This is the first issue of International on a new bi-monthly schedule and with a new format.
The magazine was launched in May 1968; it undertook to carry on the type of agitational and co-ordinating work which its predecessor The Week had done, but to devote more space to longer and deeper analysis. This inevitably meant that although the magazine carried a certain amount of good analytical material in addition to a number of pointed agitational articles, it was not able, with its limited size, to carry very lengthy theoretical articles or, on a monthly schedule, to initiate and carry through campaigns satisfactorily.
The fact that we conceived and launched the magazine just prior to May/June 1968 and the French upheaval is significant: these struggles pitched Western Europe into a new era of revolutionary struggles. Since that time we have had some extremely rich experiences of struggle in Britain. To mention only a few: the mass Vietnam demonstrations, the mobilisation against In Place of Strife, the struggles in the universities, the repercussions of the struggles in Ireland, and finally the fall of the Labour Government. The political challenges which the revolutionary left has faced in this two-year period have been more vital, more varied, and more compressed than at any time since the Second World War.
And yet when we look back, what has been the outcome? The de-escalation of the solidarity movement while the United States has admitted that it is involved in Laos and has spread the war to Cambodia, the compromise between the TUC and the Labour Government, the fragmentation of the student movement, and the lack of solidarity while the slow-burning crisis in Ireland continues. Above all the failure of the revolutionary Left to build any effective organisation and in its place the increasing fragmentation of the movement.
These shortcomings are the result of failure to intervene effectively, to show clearly the relevance of revolutionary Marxist ideas and leadership to the thousands who were engaged in these mobilisations. They are at root political failures. They are the result of the backwardness of British revolutionaries, their confusion when faced with new and complex problems, and their inability to formulate a correct strategy. But their most striking aspect is the fact that none of them are original failures—they merely repeat old errors which have been made in the past, and which have been polemicised against by the great Marxist revolutionaries, Lenin, Trotsky and Luxemburg.
These last two years have shown with burning clarity the need for a revolutionary vanguard Party, a living force, leading, centralising, clarifying the struggles of workers, students and immigrants and directing them towards the overthrow of British capitalism. Such a leadership can only resolve these problems if it has a deep understanding of Marxist theory, and is striving to apply Marxism creatively to all the problems facing the world revolutionary movement, as well as to specifically British problems. This task is an immediate one; it cannot be postponed to a period when the revolutionary movement is larger and more cohesive. In fact, without prior theoretical clarity, the sharpening of the struggle in Britain will only further fragment the movement. We need now a period of polemics, of rigorous struggle to clarify theoretical concepts so that in future we can establish an authoritative strategy which can be a basis for unity and for fruitful action.
In this context we have decided to shift the emphasis of the magazine to the task of theoretical analysis, to provide the space needed for fairly lengthy articles of some depth, and to go over to a schedule which permits long-term planning and commissioning of such material. In addition we will of course publish editorials analysing more immediate events and problems, and we shall publish the important documents and statements of the Fourth International and its British section, the International Marxist Group. We will also be extending our book review section.
The new format contains approximately double the amount of words contained in a normal issue of the old International, and allows us to fix the price economically at 3/-, double the old price, so subscribers will get full value for their money. We hope that our readers will approve of these changes and will find the magazine a stimulating and relevant one. Articles and letters either commenting on articles or initiating new discussions will be welcome.