AT LE PERREUX 

London, 17 September 1892 

My dear Lafargue, 

Your opinion that we should take advantage of the opportunity of 
teaching the old English rrapes unions a lesson is also shared by Bebel. 
If Liebknecht goes to Marseilles,*** you will have a good chance of 
coming to an understanding with him. At the same time you might 
ask him why the Vorwdérts is packed with news about the doings and 
sayings of the Broussists,? Allemanists °? and Blanquists, yet is vir- 
tually silent on the subject of our own people. However they are say- 
ing in Berlin that the cholera is rampant in Marseilles and that might 
put a stop to his trip. 

Since the English Traps unions recognise only bona fide working MEN 
and then only those who are organised in trade unions, it is of the ut- 
most importance that not only the Workers’ Party Congress, but also, 
and in particular, the French trade unions,*7° who will be holding 
their congress a few days before ours, should take a firm stand on the 
presumption of the English in seeking to ignore the exzstng movement 
on the Continent so as to start another one under their own leader- 
ship and based on their own views. French trade unionists will as- 

suredly protest against what was said in Glasgow °*° about them- 
selves and other continental working men. 

(Woods M. P.) 

‘that the organisations on the Continent OF EUROPE WERE VERY INEFFECTIVE, BUT 
HE FELT SURE THAT IF THE POWERFUL ORGANISATION IN ENGLAND WOULD ONLY EXTEND 
THE HAND OF FELLOWSHIP AND SYMPATHY AND BROTHERHOOD’ (what, nothing 
more?!) ‘TO THEIR FRIENDS ON THE CONTINENT, THEY COULD MINIMISE ‘THE DIFFICUL- 
TIES’ ETC:! 

Foster or Durham, miner: 

‘HE WAS STRUCK WITH THE REMARKS OF MR. Woops, THAT THEIR EFFORTS IN 
THIS COUNTRY WERE TO A CERTAIN EXTENT NEUTRALISED BY THEIR FELLOW-WORKMEN 
IN OTHER COUNTRIES WHO WERE NOT ORGANISED SO WELL AS THOSE IN THIS COUNTRY; 
THEIR SOCIAL POSITION WAS NOT EQUAL TO OURS (IN) ..- IF THEY COULD GET THEIR FEL~ 
LOW-WORKMEN ON THE CONTINENT 70 SHOW THE SAME CONSENSUS OF OPINION AS THOSE 
IN THIS COUNTRY WHEN THEY MADE UP THEIR MIND TO A PARTICULAR ACTION 

(he is referring to the 8 Hours and you know how strongly the 
English opposed it when the Continent was already unanimous ~~ those 
-selfsame Englishmen who, one after another, are now giving tongue!) 

“THEY WOULD THEN KNOW THAT THE POWER OF LABOUR COULD ACHIEVE THE OBJECT’ 
ETC. 

Holmes, Burnley (cotton weaver, newly converted to the 8 Hours 
and anxious to prove that this change of front hasn’t turned him into 
a socialist cannibal): 

“WERE THERE SOME ADVANCED, OR AS THEY CALLED THEM, SOCIALIST MOVEMENTS 
ON THE CONTINENT, THAT THEY WANTED TO DRAG THEM IN'VO (at Zurich).>*! HE ASKED 
THOSE GENTLEMEN IF THEY WANTED TO GO TO THAT CONGRESS IN THE NAME OF THIS