Historical
65-874: Historical The Fourth International ( FI ), founded in 1938, is a Trotskyist international . Following a ten-year schism, in 1963 the majorities of the two public factions of the Fourth International , the International Secretariat of the Fourth International (ISFI) and the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), reunited . In 2003, the United Secretariat was replaced by an Executive Bureau and an International Committee, although some other Trotskyists still refer to
130-646: A nationalised economy. The concept of deformed workers' states was developed by the theorists of the Fourth International after World War II , when the Soviet Union had militarily defeated Nazi Germany and the Eastern Bloc had been created. Taking Leon Trotsky 's concept of the Soviet Union as a degenerated workers' state , the 1951 Third World Congress of the International described
195-602: A common weekly supplement to their newspapers, common electoral work and other common campaigning. After the Lambert's current left the ICFI in 1971, its Organising Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International (OCRFI) opened discussion with the International. In May 1973, Lambert's tendency unsuccessfully requested to take part in the discussions for the 1974 congress, but the United Secretariat did not take
260-724: A counter-resolution, but only won minority support along with some places on the International Executive Committee: it publicly broke with the International a year later, claiming that Pablo had been ousted. Lambert's Internationalist Communist Party (PCI) in France and the Socialist Labour League (SLL) in Britain did not take part in the reunification congress, and continued the ICFI banner under their own leadership, opposing key elements in
325-583: A large majority of the world's Trotskyists in its ranks. Among ICFI and ISFI groups, only the PCI and the SLL refused to attend; the supporters of Posadas had left in 1962. The congress elected a new leadership team including Ernest Mandel , Pierre Frank , Livio Maitan and Joseph Hansen , who moved to Paris to co-edit World Outlook with Pierre Frank. It also adopted a strategic resolution drafted by Mandel and Hansen, Dynamics of World Revolution Today which became
390-731: A leader of the Latin American Secretariat, found themselves in agreement with the supporters of Michel Pablo in stressing the primacy of the anti-colonial revolution: the majority in the ISFI placed a greater emphasis on developing activity in Europe. However, Posadas and Pablo developed different reactions to the split in Stalinism: Posadas tended towards Mao Zedong , while Pablo was closer to Nikita Khrushchev and Josip Broz Tito . A similar development happened on
455-543: A major resolution on the deepening youth radicalisation. Over the following years its sections continued to grow principally through campaigns in opposition to the war in Vietnam, though the student and youth radicalisation. In 1964 the current around Argentine Trotskyist Nahuel Moreno fused his followers into the reunified Fourth International, bringing in hundreds of new members from throughout Latin America. Unification
520-607: A majority of the two sides developed similar approaches to a number of major international problems: opposing Stalinism during the 1956 crises in Poland and Hungary, and supporting the Algerian War of Independence and the 1959 Cuban Revolution . At the same time, parties in the ISFI had retreated from Pablo's orientation to the communist parties. In 1960, the sections of the ICFI and ISFI reunited in Chile, India and Japan. In 1962,
585-476: A meeting with the OCRFI. However, discussions decelerated after Lambert's Internationalist Communist Organisation made an attack on Ernest Mandel, which it later acknowledged as an error. In 1976 new approaches by the OCRFI met with success, when it wrote with the aim "to strengthen the force of the Fourth International as a single international organisation". However, these discussions decelerated again in 1977 after
650-632: A resolution on "The Sino-Soviet Conflict and the situation in the USSR and the other workers' states". The resolution noted the declining authority of the Kremlin both inside the Communist parties and with anti-imperialist movements such as those in Cuba and Algeria. It viewed 'de-Stalinisation' as a defensive liberalisation by the bureaucracy. The Sino-Soviet split was viewed as reflecting "the different needs of
715-565: A resolution, "Socialist Revolution and Ecology", which was provisionally approved subject to approval at the fourteenth congress. The congress also approved the general line of a programmatic manifesto, titled "Socialism or barbarism on the eve of the 21st century" and to continue the discussion on it at the January 1992 meeting of the International Executive Committee. It also registered substantial growth through
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#1732791485584780-438: A touch-stone document for the International over the following decades. It argued that "three main forces of world revolution—the colonial revolution, the political revolution in the degenerated and deformed workers' states , and the proletarian revolution in the imperialist countries—form a dialectical unity. Each force influences the others and receives in return powerful impulses or brakes on its own development." Reflecting on
845-614: The Cuban Revolution , accomplished without a revolutionary party, is also concluded that "The weakness of the enemy in the backward countries has opened the possibility of coming to power with a blunted instrument." This view was reinforced the following year, through the United Secretariat's resolution On the Character of the Algerian Government drafted by Joseph Hansen. The Reunification Congress also adopted
910-645: The International Committee of the Fourth International , associated today with the World Socialist Web Site , has objected to this new leadership body using the ICFI name, characterizing it as a "political provocation," "false flag," and "illegal appropriation." Prior to the sixteenth world congress, a major split occurred in the FI's section in Brazil. The International was doubtful from the beginning about
975-578: The Libyan Civil War . However, it opposed the NATO -led military intervention which supported rebels against Gaddafi loyalist forces . Three texts were approved in February 2017 to open the discussion for the 17th world congress. The Congress itself took place in February 2018 in the same place as the two previous ones. A fourth resolution on The capitalist destruction of the environment and
1040-737: The Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste . Delegates came "from Australia to Canada, Argentina to Russia, China to Britain, and Congo to the United States." The congress has an especially strong participation from Asia, including the new Russian section Socialist League Vpered , the Labour Party Pakistan , the reunified section in Japan and a reoriented organisation in Hong Kong . The sixteenth World Congress
1105-759: The Workers Socialist League in Britain and the Socialist League in Australia both opened discussions in 1976. Both currents would eventually merge with the sections of the International in their countries; the Socialist League merging in 1977, while the majority of the Workers Socialist League became the Socialist Group , which was to attend the ninth world congress and eventually join in 1987. Resolutions on
1170-541: The capitalist class has been overthrown, the economy is largely state-owned and planned , but there is no internal democracy or workers' control of industry. In a deformed workers' state, the working class has never held political power like it did in Russia shortly after the Russian Revolution . These states are considered deformed because their political and economic structures have been imposed from
1235-582: The reunified Fourth International and CWI . The League for the Fifth International argues that the Eastern European states were degenerate workers states, in that they were "degenerate from birth" being qualitative degenerated rather than having quantitative deformations. Therefore, a political revolution would be needed. Those Trotskyist currents that split from the Fourth International before 1948 over differences with Trotsky on
1300-467: The FI to adapt to the growth of the social democratic and communist parties . This led to disagreements between supporters of the ISFI and those parties on how to build revolutionary parties. These tensions developed into a split, leading to the suspension of those parties which had formed the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) late in November 1953. Over the following ten years
1365-960: The Fifteenth World Congress was held in Belgium , a substantial transformation had taken part in the International. In many countries, sections of the International had reorganised as tendencies of broader political parties, while the International had established friendly relationships with a number of other tendencies. The congress resolutions were debated by more than 200 participants included delegations from sections, sympathising groups and permanent observers from Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada – English Canada and Quebec, Denmark, Ecuador, Euskadi, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Lebanon, Luxemburg, Martinique, Morocco, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, and
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#17327914855841430-685: The Fourth International in 2006, leaving ENLACE as its Brazilian section. Since the 1993 congress, the International has continued to open itself up to the participation of other currents. In 2004, for example, its International Committee was observed by the International Socialist Movement from Scotland, the Democratic Socialist Perspective from Australia, and the International Socialist Organization from
1495-550: The ICFI side. By 1961 the ICFI had split politically, the Internationalist Communist Party (PCI) in France and the Socialist Labour League (SLL) in Britain arguing that a workers' state had not been created in Cuba, putting them at odds with the American SWP and the other organisations in the ICFI. By 1963, the split was also organizational. Each side held a congress at which it claimed to be
1560-597: The International inside the FSLN. This approach was disputed by the tendency of Nahuel Moreno , which split to merge briefly with the tendency led by Pierre Lambert . In May 1982 the Fourth International opened the discussion for the Twelfth World Congress. The period before the Twelfth World Congress coincided with a deep crisis in the SWP (US). The SWP's leaders started to register a number of disagreements with
1625-837: The International's leaders opposed this approach at that time, Peng Shuzi. The Leninist Trotskyist Tendency successfully worked to convince the international majority that it had previously supported guerrilla struggles with a mistaken orientation. In February 1974, votes at the Tenth World Congress divided 45:55 on the question of armed struggle, with a large minority opposing the generalised use of guerrilla tactics in Latin America. The 1974 congress registered further growth, with organizations from 41 countries. According to Pierre Frank, "About 250 delegates and fraternal delegates participated, representing 48 sections and sympathising organisations from 41 countries. Compared to
1690-586: The International, and withdrew from the day-to-day leadership of the International. In 1982 the Political Bureau of the SWP decided against the theory of Permanent Revolution , a key element of Trotskyism. The SWP's evolution was a central discussion at the congress, by which time the SWP's leadership had withdrawn from active participation in the International, prompting the International to launch International Viewpoint in 1982 and International Marxist Review in 1983. The International also supported
1755-594: The Internationalist Communist Organisation leaders stated that it had members inside the Revolutionary Communist League , the International's French section. The period from 1969 to 1976 was the stormiest because of a faction struggle over the centrality of guerrilla warfare in Latin America and elsewhere. The 1969 congress had adopted a sympathetic approach to the tactics of guerrilla warfare; only one of
1820-900: The LSSP's central committee. Tampoe and other LSSP dissidents organised the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary) , which became the Ceylonese section of the International. At the Eighth World Congress, held in the Taunus Mountains in Germany during December 1965, Samarakkody was also the delegate of a new section in Ceylon, the LSSP (R) , formed by an 'orthodox' tendency in the LSSP. Sixty delegates attended
1885-554: The LSSP's parliamentary tactics in 1960, and the LSSP had been absent from the 1961 congress, but was represented at the 1963 congress by Edmund Samarakkody . By 1964 the LSSP's leadership abandoned the party's longstanding opposition to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), completing a political turn it had attempted in 1960, until the Sixth World Congress condemned the LSSP for offering support to
1950-914: The RSL left the International soon after, leaving the International Group as the British section. In 1965, the International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency led by Michel Pablo split; it rejoined in 1992. The International grew substantially in the 1960s, alongside most other left-wing groups. The April 1969 Ninth World Congress in Italy gathered 100 delegates and observers from 30 countries including new sections in Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden and rebuilt ones in France, Mexico, Spain and Switzerland. It adopted
2015-470: The SLFP. In 1964, the International also opposed the entrance of the LSSP into a coalition government, with Pierre Frank addressing the LSSP's June 1964 conference to explain the United Secretariat's views. The International severed relations with the LSSP; it supported a split at the LSSP conference, supported by around a quarter of its membership and led by Bala Tampoe , a trade union leader, and 14 members of
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2080-406: The SWP leadership to get Robertson's group expelled. The ICFI unsuccessfully repeated its appeal for a deep discussion with the reunified Fourth International ("United Secretariat") at the end of 1963, and on later occasions. Its 1966 conference called for a Fourth International Conference. The ICFI approached the secretariat again in 1970, requesting "a mutual discussion that might open the way to
2145-620: The Socialist Labour League and its French sister organisation, the Organisation Communiste Internationaliste , reunifying with the Fourth International". Similar approaches were rejected in 1973. A further departure was registered in 1964 when the only mass organisation within the International, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party of Ceylon , was expelled after entering a coalition government in that country. The ISFI had sharply criticised
2210-628: The Soviet Union tend to disagree with this interpretation and have adopted theories describing the post-war Stalinist states as being state capitalist or bureaucratic collectivist . Some Trotskyist groups such as Socialist Action , while having some disagreements with the Cuban leadership, consider Cuba a healthy workers' state . Others, such as the Freedom Socialist Party , say that the People's Republic of China has gone too far on
2275-454: The US. The congress was notable for adopting major texts on ecology and on lesbian and gay liberation. The fifteenth congress adopted new statutes which gave the powers of the United Secretariat to two new Fourth International committees: an International Committee, which meets twice a year, and an Executive Bureau. The faction which rejected the 1963 reunification and continued under the banner of
2340-665: The US. In the same year, it organized an International Meeting of Radical Parties at the 4th World Social Forum . The International started to prepare the sixteenth congress in March 2008; the congress took place in February 2010 in West Flanders . The congress agenda was anticipated by the discussions at the 2009 meeting of the international committee. According to Alan Thornett , "There were over 200 delegates, observers and invited guests from around 40 countries" including representatives of Lutte Ouvrière , Marea Socialista , and
2405-770: The affiliation of the Nava Sama Samaja Party in Sri Lanka. Generally, however, the period after 1991 was increasingly unfavourable for Marxists. The June 1995 Fourteenth World Congress in Belgium addressed the final collapse of the USSR and the resulting realignment in the Communist Parties and the international workers' movement. The congress was attended by 150 participants from 34 countries: delegates from nine further countries were unable to attend. The main political resolutions were adopted by between 70% and 80% of delegates. The resolutions stressed
2470-404: The bureaucracies headed by the two leaderships (...). The search for agreements and above all an over-all agreement with imperialism on the part of the Soviet bureaucracy contradicts the search by the Chinese leaders for more aid and for better defenses against the heavy pressure of imperialism." Pablo's tendency had drawn more optimistic conclusions about the impact of de-Stalinisation. It presented
2535-544: The climate movement in particular." Two resolutions were not adopted at the congress. Trotskyist Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 607004554 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 10:58:05 GMT Deformed workers%27 states Historical Historical In Trotskyist political theory, deformed workers' states are states where
2600-440: The congress, which witnessed a growth from an international radicalisation of students and youth. The main resolution on The International Situation and the Tasks of Revolutionary Marxists focussed the sections on solidarity for anti-imperialist struggles, such as that in Vietnam, and intervening into the youth radicalisation and the crisis in international Communism. Other major resolutions were adopted on Africa, Western Europe and
2665-409: The continuing ICFI argued that a deeper political discussion was needed to ensure that Pablo's errors were not deepened. Those within the U.S. Socialist Workers Party (SWP) who broadly shared this view formed a "Revolutionary Tendency" led by Tim Wohlforth and James Robertson in 1962. They argued that the party should have a full discussion of the meaning of Pabloism and the 1953 split. Along with
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2730-442: The deepening Sino-Soviet split. That congress recognised two sympathising groups in Britain. One, the Revolutionary Socialist League, better known as the Militant tendency , objected to what it regarded as the uncritical way in which the International supported anti-colonial liberation movements and regarded the International's decision to give official recognition to a second, rival, group as undemocratic. Its views had deep roots, and
2795-495: The ecosocialist alternative presented by the Ecology Commission and endorsed by the outgoing Bureau was adopted 112 votes for, 1 against, 2 abstentions. It argues that "The struggle to defend the planet and against global warming and climate change requires the broadest possible coalition involving not just the power of the indigenous movements and the labour movement but also the social movements that have strengthened and radicalized in recent years and have played an increasing role in
2860-428: The establishment of the International Institute for Research and Education in 1982. Over 200 delegates and observers attended the twelfth congress in January 1985. The main resolutions were adopted by around three quarters of the delegates. New sections were recognised in Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador, Senegal and Iceland, as well as a number of sympathising sections, bringing the total to fifty countries. A major resolution
2925-413: The historical exhaustion of social democracy and the opportunities for political regroupment. A minority tendency was formed at the congress, supported by members of the International Socialist Group and Socialist Action (US) , which emphasised the building of sections of the Fourth International above regroupment. The Congress resolutions adopted a policy of encouraging realignment and reorganisation on
2990-462: The left, along with support for broad class-struggle parties such as the Party for Communist Refoundation in Italy, Gauche Unies in Belgium, the African Party for Democracy and Socialism in Senegal, the Workers' Party in Brazil, parties that also sent representatives to the congress. In a mainly symbolic reunification, Michel Pablo 's small tendency rejoined at the 1995 World Congress. Pablo and Mandel would both die shortly after. By February 2003, when
3055-405: The letter at face value and asked for clarification. In September 1973 the OCRFI responded positively and the United Secretariat agreed a positive reply. However, in the rush of preparations for the world congress the United Secretariat's letter was not sent, leading Lambert's group to repeat its request in September 1974 through an approach to the US SWP. The following month the secretariat organised
3120-426: The majority of the ICFI. On the one hand, the Austrian, Chinese and New Zealand sections met at a congress with the SWP and voted to take part in the reunification congress. On the other hand, Pierre Lambert 's PCI and Gerry Healy 's SLL called an "International Conference of Trotskyists" to continue the work of the ICFI under their own leadership. The June 1963 Reunification Congress, the seventh, in Rome represented
3185-450: The new regimes as deformed workers' states. Rather than advocating a social revolution, as in the capitalist countries, the Fourth International advocated political revolution to oust the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union (which was degenerated) and in the buffer states. This approach has been defended by the Trotskyist currents that trace their political continuity through the World Congresses between 1951 and 1965, such as
3250-432: The organisation as the USFI or USec. The ISFI was the leadership body of the Fourth International, established in 1938. In 1953 many prominent members of the International, and supported by the majority of the Austrian, British, Chinese, French, New Zealand and Swiss sections together with the U.S. Socialist Workers Party organized against the views of Michel Pablo , a central leader of the ISFI who successfully argued for
3315-505: The participation in Lula's government of a leader of its Brazilian section, later saying that "from the beginning there were different positions about ... participation in the government, in the International as well as in your ranks. But once the DS had decided in favour of participation, without hiding our reservations and doubts, we respected your decision and tried to help rather than put a spoke in your wheel. So we made an effort to convince comrades in our own sections that logically speaking
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#17327914855843380-402: The political convergence between the majorities on both sides was strong enough for the ISFI and ICFI to establish a Parity Commission to prepare a joint World Congress. That congress aimed to reunify the Fourth International. Some groups on both sides did not support the movement towards reunification. In the run-up to the 1961 congress of the ISFI the supporters of the Argentine Juan Posadas ,
3445-408: The previous congress the numerical strength of the Fourth International had increased some tenfold." By the time the eleventh congress arrived, a new level of unity seemed to have developed in the International. The years prior to the Eleventh World Congress reflected declining factional heat in the International: no international factions have been declared since then. Michel Pablo 's tendency raised
3510-522: The question of participation in the government should be subordinated to a judgement of the government’s orientations." As time went on, the International became more openly critical of its section's role in government. Members in Brazil were then in two different organisations: a majority group, Socialist Democracy (Brazil) , which is inside the PT; and a minority ENLACE current in the PSOL , which opposes participation in capitalist government. However, Socialist Democracy withdrew from active participation in
3575-418: The question of unity in 1976, with an ambitious proposal that it and the International could eventually unify in a new organisation comprising tendencies that were, or were evolving towards, revolutionary Marxism. The secretariat felt unable to move ahead with the proposal. Pablo's tendency finally rejoined in 1995. Two currents with roots in Gerry Healy 's ICFI also came towards the International at this time:
3640-431: The remainder of the ICFI, they argued that Cuba's revolution did not prove that the Fourth International was no longer necessary in the colonial countries. However, differences inside the Revolutionary Tendency developed. In 1964, with Wohlforth laying the evidentiary basis for claims of "party disloyalty" against Robertson, the tendency was expelled from the party. In the opinion of Robertson's group, Wohlforth conspired with
3705-482: The reunification documents, including the view that the July 26 Movement had created a workers' state in Cuba. They argued instead that Cuba's revolution did not bring power to the working class; the SLL believed that Cuba had remained a capitalist country. In their view, the International's support for the Cuban and Algerian leaderships reflected a lack of commitment to the building of revolutionary Marxist parties. While not rejecting eventual reunification in principle,
3770-504: The top (or from outside), and because revolutionary working class organizations are crushed. Like a degenerated workers' state , a deformed workers' state is considered to be a state that cannot be transitioning to socialism. Most Trotskyists cite examples of deformed workers' states today as including Cuba , the People's Republic of China , North Korea and Vietnam . The Committee for a Workers' International has also included states such as Syria or Burma at times when they have had
3835-405: The workers' movement. The congress rejected a counter-resolution on the world situation from a tendency supported by members of the International Socialist Group and the Revolutionary Communist League : the tendency was supported by six of the 100 delegates to the congress. In the opinion of the tendency, the crisis of imperialism was set to accelerate. But it was agreed to continue discussion on
3900-452: The world situation, Latin America, women's liberation and Western Europe were adopted by overwhelming percentages. The world congress agreed that the sections should execute a turn to industry . The congress, held in November 1979, gathered 200 delegates from 48 countries. It registered further growth above all in Spain, Mexico, Colombia and in France. The congress also opened a discussion on the place of pluralism in Socialist Democracy, which
3965-457: Was adopted on The Dictatorship of the proletariat and socialist democracy , which built on the discussion at the 1979 world congress. The SWP (US) and its co-thinkers formally left the International in 1990, following the Socialist Workers Party (Australia) which had developed similar criticisms of Trotskyism to the SWP, but had reached different conclusions by the time of its departure in 1986. The Thirteenth World Congress, in February 1991,
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#17327914855844030-407: Was discussed between the International and the French group Lutte Ouvriere . In 1970, Lutte Ouvriere initiated fusion discussions with the French section, the LCR. After extensive discussions, the two organisations agreed the basis for a fused organisation, but the fusion was not completed. In 1976 discussions between the LCR and Lutte Ouvriere progressed again. The two organisations started to produce
4095-415: Was one of the most ambitious, addressing a systematic change in the global balance of forces. Its resolutions spanned the 'New World Order', European integration, feminism and the crisis of the Latin American left. The resolutions discussed a fundamental reversal of fortune for the anti-capitalist struggle, reflected by defeats in Central America, the 1989 revolutions in the Eastern Bloc , and the weakening of
4160-428: Was the subject of a one-hour documentary by Julien Terrie. The film include interviews with participants from the NPA (France), Latit (Mauritius), the MST (Argentina), Dosta (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the PSOL (Brasil), the Labour Party (Pakistan), Kokkino (Greece) and elsewhere. In March 2011, the International announced its support for anti-Gaddafi forces who fought against the government of Muammar Gaddafi during
4225-410: Was to continue until 1985. It also invited contributions from the Workers' Socialist League in Britain, developing a relationship which led to WSL's successor organisation joining the International in 1987. The most contested debate at the congress was on the Nicaraguan revolution. Two views developed inside the United Secretariat, but both supported the FSLN and argued for the building of a section of
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