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Marx-Engels Correspondence 1883
Engels to J.P. Becker
In GenevaAbstract
London, 22 May, 1883
Our lads in Germany are really magnificent fellows, now that the Socialist Law* has freed them from the "educated " gentlemen who had tried before 1878 to schoolmaster the workers from the superior heights of their ignorant university-bred confusion, an attempt to which unfortunately only too many of the leaders lent themselves. That rotten trash has not been entirely got rid of as yet, but all the same the movement has come into a definitely revolutionary channel again. This is just the splendid thing about our boys, that the masses are far better than almost all their leaders, and now that the Socialist Law is forcing the masses to make the movement for themselves and the infuence of the leaders is reduced to a minimum things are better than ever.
*Bismarck's Ani-Socialist law 1878-90