Marx on the war of 1870:
In the First Address of the International (July 23, 1870), Marx quotes a resolution adopted in Chemnitz by delegates representing 50,000 workers, who declared the war to be “exclusively dynastic” (p. 18, 3rd edition of The Civil War).
[Ibidem, pp. 17-18: for the Germans, it is a war of defence.]
The Second Address (September 9, 1870) states: “The war of defence ended ... in the proclamation of the Republic”....
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(p. 19) “The French working class ... under cir- cumstances of extreme difficulty ... must not allow themselves to be deluded by the national souvenirs of 1792” ... “any attempt at upsetting the new govern- ment ... would be a desperate folly”.... “Let them calmly and resolutely improve the opportunities of Republican liberty for the work of their own class organisation”[1] (p. 25). |
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Letter of December 13, 1870: “However the war may end, it has given the French proletariat practice in arms” [Notebook: “Marxism on the State”, p. 2, margin[2]].
An article in The Daily News, January 16, 1871: “France is fighting not only for her own national independence, but also for the liberty of Germany and Europe.”[3]
Letter of April 12, 1871: enthusiasm over the “historic initiative” of the Parisian workers, etc. (Notebook: “Marxism on the State”, p. 12).[4] The Civil War in France: May 30, 1871.
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Marx in a letter to Kugelmann of February 14, 1871 (Die Neue Zeit, XX, 2, p. 608) quotes a letter published |
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by him in The Daily News, January 16, 1871, which ends as follows: “France—and her cause is fortunately far from being despe- rate—fights at this moment not only for her own national independence, but also for the liberty of Germany and Europe”[5]. |
France in January 1871 fights both for her national independence and for the liberty of Germany and Europe.... |
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Same source; in a letter of March 28, 1870, Marx quotes his complaints against Bakunin and the text of the General Council’s resolution of January 1, 1870, which sets out, inter alia, the General Council’s attitude to the Irish question:
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...“The General Council’s resolution on the Irish amnesty serve only as an introduction to other resolutions which will affirm that, quite apart from international justice, it is a pre-condition to the emancipation of the English working class to transform the present forced union—i.e., the enslavement of Ireland—into an equal and free federation if possible, into complete separation if need be”[6] (p. 478).— Same Source, p. 800: letter of May 18, 1874.[7] |
Marx on Ireland (1870) |
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| (1874) | ||||||
...“All diplomatic moves notwithstanding, a new war— sooner or later—is inevitable, and until it is over it is hardly likely that the position will anywhere develop into a powerful popular movement, or, at most, it will be of a local and minor character.”
[1] See Marx and Engels, Selected Works, Moscow, 1962, Vol. I, p. 497.
[2] See Marx’s letter to Kugelmann, December 13, 1870.
The Notebook “Marxism on the State”, which consists of preparatory materials for Lenin’s The State and Revolution, was written in January-February 1917 in Zurich. The reference to the Notebook “Marxism on the State” was, apparently, made later, during Lenin’s work on The State and Revolution.
[3] See Marx’s letter to the editor of The Daily News of January 16, 1871. (Marx, Engels, Selected Correspondence, Moscow, 1915, p. 256).
[4] See Marx and Engels, Selected Works, Moscow, 1962, Vol. II, p. 463.
[5] The date given for Marx’s letter in Die Neue Zeit is wrong; it should be February 4, 1871.
[6] See The General Council of the First International, 1868-1870. Minutes, Moscow, p. 405.
[7] See Marx’s letter to Kugelmann, May 18, 1874.
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