Engels’ Practical Course in Guiding the British Workers’ Movement in His Later Years

Britain is the birthplace of utopian socialist thought and the cradle of scientific socialism. Marx and Engels always attached great importance to and closely followed the development of the British workers’ movement, using every opportunity to propagate scientific socialist ideas in Britain. In his later years, Engels neither led any organization in any country nor led any international organization, yet many organizations, as Lenin said, “drew instruction from the rich store of knowledge and experience of the aged Engels.” Engels effectively became the mentor of the international workers’ movement in both thought and practice.

英国是空想社会主义思想的发源地，科学社会主义的诞生地。马克思和恩格斯一直高度重视和密切关注英国工人运动的发展，并利用各种机会在英国宣传科学社会主义思想。恩格斯晚年既没有领导某个国家的任何一个组织，也没有领导国际的任何一个组织，但是很多组织如列宁所说，“都从年老的恩格斯的丰富知识和经验的宝库中得到教益”。恩格斯实际地成为国际工人运动思想上和实践上的导师。

As the most established capitalist country, Britain’s workers’ movement once far surpassed that of continental Europe in its advanced nature and revolutionary character. It was precisely through the study of the British working class that Engels, together with Marx, coincidentally completed their transformation of worldview. However, after the Chartist Movement, the revolutionary character of the British working class was eroded, and trade unionism gradually grew and developed among the workers. To overcome this phenomenon, advanced elements of the British working class, such as Champion, Mahon, Burns, Mann, and others, began to organize an independent workers’ movement. They frequently sought advice from Engels and received his strong support. Their work achieved notable results in two aspects: first, leading the new trade union movement; second, laying the foundation for the establishment of a British working-class political party.

英国作为最老牌的资本主义国家，其工人运动的先进性和革命性曾远远走在欧洲大陆前面。恩格斯正是通过对英国工人阶级的研究，与马克思不约而同地完成了世界观的转变。但在宪章运动后，英国工人阶级的革命性被磨灭掉了，工联主义逐渐在工人中发展壮大。为克服这种现象，秦平、马洪、白恩士、曼等英国工人阶级的先进分子开始组织独立的工人运动，他们经常向恩格斯求教，也得到了恩格斯的大力支持。他们的工作在两个方面取得显著成效：一是领导了新工会运动；二是为英国工人阶级政党的建立奠定了基础。

Marxists Lead the New Trade Union Movement

马克思主义者领导新工会运动

The biggest problem with British trade unionism was its contentment with struggles limited to the economic sphere, pursuing “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage,” which created a small stratum of labor aristocrats while the miserable plight of the majority of workers remained fundamentally unchanged.

英国工联主义的最大问题是仅满足于经济领域的斗争，追求“做一天公平的工作，得一天公平的工资”，造就了少数工人贵族，大多数工人的悲惨境遇没有得到根本改变。

In 1881, Engels wrote 11 articles for *The Labour Standard*, systematically pointing out to British workers the direction of struggle, strategies, and tactics. MacDonald, Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister, recalled that it was one of Engels’ articles that led him to socialism. Engels pointed out the limitations of trade unionism, revealed that the root cause of the workers’ plight was the wage-labor system itself, and proposed a new goal of struggle: the means of labor should be owned by the workers themselves. The method of struggle was to organize and send members of their own class into parliament. Engels was the first to clearly propose an independent line of advance. The new trade union movement was a new-style movement that sought to organize all workers.

1881年，恩格斯为《劳动旗帜报》撰写了11篇文章，系统地向英国工人指明了斗争方向、斗争策略等。英国首位工党首相麦克唐纳回忆到，正是恩格斯的其中一篇文章将他引向社会主义。恩格斯指出了工联主义的局限性，揭示了工人阶级的遭遇的祸根是雇佣劳动制度本身，提出了新的奋斗目标应该是劳动资料归工人自己所有，斗争的方式是组织起来，要把本阶级的人派到议会中去。恩格斯是明确提出独立前进路线的第一人。新工会运动就是试图将所有工人都组织起来的新式运动。

In the late 1880s, under the influence of factors such as the rise of socialist thought, the split of the Liberal Party, and rising unemployment, the new trade union movement surged forward. The leaders of the new trade union movement were mostly socialists, among whom those influenced by Marxism, such as Mann and Burns, played a prominent role. The strength of the new trade union movement came mainly from two sources: first, low-wage and unskilled workers, such as dockers and transport workers; second, industries with long-established unions but outdated concepts, such as mining. Mann, Burns, and others, based on class solidarity, put forward two slogans to mobilize workers: the eight-hour workday and a minimum wage. These struggles aroused an unprecedented fighting spirit among the broad masses of workers, and even unskilled workers who had never been organized formed unions. The initiators of local organizations were often Marxists. For example, Eleanor Marx was an executive committee member of the Gas Workers’ Union, whose constitution was drafted by Aveling. The new trade union movement triggered a wave of strikes across the country, the climax of which was the 1889 London Dock Strike, an important turning point in British labor history.

19世纪80年代后期，在社会主义思潮兴起、自由党分裂、失业率提升等因素的作用下，新工会运动勃然兴起。新工会运动的领导者多是社会主义者，其中受马克思主义影响的曼、白恩士等人发挥了突出作用。新工会运动的力量主要来自两个方面：一是低工资和非熟练工人，如码头和运输工人等；二是有长期工会但旧观念已不适用的行业，如矿业等。曼和白恩士等人以阶级团结为基础，提出了两个口号来发动工人——八小时工作制和最低工资。这些斗争激起了广大工人前所未有的战斗精神，从未被组织起来的非熟练工人也纷纷组织工会。各地组织的发起人往往是马克思主义者。比如，爱琳娜·马克思是煤气工会执行委员会委员，该工会的章程是由艾威林起草的。新工会运动引发了全国各地的罢工潮，其中的高潮是1889年伦敦码头工人大罢工，这是英国劳工史上一个重要的转折点。

Engels stated, “The whole strike was initiated and led by our people, by Burns and Mann.” This dock strike spurred the development of new trade union forces throughout the country, with membership rising from 860,000 in 1889 to nearly 2 million in 1890. Engels evaluated the movement as follows: “The new trade unions were founded at a time when the belief in the eternity of the wage-labor system was already greatly shaken. Their founders and leaders were either conscious or instinctive socialists; the masses who gravitated towards the new unions and constituted their strength were the ‘roughs’ despised and scorned by the labor aristocracy.” The new trade union movement not only expanded British workers’ organizations and awakened workers’ political consciousness but also laid an important foundation for the establishment of a British working-class political party.

恩格斯称，“整个罢工是由我们的人，由白恩士和曼发起和领导的”。这次码头罢工带动了全国各地新工会力量的发展，会员人数从1889年的86万增加到1890年的将近200万。恩格斯对这次运动作出如下评价：“新工联则是在雇佣劳动制度万古长存这一信念已经大大动摇的时候成立的。它们的创始者和领导者都是自觉的社会主义者或本能的社会主义者；趋向于新工联并构成其力量的群众，都是被工人贵族轻视和藐视的粗人”。新工会运动不仅扩大了英国工人组织，唤起了工人政治觉醒，也为英国工人阶级政党的建立奠定了重要基础。

Engels Guides the British Working Class in Party Building

恩格斯指导英国工人阶级建党

Engels and Marx did not always directly participate in the creation of new class-based political parties, as they did with the German Workers’ Party in 1869 and the French Workers’ Party in 1879–1880. However, whenever workers in a given country founded a revolutionary vanguard, Engels and Marx always participated indirectly, either by offering advice to some worker representatives, publishing instructions on programs, strategies, and tactics in newspapers, or by telling them a crucial point: without accepting the basic theories of scientific communism, forming a party would not succeed. It was in this way that Engels guided the British working class in party building.

恩格斯和马克思并不总是像1869年德国工人党和1879—1880年法国工人党建立时那样，直接参加新的阶级政党的创建工作。但是，每当某个国家的工人创立革命的先锋队时，恩格斯和马克思总是间接参与，或是向一些工人代表提出建议，在报章上发表关于纲领、战略和策略的指示；或是告诉他们一个关键性的问题：如果不去接受科学共产主义的基本理论，要想组成一个党，是不会成功的。恩格斯正是以这种方式对英国工人阶级建党给予指导。

Engels once criticized the backwardness of the British working class in party building: “For nearly twenty-five years, the British working class seemed content to be the tail of the ‘great Liberal Party.’ This political position was unworthy of the best-organized working class in Europe.” In 1886, Engels pointed out, “One or two million workers voting for a genuine workers’ party next November would, at present, be worth far more than one hundred thousand voting for a theoretically perfect program.” In 1887, Engels further stated, “Aveling is doing excellent propaganda work in the East End of London… This directly concerns the question of establishing a British workers’ party with an independent class program. If everything goes well, it will push the Social Democratic Federation and the Socialist League into the background, thereby providing the best solution to unresolved conflicts.” At every stage of the British workers’ movement, Engels clearly pointed out the direction forward for party building.

恩格斯曾批评英国工人阶级在建党方面的落后：“差不多有25年，英国工人阶级好像是甘愿充当‘伟大的自由党’的尾巴。这种政治地位，是和欧洲组织的最好的工人阶级不相称的。”1886年，恩格斯指出，“一两百万工人在明年11月投票拥护真正的工人政党，在目前来说，要比十万人投票拥护一个在理论上十全十美的纲领更有价值得多”。1887年，恩格斯进一步指出，“艾威林正在伦敦东头进行出色的宣传活动……这直接关系到建立一个具有独立阶级纲领的英国工人政党的问题。如果一切进行很好，那就会使社会民主联盟和社会主义同盟退居次要的地位，从而会使未解决的冲突得到最好的解决”。在英国工人运动的每一阶段，恩格斯都为他们清楚地指明了建党前进的方向。

The biggest problem in British working-class party building was the dependence of labor organizations on the Liberal Party. Early worker MPs were all elected with the support of the Liberal Party. The victories of the new trade union movement greatly encouraged independent political action by the working class. Workers realized that it was illogical to strike against Liberal employers while simultaneously electing them to parliament. In 1893, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) was founded in this atmosphere. Hardie was the most important founder of the ILP, and he frequently sought advice from Engels. The process of the party’s formation was precisely what Engels had been pointing out to British workers for over a decade. Engels once had hopes for the party, stating that the ILP, being the latest to emerge, had fewer stubborn prejudices, included excellent elements like the northern workers in its ranks, and most truly reflected the current state of the movement. However, the ILP ultimately adopted a bourgeois reformist stance, focusing its main energy on parliamentary struggle and colluding with the Liberal Party. The development of the ILP proved that without accepting scientific socialism as its theoretical foundation, establishing a working-class political party would not succeed.

英国工人阶级建党的最大问题是劳工组织对自由党的依赖。早期的工人议员都是通过自由党的支持当选的。新工会运动的胜利，大大鼓舞了工人阶级的独立政治运动。工人们意识到了，一方面罢工反对自由党的雇主、另一方面又把他们选入议会，是不合逻辑的。1893年，独立工党就是在这种氛围下成立的。哈第是独立工党最重要的创始人，他曾多次向恩格斯求教。该党成立的过程，正是恩格斯十几年来不断为英国工人指明的。恩格斯曾对该党抱有希望，称独立工党诞生最晚，它的顽固偏见较少，队伍中有北部工人这样的优秀分子，它最真实地反映着目前运动的状况。但是，独立工党最终采取了资产阶级改良主义的立场，把主要精力放在议会斗争上并同自由党勾结。独立工党的发展证明了如果不接受科学社会主义作为理论基础，建立工人阶级政党是不会成功的。

Furthermore, some worker leaders guided by Engels also contributed to British working-class party building. Mahon wrote to Engels nine times seeking advice on establishing a socialist workers’ party, and Engels replied with six letters. In early 1889, the Labour Union was founded, declaring its acceptance of the “Workers’ Programme” drafted by Mahon. According to research by British and Soviet historians, this document was greatly influenced by Engels. Thus, it can be seen that in late 19th-century Britain, some advanced workers had already recognized the need to break free from dependence on the Liberal Party. They were groping for a path to establish an independent working-class political party in Britain guided by socialist ideas. In this process, Engels played an important role.

此外，一些受恩格斯指点的工人领袖也为英国工人建党作出了贡献。马洪曾9次致信恩格斯求教建立社会主义工人党的建议，恩格斯回信6封进行答复。1889年初，工人联盟成立，宣布接受马洪起草的“工人纲领”。据英国和苏联历史学家研究，这份文件受到了恩格斯的很大影响。由此可见，在19世纪后期的英国，一些先进的工人已经认识到必须摆脱对自由党的依赖，他们已经在摸索在英国建立独立的以社会主义思想为指导的工人阶级政党的道路。在这一过程中，恩格斯起到了重要作用。

Engels’ life’s work is inseparably bound up with Marx’s practical activities and theoretical work. Together they established the scientific worldview of the working class, revealed the world-historical mission of the working class, and formulated the strategy and tactics of the liberation struggle for the working class. After Marx’s death, Engels continued to steadfastly struggle for the cause of scientific communism they had jointly established; he was worthy of the title “the most outstanding scholar and mentor of the modern proletariat.” [7]7 “The most outstanding scholar and mentor of the modern proletariat” is a phrase used by Lenin to characterize Engels in his 1895 essay “Frederick Engels.”

恩格斯一生的事业，不可分割地与马克思的实践活动和理论工作紧密地结合在一起。他们共同树立了工人阶级的科学世界观，揭示出工人阶级的世界历史使命，为工人阶级制定出解放斗争的战略和策略。马克思逝世后，恩格斯还在坚定地为二人共同树立的科学共产主义事业奋斗，他无愧于“现代无产阶级最卓越的学者和导师”的称号。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗