SPLITTERS FORM A BLOC
The Fourth International -- Association of Trotskyist Renegades
Lately in articles in our press and the press abroad dealing with the subversive activity of the leaders of the CCP /Chinese Communist party_ 7 in the ranks of the revolutionary world movenent, and their propagation of anti-Marxist and anti-Leninist points of view on the most important problems of current world developménts and on the struggle of the forces of progress against the forces of reaction, more and more has appeared about the existence in the political arena of a certain Fourth International and its support of the adventurist position of_the Chinese leadership. In the open “letter of the CC of the CPSU / Central Committee of the Communist ' party of the Soviet Union 7 dated July 14 of this year, addressed to all the Communists of the Soviet Union, mention was likewise made of the favorable attitude of this international toward the campaign of slander launched by the leaders of the CCP against the CPSU and ‘the other Marxist-Leninist parties.
What is it all about? What brought the so-called Fourth International to the surface? What does it represent and why has it intervened with such zeal to support the pseudo-revolutionary slogans of the Chinese dogmatists? What connection does it have with the CCP?
The answer to this happens to be very simple. The Fourth International is the international association of the Trotskyist. elements, a gathering of the most unnitigated opportunists of ‘leftist style, who formerly operated in the Communist and workers movement and who were thrown out of its ranks for propagating ideas alien to the working class and to all the workers. It was founded in 1938 by the political friends of Trotsky with the aim of opposing the Communist International which was then active and of taking as its principal task the undermining of the unity of the Marxist~Leninist parties.
Lacking any social base and any mass support, the Fourth International has through elmost the entire period of its existence lived underground, acting in conspiratorial fashion, occupying itself principally with regrouping its broken odds and ends of - cadres and secretly spreading among a certain layer, the most back~ ward from the political point of view, material propagating rotten opportunist theories on the questions of the struggle against capi- . talism and appealing for struggle against the Communist vanguard of -.the working class of the world, It was only comparatively recentl and above all when the Chinese leaders began slipping from the positions of Marxism-Leninism a few years ago that it started to emerge and with other splitters increased its attacks against the Communist parties.
Today the leaders of the Fourth International try to present their association of renegades as a certain international organization of people claiming to defend the interes ts of the working class and struggling for the ideas of Comaunism, The fact is that they are, as they used to be, rabic enemies of Marxism-Leninism, bearers of arch~reactionary conceptions, tearing down the class conscious— ness of the workers and playing the game of the imperialists. The Fourth International is likewise a philanthropic organization of the saboteur type, bringing together Trotskyist groups acting in the capitalist countries, particularly in France, Italy, England, Austria, Eolland, Belgium, Switzerland, the United States, Canaaa, Japan, Ceylon, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay ana other countries. The majority of these groups call themselves a party although they are composed mostly of a dozen or few dozen "members," acting as.a rule in secret, on the sly, and enjoying the support of certain bourgeois circles and Political parties that engage in anti-Communist policies,
- The Fourth International is not even itself a united organigation. In 1953 it again split into two main groups hostile to one another, the so-called "International Secretariat" and the "International Committee," each acting independently of the other. In 1961 a new split in the international took place, the result being that all the Trotskyists acting in Latin America left the "International Secretariat" and broke off all relations with it. The causes of these differences and these quarrels are to be found in the different conceptions of the above groups on tactics to be followed by the Trotskyists in the workers movement and their
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relation to the Soviet Union, the socialist camp, the Communist | parties and the workers of the world. The Trotskyists belonging ~ to the "International Secretariat" are for a hidden struggle against the Communist movement and the forces linked to the social- ' ist camp; the partisans of the "International Committee" are for the . road of direct struggle against the Marxist-Leninist vanguard of the working class of the world, against the Soviet Union and the other socialist states. The Trotskyists of the Latin-American countries showed their discontent with the policies of the Fourth International in general and with infractions of their "rights" and their "interests" in particular. As a result the Trotskyist organization is on the verge of complete collapse. A struggle for the leadership is ~wenoW underway among the heads of the hostile groups, one being located in France (leader Walter Germain), another in the United States. (leader Cannon), the third in Argentina (leader Posadas).
— Nevertheless, as the facts prove, the Trotskyists have acted and -*econtinue to act unitedly under a.single leadership in the organiza- - tion, reinforcing their work of undermining in the revolutionary _ world movement, developing thcir attacks against the Marxist-Leninist _-partics. To this aim the Trotskyist renegades have dedicated all the congresses and conferences of the Fourth International, above all.the latest (fifth and sixth) so-called "world congresses" which took place in 1957 and 1961. These gatherings claborated the tactics and forms of penetration of the Trotskyist agents in the mass orgeniza- -tions of the workers in the capitalist ccuntries and in the ranks of ~ the. Communist parties, the creation therein of conspiratorial groups “and antiparty groupings. Likewise adopted were so~called "manifestos" and "political declarations" the aim of which was to discredit the Communists, to undermine the positions of the Marxist-Leninist - parties among the masses and in all dirty ways to denigrate their policies and their actions.
The Trotskyists compose and circulate various slanderous lucubrations addressed to the Communist parties, declaring in cynical fashion that the latter are on a wrong road, have betrayed “the cause of the working class, contributing to safeguarding the © rule of the bourgeoisie in a certain number of countries of the “world. In the documents of the fifth and sixth "congresses" of the Fourth International, it is affirmed with effrontery that after the second world war the Communists "helped to preserve European and Americen capitalism," paved the way for the offensive of reaction against the democratic forces, that the Communists abandoned the “elass struggle, were for restricting the struggle of the workers movement and of national liberation, were for collaboration with the enemies of progress, etc. The sharpest and most venomous arrows have always been aimed by the Fourth International at the CPSU, campaigning against all the measures which it undertakes with “**the aim of reinforcing the forces of socialism, of peace and of democracy on a world scale. In the "manifesto" of the fifth conpress, the Trotskyist renegades affirmed in provocative fashion that the USSR had an "understanding" with the imperialist powers and that by its policy of defending peace it "prevented" the .work-
ers in a series of capitalist countries of Europe from taking power from the bourgeoisie in the years that followed the war.
The Fourth International invariably characterizes our epoch as the epoch of imperialism, of wars and of proletarian revolutions, leaving out of account the fundamental changes in the relation of forces in the world arena that came about through the liouidation in a series of countries of Europe anc of Asia of the rule of the bourgeoisie and of the creation of a world socialist system. Recognizing the weakening of the forces of capitalism, it at the same time holds that the positions of the forces of socialism are precarious and denies the inevitability of the victory of the latter in peaceful economic competition,
It is from an adventurist position that the Trotskyists approach the examination of the problems of war and peace, of the peaceful coexistence of states, different social systems, the passage from capitalism to socialism, the outcome of socialist revolutions, ctc. According to the most rabid idcologists of the Fourth Intornetional, a new world war is inevitable and in conscauence the working class must determine what must be undertekcn to exploit the armed conflict between countries that will break out in order to seize power. According to them peaceful coexistcnce is not only impossible, it is even injurious to the working class be-causo it allegedly leads not to the roinforcement of socialism but to the weakening of its positions and plays the game of impcrialism. The sixth congress of the Fourth International likewise opened up a campaign in brutal fashion against the conclusions of the twentieth and twenty-second congresses of the CPSU and the Moscow conferences of the Communist parties in 1957 and 1960 on the various ways of achieving socialism, The Trotskyists consider armed insurrection to be the only means to liquidate the rule of the bourgeoisie, rejecting all other roads of mass struggle for the socialist transformation of society.
To get out of the present situation in the world, and to guarantee the victory of socialism, the Trotskyist international advocates carrying out so-callec "urgent" measures, as they rormu~ late it, measures by the workers, and above all the organization of the armed intervention of the masses and the acceleration of the revolution in the colonial and dependent countries, and this independently of the situation in which these countries find themselves and of the possibilities of accomplishing socialist revolutions. inven more, the Fourth International affirms that the national liberation movement is at present the central element, the "vanguard and principal force of the world revolution" to the development of which must be subordinated all the efforts. of the popular masses of the world, all the other aims of the working class and the tasks of its political parties,
As is to be seen, the Trotskyist elements now, as in the past, hold completely rotten opportunist positions of which the enormous harmfulness has long been clear to ali the Marxist-Loninists, to all the battlers for the great iceas of Communism. Nonetheless, the
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fact that the genuine battlers for the radiant aims of humanity are thrown overboard as vermin, as putrescence poisoning the consciousness of man, all this, according to all the evidence, scems to suit the present leftist, pseudo-revolutionary shouters, the leaders of the CCP, On reading their verbiage about the "general line" of the Communist movement, it is not difficult to discover that it clearly resembles the Trotskyist theories, that their conceptions on the ~ fundamental problems of current world developments are to a great measure similar to the conceptions of the Trotskyist ideologists.
Facts are facts. The Fourth International, which in the past attacked the Communist parties, including the ctr, rapidly changed its attitude and more and more approved the splitting activity of the Chinese leaders. Again in 1960, it sent an open letter to the CC of the CCP in which it flatly stated that the Fourth International "ereets the discussion" begun by the Chinese dogmatists anc "places itself on the side of the CCP." In the declarations adopted in. Februery and July 1963, the Fourth International appealed to the Chinese leadership to unite in common action for the so-called "revolutionary renewal" of the workers movement, underlining in flattering fashion that the theses preached by the Chinese leaders are "progressive" since they bear "an evident resemblance" to the Trotskyist positions.
The entire Trotsivist press is likewise exulting with joy over “1s urcermining activisy of the leadership of the CCP, On the pages of the Cifferent dirty sivtle vepers, ccited oy che Trotskyist renevades in France, Italy, the United States, Brazil, Chile and a series of other countries, are publishec many articles praising the reactionary points of view cf the Chinese leaders and calling on them to reinforce the strurgle against the CPSU and the other Marxist--Leninist parties, for the rezgroupment of the present "Communists of the left" with the old-style opportunists, with the splitters of all stripes.
Obviously the Chinese leaders possess "worthy" allies,
~~ S. IVANOVITCH
a ha a
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