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Today we commemorate the 142nd anniversary of Karl Marx's death.
The Comintern (SH) greets all sections, all Marxists, all revolutionary proletarians throughout the world.
Marx and Engels' fight against the Socialist Law and for the necessity of illegal party building
We dedicate the year of the 142nd anniversary of the death of Karl Marx to the fight of Marx and Engels against the Socialist Law and the derived doctrine of illegal party building. Marx and Engels proved that even under illegal conditions the dissemination of a revolutionary central organ is possible. This was of great international importance and especially for Lenin as the editor of "Iskra".
When Bismarck introduced a bill "Against the dangerous aspirations of social democracy" in the Reichstag in September 1878, Karl Marx wrote to Friedrich Engels:
"The exceptional law is made to deprive the social democratic movement of all semblance of legality. Probatum est." (September 17, 1878)
Adopted by the Reichstag on October 19, 1878, the Socialist Law went into effect on October 21, 1878. The exception act banned all party organizations and all trade unions if they pursued socialist goals. All significant socialist press organs were suppressed, and every assembly of a socialist character was banned. By imposing a so-called "small state of siege" on certain districts and killing the Socialists, the police were able to arbitrarily expel Social Democratic workers and functionaries from the country. The Socialist Law was intended to deprive any revolutionary movement in Germany of its leadership and thus render it ineffective. Marx and Engels helped the party to defend itself against the influences of right opportunism and anarchist groups within the party. At that time, Friedrich Engels was concerned with pushing back the influence of the Lassallians and directed his criticism primarily against the unity machinations of Wilhelm Liebknecht (the father of Karl Liebknecht):
"And during the 13 years of the Socialist Law, there was of course no possibility of speaking out against the Lassalleans within the party. This had to end, and I instigated it. I will no longer allow the false glory of Lassalle to be maintained and preached anew at the expense of Marx. (...) Even a slight tension, let alone a rift, between the German party and German socialist science would be an unparalleled misfortune and disgrace.
(...) In Vorwärts, there is always bragging about the inviolable freedom of discussion, but there is not much evidence of it. Personally, it does not matter to me [if you introduce a Socialist Law into your own ranks]. No party in any country can condemn me to silence if I decide to speak. You - the party - need socialist science, and it cannot live without freedom of movement. (...)
And then you must not forget that discipline in a large party can by no means be as tight as in a small sect and that the Socialist Law, forged by Lassalleans and Eisenachers into one (according to Liebknecht, however, his splendid program did that!), and that such close cohesion is no longer necessary, no longer exists." (Friedrich Engels to August Bebel, May 1/2, 1891)
