Letter to W. Bracke in Brunswick

A letter written by Marx to Wilhelm Bracke, one of the founders and leaders of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany (i.e., the Eisenachers). Written on May 5, 1875, abridged and first published in Die Neue Zeit, 9th Year, Vol. 1, No. 18, in 1890–1891.

In 1875, the two factions in the German workers’ movement, the Eisenachers and the Lassalleans reached an agreement on the unification of the two factions. But in drawing up the new party programme, the leaders of the Eisenachers made an unprincipled compromise and tolerated the inclusion of the erroneous viewpoints of Lassalle’s opportunism to be included in the draft programme. In order to defend the principles of scientific socialism, liquidate Lassalleanism and educate the Eisenachers, Marx wrote the Marginal Notes to the Programme of the German Workers’ Party at the beginning of May of the same year, while he was ill. On May 5, Marx sent the work, together with the attached letter to Wilhelm Bracke and asked him to pass it on to other leaders of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany (i.e. the Eisenachers) for reading.

There are eight natural paragraphs in the Letter to W. Bracke in Brunswick, and the main contents are as follows: First of all, Marx stated his principled position on the unity programme. In the letter, Marx pointed out that after the Unity Congress was held, Engels and he would publish a short statement to the effect that their position was altogether remote from the said programme of principle and that they had nothing to do with it. Next, Marx pointed out two very important principles: first, the importance of practical action in the workers’ movement, that is, “every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes”; second, the seriousness of drawing up a programme of principle; Marx here criticized the Gotha Programme as being inferior to the Eisenach Programme, even regressive, and that it would be better simply not to formulate it. Finally, Marx criticized the leaders of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany for their eagerness to unify and their error of haggling about principles. At that time, it was the Lassalleans who took the initiative to approach the Eisenachers because they were in a plight of extreme isolation among the working class and were eager to unify. But the main leaders of the Eisenachers, Liebknecht and others, were so busy with unification that they accepted a unity programme replete with Lassalle’s opportunist views, which was tantamount to surrendering to errors of their own accord.

Letter to W. Bracke in Brunswick is an important letter by Marx. In the document, based on the new party programme of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany, Marx criticized the erroneous viewpoints of Lassalle’s opportunism while expounding his position, pointed out the principles that the proletariat should uphold in the revolutionary struggle, and further enriched the theory of scientific socialism. Together with the Marginal Notes to the Programme of the German Workers’ Party and the Preface written by Engels in January 1891 for the public publication of the two aforementioned documents, it constitutes a programmatic document of the communist movement, which is of great significance in resisting and criticizing all kinds of opportunism in the communist movement.