Report of the Commission on Rebuilding the Fourth International and the tasks of the International Committee

[p021] 117 Report of the Commission on Rebuilding the Fourth International and the Tasks of the International Committee 1, The London Conference reaffirms that the programme and method for the building of the revolutionary parties and the Fourth International are to be found in the Transitional Programme. This programme Temains the only one that is capable of providing a solution to the problems raised by the historical crisis of revolution- ary leadership. 2. The Conference affirms that Pabloism (whether of Pablo, Frank-Germain, Hansen, or the Posadas tendencies) con- stitutes a revisionist current alien to the programme and methods of the Fourth Inter- national. 3. The Conference affirms that the Fourth International has not degenerated. The his- torical continuity of the Fourth International founded in 1938 by Leon Trotsky, re-formed in the years 1943-46, which Pab- loism attempted to destroy in 1950-53, has been maintained since 1953 by the struggle waged by the Trotskyist or- ganisations grouped within the International Committee. As a result of this, the In- ternational Conference pro- claims that the continuity of the Fourth International has been fought for and maintained by the International Commit- tee’s actions. 4. The Conference recog- nises the inability of the leadership of the International, after Leon Trotsky’s death, to succeed in the tasks required by the building of revolutionary parties and the International. During the course of this hard battle for Trotskyism, some cadres have been exter- minated, victims of imperialist and Stalinist repressions, others worn out, and the leadership of the Fourth International be- came bankrupt. This leader- ship collapsed because of its distortion and abandonment of Marxism, i.e., of the method of dialectical materialism. This is why this leadership was un- able to root the movement in the struggle of the working class, and particularly the youth. As a result, they were incapable of assimilating the methods and principles of communist organisation. In no case can this failure be con- sidered the failure of the Fourth International. 5. The essential unity of the international class struggle, flowing from the international character of the joint crisis of imperialism and the bureau- cracy, implies the direct con- sequence of the necessity of building Trotskyist parties in every country. As against the liquidationist conclusions flow- ing from the revisionist ‘divi- sion of the world into sectors’; this perspective emphasises the urgency of building indepen- dent revolutionary proletarian parties in the countries of Eastern Europe, USSR, and China, and in the colonial and semi-colonial countries. 6. This central task of building independent revolu- tionary parties stresses yet again the essential struggle for the political independence of the working class, against the politics of the Stalinist bureau- cracy and the reformist leader- ships. This fight for the Party implies a determined struggle against syndicalism and _ all ideas that a revolutionary party can be spontaneously produced from the working class. _ 7. The International Con- ference stresses that the Trot- skyist movement, in the course of the struggle to build the Internatianal, works towards the creation of a centralised leadership of the world revo- lutionary party, in a struggle organically linked to the fight in each country to rebuild re- volutionary centralised parties leading the struggles of the masses. This building of parties and of the International must be carried out on the basis of the lessons of the struggle against revisionism and of the continuation of this struggle. &. The proceedings of this Third Conference emphasise the necessity for the Interna- tional Committee to politically prepare within 18 months the Fourth International Confer- ence, whose aim will be to rally all Trotskyist organisations fighting for the programme of the Fourth International. This will include a struggle by the International Committee to rally to the ranks of the Fourth International the mili- tants and groups who are mis- led by the revisionist leaders of the United Secretariat.

[p022] 118 9, In order to achieve the tasks before such a Conference, the International Committee must organise an international discussion on the following subjects: (a) The building of revolution- ary parties on the basis of the Programme in the con- text of the concrete struggle for the rebuilding of the International. Trotskyists, organised as sections of the Fourth International, must struggle for the construc- tion of revolutionary pro- letarian parties based on the Transitional Programme of the Fourth International. They carry the fight for this programme and for the con- struction of the Party as the main basis of their work in the mass organisations and trade unions of the working class, and in particular towards the working class youth, as the principal source of new forces for the Fourth In- ternational. All such work is subordinated to the main task of constructing the Party. The building of the Party necessitates the pro- duction of a newspaper able to constantly fight for the overall programme of the Party, to raise the con- sciousness of the working class in all spheres of the class struggle. This fight for the independent party is the only basis for the de- ference of the positions won in the past by the working class, and all tactical con- siderations are subordinated to it. In conditions where the tactic of entry into ex- isting working-class parties is necessary, this tactic is conducted in a manner which subordinates it to FOURTH INTERNATIONAL, AUGUST 1966 the main task of the con- struction of the indepen- dent party. (b) The unity of the interna- tional class struggle. (c) Defence by revolutionary methods of the conquests of the international working class, in the capitalist coun- tries, in the USSR, China and all the countries which have been removed from the sphere of imperialism. This discussion will be carried out on the agreed framework of the uncon- ditional defence of these states. 10. In the framework of the objectives agreed at this Conference, the International Committee must, so far as its resources permit, give assis- tance in: (a) the building of Trotskyist organisations; (b) the activity of Trotskyist organisations; so that they can advance from the stage of propaganda groups to being Communist organisa- tions fighting in the class struggle for the leadership of the proletariat in the struggle for power. 1 1 e rhe International Com- mittee will publish an official internal bulletin in English to be translated into the various languages by each section. 12. The financing of the International Committee’s tasks will be decided according to the possibilities of each section. The International Committee will work out for the next Con- ference the basis of financial contributions for the budget of the International Committee as such, 13 e lhe International Com- mittee will set up a youth commission working under its direction and consisting of representatives of the Young Socialists and Révoltes. The immediate tasks of this Com- mission to be: . (a) Convening of an_ inter- national conference’ of revolutionary youth organi- sation; (b) Organisation of mass par- ticipation in the Liége demonstration against NATO and the Vietnam war in October 1966. 14. The International Com- mittee must make a political and practical study of the tasks to be achieved in the building of sections in Eastern Europe, in the first place in strengthen- ing the Hungarian section. ] 5 e Lhe International Com- mittee is recommended by the Conference to organise visits to the United States and Latin America, and to Greece and Denmark. Also recommended are exchanges of cadres be- tween sections as methods of strengthening sections. 16. The International Com- mittee will appoint a Com- mission to begin work imme- diately on a history of the Fourth International. Resolution adopted unanimously by the E.C. of the Fourth International 8.4.66