When two of history’s most influential political philosophers came to Jersey
And why Jersey should commemorate them
Three visits. Two of history’s most influential political philosophers. One beautiful island. You’d think it would be a story told more often.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were two German journalists, social scientists, revolutionaries and political philosophers operating in Europe during the 19th century. Their work, collectively known as Marxism, has become one of history’s most influential political philosophies, inspiring countless subsequent thinkers, activists, academics and working-class social movements across the entire world over the last 150 years, and remains to this day a key pillar of the Western philosophical canon. Figures of bitter controversy between their supporters and their detractors, whose work has inspired both utter devotion and complete disgust with questions that cut to the core of how we view the world, Marx and Engels can be safely said to be two of the most influential men in modern history.
And, three times between 1857 and 1885, they payed a visit to our very own island.
“Jersey has changed significantly since we were there. A lot of building, elegant villas, big hotels, with expensive, almost English prices, and everything much more expensive in the market as well; the London market has the effect of increasing prices. The French language is disappearing fast; even the children in the country speak to each other almost exclusively in English, and almost all the people under 30 speak English without any French accent” — Engels in a letter to Marx, 1874
How little has changed!
Marx and Engels in Jersey
In the 19th century, Jersey was an island that was changing fast. The population was increasing as English and Breton migrant workers flooded into a quickly expanding town, working in the island’s large shipbuilding industry and in the fields growing the new Jersey Royal potatoes. The development of passenger ships saw the rise of the tourism industry in Jersey as the island developed a reputation among travellers as a health resort, and it was this — along with the island’s famed revolutionary spirit — which initially attracted Engels in 1857.
Engels was suffering from serious ill-health at the time and was looking for a resort where he could recover. Engels had considered the Isle of Man, and Marx had recommended Hastings, in Sussex, but Engels ended up choosing the Isle of Wight. Although Engels’ condition improved while he was staying there, Conrad Schramm, an acquaintance of his, had recommended Jersey for its kinder climate. Engels wrote to Marx, inviting him to join him on a trip to Jersey, and the two left Brighton for Jersey on the 29th of October 1857. The two stayed at 3 Edward Place in the Parade. Marx spent only a few days in Jersey, returning to England on the 5th, while Engels remained for week and a half, encountering formerly famed English Chartist turned editor of the “Jersey Independent”, George Julian Harney.
“He regards his Jersey politics from the humorous point of view, saying he’s having a great deal of fun from it, etc. His more serious view, and he surely has one, will only make itself known hereafter. I went drinking with him afterwards and had him tell me about the local constitution, etc; there was no talk of previous days. For the time being he seems to be damn’d glad to have retired from high politics to his little royaume des aveugles” — Engels on Harney, 1857
Engels largely regarded Harney as an idiot and saw his campaign against feudalism in Jersey as ineffectual, writing that “Considering the nature of the feudal arrangements here, he should be able to make a deal of political capital out of them, but he doesn’t even begin to understand them and, moreover, ruins all the best points made by the little lawyer who supplies him with material and even complete articles”. Despite this, Engels found himself in better health. An ongoing financial crash in America risked a downturn at the Manchester cotton mill where Engels was employed, and, with his doctor’s advice, he returned to Manchester on the 8th of November 1857.
Engels made a second visit to Jersey in 1874. We don’t know much about this second visit, but he wrote to Marx during this second trip, discussing Jersey’s two new railways — “ on which you never hear a word of French” and how the English tourists he had met regarded Jersey as a “cheap but unfashionable little island” (Engels in turn complained that the standard of respectability of those English tourists “seems to get lower every year”). With this dubious recommendation, Marx also visited again in 1879, this time bringing his daughter, Eleanor Marx, and travelling once again with Harney.
They arrived on the 7th of August. The weather was very poor, with Marx writing that “the peasants believed that the world was coming to an end; they claimed never to have experienced such a bad spring and summer”, and the Marxes took a room at the Trafalgar pub in St. Aubin. Marx wasn’t exactly a fan of the Trafalgar’s menu — he described “a horror of a monotonous daily lamb and mutton diet” — and so him and Eleanor moved to the Hotel de l’Europe in St. Helier (or, as we know it today, Chambers). Although he regarded the Hotel de l’Europe’s service as “excellent”, the consistent nasty weather wasn’t great for Marx’s already-declining health, and while in Jersey he suffered badly from a sudden toothache. While his daughter swam in the sea at St. Aubin’s, St. Clement’s and St. Brélade’s bays, Marx wasn’t up to it, and the two left Jersey on the 20th of August. Marx would die only four years later, in 1883.
Engels, however, was able to make a third visit in 1885. Writing to Harney to ask for some local contacts, he was told that Jersey was “a very interesting place to visit, to stay some weeks, or even months: but after a time one feels cooped up and longing for at least a wider prison”. He was told to seek out six men — Francis le Sueur (a customs officer), John Binet (a town vinegar manufacturer), Philip Binet and Geo Picot (two hardware merchants), “Ouless” (a photographer) and “Carrel” (a journalist and publisher). Engels in turn reported on his return that the English tourists were “as numerous and vulgar as ever”.
Who says Engels isn’t relevant in the 21st century, eh?
Sources:
Marx and Engels in Jersey — The Island Wiki
Twitterwit — Vive la Revolution? In Jersey?! — Gallery Magazine
Time to commemorate them
A rich history, wouldn’t you say? But, one which lacks any substantial commemoration. There’s no monument, no bust, not even a commemorative plaque! The presence of Victor Hugo, Claude Cahun, John Wesley and many other figures far less significant than Marx and Engels are already acknowledged through one means or another, but these two titans of Western philosophy, these revolutionaries whose ideas inspired hundreds of millions and contributed to some of the most important events of the last century, lack substantial recognition. The International Film Festival looked at Marx’s time at the Trafalgar back in 2014, but that was simply one event — nothing permanent exists to remember the presence of these critically important historical figures.
Isn’t it time we did something about that?
Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery in London and the Karl Marx House in Trier in Germany bring in tens of thousands of visitors each year. Visitors to the Quo Vadis restaurant in Soho can rent the “Marx Room” at 28 Dean Street, where Marx stayed during his time in London in the 1850s, and there’s a blue plaque at Engels’ home at 112 Regent’s Park Road in Primrose Hill.
It’s not unique to Marx and Engels, either. Visitors to John F. Kennedy’s former home in Knightsbridge will find a commemorative plaque, as will those passing by the former home of philosopher Karl Popper at 16 Burlington Rise in Barnet. Artist William Morris, anarchist writer Peter Kropotkin, Pan-Africanist leader Marcus Garvey and former Prime Minister Clement Attlee all have plaques that recognise their time at places across London.
Places visited by important historical figures are always a great angle for marketing to tourists. There’s got to be a lot of folks who’d want to visit Jersey to find out more about Marx and Engels, and some sort of statue or plaque recognising their presence would doubtless be good for tourism. People come from all over the world to see the places their heroes worked, lived, stayed and loved, and Jersey has those places in abundance. It’s time for us to take the initiative and add another revolutionary thinker to the people whose time in our island Jersey commemorates.
If you agree that Marx and Engels’ time in Jersey should be physically commemorated, sign the petition below and add your voice to the growing call!
