22 SOCIALIST APPEAL OCTOBER 22, 1938 On Organizing Defense and Relief On the Mexican Question For Persecuted Revolutionists the sceptics are not good for the building of a new International.
They are good for scarcely anything at all.
The Fourth International has already arisen out of great events: the greatest defeats of the proletariat in history. The cause for these defeats is to be found in the degeneration and perfidy of the old leadership. The class struggle does not tol.
erate an interruption. The Third International, following the Second, is dead for purposes of revolution. Long live the Fourth International!
But has the time yet arrived to proclaim its creation?
the sceptics are not quieted down. The Fourth International, we answer, has no need of being proclaimed. It exists and it fights. Is it weak? Yes, its ranks are not numerous because it is still young. They are as yet chiefly cadres. But these cadres are pledges for the future. Outside of these cadres there does not exist a single revolutionary current on this planet really meriting the name. If our International be still weak in numbers, it is strong in doctrine, program, tradition, in the incomparable tem pering of its cadres. Who does not perceive this today, let him in the meantime stand aside. Tomorrow it will become more evident.
The Fourth International, already today, is deservedly hated by the Stalinists, Social democrats, bourgeois liberals and fascists.
There is not and there cannot be a place for it in any of the People Fronts. It uncompromisingly gives battle to all political groupings tied to the apron strings of the bourgeoisie. Its taskthe abolition of capitalism domination. Its aim socialism.
Its method the proletarian revolution Without inner democracy no revolutionary education, Without discipline no revolutionary action. The inner structure of the Fourth International is based on the principles of demo.
cratic centralism; full freedom in discussion, complete unity in action The present crisis in human culture is the crisis in the proletarian leadership. The advanced workers, united in the Fourth International, show their class the way of exit out of the crisis.
They offer a program based on international experience in the struggle of the proletariat and of all the oppressed of the world for liberation. They offer a spotless banner.
Workers men and women of all countries, place your selves under the banner of the Fourth International. It is the banner of your approaching victory!
The advance of Fascism in many countries, the international Stalinist campaign of persecution, frame up, and assassination, and the increasing encroachments on the rights of the workers in the countries of democratic capitalism the world sweep of reaction in various forms raises the question of relief and defense for persecuted revolutionists in the most imperative manner. Never in modern history have revolutionary workers faced such persecution, and never have they stood upon such a narrow ground of democratic and legal rights.
In addition to the heavy blows of the outright bourgeois and Stalinist reaction, the revolutionists who are always the most persecuted face systematic exclusion and discrimination by the various Stalinist, Social Democratic, and liberal bourgeois relief and defense agencies. In order to provide a minimum of aid and protection to the persecuted revolutionary fighters and especially to the refugees from totalitarian states it is necessary for all sec tions of the Fourth International to bestir themselves. They must take the initiative all along the line for the creation of relief and defense organizations which can be relied upon to give timely moral, financial, and legal aid to those who need it most.
It is permissible to cooperate in this work with sincere elements of other political tendencies, but in no case should the formation of national defense and relief bodies be deferred or put aside because of the inability to secure the cooperation of this or that organization or individual. The need is absolutely urgent and unpostponable, and an energetic and devoted committee, even of modest size and composed in the main or altogether of the advanced revolutionary elements is infinitely better than none at all or an imposing facade of many organizations and big namnes that does little or nothing and gives no real assistance to the victims in most desperate and immediate cases.
It is necessary for all sections of the Fourth International to take up this question with the utmost seriousness and to begin work at once. Qualified comrades should devote themselves to this work and specialize in it. Legal assistance must be arranged for.
The most effective methods of raising funds must be worked out.
All the laws and regulations relating to immigration in the various countries must be studied by comrades specializing in this field of work. In short, the adherents of the Fourth International, especially in the democratic countries which offer the greatest facilities, must concentrate their attention on the task of developing the most effective relief and defense mechanism possible in the shortest posible time.
An international committee, composed of responsible and known people of the greatest moral authority should eventually coordinate and direct the work of the various national defense or ganizations, provide a center for the assistance to refugees, and arrange for the exchange of information and experience between the various national bodies.
On Unification of the British Section The International Conference, having read the documents and statements of the former Galicia group. and the de cision of the Pan American Pre Conference at New York, and having heard the report of the delegation to Mexico, de clares: That it endorses the recommendation of the All American Conference regarding the reorganization of the group formerly led by Galicia and Fernández (I. of Mexico) and takes no responsibility for the previous policy and attitude of this group.
The Conference is obliged to adopt this resolution in view of the false policy of the leadership of the former Mexico. This policy, for which the principal responsibility falls on Corrades Galicia and Fernández, brought the greatest discredit upon the Fourth International in Mexico and prevented a healthy development.
Under the guidance of its former leaders, the organization pursued a third period policy in the trade union field, which resulted in the split in the building trades union movement, and the creation of an independent and red trade union composed merely of League members isolated from the masses.
In the struggle against the high cost of living, the League issued irresponsible and adventuristic slogans, not only calling for general strike but also for sabotage and direct action.
In the struggle against foreign imperialism in Mexico, the leadership of the ICL (Galicia group. instead of emphasizing above all in its agitation the struggle against the American and British bandits, emphasized rather the bourgeois nationalist Cardenas régime, attacking it in a way that was one sided, sectarian, and, in the given circumstances, objectively reactionary.
The clinching proof of the irresponsibility of the Galicia leadership was given several days prior to the arrival of the delegation in Mexico, when this leadership induced the members of the organization to vote the dissolution of the League, thus liquidating the Mexican section of the International. The subsequent decision no less frivolous than the first to reconstitute the League, can be regarded not as a responsible decision, but rather as a maneuver aimed at preventing criticism and serious efforts to reconstruct the movement of the Fourth International in Mexico on a healthy and solid basis.
With the above indicated purpose in mind, the International Conference mandates Comrades to continue his efforts, under the direct supervision of the International Sub Secretariat, to facil.
itate the reorganization of the Mexican Section of the Fourth International.
The International Conference cordially invites all former and present comrades of the to tighten up their ranks in the Fourth International and its reorganized Mexican section, on the basis of accepting the decisions of the Conference and the discipline of the Fourth International.
The International Conference further declares that, regarding the factional struggle, devoid of principle and of political significance carried on between Comrades Galicia and o. Fernández, these two comrades may be admitted to membership in the ranks of the reorganized section only on condition that for a period of one year they shall not occupy any leading post in the organ.
ization. The new executive committee of the organization should be composed, above all, of serious and experienced proletarian elements.
Concerning the case of Comrade Diego Rivera, the International Conference further declares that in view of the diffic.
ulties that have arisen in the past with this comrade in the internal relationships of the Mexican section, he shall not forin part of the reconstituted organization, but that his work and activity for the Fourth International shall remain under the direct control of the International Sub Secretariat.
Statement of the On the Molinier Group The conference notes with great satisfaction that the leaders of a new group of revolutionary workers in Scotland, pre.
viously connected with our international organization the Revolutionary Socialist Party have signed the unification agreement and the has been represented at the world conference by its own delegate. The approach of this organization to the Fourth International is a matter of great and symptomatic significance.
Serious workers who seek the truth and want to fight for Social.
ism cannot and will not find any other way than the way of Bolshevism, nor any other organization than the Fourth International. The world conference extends a hearty welcome to the Revolutionary Socialist Party and expresses the confidence that the recommendation of its leading committee for organizational fusion with the British Section of the Fourth International will be adopted in the pending party referendum.
As far as the Lee group is concerned, it is necessary to point out. 1) This group came into existence some months ago as the result of purely personal grievances which impelled Lee and his friends to an organizational split. There was not then and there is not now any justifiable political basis for the separate maintenance of this group For a long time the adherents of the Fourth International in Great Britain have been divided into small separate groups. The importance and necessity of organizational unity of all militants standing on a common platform of principle were sadly underestimated. This light minded attitude on the organizational ques.
tion led not only to ill considered splits over tactical differences but even to splits over purely personal disputes having no discernible political basis (the Lee group. In this latter manifestation the warning signals of political degeneration were clearly to be seen. If the International Secretariat erred in delaying too long before calling a halt to this untenable situation, its decisive intervention on the eve of the world conference became all the more imperatively necessary.
It must be quite obvious to all genuine adherents of the Fourth International in all parts of the world that the present representative world conference, summoned together in spite of the greatest and most unprecedented difficulties and obstacles, and participated in by delegates from many countries and from great distances, must be the occasion for a definite roll call our This roll call puts an end to all ambiguity of rela.
tions between our international organization and those who hitherto have maintained, or professed to maintain, a loyalty to its principles, its methods, and its discipline.
The present conference signifies a conclusive delimitation between those who are really in the Fourth International and fighting every day under its revolutionary banner, and those who are merely for the Fourth International, e, the dubious elements who have sought to keep one foot in our camp and one foot in the camp of our enemies.
The unification of the British groups (as that of the hitherto divided Greek groups) of the Fourth International or the eve of the World Conference coincides with the final departure of such alien elements as Sneevliet and Vereeken. Both these occurrences, each in its own way, are equally symbolic of a great progressive step forward in the reorganization of the revolution ary vanguard on the tested foundations of Bolshevism. They signify at one and the same time the unification of the genuine and sincere adherents of the Fourth International and their organizational separation from pretenders, sabotagers, and hidden enemies.
The British and Greek groups came to the conference with unification programs drawn up with the assistance of the International Secretariat because they had a firm determination to be enrolled under the banner of the Fourth International. Sneevliet and Vereeken, who over too long a period of time utilized their formal membership in the movement of the Fourth International to flout its principles, sabotage its discipline, and give aid and comfort to its enemies, lacked the courage at the last moment even to appear at the International Conference. That is only, because they realized that the time had arrived for a showdown.
They feared to give an account of their policies and actions before an international tribunal.
The world conference considers the unity agreement entered into between the three previously separated British groups as an adequate basis for the development of the work of the united British organization in the ensuing period. It endorses the unity agreement and recognizes the organization based on it as the only British section of the Fourth International. All BolshevikLeninists, all revolutionary workers in Great Britain who desire to be enrolled under the banner of the Fourth International, are invited and urged to join the British Section the Revolutionary Socialist League Negotiations have recently been conducted by a special commission of the with a delegation from the Molinier Group) on the basis of a formal letter from this group requesting admission to the Fourth International. These negotiations have been broken off because of the refusal of the to give a categorical answer to the specific propositions submitted to them by the in particular to the most important and unalterable prop osition the unconditional elimination of Molinier from any participation in the French section of the Fourth International. It must be recalled that the said Molinier was expelled by the International Conference of 1936 for conduct completely incompatible with membership in a proletarian revolutionary organization, namely, for attempting to use money obtained by dubious means to impose his personal control over the organ.
ization When, in connection with the recently concluded world conference, the again approached the Fourth International and formulated a request for admission, it was decided by the responsible bodies of the Fourth International to clarify this question once and for all, bringing to its solution a clear and loyal desire to bring the matter to a positive conclusion. In order to carry out the necessary negotiations and prevent any dilatory maneuvers, the decided to present a precise seven point resolution containing the conditions for the fusion of the two organizations, Preliminary attempts of the Molinier group to engage the International Secretariat in a general discussion were re.
pulsed by the demand for a precise statement of their attitude to the Fourth International and to the decisions of its conferences and its discipline. Thereupon the delegation of the handed in a formal letter asking admission and declaring readiness to observe discipline. The International Secretariat replied to this letter in a special resolution as follows: The LS, having received the letter dated September 14, requesting its admission into the ranks of the Fourth International, proposes that the question be solved in the following way. 1) The members of the shall be immediately admitted into the French section of the Fourth International. without any delay. 2) The members of the shall receive adequate representation in the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the before the Congress. 3) The basis for unification is provided by the decisions of the International Conference, which are obligatory for all members of the Fourth International. 1) The personal case of Molinler having been decided by the International Conterence in 1936, decisions which have not been changed or modified by the Conference of 1938, he remains completely outside the unified French section. 5) As afiliated members of the the present members of the shall have full right to participation in the coming Convention of the and in the preparation and discussions which precede it. 6) The organizational details of the fusion should be arranged by the enlarged Central Committee of the Including the representation of the present members of the under the control of the International Secretariat (7) All other questions of political or organizational divergences should be solved within the framework of the unified French section, in accordance with the normal rules which apply therein. Resolution adopted by the at the session of September 16, 1988) In the first formal meeting of the delegation of the with representatives of the the latter expressed fears of reprisals against their members in the unified French section. To provide assurances on this question the delegation of the expressed in writing its readiness to add an eighth point to the resolution, as follows. 8) Once the resolution of the is accepted by the the declares itself opposed to the taking of disciplinary measures against any comrade on the basis of past dis.
putes.
Trent, Legrand, Labrun, Busson.
Sept. 18, 1938 In the subsequent discussion it became perfectly clear that point (the elimination of Molinier) was the only real point On the Greek Question (2) The leaders of this group resisted all attempts of the dele.
gation of the International Secretariat to include it in the general unification. 3) The invitation of the delegation to this group to be represented and present its point of view at the world confer.
ence, either by delegate or letter, was disregarded; all we have is a statement, apparently addressed to the world at large, rejecting in advance any decision of the world conference not in accord with their untenable demands.
Under these circumstances it is necessary to warn the comrades associated with the Lee group that they are being led on a path of unprincipled clique politics which can only land them in the mire. It is possible to maintain and develop a revolutionary political grouping of serious importance only on the basis of great principles. The Fourth International alone embodies and represents these principles. It is possible for a national group to main tain a constant revolutionary course only if it is firmly connected in one organization with co thinkers throughout the world and maintains a constant political and theoretical collaboration with them. The Fourth International alone is such an organiza.
tion. All purely national groupings, all those who reject international organization, control, and discipline, are in their essence reactionary All adherents of the Fourth International in a single country must be united in a single section of the Fourth International.
Those who reject this elementary organizational rule of the Fourth International put themselves in the position of irresponsible splitters and clique fighters.
The members of the Lee group are invited by the World Conference to reconsider their decisions, to come into the unified British Section and consequently into the Fourth International, and to take their place in the common work, with fair representation in its leading bodies and without reprisals of any kind. The Unified British Section is assured by the Conference of the full support and collaboration of the international organization in its historic revolutionary task.
On the basis of the December, 1937, resolution of the and of previous resolutions concerning the movement of the Fourth International in Greece, the International Conference states: That the unification of the United Internationalist Communist Organization with the International Communist League necessary because the divergences which at present separate these two groups (the present situation in Greece, the question of Archiomarxism. while they require a serious discussion before the international organization, do not justify continuing the separation. The unification should be brought about on the basis of acceptance of the Transitional Program of the Fourth International, and of its statutes. The two groups shall fuse immediately, combining themselves in a new organization under the name Revolutionary Sp.
cialist Organization (Greek Section of the Fourth International. The new organization will have a new newspaper under a new title. provisional leadership, on a basis of parity, shall be formed, its composition to be sanctioned by the Those members of the two groups who are abroad shall constitute a commission whose role shall be to aid the Greek section politically and materially, This commission, together with the leadership in Greece, shall prepare, with the least possible delay, a convention of the new organization, preceded by a discussion before the international organization. This convention will draw up the political line of the organization within the framework of the principles of the Fourth International, and shall elect the new leadership on a proportional basis. Until the National Convention, in case of divergences about what policy to support, the shall decide. An International Bulletin on the Greek question shall be brought out by the Greek Commission abroad, with all the documents of both tendencies.
at issue. request was made by the delegation for official assurances regarding his possible future re admission. This was categorically refused on the ground that the is without power to alter a decision of the International Conference, and that the exclusion of Molinier is unconditional.
discussion. Thereupon negotiations, which manifestly offered no prospects of fruitful results, were broken off. It is cleares than ever that the whole question of the and the journal La Commune has no political significance, but is is purely and simply the personal question of Molinier and his financial affairs. Now as before, the door of the Fourth International remains open, with full assurance of normal democratic rights, to the rank and file members of the who are ready to accept the resolutions and decisions of its international conference and accept discipline. The door is closed to Molinier. American comrades of the Is. delegation stated on their own responsibility that it Molinier loyally accepted the declalon in his case, withdrew himself from all participation, directly or indirectly, in the affairs of the French Section and made a radical change in his personal activities and conductunder these conditions they would personally support a future re examination of his personal case by the International organization and personally aid his eventual rehabilitation. It was emphasized by the American comrades that their declaration expressed a personal sentiment which they would ordinarily displey toward any comrade sincerely striving to rectify his conduct, but that their declaration had and could have no official character. OTHER CONGRESS DOCUMENTS Because of their length, it was impossible to include here other theses and resolutions the World Congress including the Thesis on the War in the Far East, Thesis on American Imperialism, Resolution on the Situation in France and the Tasks of the French section of the Fourth International. Resolution on the Youth Movement, and the Statutes of the Fourth International.
These will all be included in a pamphlet shortly to be Issued containing all the documents of the World Congress. The negotiations foundered on this point. The delegation of the refused to give a categorical answer to the resolution of the and proposed merely to accept it as a basis for This resolution, presented by the representatives of the two organizations after a preliminary agreement between them, and after the labors of the Greek Commission, was unanimously adopted by the International Conference.