicity to the Possibilists, who anyhow were 
recognized as socialists by the Belgians, Dutch and Danes and some 
English last autumn in London**°; and the decree of excommunication 
launched by a party which even now has not a paper in Paris in which it 
can make itself heard, cannot and will not be accepted by the rest of the 
world without further proof.4?? We must speak to people here a language 
which they understand and to talk in the way Paul wants us to do, would 
be to make ourselves ridiculous and to be shown the door at every office 
of a paper in London. Paul knows too well that the Possibilists are a 
power in Paris, and though it may be very well for our Parisian friends to 
ignore them, we cannot do the same, nor deny the fact that there will be 
two rival congresses on 14 July. And if we were to tell people here that in 
our Congress ‘ce sont les ouvriers et les socialistes de France sans distinc- 
tion de parti quit convoquent le congrés’,* that would not only be a bétise 
but a gross untruth, as Paul knows well enough that the ouvriers de Paris, 
as far as they are socialists at all, are in their majority Possibilists. 

Anyhow we shall here continue to work for the Congress in our own 
way and never mind faultfinding. I have not yet done a single act in this 
affair but it has been found fault with by someone. So I am quite used to 
that sort of thing and go on acting as I think is right. 

The finest thing of it all is that three months after these two 
congresses Boulanger will be in all probability dictator of France, do 
away with parliamentarism, epurate the judges under pretext of corrup- 
tion, have a gouvernement a poigne and a chambre pour rire, and crush 
Marxists, Blanquists and Possibilists all together. And then, ma belle 
France—tu l’as voulu\**3 

Six months after that we may have war—that depends entirely on 
Russia; she is now engaged in vast financial operations to restore her 
credit and cannot well go in for a fight until these are finished.** In that 
war the neutrality of Belgium and Switzerland will be the first thing that 
goes to smash, and if the war becomes really serious, our only chance is 

4 Gt is the workers and socialists of France, without distinction of party, that 
convene the congress’ — © strong government — © mock chamber - 4 my beautiful 
France — that’s what you wanted! 

that the Russians be beaten and then make a revolution. The French 
cannot make one while allied to the Czar—that would be high treason. 
But if no revolution interrupts the war, if it is allowed to run its course, 
then that side will win which is joined by England, if England goes in for 
the war at all. For that side can then, with the help of England, starve out 
the other side by cutting off the corn supplies from abroad, which all 
Western Europe requires nowadays. 

To-morrow there will be a deputation to the Star to protest against 
last Saturday’s article on the Congress (Bax, Tussy, Edward)**? which 
article was smuggled in, probably by Hyndman and Smith Headingly, in 
Massingham’s absence. 

Love from Nim and from 

Ever yours 
EE,