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"What particularly offended my pride was the fellow's utter lack
of respect while he conversed with me. He did not remove his
cap and, while I was standing before him, he remained sitting
with his right knee raised to his very chin, with the aid of his
right hand, and steadily rubbing with his left hand the raised leg,
just above the ankle. At first, I thought this disrespectful attitude
to be the result of a habit he had acquired while working at the
tailoring trade, but I was soon convinced of my error. When I
asked him why he was continually rubbing his leg in this
manner, Weitling responded in a nonchalant manner, as if it
were the most ordinary occurrence, that in the various German
prisons in which he had been confined, he had been kept in
chains; and as the iron ring which held his knee was frequently
too small, he had developed a chronic irritation of the skin
which was the cause for the perpetual scratching of his leg. I
confess, I recoiled when the tailor Weitling told me of these
chains."
(Yet the poet had suggested the contradictory nature of the
feelings which animate the human breast): "I, who had once in
Munster kissed with burning lips the relics of the tailor John of
Leyden -- the chains he had worn, the tongs with which he was
tormented, and which have been preserved at the Munster City
Hall, I, who had made an exalted cult of the dead tailor, now felt
an insurmountable aversion for this living tailor, Wilhelm
Weitling, though both were apostles and martyrs in the same
cause."
Though Heine discloses himself in not a particularly favourable light, we can
nevertheless see that Weitling made a strong impression upon the universally
admired poet. The revolutionist could easily distinguish in Heine the intellectual and
artistic aristocrat who beholds with curiosity though not without aversion the type of
a revolutionary fighter who is strange to him. Marx's attitude to Weitling was quite
different, though Marx, too, was an intellectual. To him Weitling was a very gifted
expression of the aspirations of that very proletariat, the historic mission of which he
himself was then formulating. Here is what he wrote of Weitling before he met him:
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"Where can the bourgeoisie, its philosophers and literati
included, boast of work dealing with the political emancipation,
comparable with Weitling's Guarantees of Harmony and
Freedom? If one compares the dry and timid mediocrity of
German political literature with this fiery and brilliant debut of
the German workers, if one compares these halting but gigantic
first steps of the proletariat with the mincing gait of the full-
grown German bourgeoisie, one cannot help predicting that the
proletarian Cinderella will develop into a prodigy of strength."
It was quite natural that Marx and Engels should seek to make the
acquaintance of Weitling. We know that the two friends during their short sojourn in
London in 1845, became acquainted with the English Chartists and with the German
emigrants. Though Weitling was still in London at that time, we are not certain that
Marx and Engels met him. They entered into close relations in 1846, when Weitling
came to Brussels where Marx, too, had settled in 1845 after he had been driven out of
France.
By that time Marx was completely engrossed in organisational work. Brussels
was very convenient for this purpose, for it was a transit station between France and
Germany. German workers and German intellectuals wending their way to Paris
invariably stopped for a few days in Brussels. It was from Brussels that forbidden
literature was smuggled into, and disseminated all over, Germany. Among the
workers who had temporarily settled in Brussels there were few very able men.
Marx soon advanced the idea of convoking a congress of all the communists
for the purpose of creating the first all-communist organisation. The Belgian city
Verviers near the German border, and therefore convenient for the German
communists, was chosen as the place of the meeting. We are not certain whether this
convention ever took place, but according to Engels, all the preparations for it had
been thought out by Marx long before the delegates from the League of the Just
arrived from London with an invitation for the two friends to join the League.
It is obvious why Marx and Engels should have considered the circles which
were under the sway of Weitling as being of supreme importance. They had wasted a
good deal of effort to meet him on a common platform, but the whole affair
culminated in a break. The history of this break was recorded by the Russian critic,
Annenkov, who happened to be in Brussels during the Spring of 1846. He left us a
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very curious description containing an abundance of misrepresentation including,
however, a bit of truth. He gives us a report of one meeting at which a furious quarrel
occurred between Marx and Weitling. We learn that Marx, pounding his fist on the
table, shouted at Weitling, "Ignorance never helped nor did anybody any good." This
is quite conceivable, particularly since Weitling, like Bakunin, was opposed to
propagandistic and preparatory work. They maintained that paupers were always
ready to revolt, that a revolution, therefore, could be engineered at any moment
provided there be resolute leaders on hand.
From a letter written by Weitling concerning this meeting, we learn that Marx
pressed the following points: a thorough cleansing in the ranks of the communists; a
criticism of the useless theoreticians; a renunciation of any socialism that was based
on mere good-will; the realisation that communism will be preceded by an epoch
during which the bourgeoisie will be at the helm.
In May, 1846, the final rupture came. Weitling soon left for America where he
remained until the Revolution of 1848.
Marx and Engels, aided by some friends, continued the task of organisation.
In Brussels they built up the Workers' Educational Society where Marx lectured to
the members on Political Economy. Besides the intellectuals such as Wilhelm Wolff
(1809-1864) to whom Marx later dedicated the first volume of Capital, they had as
their associates a number of workers like Stefan Born (1824-1899) and others.
With this organisation as a basis, and using their comrades who were
travelling between Brussels and other points, Marx and Engels strove to form and to
consolidate connections with circles that existed in Germany, London, Paris and
Switzerland. Engels himself fulfilled this task in Paris. Gradually the number of those
who inclined to the new views of Marx and Engels increased Then, in order to unite
all the communist elements, Marx decided upon the following plan: Instead of a
national, purely German organisation, Marx now dreamed of an international one.
To begin with, it was imperative to create groups, nuclei of the more mature
communists in Brussels, Paris and London. These groups were to choose committees
for the purpose of maintaining communication with other communist organisations.
Thus was laid the foundation of the future international association. At the
suggestion of Marx these committees were styled the Communist Committees for
Interrelation (Correspondence Committees).
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