International Committee of the Fourth International

The International Committee of the Fourth International (short name ICFI ) is a centralized Trotskyist organization that emerged in November 1953 when the Fourth International was split and operates the World Socialist Web Site . In Germany, the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) is a member.

history

prehistory

In the Pabloite majority of the Fourth International in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the idea prevailed that, after a brief economic recovery, a severe capitalist economic crisis was imminent, which would lead to a third world war. The 1946 Congress viewed the post-war period only as a brief interlude, during which the US was already preparing a war of aggression against the USSR .

Regardless of the containment of capitalism through systemic competition with the communist states of the Eastern bloc and China , this alarmism continued into the 1950s. At the 3rd World Congress in 1951, there was again talk of concrete preparations for a new world war. Since there is now no more time to build strong Trotskyist parties, the members of the Fourth International should instead seek their luck in entryism , be it by joining the existing Stalinist communist parties, with the aim of influencing them, or there where working conditions were seen as better in the social democratic parties, the social democratic parties.

Break away from the Fourth International

Both the alarmist assessment of the situation and the required consistency of giving up an independent Trotskyist organization met with expected opposition in parts of the International. In particular, many could not share the implicit hopes for a change in the Stalinist parties, while entryism in social democratic parties was viewed far less critically.

In 1951, however, only the majority of the French PCI openly opposed the prevailing course. It was not until 1953 that other sections started a confrontation course with the International that the break occurred : together with the PCI majority led by Pierre Lambert (later the OCI ), the American ( SWP ), English (" The Club " ) split under leadership by Gerry Healy ), Swiss, New Zealand and Argentine (under the leadership of Nahuel Moreno ) sections of the Fourth International and merged to form the International Committee of the Fourth International . The split-off tendency is sometimes called "cannonists" after the leader of the SWP, James P. Cannon .

Partial reunification

In 1963 , however, many supporters of the ICFI, including the SWP, reunited with the Fourth International, whose new leadership was now called the United Secretariat of the Fourth International . The leading opponents of this reunification were Gerry Healy in England and Pierre Lambert in France.

In 1971 Lambert's OCI party also left the International Committee. In 1985 the break with the Workers Revolutionary Party around Gerry Healy led to a further fragmentation of the ICFI.

Sections

All sections of the International Committee currently led by David North are called the Socialist Equality Party. According to the company, this is intended to emphasize the centralized character of the organization and its struggle for international socialism and social equality. The following national sections currently exist (as of July 2018):

Official Sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

section	Surname
Australia	Socialist Equality Party
Germany	Socialist equality party
France	Parti de l'égalité socialiste
Canada	Socialist Equality Party
Sri Lanka	Socialist Equality Party
United States	Socialist Equality Party
United Kingdom	Socialist Equality Party

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) are the worldwide youth association of the International Committee. In addition, there are national groups affiliated to the International Committee, which, however, do not yet have the status of national sections, in the following countries:

country	Surname
India	ICFI supporters
Ireland	Socialist Equality Group
New Zealand	Socialist Equality Group
Pakistan	Marxist Voice
Turkey	Socialist Equality Group

literature

• David North: The Legacy We Defend: A Contribution to the History of the Fourth International . Arbeiterpresse-Verlag, Essen, 1988. ISBN 3-88634-051-1
• David North: Gerry Healy and His Place in the History of the Fourth International. Arbeiterpresse-Verlag, Essen, 1992. ISBN 3-88634-055-4
• Daniel Bensaïd : What is Trotskyism? . An essay, ISP: Köln 2004, ISBN 978-3-89900-108-2 (French original edition: PUF: Paris, 2002)
• Frank Nitzsche: “From the shadows into the reach of the cameras” . The development of Trotskyist organizations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with special consideration of the influence of the new social movements from 1968 until today, Diss. Uni Siegen, 2009; on the internet at: http://dokumentix.ub.uni-siegen.de/opus/volltexte/2009/390/pdf/Historie_Trotzkismus.pdf

Web links

• International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE)
• World Socialist Web Site

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. in particular Bensaïd 2002, 58: "The international conference of April 1946 in [...] was based on an ongoing economic crisis despite a brief recovery."
2. ↑ Bensaïd 2002, 54, 60, 66: “The attitude that prevailed at that time among the leading members of the Fourth International [...] was [...] the post-war period as a pause or an interlude in a war that would continue in a different form , to see. ”/“ It was said that Washington was preparing a war against the USSR […]. ”/“ The orientation that then developed in the International was directly connected with the prediction of a new and imminent world war. "
3. ↑ Bensaïd 2002, 79: “The profound entryism of 1952/1953 in the communist parties was of a different kind [than the entryism partly represented by Trotsky himself in the 1930s], certainly for practical reasons, insofar as the monolithism of the communist parties and their virulent anti-Trotskyism enforced secrecy. But he also corresponded to a long-term decision: He did not respond to the emergence of differences that existed in the mass organizations, but anticipated and sat on the inevitability of fractures as a result of the expected "- or rather, expect th ! - "War."
4. ↑ Cf. Nitzsche 2009, 31: “The RCP was split in the same year by Healy and Lawrence, who joined the Labor Party with the argument that the economic crisis would drive the workers en masse and formed the 'club' there ". Under Healy's leadership, it was only converted into the Socialist Labor League (SSL) in 1959, six years after the Fourth International split.
5. ↑ S. especially about him Bensaïd 2002, 55: “The delegates of the British section at the 2nd World Congress of the IV. International in 1948 presented […] joint amendments with the Argentinian delegate Nahuel Moreno, in which the effects of the Marshall Plan on the revival of production and the stabilization of the balance of power in Europe were recorded. "
6. ↑ See on the above: Nitzsche 2009, 33 [with FN 116], 40. Cf. Bensaïd 2002, 73: “International [s] Committee, the main components of which are the SWP in the United States, the Socialist Labor League in Great Britain, the Organization Communiste Internationaliste in France and Nahuel Moreno's group in Argentina were "
7. ↑ Nitzsche 2009, 72, 300.
8. ^ Nitzsche 2009, 34
9. ↑ Bensaïd 2002, 76: "A joint commission prepared the Unification Congress of 1963 (VII. World Congress), which brought together the sections of 26 countries and adopted a document on The Dialectic of the World Revolution, which laid down the foundations of unification"
10. ↑ Nitzsche 2009, 40.
11. ↑ ibid.
12. ↑ ibid.
13. ↑ ibid.
14. ↑ website of IYSSE. Retrieved July 25, 2018 .