The Fourth International

The Fourth International was created in 1938 after five years of preparatory work. Its founders had decided that the catastrophic defeat of the German working class, embodied in the victory of Hitler, had demonstrated that the Third International, created in 1919 in response to « call from the new Soviet Russian republic, had irreversibly degenerated. It was clear to the International Left Opposition precursors of the Fourth International - that Stalin and other leaders of the Third International had refused to face up to the enormity of the defeat, and instead had tried This assessment has been amply confirmed: time and time again, the stalinists have betrayed revolutionary strug gles. Spain - 1936/39 where they acted as the butchers of the left; France and Italy - 1944/45 where they disarmed the partisans, Sudan, where after a mass upsurge they handed control over to Nimiery and Co., only to be Today, standing firmly within the traditions of Leninism, the Fourth International is engaged in building an inter- For International Revolution — against socialism in one country. The Fourth International believes that because terms. Without this understanding, there cannot be successful revolution, the revolutionary process in any country The Fourth International cannot be effective unless it is seen as an aspect of an international process. For this reason, the international revolutionary party which seeks to centralise the experience and understanding of all its sections is a vital instrument for successful revolution. Since the modern world is an integrated economic, political and social entity, socialism cannot be built in one country. Attempts to achieve this have lead to terrible deformations and compromises with imperialism: It is the 'socialisni in one country strategy which is responsible for the "peaceful co-existence' policies of the Russian and Chinese leaderships, and responsible for their anti-democratic internal regimes. Socialism in all countries will be built as part of a process of fighting for international revolution! Unlike the so-called Marxist-Leninists, the Fourth International does not explain the opportunism and repressive nature of the Soviet Leadership in terms of personal degeneration (though this is present) but as a function of wrong attitudes to revolution, which in turn arises from this bureaucratic caste putting its own priveleged positions above — against revolution by stages. The Fourth International sees capitalism as a social and economic formation that is completely reactionary. It can still- at least in the advanced capitalist countries — falteringly take the productive forces forward, but only at the expense of war, booms, slumps, crisis, and subjugation of This means that capitalist forces cannot play a progressive role, the idea that there can be some progressive democratic (ie. non-socialist, and therefore capitalist) stage of revolution is false and utopian On the contrary, the tasks which had historically been achieved by the revolutionary bourgeoisie, can today only be uchieved as part of socialist revolution. This is strikingly confirmed in Africa where none of the new post-colonial , to develop the productive forces, unify the country, establish basic democratic rights, etc Only a socialist revolution could achieve such ends, and therefore start the process of ending the misery of the mass For Working People's Democracy - against bureaucracy and elites. The Fourth International traces its origins to a struggle in the Soviet Union which was inseperable from a fight for workers' democracy against bureaucratisation it believes that a successful struggle against bureaucratic anit-democratic trends in the workers' and revolutionary (1) Election and right of recall for all posts in the workers and working people's movement; (2) The right to form tendencies in these organisations; (3) The freedom of the trade unions from state control; (4) Mass involvement For Total Liberation - against all oppression/exploitation. The Fourth International does not limit itself to purely economic demands: it fights all forins of opression/exploitation: racism, oppression of women, super exploittarians who refuse to take up these struggles. This is because the Fourth International considers the liberation of to bureaucratically bluff their way through. massacred for their pains — these are just a few examples. national revolutionary socialist party, based upon democratic centralism vidual countries which unite to work out an international revolutionary strategy. the world is an ensemble of economic, political those of the world working class. Permanent Revolution workers and oppressed people. regimes has been able of people. movement is a prerequisite for successful and completed revolution. in decision taking at all levels; and defence of all other democratic rights. ation of the peasantry, discrimination against It does this by building sections in indiand social processes, it can only be understood in international Therefore the Fourth International stands for: gays and other minority groups. It opposes the bureaucrats and secstruggle there will be no socialist revolution, and indeed the imperialists recognise this in their use Against Popular Fronts - For Workers' United Front: the basis for the unity of all the oppressed. By popular fronts we essentially mean blocs which seek to 'unite' antagonistic class forces. Historically, this has always meant a line of subordinating the working class to the bourgeoisie under the guise of 'national unity" — sadly we see many organisations around an action programme to meet the immediate needs of the class struggle. This in turn, acts This means that the Fourth International rejects totally the Maoist theory of the 'bloc of four classes'. Ironically the Maoists themselves had to break with this policy in practice before they could make their revolution - the Chin- For the Revolutionary Road to Power - against the illusions of the peaceful road. For the Fourth International the option of the revolutionary road is not that of preference but of scientific analysis. It is a lesson of history that the ruling classes do not give up without struggle, with the use of the state machinery - the army, etc. The apostles of of the peaceful road leave the working class at the mercy of the exploiter and reinforce what is a basic pillar of bour- Against Reformism - tor the Method of Transitional Demands. The Fourth International supports all the struggles for demands which assist the working people, but holds that a struggle for reforms alone is insufficient and selfdefeating. To purely reformist demands (ie. demands entirely within the framework of capitalism) we counterpose a series of demands which, while taking the working class forward, develops and deepens its consciousness. Our method of the transitional programme flows from our understanding that revolution is not merely overthrowing the oppressor, it is also a process of transforming (by developing their political consciousness) the oppressed the Fourth International stands for their unconditional defence against imperialism. We call these states 'deformed Workers' states because, despite their lack of democracy, the property relations they defend are of a socialist nature; deformed because they were born with defects - eg. lack of organs of workers' power degenerated because they once had these organs and lost them through bureaucratic degeneration. This principled position has nothing to do with the Maoist theory of the 'socialist imperialist' nature of the Soviet Union. This theory confuses the undoubtedly treacherous policies of the leadership of the Soviet Union. with the state thay they lead. If applied to trade unions, they should be against trade unions because they have an opportunist leadership! Despite their leaderships, destruction of the trade unions would be a crushing blow against the working class; so too would the destruction of the Soviet Union be a crushing blow to the interests of world revolution. This policy of the Fourth International leads it to utterly condemn the line of the Soviet Union when it refused to defend People's China against US imperialism. In place of these devisive policies, we stand for a united front of workers' state against imperialism, and for national liberation. If such a front had existed and spoken out in clear terms, the strangling of the Congo revolution (among many others) would not have taken place. for national liberation and against all forms of neo-colonialist exploitation. We strive, in all countries to darity in support of such struggles. Our record on Algeria, Vietnam and other countries speaks for itself. Ilowever we ao not see this as an end of the process, but more as part (a key part) of the process of total liberation. This leads us to argue that each national liberation struggle should combine its anti-colonial tasks with a struggle for The most successful national liberation struggles have been those which have -conbined themselves with social revolution. To give just one example, the Vietnamese revolution has had such tenacity, staying power, etc., precisely because it combined the struggles against French, Japanese, French again and then US imperialism reform and the abolition of the biggest exploiting class in Vietnam. It was this fact which meant that the Vietnamese revolutionaries could count on the heroic and unstinting support of the working masses. of the countryside and town The application of this in Africa is all too clear. We believe that the success of the struggles of the people of Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau and the present struggles in Angola have elements in common (although not identical) with that of the Vietnamese. Unfortunately, there are far too many examples of attempts to wage 'pure' military or national struggles with the effect that the masses could not be won for the revolutionary process in a full manner. In this short article we have tried to highlight aspects of the policies of the Fourth International and how they relate to Africa. We would add that the policies of the Fourth International are not abstract nor do they limit themse themselves to the writing of articles: we take our politics seriously - as is shown by the hundreds of Trotskyist vic- During the Algerian war, the Fourth International was the only tendency on an international scale which seriously lassisted the struggle of the FLN. This fact was recognised by the OAS, the Red Hand and imperialist governments - the former in their endeavours to assassinate our comrades; the latter when they arrested our comrades, including the then secretary of the Fourth International Michel Raptis. We are proud of this modest (due to seize) contribuwho fear to dirty themselves by taking sides, we solidarise with the MPLA despite our criticisms of its conduct of the struggle: In a confused and distorted manner it reflects the class struggle in the Angolan civil war by its relation various imperialist forces. As on Algeria we shall give a good account of ourselves on Angola. 4 to be a total process, and one based upon the self-activity of the masses. of the ideological backwardness on these questions to divide the working people. examples of this in Africa. To the popular front, we counter-pose the workers' united front, by which as the leadeadership and nucleus of the unity of all the oppressed lese bourgeoisie in essence lining up with the Chiang Kai Shek. geois power: its monopoly of violence. Detence of the Workers' States. or 'degenerated" workers' states. For National Liberation, for the Socialist Revolution. socialist revolution tion to Algerian struggles - but only in the sense International since the Algerian war will emulate that contribution. Today solidarity with the Angolan revolution is a key task for revolutionaries. with the new and militant industrial working class. Without bringing the oppressed we mean the unity of all workers' Despite our criticisms of the leaderships of the so-called communist countries, The Fourth International completely supports the struggle that the many new forces which have joined the Fourth *se* Unlike petit-bourgeois intellectuals On the contrary, the FNLA and UNITA reflect the interests of Peter Peterson