Producing a revolutionary paper There must be an Editor: Tariq Ali, 328/9 Upper Street, London N1.
Telephone 01-837 6954 sks enge appears in the wake of a massive cil polls. The National Front has made tland, the bourgeois Scottish National alternative to Labour. And the far left he most vicious assaults unleashed by ered by the working class, bitter struggles in defence of their living ans have not been hesitant in stating that enge to the Social Contract. And on a acism and women's oppression - broad resist the reactionary offensive which central goal the fight for an organised icts of the capitalist crisis. And it will be for a principled regroupment of the are vital if the working class struggle is to eats it confronts. the fight to construct class struggle : to unite advanced workers prepared to art and parcel of the capitalist crisis. The ep in that direction. It has been able to ers of far left organisations - to tackle ries in the face of complacency by the g. A class struggle opposition needs to Firmly rooted in the unions, it would / uniting with other working class forces nts fighting on social issues o create a clear alternative to the present ft is an essential component of such an tish far left is divided. Expulsions and s over tactical questions rather than on me. But even where there are differences es not automatically warrant separate rrect positions on this question have led ocracy, the political the political education of theircadre i Socialist Challenge has already helped it a principled regroupment would entail. ages of Socialist Challenge. Without a opportunity to test different political sty regroupment is doomed to failure. overcome on the basis of clear principled as rapidly as it has been achieved. r a new relationship between the far left ampaigning for a unified revolutionary establish a correct basis for building a This is a task which we think no one group y through their own growth. A paper like on the politics of the IMG and the Fourth licy of open and polemical debate — will hese political tasks.
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Gc/o 328/9 The week The Economist and Newsweek have unleashed calumnies against it. The American House of Representatives has had a thick dossier printed on its activities and labelled it the Trotskyite Terrorist International". Its name is linked to actions in Latin America and Quebec, to striking workers in Pamplona and to school students' mobilisations in France.
In many cases the reports are rubbish pure and simple, but they reflect something deeper: an awareness within ruling class circles of the potential threat offered by a revolutionary organisation spanning 60 countries and all the continents.
While its leaders make no false claims real strength, the Fourth International is the largest revolutionary Marxist organisation in the world. Socialist Challenge will be an internationalis That is not a matter of abstract *ain, but an answer to une miemanona nature of the world capitalist system.
Our enemies will use chauvinism and peity patriotism as a way of dividing the working class, Fernaps une singie greates political weakness of the workers' move. ment is its readiness to respond to th capitalist politicians' calls of 'national interest enthusiastically backed up b Of course imperialism is rent with national divisions, but that is something we can only turn to our advantage if we are united internationally. When it comes though, our enemies united in their determination to protect their own interests by stamping out the gains of the working class internationally multinational companies are a graphic illustration enterprises around the moving where the pron margins are highest and using national divisions as a weapon for holding down wages and sacking indiscriminately.
The Fourth International represents the continuous development of the international communist movement from the Bolshevik Party of Lenin and Trotsky. It easier way There must be an easier way of producing a revolutionary paper.
That's the thought which flashes between pairs of lean and hungry eyes late every Monday night — or early Tuesday morning. But that Is When But even Socialist Challenge's most champions would be hard put drastically to change the producing weekly starts on Wednesday (where else?) when the editor presents the provisional list of contents to La campaign arose out of the split in the Communist International after Lenin's death with the rise to power of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union.
The Fourth International was founded in 1938 on a programme which repolsented the highest development of shevik politics. It stands for all those things which Stalinism has rejected - for the revolutionary road to socialism, based neither upon the single party bureaucratic state nor the 'parliamentary road' but upon socialist democracy, In contrast to the idea that the construction of socialism can be completed in a single country, the Fourth International defends the theory of Permanent Revolution. This means both a recognition of the interrelationship of revolution and an understanding that capitalism can no longer solve the prob. lems of democracy and economic dev elopment in the colonial and neo-colonial count e. socialist revolution under the leadership of the working class can do tat We combine defence of the workers' states the Soviet Union, Europe and China against the capitalist countries with a fight for full socialist democracy in those countries, which can only be won by revolution, overthrowing parasitic bureaucracies.
Although the Fourth Socialist Challenge arrives it will be the editorial board.
board will be open to representatives of political organisations participa ting in the paper, and journals, as well as individuals anc representatives of the International Marxist Group and the paper's staff.
After a sometimes prolonged discussion the basic shape of the week's of rejects the Stalinists' bureaucratic idea of Line role or une party in a workers state we stand by the need for an international revolnonary party wen can providc tae common programme for socialist revolution. Within that international organisanational is the nucleus, we fight to build sections in each country which can fight to take the leadership of the struggle for socialism in their own country. tasks can only be carried out with the fullest inner-party democracy, both within the national sections and internationalFor many years a small number people, isolated trom ine mass or tne workers movement, guarded this political neritage trom ine twin unreats of stann ism and the attacks of fascism and repression. But in recent years things have changed. Particularly since 1968 the rise or working class struggies meetnanonany and the role which the FI has played within them. has been reflected in the numerical growth of the organisation and an expansion of its political influence.
the expansion of our press. Each section has its own newspaper. In every major capitalist country there is a weekly paper of the FI. In France a year ago a daily paper was launched. It has successfully and presents the possibility of unifying gauche interRevolución Eastern a niga a political presci the week goes on.
rather Other in advance.
The editorial paper and not a news magazine sort of lefty Time or Newsweek of other to events as they happen fortunately just sation tion, of which the present Fourth Inter- ne real ago wnen campaign Those This growth has found its expression in polical analysis led the section to further political gains GENEVOIS EN GREVE paper is decided, a shape which wi e maintained throughout the fre quent revisions made by the staff as each Red Weekly tends to be produced week by week. In other words there is too little of an overall plan of the aper's contents in the long term With Socialist Challenge we will b trying to plan over a longer period by number commissioning feature articles furNevertheless the paper is to be a day the bulk of the paper will still have to by written week by week in response Frequent meetings of the editorial staff revise the plan in the light of important developments and - unas orten way! the revolutionary left in a single organiIn Colombia a joint paper has been the way in which three Trotskyist organisations have brought about full unity under the banner of the Fourth International.
meaning internationalism was shown three years -successit eite anora was mounted to launch a weeklv Trotskyist paper in Portugal. Nov a similar campaign is underway in Spain.
Already the massive growth of the Liga Comunista Revolucionaria and its implantation in the working class has made it possible to move from a duplicated journal to a well-produced, printed newspaper with a circulation of some 30,000 -and that is leaving aside the sales of news papers in the languages of the oppressed nationalities in Spain.
Socialist Challenge will be able to make use of all these advances. Already the daily paper in France provides us with invaluable news material. More recently we have managed to extend our network of foreign correspondents who will write directly for the new paper, providing an unrivalled source of news coverage and But above all the strength of Socialist Challange will be the political strength of the Fourth International and its programme. We stand or fall by that - and we are confident which it will be.
Linke appearing or disappearing copy. By the weekend, however, the contents page are fairly finally decided. The copy deadline for letters has already passed, so that is usually the first page to be typset and passec on to the design staff If we are on schedule - an event so rare we savour every moment - a of pages will be laid before the weekend is over. More likely, everything will be finished in a frantic rush on Monday, our press the week. Our certainty on this point ous by the onward march of the class struggle! There must be an easier
Socialist Challenge Red Weekly Socialist Challenge
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Monday also sees the emergence of the most important political story of
is the product of many years of front page lead articles rendered superflu