>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >Freedom Socialist Party International Executive Committee >PO Box 266 West Brunswick VIC 3055 AUSTRALIA >Phone/fax: 61-3-9386-5065, >E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <www.socialism.com> > >April, 2000 Greetings, > >The International Executive Committee of the Freedom Socialist Party >invites Trotskyists around the world who are concerned about the future of >the Fourth International and share our perspective to work with us. > >Alison Thorne >International Executive Committee Coordinator > >Let's Reclaim the Fourth International! by Guerry Hoddersen >--reprinted from the Spring 2000 issue of the Freedom Socialist newspaper > >Sixty-two years after Leon Trotsky founded the Fourth International (FI), >the organization is in deep trouble - not new trouble, but worse than ever. >After long degeneration, the FI threatens now to turn into its opposite - >to devolve from a revolutionary leadership body into an aimless network of >loosely affiliated radicals. This is a crisis that the far-flung forces of >Trotskyism, the Freedom Socialist Party included, must rise to, laying >aside past differences and joining together to keep alive an entity with >the unique potential to develop world revolt into world socialist >revolution. First and foremost, the FI was designed to be the embodiment of >a political program based upon all of the lessons learned in key working >class struggles. At its founding, these events ranged from the defeat of >the 1871 Paris Commune, to the triumph of the Russian Revolution, to the >role of Stalinism in making possible the rise of fascism. > >The International's second purpose was to be the organizational means for >unifying and coordinating the workers' movements, using the democratic >centralist model created by Lenin and the Bolsheviks of the early Third >International. > >[That's where things went wrong.] > >The need for such an organization today is profound. Following the >tremendous Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization, the >question on the mind of every activist has been: what next? The job of a >healthy international is to be ready to answer that question. Just as the >need is great, so are the opportunities. From the uprising in Chiapas >against the signing of NAFTA to the bold wharfies' strike in Australia, the >past few years have been marked with manifold signs of working and >oppressed people awakening to our common interests and potential power. > >But at just this promising moment, the leadership majority of the Fourth >International (United Secretariat) is proposing to junk the entire legacy >of the FI and liquidate the world party. By revising the statutes of the >FI, they want literally to turn back the clock; they intend to propose at >the World Congress in 2001 that the FI be remade in the image of the First >International, a goulash of political types that caused Marx and Engels no >end of frustration before its inevitable collapse. > >[I would surmise that the FI is not interested in a time-machine, but in >how to deal with present realities. This, of course, is anathema to >orthodox Trotskyists, bless their pointy heads.] > >If their plans are approved, the FI will become a virtually program-free >hodgepodge of socialists, anarchists, social democrats, ex-Stalinists and >Greens. It will cease to be an agent for world revolution and turn into yet >another obstacle to be overcome, a "progressive" swamp where well-meaning >people are derailed, demoralized, confused and co-opted. > >[Swamps actually are very rich ecospheres, as opposed to the desert-like >sterility of sectarian small groups.] > >In the last decade, the FI majority has been deeply unnerved by the fall of >the USSR, the free-market offensive, the unparalleled dominance of U.S. >imperialism, and growth in the social democracy. Demoralization has given >rise to opportunism, the willingness to junk revolutionary principle in >search of quick fixes and easy popularity. This flows from seeing the >global glass as half empty rather than half full. > >[The comrades are confusing opportunism with taking opportunities. God >forbid that a Trotskyist sect would want to dirty its hands with the living >class struggle.] > >In the manifesto "Socialism or Barbarism on the Eve of the 21st Century", >the FI devotes scant attention to the beating Stalinism has taken in the >last decade and what this means: imperialism has lost its most significant >prop for undermining revolutionary upsurge. The massive entry of women into >the global workforce and the rise of international feminism, the most >powerful social movement of the last three decades, is likewise skipped >over; the liberation movements of other specially oppressed groups of >workers are barely mentioned. No wonder the FI leadership sees the world as >a depressed and depressing place. They are not looking in the right places! >By underestimating the capacity of the super-exploited to revitalize the >entire working class, they completely overestimate the stability of world >capitalism. > >Having sought fruitlessly in the past for a "new mass vanguard" among >students and in heavy industry, they are now ready to throw in the towel, a >victim of their own blindness to the portentous sea changes that began >under their noses three decades ago. > >[The 'new mass vanguard' sought to regroup Trotskyists and Maoists without >a change of heart. This, of course, was a doomed project.] > >The Freedom Socialist Party has existed for 30 years outside the FI, but >not by choice. Despite our enforced isolation, we consider ourselves >inheritors of the tradition out of which the FI was born and on which the >program is based. It is our movement, if not our organization. > >[Welcome to the mother-ship.] > >Today, Socialist Action (SA) is leading the fight against the liquidators >in the Fourth International. In a letter written by U.S. FSP National >Secretary Henry Noble to SA on behalf of our party's International >Executive Committee, we said this: "We are completely committed to your >fight within the F.I. and want to work with S.A. in a comradely and >respectful manner to promote the cause of revolutionary socialism at this >important juncture.... And so we offer your forces here and elsewhere our >assistance and promise to rise above past differences for the good of our >movement." Hereby, we extend that same offer to each and every Trotskyist >who believes as we do about the importance of the FI's future. Let us come >together to make a difference at the 2001 World Congress! > >[The SA is a sect consisting of a bunch of old farts, even older and more >gaseous than me. I wish the FI all the best and urge them to cut their ties >to SA, the sooner the better.] > >* * * * * > >Author Guerry Hoddersen is a U.S. section member of the FSP International >Executive Committee. >Contact her <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To subscribe to the Freedom Socialist newspaper or send a letter to the >editor email us at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >Louis Proyect > >(The Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org) __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
