KARL MARX

LONDON 255
II. REFUGEE POLITICS
Although the dissolution of the Communist League completed Marx's
withdrawal from active politics, he continued throughout the 1850s to be
an assiduous and often sarcastic observer of the various intrigues of the
London refugees. Deprived of the possibility of engaging in national
politics on their home ground, these refugees indulged in feverish political
infighting in London, though the doctrinal differences between bourgeois
republicans and socialists were real enough. The result was a constantly
changing kaleidoscope of plans, committees and alliances, not least among
the largest group of refugees - the Germans - whose sects a bewildered
I lerzen compared in number to the forty times forty churches traditionally
supposed to be found in Moscow. The feud in the Communist League
only added to an already fragmented picture. Marx's supporters - with
the exception of Liebknecht, who braved his anger - had withdrawn
from the Association in Great Windmill Street, but it continued to function
under Willich's leadership, as did also the Willich-Schapper group
of the Communist League. This group, claiming to constitute the true
Central Committee, expelled the Marx faction and declared in a circular
to its members that 'we thought and still think that, given the right
organisation, our party will be able to put through such measures in the
next revolution as to lay the foundation for a workers' society'. 81 The
split - made public by the unsuccessful prosecution of Bauer and Pfander
for the embezzlement of the Association's funds - was soon widened on
the occasion of the 'Banquet of the Equals' held in the Highbury Barn
Tavern, Islington, on 24 February 1851, to celebrate the anniversary of
the 1848 February revolution.
This banquet was organised by the Socialist Louis Blanc in opposition
to the 'radical' banquet of Ledru-Rollin. Blanc relied for support on the
London communists, and Willich presided at the banquet. Marx sent two
spies - Pieper and Schramm - but they were detected and thrown out
with considerable violence, even losing in the process (according to Marx)
several tufts of hair. This incident meant that, apart from the meetings
of his group, Marx was isolated from the other refugees. 'Marx lives a
very retired life,' wrote Pieper to Engels, 'his only friends are John Stuart
Mill and Lloyd and when you visit him you are received with economic
categories instead of with compliments.' 82 Marx, however, professed to be
quite pleased with this situation and wrote to Engels the same month:
I am very pleased with the public and genuine isolation in which
we two, you and I, find ourselves. It entirely suits our position and