Eleanor Marx writes to the S.L.P. on her return to London from visiting the States with news of class war there. Eleanor, Wilhelm Liebknecht, and He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named were engaged in a fifteen-week speaking tour of the United States as guests of the Socialistic Labor Party in 1886. Their goal was to raise money for the German Social Democratic Party, up the profile of the S.L.P., and participate in the activities around the Haymarket solidarity movement. Eleanor visited Chicago’s Cook County Jail to meet with the imprisoned Haymarket defendants as they waited on their appeals. Arriving in September 1886, they spent three weeks in the New York area that September then traveled through New England, the Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley for three months, going as far west as Kansas City before returning to New York City in late November on what would turn out to be a controversial journey.

‘Home Again’ by Eleanor Marx from Workmen’s Advocate (New Haven). Vol. 3 No. 6. February 5, 1887.

Hard Times For The Working People Everywhere.

LONDON, January 12, 1887. We are once more in London, in the Old World, and the small external differences apart, it is wonderful how like the New World it is. One of the very last things I heard in New York was that the number of unemployed this year was greater than ever; and the very first thing I found in London was that the question of the hour is the “unemployed.” It is even forcing Dillon’s “plan of campaign,” and Lord Salisbury’s efforts to make a ministerial tory trick with that miserable money-lender, Goschen, into the shade. And the reason for the extraordinary interest taken in these unemployed men is not very far to seek. It does not mean greater sympathy or even better comprehension of the situation. It only means that the position “threatens to become dangerous.” For the first time the unemployed workingmen are beginning to organize, and are beginning to understand why they are starving when they are able and willing to work. For the first time at meetings held by the men, general principles are discussed besides the purely personal question of their want of work. This largely due to the efforts of the Social-Democratic Federation, whose members have been very active of late in organizing the unemployed.

At all the different London vestries suggestions are before the boards recommending the erection of artizan dwellings, wash-houses, baths, etc., but so far all that the vestries have done is to “take in” a few hands at the munificent sum of four pence (eight cents) per hour, to clear away the snow that was lying so thickly on the roads, for a few days. That now the show has disappeared the question is, what is to be done next? Meantime, large meetings and processions, thousands strong, are held daily. One of the most curious of such meetings was one at which several well-known “philanthropists” like Lord Brabazon and Mr. Arnold White, were present to advocate their emigration schemes. The usual platitudes were talked about–the beauties of colonization and emigration, and Lord Brabazon, who opposes State-aided public works for the unemployed, waxed eloquent in demanding State-aid for getting these same unemployed out of the country. One of the Socialists present particularly asked the noble lord (who does a little rack-renting in Ireland) if it would not “be better to nationalize the land at home first, and exhaust all the natural resources?” Then several speakers, cheered to the echo by the crowded meeting, explained to the various philanthropists what it is that Socialists mean and are determined to get. If you will bear in mind that only five or six years ago the workingmen of London used to applaud Lord Brabazon’s emigration schemes, and fully believed they could settle the whole question, the fact that they now can hardly be induced to give him a hearing, and refuse absolutely to be taken in with any “schemes,” shows how great is the advance made during that time in this country. Another matter that is much to the fore just now is the fearful overwork of shop-men and women. Fourteen to sixteen hours’ work is common, and during that time the unfortunate employes are not even allowed to sit down. Sir John Lubbock is to introduce a Bill dealing with this shameful exploitation as soon as Parliament meets. The necessity for some act dealing with the shops and shop-keepers like the Factory Acts deal with the mill-owners is conclusively shown by the large amount of evidence that has been collected on the subject. Take the following case, which is typical: Out of 250 shops of one particular trade in Manchester 235 were anxious” to close early, “but fifteen refused, and these fifteen kept the whole 250 open.” One of the shop-girls, one, according to the bourgeois Daily News, “out of a hundred thousand,” says, “I have overflowing of the blood which causes me to swoon after standing for a long time. I scarcely know what it is to stand with ease for the violent pain in my feet and legs.” Commenting on this, the Daily News adds: “In one way or another this execrable tyrant–Competition–must be bound with chains and fetters of iron.” Exactly. That is just what Socialists say–only they show the way that will slay, not merely bind the “tyrant Competition.”

ELEANOR MARX-AVELING

The Workmen’s Advocate (not to be confused with Chicago’s Workingman’s Advocate) began in 1883 as the irregular voice of workers then on strike at the New Haven Daily Palladium in Connecticut. In October, 1885 the Workmen’s Advocate transformed into as a regular weekly paper covering the local labor movement, including the Knights of Labor and the Greenback Labor Party and was affiliated with the Workingmen’s Party. In 1886, as the Workingmen’s Party changed their name to the Socialistic Labor Party, as a consciously Marxist party making this paper among the first English-language papers of an avowedly Marxist group in the US. The paper covered European socialism and the tours of Wilhlelm Liebknecht, Edward Aveling, and Eleanor Marx. In 1889 the DeLeonist’s took control of the SLP and Lucien Sanial became editor. In March 1891, the SLP replaced the Workmen’s Advocate with The People based in New York.

PDF of full issue: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn90065027/1887-02-05/ed-1/?sp=2&q=Aveling&r=0.737,1.081,0.302,0.148,0#viewer-pdf-wrapper