“Workers of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains”-The Struggle For Trotsky's Fourth (Communist) International-From The Archives-Founding Conference of the Fourth International-1938

 

 
Markin comment (repost from September 2010 slightly edited):

Several years ago, when the question of an international, a new workers international, a fifth international, was broached by the International Marxist Tendency (IMT), faintly echoing the call issued during the presidency of the late Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. Moreover, it must have been something in the air at the time (maybe caused by these global climatic changes that are hazarding our collective future) because I had  also seen a spade of then recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looked very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course in the 21^st century, after over one hundred and fifty years of attempts to create adequate international working-class organizations, just what the doctor by all means, be my guest, but only if the shades of Proudhon and Bakunin can join. Boys and girls that First International was disbanded in the wake of the demise of the Paris Commune for a reason, okay. Mixing political banners (Marxism and fifty-seven varieties of anarchism) was appropriate to a united front, not a hell-bent revolutionary International fighting, and fighting hard, for our communist future. Forward

The Second International, for those six, no seven, people who might care, is still alive and well (at least for periodic international conferences) as a mail-drop for homeless social democrats who want to maintain a fig leaf of internationalism without having to do much about it. Needless to say, one Joseph Stalin and his cohorts liquidated the Communist (Third) International in 1943, long after it turned from a revolutionary headquarters into an outpost of Soviet foreign policy. By then no revolutionary missed its demise, nor shed a tear goodbye. And of course there are always a million commentaries by groups, cults, leagues, tendencies, etc. claiming to stand in the tradition (although, rarely, the program) of the Leon Trotsky-inspired Fourth International that, logically and programmatically, is the starting point of any discussion of the modern struggle for a new communist international.

With that caveat in mind this month, the September American Labor Day month, but more importantly the month in 1938 that the ill-fated Fourth International was founded I am posting some documents around the history of that formation, and its program, the program known by the shorthand, Transitional Program. If you want to call for a fifth, sixth, seventh, what have you, revolutionary international, and you are serious about it beyond the "mail-drop" potential, then you have to look seriously into that organization's origins, and the world-class Bolshevik revolutionary who inspired it. Forward. 
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Founding Conference of the

Fourth International

1938

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Statutes of the Fourth International

I

All the proletarian and revolutionary militants in the world who accept and apply the principles and the program of the Fourth International are joined in a single world-wide organization, under a centralized international leadership, and a single discipline. This organization has as its name THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL (WORLD PARTY OF THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION), and is governed by these present statutes.
In all countries the members of the Fourth International are organized into parties or leagues, which constitute the national sections of the Fourth International (World Party of the Socialist Revolution).

2

The national sections are formed on the platform and in accordance with the organizational structure defined and established by the founding Congress of the Fourth International (September 1938). In its platform the Fourth International concentrated the international experience of the revolutionary Marxist movement, and especially that which rises out of the socialist conquests of the October 1917 Revolution in Russia. It assimilates and bases itself upon all of humanity's progressive social experiences, which lead to the expropriation of the capitalist class and to the ultimate abolition of classes.

4

The internal regime of the International, on the local, national, and world scales, is determined by the principles and practice of democratic centralism.
The sections are required to observe the decisions and resolutions of the International Conference, and, in its absence, of the International Executive Committee, represented during the intervals between its meetings by the International Secretariat—while nevertheless retaining the right of appeal before the next higher bodies until the next International Conference,

5

The national sections must pay, to the treasury of the International Secretariat, regular dues (monthly or quarterly), which are destined for the functioning of the international organisms, and which shall be proportional to the number of their members.

6

In each country there can he but one single section of the Fourth International, i.e., only one single organization in each country can be regularly affiliated with the Fourth International.
The procedure and practical measures for the formation or recognition of new national sections in countries where they do not exist, shall be established by the International Executive Committee in each particular case, and submitted to ratification by the national leaderships, arranged by the International Secretariat and submitted to the decision of the International Executive Committee.

7

The supreme body of the Fourth International on the world scale is the International Conference, which determines the policy of the International and of its sections in all important political questions, adopts resolutions, and decides in the last resort organizational questions and internal conflicts.
The International Conference must meet at least every two years. It will ordinarily be called by the I.E.C., and shall be composed of the delegates, or their mandated representatives, of all sections. It may be called, extraordinarily, upon the demand of more than one third of the national sections.

8

During the intervals between the international conferences, the international leadership is entrusted to the International Executive Committee, composed of 15 members belonging to the most important national sections and elected by the Conference.
The I.E.C. meets at least once every three months, to examine the work of the International Secretariat and decide upon the most important problems. The decisions of the International Secretariat can he appealed from only before the I.E.C. or the International Conference. The I.E.C. may be extraordinarily called together by the majority decision of the I.S., or at the demand of at least three International Conference. Fusion between an organization develop [text cuts off here—transciber]
The I.E.C. is responsible before the entire International for the carrying out of the decisions and the application of the political line adopted by the International Conference.

9

A national section can propose the revocation or substitution of one of its members belonging to the I.E.C. This measure must he approved by the majority vote of the members of the I.E.C.

10

The day-by-day administrative and political work, as well as the regular liaisons with the sections, is insured by an International Secretariat, composed of 5 members residing at the seat of the Secretariat, chosen in their majority from among the members of the I.E.C., and by the I.E.C.
The I.S. shall have at least one permanent comrade whose activity shall he wholly devoted to the work of the I.S. and whose salary shall he guaranteed by the contributions of the sections. The I.S., publishes a regular monthly bulletin, in, at least, French, English, and German, in the name of the I.E.C.

11

The members of the I.S., can be replaced by the majority decision of the I.E.C., which shall also have the right to summon qualified collaborators to its work.

12

For the purpose of insuring a better connection and a greater organizational and political cohesion among the countries of continents distant from the seat of the I.S., provision is made for the formation of Sub-Secretariats, charged with the same duties as the IS., but under the jurisdiction of the I.S.
The formation of these Sub-Secretariats is determined upon in concrete cases by the decision of the International Conference, or, when that is not in session, by the I.E.C.

13

The I.E.C., has the right, after examination of and consultation with the interested parties, to pronounce the expulsion of sections or individual members of the Fourth International. Decisions of expulsion are executory, although the interested parties retain the right of appeal before the International Conference.