The Fourth International (identified here by its major theoretical magazine "La Verite") was established as an "International Centre (or Center) of Reconstruction" by co-thinkers of
Pierre Lambert
:
Pierre Lambert (real name Pierre Boussel; June 9, 1920 – January 16, 2008) was a French Trotskyist leader, who for many years acted as the central leader of the French Courant Communiste Internationaliste (CCI) which founded the Parti d ...
, in 1981 who argued that the post-war political evolution of the
Fourth International
The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of ...
under the leadership of
Michel Pablo
Michel Pablo ( el, Μισέλ Πάμπλο; 24 August 1911, Alexandria, Egypt – 17 February 1996, Athens) was the pseudonym of Michalis N. Raptis ( el, Μιχάλης Ν. Ράπτης), a Trotskyist leader of Greek origin.
Early activism ...
and
Ernest Mandel
Ernest Ezra Mandel (; also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter (5 April 1923 – 20 July 1995), was a Belgian Marxian economist, Trotskyist activist and theorist, and Holocaust survivor. He f ...
had taken the FI away from the ideas of its founder,
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
. In the opinion of Lambert and his co-thinkers, the FI needed to be reconstructed. In 1993, they formed a new International, which they describe as the Fourth International.
The Fourth International's (La Verite) roots lie in the
Organising Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International (OCRFI), which was established in 1972. It formed a short-lived bloc with
Nahuel Moreno
Nahuel Moreno (real name Hugo Miguel Bressano Capacete; April 24, 1924 – January 25, 1987) was a Trotskyist leader from Argentina. Moreno was active in the Trotskyist movement from 1942 until his death.
Biography 1950s–1960s
During the 1953 ...
's tendency. A Parity Committee which operated in 1979 1980 produced Forty Theses of agreements between the tendencies led by Moreno and Lambert. On that basis, the Fourth International (International Committee) (FI
C was founded in 1980. However, the convergence decelerated because of Lambert's support for the government of
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste , PS) is a French centre-left and social-democratic political party. It holds pro-European views.
The PS was for decades the largest party of the "French Left" and used to be one of the two major po ...
and
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...
without capitalist ministers, a traditional position of French Trotskyism going back before the death of Trotsky. Moreno's supporters boycotted a General Council of the FI(IC) in the Autumn of 1981 whereupon Lambert declared a split: Moreno's supporters formed the
International Workers League
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
; at a meeting on 21–23 December 1981 Lambert's supporters formed the "Fourth International - International Centre of Reconstruction", or ICR.
The ICR underwent a period of re-orientation, during which Lambert proposed that the ICR should announce itself as the Fourth International. In 1986-87 Brazilian member
Luis Favre Luis Favre Argentine (born in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1949) is the pseudonym of Argentine-born Brazilian journalist and political activist Felipe Belisario Wermus. Favre joined the political party Politica Obrera as a young man. Later, he moved to ...
became critical of Pierre Lambert within the PCI/OCRFI, but Lambert's position was adopted.
In June 1993, a world conference of 44 sections of the ICR was held in Paris. It re-proclaimed the Fourth International on the basis of one of its founding document: the
Transitional Program
In Marxist theory, a transitional demand either is a partial realisation of a maximum demand after revolution or an agitational demand made by a socialist organisation with the aim of linking the current situation to progress towards their goal o ...
. The resulting international organization, linked closely with the
International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International, is known among its adherents and national sections simply as the Fourth International. Since it is not the only group to refer to itself in this way, others refer to it as the "Lambertist" Fourth International (after
Pierre Lambert
:
Pierre Lambert (real name Pierre Boussel; June 9, 1920 – January 16, 2008) was a French Trotskyist leader, who for many years acted as the central leader of the French Courant Communiste Internationaliste (CCI) which founded the Parti d ...
, one of its most prominent members), as the Fourth International (La Vérité) (after its international theoretical journal ''La Vérité''), or as SIQI (for the French ''Secrétariat International de la Quatrième Internationale'' (International Secretariat of the Fourth International), the name of its leading body).
Countries where the reproclaimed Fourth International has sections or groups of supporters
otes: as of February 2010* Algeria—Socialist Workers Organization works inside the larger mass-based Workers Party
* Bangladesh—Democratic Workers Party (works as a tendency within it)
* Belgium—International Socialist Organisation (OSI)
* Benin—Benin Section of the Fourth International
* Bolivia—The Spark
* Brazil—The Work
* Britain—British Section of the Fourth International works inside the British Labour Party
* Burundi—Workers Political Circle
* Chad—Chad Section of the Fourth International
* Chile—Socialist Workers Organization
* China—Chinese supporters of the Fourth International
* Corte d'Ivoire—Corte d'Ivoire Section of the Fourth International
* Croatia—Section of the Fourth International in ex-Yugoslavia
* Dominican Republic—Dominican Supporters of the Fourth International
* Ecuador—Socialist Workers Organization
* France—Internationalist Communist Current (works inside the larger Independent Workers Party)
* Gabon—Gabon supporters of the Fourth International
* Germany—Internationalistische Sozialistische Arbeiterorganisation ''(now works inside
Social Democracy
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
'').
* Greece—Greek Section of the Fourth International
* Guadeloupe—Guadeloupe Section of the Fourth International
* Haiti—Socialist Workers Party of Haiti (works inside the larger Parti Oeuvre Socialist)
* Italy—Italian supporters of the Fourth International
* India—Indians supporters of the FI (Kolkata and Mumbai)
* Korea—Korean supporters of the Fourth International
* Martinique—supporters of the Fourth International
* Mexico—Socialist Workers Organization
* Nicaragua—Trotskyist Circle of Nicaragua
* Palestine—Section of the Fourth International
* Peru—Peruvian Section of the Fourth International (Works inside the broader Partido Trabajodores del Campo y Ciudad)
* Portugal—Internationalist Socialist Party
* Romania—Workers Politics
* Russia—Russian Section of the Fourth International
* Rwanda—Workers Political Circle
* Senegal—Socialist Workers Organization
* Serbia—Section of the Fourth International in ex-Yugoslavia
* South Africa/Azania—Azanian Section of the Fourth International works and leads the larger Socialist Party of Azania
* Spain—
Internationalist Socialist Workers' Party
* Sweden—Swedish Supporter of the Fourth International
* Switzerland—Union of Workers Political Circles
* Togo—Togo Section of the Fourth International
* Tunisia—supporters of the Fourth International
* Turkey—Revolutionary Workers League
* Ukraine—Ukraine Section of the Fourth International
* Uruguay—Section of the Fourth International in Uruguay
* United States—Socialist Organizer
* Venezuela—Venezuelan Section of the Fourth International
See also
*
List of Trotskyist internationals
This is a list of Trotskyist internationals. It includes all of the many political internationals which self-identify as Trotskyist.
Of the organizations listed, three claim to be the original Fourth International founded in 1938: the reunified F ...
References
External links
The Manifesto of the Fourth World Congress of the Fourth International (1999).The Fourth International and the United Front (Excerpts from a report by Pierre Lambert presented to the Fifth World Congress of the Fourth International, Berlin, 2002).
Members
International Socialist Organization, OSI-SIO (Belgium)Parti Ouvrier Indépendant (France)Organización Socialista de Trabajadores (Mexico)Corrente ''O Trabalho'' do Partido dos Trabalhdores (Brazil)Unofficial site concerning the Parti des Travailleurs (Algeria)Partido Obrero Socialista Internacionalista (Spain)Tribuna Socială (Romania)L’Union des Cercles pour une Politique Ouvrière (Switzerland)України "Боротьба" (Ukraine){{Political internationals
Fourth International (ICR),