London, 4 March 1891 

Dear Sorge, 

Your letter of 19 February received. In the meantime you will 
doubtless have heard various things about the great indignation of 
the Social-Democratic parliamentary group at the publication in the 
Neue Keit of Marx’s article on the programme.* The matter is still tak- 
ing its course. For the present I shall let the chaps make fools of them- 
selves, an end towards which Liebknecht has materially contributed 
in the Vorwérts.1°? Obviously I shall reply in due course though with- 
out needless acrimony; without some gentle irony, however, I hardly 
think it can be done. All those who count for anything in the field of 
theory are, of course, on my side—TI must except only Bebel who 
was, in fact, not altogether unjustified in feeling offended by my 
action —- but that was inevitable. Owing to an excess of work I have 
not been able to look at the Volkszeitung? for the last 4 weeks, so 
I don’t know whether any answering sparks have been struck in 
America — after all you have plenty of Lassallean left-overs where 
you are, and in Europe these people are beside themselves with 
rage. 

I now have three pamphlets to finish. The re-issue of 1. The Civil 
War in France— the General Council’s address with regard to the 
Commune. I am arranging for this to be reprinted in a revised version ‘ 
together with the 2 addresses of the General Council on the Franco- 
Prussian War which are more topical today than ever before. Also an 
introduction by me.— 2. Wage Labour and Capital* by Marx which 
I must bring up to the standard of Capital, for otherwise it will cause 
confusion in working-class circles —on account of the then still im- 

* Critique of the Gotha Programme-> New Yorker Volkszeitung-‘ the third German edi- 
tion of Marx’s The Civil War in France -‘ the separate German edition of 1891 

perfect terminology (e.g. sale of labour instead of labour power, etc.) 
for which reason an introduction is also needed.— 3. My Entwicklung 
des Sozialismus*; this will be popularised if possible, but no more. 

The party is publishing them, each in an edition of 10,000. This 
will ensure I get a bit of peace in that quarter. But I had to take the 
thing on because it was essential to counter the never-ending flow of 
rubbishy Lassallean reprints. Luckily a new edition of Lassalle with 
notes, etc. is to appear under Bernstein’s aegis' (this between our- 
selves). 

In order that the person I recommended” should not lie fallow, 
I enclose herewith a cneque for £ 10 out of which you can make him 
payments as you think fit, either with a view to his removal to one of 
the larger cities in the interior, which may be the best thing if he is to 
get on, or to enable him to keep his head above water where he is. 

Hyndman is again inveighing against me'’°; it happens every 
6 months, but he can talk till he’s blue in the face and shout from 
every rooftop in London without eliciting a reply from me. He has 
also resumed his attacks upon Aveling and is again bringing up the 
American business. Now that Rosenberg has been chucked out, do 
you think it might be possible to get a satisfactory statement from the 
party over there? All I want is your opinion; I’m not authorised to re- 
quest that any sort of steps be taken. 

The French are furious because the Germans and English will be 
celebrating on Sunday the 3rd instead of Friday the Ist of May. But 
there was no alternative. Last year the Ist of May celebrations in 
Hamburg involved the party in a strike (or rather Lockout) which 
cost the chaps in Hamburg 100,000 marks— and now that trade is 
more wretched than ever, the bourgeois are longing for a pretext to 
shut down. And over here the Dockers are gradually being brought to 
heel, nor dare they grumble, for otherwise their rrapes union would be 
completely disrupted-—— admittedly a partial consequence of their 
own blunders—., and only by dint of the utmost caution will the Gas. 
workers be capable of saving themselves from a srrike which would 
disrupt them too.! At the outset the transformation of Gas works 
into municipal undertakings will still mean an attempt by your phi- 
listine to extract as much profit as possible so as to bring down the 
rates in his municipality; the point of view that the municipality should 

a 

the fourth German edition of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific - ” Stanislaw Pad- 
lewski 

insist on the gasworkers’ being well paid, precisely because they are 
workers, has yet to penetrate. The disruption of the Gasworkers and 
Dockers, however, would bring with it the complete disruption of the 
new TRADES UNIONS which were introduced over here 2 years ago and 
the old conservative TRabEs unions, the ones that are rich and for that 
very reason cowardly, would then have the field to themselves. 

The French are not wholly in the wrong. At the congress everyone 
enthusiastically supported the lst of May.°! But why should the 
French of all people, whose mighty words have so often been followed 
by insignificant deeds, now insist all of a sudden that no one else may 
pitch things a bit too high from time to time. The point is that, so far 
as we are concerned, the situation in France is remarkably favour- 
able, especially now, as a result of the collapse of the Possibilists °4 
and if, on this occasion, the lst of May were to be celebrated success- 
fully and simultaneously throughout the world it might well destroy 
the Possibilists completely. But that will happen either way. 

So until my next.— My kind regards to your wife.’ I hope she is 
now quite better. 

Your 

PE; 

Louise Kautsky sends you both her best wishes.