Eleanor Marx Aveling
Source: Supplement to The Commonweal, Vol 1 No. 4, May 1885, pages 39-40
Transcribed: by Graham Seaman, February 2022
FRANCE. — In another column of the Commonweal our comrade Paul Lafargue gives us some account of M. Ferry's fall and the Tonkin crime.[1] But here are a few details worth recording. On the day that the Ferry ministry was overthrown funds fell 3fr. 35c. On April 1st, Rochefort's paper the Intransigeant asserted — and this has not been contradicted — that on the preceding evening M. Ferry, "foreseeing" this fall, had given orders to sell largely. ("Des ordres considérables de vente.") The next day the Paris, a journal notoriously supported by the "reptile-fund," and which appears in the evening just when Bourse operations begin, announced that M. Ferry had been to M. Grevy and had assurred[sic] him that peace was concluded, and a treaty signed with China. Immediately the funds went up 1fr. 25c. People not unnaturally ask whom is this jobbing to profit? In the Chamber a Bonapartist Deputy, M. Jolibois, demanded that for the honour and dignity of the Chamber these "Coups de bourse" should be put a stop to. He was violently interrupted by a deputy belonging to the Majority, E. Cornudet, who exclaimed "Such words are ignoble." And the majority cheered frantically! "That such jobbery goes on in French politics," writes a Parisian friend, "and that a majority in the Chamber is ready to support and defend it, shows to what a corrupt condition our bourgeoisie has sunk. The victims and the defeats of the 'patrie' are now only so many pretexts for bourse speculation."
Though much has been written about the excitement that prevailed in Paris over this Tonkin business, few people in England have, I believe, realised what the condition of Paris really was. "We have been on the very brink of a revolution" a correspondent writes to me, "and for some time we all fully expected a street-riot. It is quite impossible to give you, or any one not living in this land of surprises an idea even of the state into which this Tonkin trouble has thrown us Parisians. We are at fever heat, and no one can say what the next few hours or days may bring forth."
Of course our Socialist friends have taken advantage of this ferment to "preach the doctrine." At all meetings on the subject of the war whether convened by themselves or others, they have proposed the three following resolutions: "1. Immediate peace with China; recall of all the unfortunate soldiers sent out, and retirement from Tonkin, Cochin China, and, if need be, from all Asiatic colonies. 2. Impeachment of the Ferry ministry. 3. The confiscation of all the goods and property of the ministers and of all deputies who voted in favour of the Tonkin expedition, in order to cover in part the cost of the war." The last two resolutions, it is interesting to know, were passed at all meetings, the third being especially applauded.
GERMANY. — English penny-a-liners have been "deeply moved" at the national birthday gift to Prince Bismarck. They have forgotten to tell their readers either the manner in which money was literally extorted — in some cases stopped out of their wages — from factory-workers, and obtained by threats. They have also forgotten to say that the whole thing was a gigantic swindle and that the money was obtained under entirely false pretences. When the idea was started it was announced that the money was to be devoted to "some great national object" — this would be the most appropriate, the most pleasing, etc., etc., etc., manner of showing the respect of Germany for her great Chancellor. But when the money was in hand the promoters calmly declared that, instead of the "great national object" the money should be handed over to Prince Bismarck personally in order that he might increase his landed property! This disgraceful affair has called forth protests, even from such papers as the Deutsche Tagblatt, to whom a correspondent writes: "We learn from the newspapers that the whole of the sums collected are to be handed over, for his personal use, to Prince Bismarck. This has made a most painful impression, not only on myself, but on other great admirers of the Prince. We stated to others, and were led to believe, that the object of the collection was to found some establishment for the good of all; it was only under this impression that we succeeded in getting subscriptions — more especially the smaller sums. If our promises are,therefore, not adhered to, we shall not only be seriously compromised, but the popularity of Prince Bismarck and respect for his person will be much shaken." Of course, Bismarck and his beloved disciples Bleichröder and Co., think money now-a-days more useful than popularity and respect. He has played the confidence trick, and can afford to laugh at the idiots who were taken in by it.
One of the most interesting events I have had to record for some time from Germany is the growth of the Socialist movement among the German women. A meeting was held lately in Berlin at which some 500 or 600 persons, mostly women, were present. Frau Stageman spoke admirably. She pointed out to the women and men that by united efforts alone could they achieve any measure of success. She called on the working women to join the Socialist movement and by their organisation become a power able to cope with their capitalist oppressors, who exploit the women even more hideously than the men, and who encourage "family-life" by forcing the wife to undersell her husband. "We must and will prove," she concluded "that the women of the proletariat are not less advanced than the men." This speech, and many others were received enthusiastically, and a "Union of the Working Women of Berlin" was started. I hope our English women will go and do likewise.
That considerable differences of opinion between the various sections of Socialist members of the Reichstag have arisen is well known;[2] that some of these gentlemen objected to having their conduct in the Reichstag criticised by the Sozial Democrat is also known, but a few words on the actual "situation" may be of interest and service to English comrades. Of course our English friends must bear in mind that all public meetings, all public expression of opinion in Germany are impossible.
The immense and unexpected success at the last elections seems to have turned the heads of a few of the elected, who seem to think that the voice of the people has invested them with quite superior powers. This appears to be especially the case with what may be called the right wing of the Parliamentary Party. Every political party must necessarily be composed of one set of men who will act fully up to the principles of the party, and draw all the consequences evolving from them; and another set of men, who will be more cautious and more easily prepared to compromise with their Parliamentary neighbours. Thus it goes with Socialist parties too. As long as the class next adjoining the working class, both in social status and general education, is the class of small tradesmen, and as long as this class of small tradesmen, by the crushing competition of the large capitalist, is more and more ground down, and its individual members more and more brought down to the level of the working class, so long will the Socialist party in every country include men who from habit and education retain trains of thought more appropriate to the status of the small trading class, than to that of the proletariat. In other words, a Socialist party will have a Left Wing, representing thorough-going proletarian revolutionary Communism, and a Right Wing, holding views of a more diluted nature, and eager, above all, to prove to their political opponents how little they deserve the opprobrious names heaped upon them. In Germany, from very self-evident reasons, the anti-Socialist law appears to have given a majority of deputies to the Right Wing of the Party — the only real harm, by the bye, that law has so far inflicted upon German Socialism. This new majority, finding itself in contradiction with the "official" organ of the party, on a particular point of policy, considered it necessary to proclaim the discrepancy to the world by an act of publicity of a more than unusual character. There the matter will probably end. The Sozial Democrat will remain what it has been, and proclaim the same revolutionary principles as heretofore. The offended deputies will be satisfied with the publicity they have given to their difference of opinion, for they know too well that after all they will have to conform to the will of their electors — though the electors have at present no power to express their will in public meetings — and that the vast majority of these electors are working men and not small tradesmen. Of course a large number of the Revolutionary deputies have cordially approved the conduct of the Sozial Democrat in condemning the action of certain deputies.
AMERICA.— The news that comes to us from the United States is of so interesting a nature, there are so many facts to record, events to chronicle, that to do anything like justice to the subject in this short summary is impossible. All I can hope to do is to help our friends to some faint idea of the condition of things there. We do not in Europe, sufficiently realise either the frightful condition of a large mass of the people of America, or the magnitude of the Revolutionary movement there. The great miners' strike in the Hocking Valley has been now and again referred to, and English Socialists will hardly be surprised to hear that the "Union" there is much what are the "Trades Unions" here; in a word, to quote the correspondent of a New York Socialist paper, "a milch-cow for the 'leaders.'" This same correspondent adds: "The strike has, however, had one good result. We have founded a section of the Socialist Party, whose numbers grow daily. We could do even more if we had more speakers, and if friends would send us more Socialist literature. The soil is splendid..."
But the Hocking Valley strike is only one of hundreds into which the workers are willy-nilly, and often to their own great disadvantage forced by the capitalists. One of these strikes is specially worthy [of] our notice. The hat-makers of South Nowalk, to the number of 400, struck work — that is work for their exploiters, but instead of allowing themselves to be starved into submission they have opened a large co-operative store entirely conducted by themselves, one large branch of which has been started in New York. Thanks to the hearty support of other workers both undertakings seem to be prospering. As a last resource the capitalist press asserted that the New York store had nothing to da with the strikers. But the working men have not been taken in by thia lie.
Perhaps one of the most infamous of the many infamous "Bills" against the people is that one lately become law, directed apparently against so-called tramps, but in reality against any one out of work. An enormous meeting to protest against this iniquitous Act was lately held in New York. At this meeting Frederic Haller, Secretary of the Cigar Makers' Progressive Union, pointed out that at the present time there were in New York alone seventy thousand unemployed workers; in the United States at least six hundred thousand, everyone of whom could in fact be comprehended under the Tramp Bill. He showed how by this Bill employers could get their work done — work of the heaviest kind — in return for one meal a day, and concluded by saying that as things were going "Tramps" would soon be an "overwhelming majority in the land, and would then make a law by which the lazy and rich non-producers would be thrown into prison instead of, as to-day, the willing workers." The resolution passed by this large meeting runs thus: "Considering that in New York alone there are 70,000 unemployed... anyone of whom may be called a 'tramp.' ... we brand this Bill as a villainy of the exploiters against the workers whose very blood they drain, and see in it a fresh proof that political freedom must be a lie as long as private capital and wage-slavery exist," I must not omit to add that Germans and Americans both took part in and spoke at this meeting.
Some sanitary inspectors have lately made reports respecting the housing (?) of certain of the poorest classes in New York that throw the "Bitter Cry" of London[3] quite into the shade. These facts are the more interesting that the "Tenement House Commission" had quite recently issued a rose-coloured report, in which everything was represented as very nice and pleasant. Police Inspector Gastlin now gives a quite different account. He describes more especially some of the docks and landing-places at North and East River. A great number of the unfortunates here are Italians, "who live in this filth like rabbits in a warren. They all sleep in the midst of pestilential smells... The floors in some of these 'huts' were three inches deep in dirt. Adjoining these 'rooms' were others, containing large cases of stinking bones and rags. ... The stench from some of these places, filled with refuse from the markets and putrid meat, could be noticed fifty feet off." What wonder that Socialist papers in America constantly warn their European friends not to come over to this hell upon earth.
Perhaps the most interesting matter to record is the "Labour Convention" just held in San Francisco. Over two hundred delegates were present, and an earnest debate was carried on for three days. Finally the following resolution, and others which space forbids our reproducing, were passed.
"Resolved. That, in the opinion of this convention, 'hard times* are the result of a monopolisation by non-producers of the natural resources, the tools of production and the medium of exchange, and must occur periodically until these monopolies are abolished.
"Whereas the continued invention of machinery, the monopolisation of the natural resources, competition, profit, production and the concentration of capital are fast reducing the working classes to absolute slavery;
"Resolved. That it is imperative that every branch of wage-workers be organised, and that, when so organised, the work of agitation, organisation, federation and education be unceasingly pursued.
"Resolved. That this convention, while not condemning strikes for shorter hours or higher pay as temporary measures of relief, regards the nationalisation of land, of the means of transportation, of the circulating medium and of the implements of production as the only satisfactory solution of the labour question.
"Resolved. That this convention, having regard to the strained relations at present existing between employer and employed, looks with the gravest apprehension upon the virtual establishment of a standing army in this country by the continued enrolment of new militia corps, and the employment by the capitalists of armed detectives, and that this convention commends this matter to the serious attention of the labour organisations of the coast."
So significant a fact as the passing of such resolutions unanimously by two hundred delegates from Trades' Unions as well as Socialist bodies needs no comment.
ELEANOR MARX AVELING.
1. See Lafargue's article.
2. The backgound to this was described by Bax as follows:
The German Government had proposed to subsidize a commercial company for running a line of fast sailing steamers to Eastern Asia. Under the pretext that this would in some way temporarily benefit the working-classes by indirectly increasing German trade, besides directly promoting the employment of a certain number of workmen in the ship-building industry, etc., the so-called right wing of the “fraction,” which constituted a small majority, insisted on voting for the Bismarckian measure. The minority, backed by the official organ of the party, the Sozial Demokrat, of Zurich, vigorously attacked the attitude of their colleagues, feeling ran so high at the crisis that a “split” in the party seemed inevitable and imminent.
Engels' letters for April and May 1885 discuss the issues raised from a similar point of view to Eleanor Marx Aveling.
3. "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London" was an anonymous pamphlet denouncing the housing conditions of the London slums published in 1883 and very widely read.