on the weekend of 28 to 29 October, the eve of the discipline of the FI and provoked their own 11th World Congress of the Fourth International. expulsion. It appears that 25 per cent of the Leaders of two currents inside the FI — the American, will follow their leaders out of the member Secretariat of the Fourth International THE ORIGINS of this split go back some time. The reasons given by the LTT and Bolshevik haction differences over the Nicaraguan revolution - were a pretext for a split and not the cause.
It was the decision of these currents to form organised relations the Committee for the Reconstruction Fourth International — a grouping outside the Fl led by Pierre Lambert + that forced their expulsion.
The Bolshevik Faction had been flouting the discipline of the FI for some time attempting sabotage and destroy sections of the FI in Mexico and Columbia. This made democratic debate Bolshevik Faction very difficult. developments were brought to a head by the events in Nicaragua.
AUTeTeN positions on Nicaragua have been expressed inside the International Why the International LEONTROTSKY spent the last yęars of his life attempting to build the Fourth International. He described this as the most important mission he had undertaken in his whole life. Why did he hold this view?
The necessity of international organisation had been built into the Marxist movement from its earliest days. Marx and Engels summed up this necessity in the famous words 'Workers of the World Unite' and in their practical struggle to construct the first International This struggle expressed the reality of the class struggle within capitalism system of domination and exploitation.
The imperialist war of 1914-18 put this internationalism to its first decisive test and, at the same time, was a convincing proof of the international character of the class. struggle. Lenin, Trotsky, and Rosa Luxemburg had no hesitation in prunuuiclg the International a corpse when its leaders called on workers of different countries to shoot eath other for the sake of imperial colonies and profits.
The betrayal of the Second International signified for the Bolshevik leaders the necessity overr government, the correct attitude of Trotskyists to the FSLN leadership, the method of building a section of the FI in Nicaragua and so on.
The last meeting of the United Secretariat Nicaragua and took various positions The FSLN's expulsion of the Simon Bolivar United Brigade from Nicaragua was condemned. The Party) — supporters-of the Bolshevik Faction and volunteers were sent to Nicaragua. It amendments to it were moved by the British oI ine Individual sections have also been debating Nicaragua in the run up to the World Congres:
by other amendments to thè USEC position stressing the coalrion and that a situation of dual powdes These existed in Nicaragua. It also called for the Fl to explain the need for a workers and peasants government. This is similar to the positions transformation of the Third International into nothing more than an instrument of Stalinist eventually enabled fascism to win in Trotsky was well aware of the magnitude of generation of militants had lost all hope with the victory of Stalinism in the USSR and the Trotsky's optimism was based on the reality of the class struggle on a world scale. As World Two approached, he summed up the a world International was the struggle to keep alight the flame of classical Marxism through the darkest For Trotsky only this could allow the capable of leading the working class to power. Second There existed in the '30s organisations like the Independent Labour Party in Britain and the POUM in Spain which counted tens of thousands of revolutionaries in their ranks. These parties denied the necessity or possibility oi consurucung a new mlemanonal.
international discipline.
Io 3 -ltl build parties basis. the need to construct the Fourth went through an internal crisis.
Nevertheless, 'GOs, only the class as a whole through Cuba to Vietnam. 1968 marked politics, indicated by the Tet The Hourti Europe In section, and also similar to positions supported Prior to the split it seemed extremely likely that the world congress would have endorsed "liquidating" this view. The debate was continuing. osnevkCоnAIus lonac Soul Gue loa "Castroist' tendency that had developed inside without The British section of the Fl rejects the accusation that the FI has adopted the policies of Castroism and broken from the fundamental principles of our movement. Therefore characterise the split as both unprincipled and Clearly the assessment has to be that the Bolshevik Faction and some of the LTT leaders were no longer interested in political debate.
• Two weeks before the 11th World Congress of the Fl, where their allegations could have been clarified and refuted, they, jointly with the OCRFI in France, called an 'Open Conference supported by all members of the LTT conference statement from the British members of this The This open conference would make decisions that are binding on no one, and which entail no split.
In the age of imperialism it is impossible to Today . *defending the interests of the working class as a whole' on a purely national The world which emerged from the Second World War put internationalism to its hardest test. Unexpected twists in the class struggle — the consolidation of Stalinism in East Europe and the capitalist 'boom' in the West - meant that the Fourth International, founded in 1938, throughout the 1950s and Trotskyists WeTt consistently defend the interests of the working - supporting the struggles against Stalinism as in Hungary in 1956 and the new rise of the colonial revolution from China, La turning point in tne gentiat. stikt • in Vietnam ard Czechoslovakia's 'Prague Spring' bearings was abe io economics. mobilise a new generation of youth in solidarity with the Vietnamese revolution. Its militants today stand trial as part of the opposition in East the imperialist countries, ine rourtn international 1s on the road tc building strong working class organisations There can be no other assessment than that it is LIC Cu adO WuU SubDUIL Lus Coriccuc wil! are the liquidationists - in practice they.are - the Fi, the only revolutionary organisation struggling to build a world party of socialist revolution.
Conference' any agreement to campaign debate and build parties with a commitment to building a world party of revolution, is just the kind of organisation that Trotsky fought against.
The militants who have followed these leaders face a dismal future unless they rejoin the FI, for the road of 'national Trotskyism' is littered with corpses. The experience of groups like the Militant, the Workers' Revolutionary Party and Sparticist League show the ultimate ate na aars toema Despite the tragedy of the loss of these •especially when the deliberately opened its debates to the OCRFI and many other revolutionaries world wide — there was no option for the ai but to expe those leading comrades who were campaigning within the ranks of the FI for this "regroupment' demoralisation of thousands of Trotskyist militants lies in the hands of the irresponsible leaders of the Bolshevik Faction and the LTT who provoked an unprincipled armed with the lessons of the '20s and '30s.
activity Fourth International can demonstrate the unity of the revolutionary DL COD This 1S only pi ssible on the basis of an international party.
All attempts at an alternative route to mass parties have resulted either in a retreat into national insularity — which in the case of the 'Militant' tendency in Britain has resulted in adaptations to the Labour leadership adapting to one or other aspect of the world process, as in the case of the European Maoists who emerged in the post '68 period.
The Fourth International is still a relatively small organisation. It is not yet the 'general staff of world revolution' fought for by Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky. Not all revolutionaries are within its ranks.
But it is the only organisation struggling for socialism on a world scale. Like Trotsky, we are confident that only such an organisation can aspire to lead the working class and keep its in the era of world politics and The last forty years and especially those since 1968 have proven both the possibility and the vitality of Trotsky's mission.
The comrades' attempt to splinter the world Trotskyist movement is a serious blow to the building of such a world party of revolution.
Socialist Challenge 15 November 1979 Page 7
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An unprincipled split heading for nowhere
A TRAGIC event for world Trotskyism took place Leninist Trotskyist Tendency, and the Bolshevik
Faction led by Nahuel Moreno — broke the militants of the FI, many of whom are Latin ranks of the International.