Marx’s letters to Ludwig Kugelmann were first published as a series by Neue Zeit after Kugelmann’s death in January, 1902. In preparation for the U.S. lecture tour of Ireland’s James Connolly the Socialist Labor Party translated this November 29, 1869 letter of Marx explaining his recently arrived at conviction on the necessity, for its own emancipation, of the English working class making common cause with Ireland in its struggle for freedom against the British ruling class.

‘On Ireland,’ Letter to Kugelmann (1869) by Karl Marx from The Weekly People (S.L.P.). Vol. 12. No. 23. September 6, 1902.

London, November 29, 1869.

My dear Kugelmann:

That which has aroused some suspicions upon the inviolability and security of the post is that a letter written by me from Hanover to Engels has been incontestably unsealed and afterwards closed very clumsily. Engels kept the envelope in order that I might convince myself with my own eyes.

My long silence, up to a certain point culpable, must be explained by the fact that I have had a deal of work to do, not only for my scientific studies, but also for the International, for which I have been compelled to work very hard, following the receipt of a book from St. Petersburgh upon the condition of the working class (peasants, of course, included) in Russia, and in addition the state of my health has not been at all satisfactory.

You will have seen without doubt in the ‘Volkstaat’ the resolution which I proposed against Gladstone on the question of amnesty for Ireland.

I am now attacking Gladstone and that has had some effect here, much as previously when I attacked Palmerston. The demagogic refugees here prefer to fall upon the continental despots at a distance which keeps them out of danger. These things have no more attraction for me than when made in the face of the tyrant.

However, my intervention in this question of Irish amnesty, as well as the other proposition which I have made to the General Council, to discuss the relations of the working classes with Ireland and pass resolutions on the subject, have naturally another aim than that of speaking in a clear and decided manner for the Irish oppressed against the oppressors.

I have more and more arrived at the conviction- though this conviction has not entered the mind of the English working class- that we shall never be able to do in England anything decisive if we do not resolutely separate its policy in all that concerns Ireland from the policy of the dominant classes, so that not only will she be able to make common cause with the Irish, but will even be able to take the initiative in dissolving the union founded in 1801, and replacing it by an independent federative bond, and this aim should be followed not as a matter of sympathy with Ireland, but as a necessity based on the interest of the English proletariat.

Nevertheless the English people remain in the tow of the dominant classes, because they must make common cause with them before Ireland. Each of the movements in England remains paralyzed by the struggle with the Irish, who, even in England, form a very considerable proportion of the working class. The first condition of emancipation in this country- the overthrow of the English moneyed oligarchy- remains impossible, for the position cannot be raised much while they maintain strongly fortified outposts in Ireland. But there, as soon as the matter is placed in the hands of the Irish people, as soon will the latter become its own legislator and governor, and autonomous the annihilation of the English moneyed aristocracy, in great part the same people as the Irish landlords, will become infinitely more easy than here in England, for the reason that in Ireland it is not only an economic, but a national question, because the landlords are not as in England, the traditional dignitaries and representatives, but the oppressors of a nationality which they mortally hate. And it is not only the social evolution established in England which is retarded by these relations with Ireland, but also its external policy, notably with Russia and the U.S.A.

But as, on the other hand, it is the English working class who will incontestably throw the decisive weight in the balance of social emancipation, it is they who must act as the lever. In truth, the English Republic under Cromwell found its stumbling block in Ireland. Do not let us fall into the same error again. The Irish have played the English government a pretty turn by the election of O’Donovan Rossa, a convict felon, as M.P. Already the official organs threaten a fresh suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, with a new system of terror. In truth, England never has and never can govern Ireland while the present relations last, other than by the most fearful terror and the most odious corruption. In France things seem to go much better, in the sense that on the one hand we see demagogic brawlers and democrats of all shades compromising themselves, and on the other Bonaparte has entered on the road of concessions where he is likely to break his neck.

In all that concerns the scandal of Eulenburg in the Prussian Chamber, the “Observer” of yesterday (that weekly journal is at the service of the ministry) makes this remark: “Napoleon said, ‘Scratch a Russian and you will find a Tartar,’ while as to Prussia it is not even useful to scratch to find- Russia.”

New York Labor News Company was the publishing house of the Socialist Labor Party and their paper The People. The People was the official paper of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), established in New York City in 1891 as a weekly. The New York SLP, and The People, were dominated Daniel De Leon and his supporters, the dominant ideological leader of the SLP from the 1890s until the time of his death. The People became a daily in 1900. It’s first editor was the French socialist Lucien Sanial who was quickly replaced by De Leon who held the position until his death in 1914. Morris Hillquit and Henry Slobodin, future leaders of the Socialist Party of America were writers before their split from the SLP in 1899. For a while there were two SLPs and two Peoples, requiring a legal case to determine ownership. Eventual the anti-De Leonist produced what would become the New York Call and became the Social Democratic, later Socialist, Party. The De Leonist The People continued publishing until 2008.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/020906-weeklypeople-v12n23.pdf