Untitled

BATTLE BETWEEN MARX AND BAKOUNIN 171
Marx is "the instigator and the leader of all this calumnious
and infamous polemic." (20) He was reluctant,
however, to attack him personally, and even refers to
Marx and Lassalle as "these two Jewish giants," but
besides them, he adds, "there was and is a crowd of
"Nevertheless," he writes, "it may
Jewish pigmies." (21 )
happen, and very shortly, too, that I shall enter into conflict
with him, not over any personal offense, of course,
but over a question of principle, regarding State communism,
of which he himself and the English and German
parties which he directs are the most ardent partisans.
Then it will be a fight to the finish. But there
is a time for everything, and the hour for this struggle
has not yet sounded. ... Do you not see that all
these gentlemen who are our enemies are forming a phalanx,
which must be disunited and broken up in order to
be the more easily routed You are more erudite than I ;
you know, therefore, better than I who was the first to
take for principle: Divide and ride. If at present I
should undertake an open war against Marx himself,
of the members of the International would
three-quarters
turn against me, and I would be at a disadvantage, for I
would have lost the ground on which I must stand. But
by beginning this war with an attack against the rabble
by which he is surrounded, I shall have the majority on
my side. But, ... if he wishes to constitute
himself the defender of their cause, it is he who
. . .
would then declare war openly. In this case, I shall
take the field also and I shall play the star role." (22)
This was written in October, 1869, a month after the
Basel congress. On the 1st of January, 1870, the General
Council at London sent a private communication to
all sections of the International, and on the 28th of
March it was followed by another. These, together with