Mazzini’s International League and the Politics of the London Democratic Manifestos, 1837–50

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Mazzini's first exile in England. Writing in English after 1839, Mazzini discussed the socio-political implications of democracy, in a debate conducted mainly through the Chartist press (both newspapers and pamphlets). Mazzini's interlocutors were a number of other democrats – including both British radicals and Chartists, and other European exiles (mainly Polish, German, and French). They spanned the whole political spectrum, from liberals to communists, involving men belonging to different generations, including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In the course of such debate a number of ‘Manifestos’, ‘Addresses’, and ‘Appeals’ were published by different and sometimes competing organizations. Several of these social and political programmes were signed by refugees from continental Europe.

Stitching together the threads of internationalism: London in anti-imperial organising

“…Mazzini nevertheless continued his internationalist engagement with other democrats, often speaking on behalf of the Polish uprisings and developing writings aimed at 'speaking to the English Nation, not to those who govern it'. 24 It has been claimed that exiled revolutionaries in Britain were instrumental in radicalising British Chartists by importing their militant continental ideas. 25 However, as Claeys has argued, the balance sheet is a little more mixed.…”