Материал: Karl Marx_ A Biography ( PDFDrive )

1 5 2 K A RL M A R X : A B I O G R A P H Y

mankind does not need i t . . . . Let us view ourselves as leaves on the great tree of humanity and posterity will reap what we with our calm activity have sown.'109 This debate went on for several months in the meetings of the Association, and Weitling was ably supported by Kriege but the majority of the workers eventually sided with Schapper.

The London communists had broken off all contact with Weitling by the time that Marx, in mid-May 1846, suggested that they form a communist correspondence bureau in regular liaison with Brussels. As early as March Engels had formally asked Harney to act as correspondent with Brussels. But Harney, who had himself become a member of the League in February, insisted that Schapper and the leaders of the League be consulted first - suggesting that they were mistrustful of the 'literary characters in Brussels';109 and Marx's ideas were indeed far from popular with them. According to Schapper (and his letters reflected the views of the League leaders as a whole) revolutions could not be made to order, and a spiritual awakening would have to precede a physical uprising. The task of the League was seen by its leaders as one of 'enlightening the people and propaganda for the community of goods'.110 They were also opposed to Marx's attitude to Kriege and complained of the 'intellectual arrogance' of the Brussels communists.111 Schapper did agree, however, to Marx's proposal in July 1846 that a congress be held in London at some future date to hammer out differences and 'bring force and unity into our propaganda'.112 As late as December 1846 Engels was suggesting to Marx - in a letter which is a good example of their 'intellectual arrogance' - that they might have to let the correspondence with the Londoners drop quietly and try to reach some agreement with Harney.113 But it was clear that the German communists in London, in terms of numbers and organisation, represented for Marx and Engels by far the most promising entree into working-class politics, particularly because Marx's various European Correspondence Committees never really got off the ground.

In November the Central Committee of the League of the Just, which had remained in Paris, was formally transferred to London. Together with the attempt at organisational reform that this implied, there was the growing feeling that, after the rejection of the communism of Cabet and Weitling, firmer theoretical foundations for the League were needed. On 20 January 1847, the London Correspondence Committee decided to send Moll (whose views were noticeably closer to Marx's than were Schapper's) to Brussels to solicit the help of Marx and invite him to join the League. Marx wrote later: 'Whatever objections we had against this proposal were met by Moll's statement that the Central Committee planned to call together a Congress of the League in London. There, the

critical position we had taken would be adopted in a public manifesto as the doctrine of the League. Antiquated and dissident views could only be counteracted by our personal collaboration, but this was only possible if we joined the League.'114 Another condition that Marx laid down before joining was 'that everything that encouraged a supersititious attitude to authority be banished from the Statutes of the League'.115 Several other Brussels communists joined the League at the same time, as did Engels, whom Moll went on to visit in Paris. The London Central Committee demonstrated its willingness to change its ideas by issuing an Address to members of the League in which they now called for a stricter definition of aims, rejected socialism based on pure sentiment and condemned conspiratorial approaches to revolution.

The promised congress, which had in fact been summoned by the London Central Committee as early as November 1846 along extremely democratic lines, assembled in London from 2 to 9 June 1847. Marx did not attend, pleading lack of money, so Wolff went as a delegate of the Brussels communists, and Engels represented the Parisians. It was decided to reorganise the democratic basis of the League, to change the name of the League to 'The Communist League', to emphasise the inappropriateness of the conspiratorial approach, and to issue a periodical. The first and last issue of this periodical, written mainly by Schapper and entitled Kommunistische Zeitung, appeared in September. In the new statutes, the previous slogan 'All Men are Brothers' was replaced by 'Proletarians of all Countries - Unite'. (Marx was said to have declared that there were many men whose brother he wished on no account to be.) Yet the statutes as a whole still represented a compromise between Marx's views and those of the London communists; their first article read: 'The League aims at the abolition of man's enslavement by propagating the theory of the community of goods and by its implementation as soon as possible.'116 A three-tiered structure was now proposed for the League: the Commune, the Circle Committee (comprising the chairman and treasurers of the relevant communes) and the Central Committee, together with an annual congress, all officials being elected for one year and subject to instant recall. A draft 'Confession of Faith', drawn up by Engels, was circulated to the branches to be discussed at a second Congress in the following November.

The success of the June Congress inspired Marx in early August formally to turn the Brussels Correspondence Committee into a branch of the Communist League with himself as President. It was the general practice of the League (which was a secret society) to set up nonclandestine 'Workers' Associations'. In late August a German Workers' Association was formed in Brussels with Karl Wallau (a typesetter) as

President and Moses Hess as Vice-President. It had thirty-seven members to begin with and increased rapidly.117 In addition to many social activities, there were lectures on Wednesdays - sometimes given by Marx - and a review of the week's politics on Sundays by Wilhelm Wolff. Marx was pleased with its 'quite parliamentary discussions' and found the public activity that it afforded him 'infinitely refreshing'.118

At the same time Marx managed to secure ready access to a newspaper as a vehicle for his views. The Deutsche Briisseler Zeitung was published twice weekly from the beginning of 1847 by Adelbert von Bornstedt, who had previously edited Vorwiirts in Paris. Bornstedt had been a spy for both the Prussians and the Austrians in the 1830s and early 1840s, and many in Brussels suspected that he was continuing those activities. However, the paper took on an increasingly radical and anti-Prussian tone. In April 1847 Wilhelm Wolff started contributing, and in September Marx began to write frequently - having come to an arrangement with Bornstedt that the paper would accept all contributions by himself and Engels. He complained bitterly to Herwegh of criticism of this step from Germans who 'always have a thousand words of wisdom up their sleeves to prove why they should once again let an opportunity slip by. An opportunity for doing something is nothing but a source of embarrassment for them.'119

Marx contributed two important essays to the Deutsche Briisseler Zeitung. One was a reply to an unsigned article in the Rheinischer Beobachter whose author - Hermann Wagener, later the close associate of Bismarck - had tried to give the impression that the Prussian Government was in favour of 'socialist' and even 'communist' measures, citing its recent proposals to shift the main tax burden from foodstuffs to incomes. Marx rejected the idea that the communists had anything to gain from supporting the Government against the bourgeoisie. And in so far as Wagener appealed to the social principles of Christianity, Marx claimed that they merely

transferred to heaven the task of reparing all infamies and that this justified their continuation on earth The social principles of Christianity preach cowardice, self-abasement, resignation, submission and humility - in short, all the characteristics of the canaille-, but the proletariat is not prepared to let itself be treated as canaille, and it needs its courage, confidence, pride and independence even more than it needs its daily bread. The social principles of Christianity are sneaking and hypocritical whilst the proletariat is revolutionary.120

In Germany, the proletariat had to ally itself with the bourgeoisie for 'the aristocracy can only be overthrown by an alliance of the bourgeoisie and the people'.121 Wagener was quite mistaken in arguing that the proletariat

would be well advised to ally itself with the royal Government which was in reality its most dangerous rival. 'The real people, the proletarians, the small peasants and the rabble are, as Hobbes said, puer robustus sed malitiosus and are not taken in by kings, whether they be fat or thin. This people would above all extract from His Majesty a constitution with universal suffrage, freedom of association, freedom of the press and other unpleasant things.'122

The second of Marx's articles was a polemic against Heinzen, who commented later that Marx was the sort of man who brought up heavy artillery in order to smash a window-pane. Heinzen had written for the Rheinische Zeitung in 1842 and spent much time in Marx's company in 1845, but he attacked not only communism but also 'true' socialism on his emigration to Switzerland, where he had become friendly with Ruge. Heinzen was a thoroughgoing republican who saw the monarchy as the foundation of all social evil to which the proclamation of a republic would put an end. In his reply to Heinzen Marx stated that 'the political relationships of men . . . are also social relationships',123 and analysed the role played by the monarchy as a transitional institution between the old feudal classes and the nascent bourgeoisie. But the bourgeoisie was growing ever more powerful and already found itself in opposition to the proletariat. The solemn idea of 'humanity' would never, as Heinzen hoped, cause classes to melt away. The task of the proletariat was 'to overthrow the political power that the bourgeoisie already has in its

hands. They must themselves become a power, and first of all a revolutionary power.'124

From 16 to 18 September 1847 a congress of professional economists - in effect, a pressure group for free trade - was held in Brussels. Marx attended by invitation. Georg Weerth was a dissident voice in declaring it a scandal that in all the eulogies they made of free trade there was no mention of the misery inflicted on the working class. Marx intended to deliver a speech in support of Weerth, but the list of speakers was closed to prevent his intervention. Marx at once circulated his speech to several newspapers in Belgium and abroad, but only the small Brussels Atelier Democratique would publish it. After analysing the disastrous effect of free trade on the working class Marx declared himself nevertheless in favour of it 'because by Free Trade all economical laws, with their most astonishing contradictions, will act upon a larger scale, upon a greater extent of territory, upon the territory of the whole earth; and because from the unity of these contradictions into a single group, where they stand face to face, will result the struggle which will itself eventuate in the emancipation of the proletariat'.125

On 29 September a dinner was held in order to inaugurate in Brussels

what was to become the International Democratic Association, a body modelled on the Fraternal Democrats in London. (At this time many political meetings were held under the guise of dinners as they were more difficult for the police to control.) The dinner had been arranged on the initiative of Bornstedt. Marx had briefly gone to Maastricht to see his brother-in-law on family business. Although Engels regarded the holding of the dinner as an anti-communist move, he managed to be chosen as one of its vice-presidents and also a member of the committee that was to establish the Association. Engels promptly delegated his place to Marx and left for Paris where he renewed his contacts with French socialists and republican leaders; and Marx was duly chosen as Vice-President of the Association. The Association held meetings, established a number of branches in Belgium, and issued addresses on such subjects as the threat to freedom in Switzerland and the anniversary of the Polish revolution.126

But Marx had other and more pressing business to attend to: at the end of October he received a letter from the Central Committee of the Communist League in London telling him that the congress had been put off until the end of November and urging him to attend in person. On 27 November Marx left Brussels in the company of Weerth and Victor Tedesco; he met Engels at Ostend on the twenty-eighth and, with Tedesco, they crossed the Channel on the twenty-ninth. Ostensibly Marx went as a delegate of the Democratic Association to attend a meeting of the Fraternal Democrats in celebration of the Polish uprising of 1830. The evening after his arrival in London Marx duly delivered an 'energetic'127 speech to the Fraternal Democrats, meeting in the headquarters of the German Workers' Educational Association at 20 Great Windmill Street, near Piccadilly.128 The downfall of the established order, he told them, 'is no loss for those who have nothing to lose in the old society and this is the case in all countries for the great majority. They have, rather, everything to gain from the collapse of the old society which is the condition for the building of a new society no longer based on class opposition.'129 Marx concluded by proposing Brussels as the venue for the following year's meeting, but this proposal was overtaken by events.

The next day, in the same building, the second congress of the Communist League began. According to Engels, 'Marx ... defended the new theory during fairly lengthy debates. All opposition and doubt was at last overcome and the new principles were unanimously accepted.'130 The debates lasted a full ten days, during which new statutes were drawn up making it quite clear that the Communist League (although necessarily operating largely in secret) was to have a democratic structure ultimately dependent on an annual congress and have as its principal purpose the propagation of publicly declared doctrines. The statutes adopted in June