During the week of Easter 1969, a total of 98 delegates, fraternal delegates and observers from 30 countries attended the Ninth World Congress of the Fourth International (the third Congress since reunification of the world Trotskyist movement). The high point of the Congress was the affiliation to the Fourth International of the Communist League of France, numerically the strongest section which has joined the International since its foundation. The Congress itself reflected the progress made by the revolutionary Marxist organisations during the recent period, as a result of the worldwide upsurge of the new youth vanguard and of the new rise of world revolution which has become manifest since the beginning of 1968.
The Thesis on The New Rise of World Revolution presented to the World Congress summarises the turn which has occurred in the world situation in 1968 in six main points:
1. The imperialist counter offensive launched by American imperialism following the victory of the Cuban revolution, after having scored important temporary successes in Brazil, in Indonesia, and in a number of African countries, has been repulsed by the heroic Vietnamese people who took the military initiative with the Tet offensive, in 1968.
2. The victorious resistance of the Vietnamese people coincided with a general decline of the economic growth of the imperialist countries, which has exacerbated the social contradictions and intensified the class struggle in most of them:
3. May 1968 in France began a new revolutionary upsurge in Europe.
4. The successful defence of the Vietnamese Revolution and the rebirth of revolutionary struggles in many imperialist countries has given the colonial revolution the possibility of overcoming the obstacles in its path.
5. Simultaneously with the Vietnamese Revolution and with the revolutionary crisis in France, the ripening of conditions for political revolution in the bureaucratically degenerated workers states has already led to mass mobilisations in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and political revolution is knocking at the door of the USSR itself.
6. The appearance of a new youth vanguard on a world scale, largely free from the control of the traditional mass organisations, favours the solution of the central task of our epoch: the creation of a new revolutionary leadership for the world proletariat.
The Congress discussions were centred around an evaluation of these key developments and around the elaboration of a strategic and tactical line which will enable the movement to utilise the existing favourable conditions for a further expansion of the Fourth International. The conclusion reached through these discussions was that the revolutionary Marxist organisations themselves are making a major turn, and in a series of countries have already been able to take political mass initiatives and launch effective mass actions, especially on the level of the vanguard.
The main documents adopted by the Congress will be printed in many languages. They were:
- The Thesis on The New Rise of World Revolution and the report of Comrade Germain who presented them, approved virtually unanimously.
- A resolution on the perspectives of the Latin-American revolution, presented by a report by Comrade Roca, approved by a two-to-one majority.
- A resolution on the "Cultural revolution" in China, and the report of Comrade Livio Maitan presenting it to the Congress, approved by a majority of over three-to-one.
- A resolution orientating the work of the International in the coming period toward radicalising youth, and opening a discussion of the problems posed by this orientation with a document presented by Comrade Albert.
The Ninth World Congress also adopted the activity report by the outgoing United Secretariat, presented by Comrade Germain, the report on the financial situation of the International, as well as resolutions dealing with specific questions of the movement in Argentina, Ceylon, Germany and Great Britain. In Britain, where previously there was no official section, the Congress recognised the International Marxist Group as the British section of the Fourth International. The Congress decided to refer to the next session of the International Executive Committee the discussion of a draft resolution on the tactics of revolutionary Marxists in Western Europe, as well as a draft resolution on the balance sheet of the Algerian Revolution.
The Ninth World Congress of the 4th International elected as honorary chairmen revolutionists who are suffering repression on behalf of imperialism or the Stalinist bureaucracy, as the result of their activities in the service of world socialism. The honorary chairmen included comrades Hugo Blanco and Creus in prison in Peru; comrades Daniel Camejo and Carlos Sevilla, in prison in Mexico; the Greek Trotskyist victims of the terror unleashed by the military dictatorship in their country; the Spanish Trotskyists in Franco's jails; comrades Kuron and Modzelewsky, in prison in Poland; Neville Alexander and his comrades imprisoned on Robben Island in South Africa; and the oppositional Soviet communists arrested for protesting against the occupation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic by the armies under the command of the Kremlin's bureaucracy; and the two Argentine comrades gravely wounded during a strike of oil workers in their country. The Congress likewise honoured the memory of all the cadres of the world Trotskyist movement who died since the 8th World Congress, among them comrades Rose Karsner and Bea Hansen from the United States, comrade Mallikarjun Rao from India; the leading comrades of the Partai Acoma, killed by the fascist dictatorship in Indonesia, and comrade Ernesto Che Guevara, the symbol of a new generation of revolutionists all over the world.
The World Congress ended with the election of a new International Executive Committee composed of 37 members and 9 alternates, as well as of an International Control Commission composed of 5 members.