An Unfinished Revolution Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln

by Blackburn, Robin; Blackburn, Robin; Lincoln, Abraham; Marx, Karl; Dunaevskaya, Raya

• ISBN13: 9781844677221
• ISBN10: 1844677222
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-16
• Publisher: VERSO

Summary

Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln exchanged letters at the end of the Civil War, with Marx writing on behalf of the International Working Men's Association. Although they were divided by far more than the Atlantic Ocean, they agreed on the urgency of suppressing slavery and the cause of 'œfree labor.' In his introduction Robin Blackburn argues that Lincoln's response to the IWA was a sign of the importance of the German American community as well as of the role of the International in opposing European recognition of the Confederacy. The International went on to attract many thousands of supporters in over fifty regions of the US, and helped to spread the demand for an eight-hour day'”enacted by Congress in 1868 for Federal employees. Blackburn shows how the International in America'”born out of the Civil War'”sought to radicalize Lincoln's unfinished revolution and to advance the rights of labor, uniting black and white, men and women, native and foreign'born. The International contributed to a profound critique of the capitalist robber barons who enriched themselves during and after the war. It inspired an extraordinary series of strikes and class struggles in the postwar decades. In addition to a range of key texts and letters by both Lincoln and Marx, this book includes Raya Dunaevskaya's assessment of the impact of the Civil War on Marx's theory and a survey by Frederick Engels of the progress of US labor in the 1880s.

Author Biography

Robin Blackburn teaches at the New School in New York and the University of Essex in the UK. He is the author of many books, including American Crucible, The Making of New World Slavery and The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Abraham Lincoln
First Inaugural Address	p. 105
Emancipation Proclamation	p. 115
Gettysburg Address	p. 119
Second Inaugural Address	p. 121
Karl Marx
The North American Civil War	p. 127
The American Question in England	p. 139
The Civil War in the United States	p. 151
The American Civil War	p. 161
A Criticism of American Affairs	p. 173
Abolitionist Demonstrations in America	p. 177
Letters
Letter from Marx to Annenkov	p. 185
Letters between Marx and Engels	p. 189
Letters between Marx and Lincoln	p. 211
Articles
Woodbull & Claflin	p. 219
Independence vs. Dependence! Which?	p. 219
The Rights of Children	p. 222
Interview with Karl Marx	p. 225
Conclusion to Black and White	p. 233
Preface to the American Edition of The Condition of the Working-Class in England	p. 239
Speeches at the Founding of the Industrial Workers of the World	p. 251
Acknowledgments	p. 259
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