Eleanor Marx Aveling
Source: Commonweal, Vol 1 No. 8, September 1885, page 83
Transcribed: by Graham Seaman, February 2022
AMERICA. — The following are some extracts which English comrades are sure to find interesting, taken from a letter sent us on the organi- sation of the International Working Men's Association in California. One of its secretaries tells us that their "system is the formation of groups for the study of a prescribed course of Socialistic reading... Each student gets a red card. When he is 'educated' and has formed a group of his own, he gets a white card. All white card-holders in San Francisco are members of the committee... A managing committee of twelve divides this coast into districts, and each member has the charge of the correspondence of a district. There are two Eastern correspondents, and an English and German foreign correspondent... The objects we specially aim at are the formation of groups throughout the country. We are very poor, but we have one lecturer out, and hope soon to have another. We also strive to get our men to move about from place to place to form fresh groups. We take great interest in all Trades' Unions here, striving to pick out the leaders and educate them... For this purpose, in addition to our two meetings per week, a speaking class is held weekly, which is well attended. We have since March last organised the coasting seamen into a union 2,000 strong ... We have formed a Central Labour Union ... and we are engaged in federating all the trades of the water-front. Our own paper, Truth, went under... but against this we can place the conversion of two established papers in San Fris., to which one of us manages regularly to contribute; the founding of a paper at Eureka, Cal., and one at Salem, Oregon, both of which flourish, and the transfer of all our subscription list to the Denver Labour Enquirer, which is doing great work among the miners and railroad men... I need not tell you that our work is being done with a view to ultimate action, which we conceive is, for many reasons, more feasible at an early date here than elsewhere... In most of our judgments events are like to move too quickly with us... I am an Englishman, and know something of England, having travelled all over that country. I read all I can lay hands on as to the progress of Socialism there, and I can- not but think that matters are moving more quickly by far both here and in the East... The feeling on both sides, of rich and poor, seems to me incomparably more bitter than in the old country." In conclusion, our comrade suggests opening a regular correspondence with English Socialists, as this would be "encouraging and beneficial to both you in England and to us here."
It is certainly very encouraging to us to know such good work is being done in America, and all letters like these are beneficial to us.
A propos of our correspondent's conviction that "events are moving faster" in the new world than the old, I may quote a passage from a most valuable series of articles by Paul Lafargue in the Neue Zeit on the American agricultural labourer, or rather that large portion of them "who possess not a foot of land ; the roof above them, the very bed on which they sleep, the spoon with which they eat, are not their own; ... they can call nothing theirs but the food they eat and the rags that cover them. They have no regular dwellings in the country, which they leave for towns as soon as the work for which they were engaged is done. They are hired by the day, week or month. ... In the autumn they are dismissed, and in the winter only a few remain on the farm to look after the cattle and mind the machinery. The workers go to the towns and villages, where they try to get along as best they can. These men, without property, without a home or a family (for only single men are employed) constantly driven hither and thither from town to country and country to town, these men with the bodily strength and perseverance of the peasant and the intelligence of the town labourer, are destined to form a class that will be incomparably more dangerous to capitalism than is that of the industrial proletariat." The ferocious Acts against "tramps" show that the capitalists are begining to understand their danger.
The recent strike riot at Chicago was much more serious than would appear from the newspaper reports. Regular barricades seem to have been thrown up, and the police — these gentry are the same all the Wdrld over — "fell upon the people, striking them in the most brutal manner, and severely wounding many persons." A number of arrests were made, and over a hundred men are to be prosecuted.
GERMANY. — It was not to be expected that the police of the holy German Empire would let itself be outdone by the gendarmerie of a Republic. The achievements of the French police at Père Lachaise have fired the ambition of their German colleagues, who have just had a field-day at Frankfurt. The funeral of the Socialist, Hugo Hiller, attended by thousands of Socialists, offered an opportunity that was not to be neglected. So when some red crowns, sent from various parts of Germany, had been deposited upon the grave of the comrade who had worked so hard for the cause, and was now at last taking his well-earned rest, when red flowers had been strewn, and a Socialist began to speak, Police Commissary Meyer stepped forth, summoned the people to disperse, and, without waiting to see what they would do, gave the order to u draw swords and drive the mob away." A terrible scene ensued. Men, women and children fell bleeding beneath the sabres of the brave saviours of society. The fact that several children were badly wounded is even reported in such a radically respectable piper as the Frankfurter Zeitung. We need no further details. We know this old story of brutal attacks upon unarmed peaceful citizens only too well.
This is how the police disturbed the funeral of a Socialist at Frankfurt. At Birmen thay would not allow another Socialist to be buried at all by his friends, but actually "confiscated" the corpse. This sounds like a ghastly joke. But it is an actual fact. This man had died on the Wednesday, and was to be buried on the Sunday — twentyfour hours beyond the legal time, it is true, but this extension is usual when the legal time falls on a Saturday. It was known that a baod was to accompany the funeral procession, and the police, duly informed of this, offered no opposition at first. But on the Saturday afternoon the organisers of the funeral were informed that "any gathering at the churchyard was prohibited" by the Anti-Socialist Law, and that no bands would be permitted to enter. This, however, was not enough. The sagacious police-officer found that a large number of people would gather, music or no music, and that this must, at all costs, be prevented. But how? In this predicament a doctor — Strauss by name — came to the rescue. Acoompaniei by a commissary of police, this gentleman proceeded to the house of the deceased, and declared that, on sanitary grounds, the body must there and then be removed. Not only the brothers, but several independent doctors, protested against this unheard-of and quite unnecessary interference — to no purpose. Another commissary, three more policemen and four carriers, appeared on the scene, broke open the locked door of the room in which the dead man lay, and carried off the corpse with no more ado to the churchyard. The next day, however, thousands of persons — the numbers doubled through this shameful police outrage — assembled at the house of the deceased Socialist, formed into a large cortège, and proceeded to the cemetery, bearing large crowns tied with red ribbon. At the cemetery the procession found the gates locked, but these, despite the efforts of the police, were burst open, the crowns placid upon the new-made grave, and speeches made. The police stood by helpless. After the speeches the crowd quietly dispersed.
DENMARK. — Our fellow-organ, the Sozial Democrat, of Copenhagen, on the 25th of July issued a special number to celebrate the fact that it now publishes twenty thousand copies daily, a fact of which it and our Danish comrades may well be proud. This "special" number gives some interesting and instructive details as to the movement in Denmark, and contains an account of the paper since its foundation. A few years ago the Sozial Democrat was a small weekly. It is now, as I have already said, a daily, of large siza, consisting of twenty-eight columns, or about 168,000 letters in all. With such results, it may well say that Socialism is a power in Denmark! Those who cannot read Danish would do well to get this number all the same, for it contains a map of Denmark, well worth studying, in which the spread of Socialism in the country can be seen at a glance, the various groups, unions, etc., in various parts, being marked off in red. Altogether our comrades are to be heartily congratulated; when we think of the 20,000 subscribers to this paper, we can only wish we would go and do likewise.
FRANCE. — On Sunday, August 9, the monument to Auguste Blanqui was unveiled at Père Lachaise, in the presence of thousands of Socialists and representatives of most of the different Socialist organisations. The monument, by Dalou, which represents Blanqui lying upon his bier, is said to be an artistic masterpiece. To speak of Auguste Blanqui is to speak of one of the noblest, truest, most heroic of the many noble men who have given their lives for the people. His was not the enthusiasm of a few short years or months; his was not one single act of heroism. His whole long life was that of a martyr. Forty years of imprisonment under every kind of government, all manner of persecution, the cruellest sufferings of body and mind, had been powerless to shake the iron energy, to destroy the unconquerable faith, of this man. At every revolution — when he was not in prison — we find him to the fore; and when the Commune offered to Versailles the Archbishop, and I know not how many other hostages thrown in, in exchange for the single Blanqui, the Versaillists very wisely refused to give him up. Blanqui in prison was more valuable to them than a wilderness of archbishops. "No god or master" was Blanqui's motto. And in the ordinary sense of those words he was true to them. In the higher, nobler sense, Blanqui acknowledged both god and master. Truth was his god, and his master was that cause he served so faithfully.
There is a great stir in France anent the approaching elections I hope to give a full account of the action taken by the various groups next month.
Eleanor Marx Aveling.