Click on the headline to link to the Toward A History Of The Fourth International website for the article listed below.
Two Letters on Building
the Fourth International
(July/August 1929)
Written: July 12 and August 6, 1929.
Source: Fourth International [New York], Vol.7 No.8 (Whole No.69), August 1946, pp.249-252.
Translated: Fourth International.
Transcription/HTML Markup: David Walters.
Copyleft: Leon Trotsky Internet Archive (www.marxists.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
*********
Markin comment:
Recently, 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 by Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. Moreover, it must be something in the air (maybe caused by these global climatic changes) because I have also seen recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looks very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course, 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) is 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.
Showing posts with label FIRSTINTERNATIONAL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FIRSTINTERNATIONAL. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Saturday, September 04, 2010
* “Workers of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains”-The Struggle For Trotsky's Fourth (Communist) International-From The Archives
Click on the headline to link to the Toward A History Of The Fourth International website for the article listed below.
Victor Serge 1939
Victor Serge and the IVth International
Source: Victor Serge & Leon Trotsky, La Lutte Contre le Stalinisme. Maspero, Paris, 1977
Translated for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor in 2005
Authors: The Editors of the Bulletin of the Russian Opposition, in “Quatrième Internationale,” April 1939
*********
Markin comment:
Recently, 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 by Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. Moreover, it must be something in the air (maybe caused by these global climatic changes) because I have also seen recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looks very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course, 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) is 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.
Victor Serge 1939
Victor Serge and the IVth International
Source: Victor Serge & Leon Trotsky, La Lutte Contre le Stalinisme. Maspero, Paris, 1977
Translated for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor in 2005
Authors: The Editors of the Bulletin of the Russian Opposition, in “Quatrième Internationale,” April 1939
*********
Markin comment:
Recently, 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 by Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. Moreover, it must be something in the air (maybe caused by these global climatic changes) because I have also seen recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looks very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course, 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) is 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.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
* “Workers of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains”-The Struggle For Trotsky's Fourth (Communist) International-From The Archives
Click on the headline to link to the Toward A History Of The Fourth International website for the article listed below.
Trotsky's Struggle for the Fourth International
by John G. Wright
First published in Fourth International, August 1946.
[John G. Wright (1902-1956—legal name Joseph Vanzler) joined the Communist League of America in 1933 and was elected to the National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party/U.S. in 1939. Wright translated many of Trotsky's writings and served as an SWP staff writer in New York until he died. This document proofread by Scott Wilson]
Markin comment:
As a devotee of founding father Karl Marx’s communist work and writings started in the 1840s, especially the founding document, The Communist Manifesto, I know that the slogan-“Workers of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains”- has been honored more in the breech than in the observance for more historical reasons than I want to go into in this commentary. Nevertheless the idea behind that slogan has, rightly, animated generations of revolutionaries in the search, the necessary search, for some kind of international configuration of workers' parties and workers' republics that would give weight and meaning to the slogan and lead, at some point, to that communist future that we so fervently desire, and given just a quick look at this old benighted world today, desperately need.
The idea of some kind of workers international has animated my political work for most of my life, even before I learned idea number one in the Marxist catechism. Hell, when I was nothing but scared rabbit, wet behind the ears, wonky little know-it-all little sophomore or sometime around that period, in high school I was trying to create such an organization (or, better, a youth auxiliary to such an organization) with a now preposterous sounding little name, Student Union For World Goals. That youth organization was, besides being mildly anti-communist, programmatically, a left-center rehash of the (adult) Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) program, that I took as my political model in those days. The folly of that activity is neither here nor there today, but what remains in that from very early on I sensed that if the oppressed of the world (although I would not have used such a term at that time) were to get a fair shake in this wicked old world then they would have to make up for the political weaknesses and not having ruled previously stemming from a feeling of powerlessness by being organized massively on an international basis.
Recently, 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 by Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. Moreover, it must be something in the air (maybe caused by these global climatic changes) because I have also seen recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looks very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course, 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) is 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.
Trotsky's Struggle for the Fourth International
by John G. Wright
First published in Fourth International, August 1946.
[John G. Wright (1902-1956—legal name Joseph Vanzler) joined the Communist League of America in 1933 and was elected to the National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party/U.S. in 1939. Wright translated many of Trotsky's writings and served as an SWP staff writer in New York until he died. This document proofread by Scott Wilson]
Markin comment:
As a devotee of founding father Karl Marx’s communist work and writings started in the 1840s, especially the founding document, The Communist Manifesto, I know that the slogan-“Workers of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains”- has been honored more in the breech than in the observance for more historical reasons than I want to go into in this commentary. Nevertheless the idea behind that slogan has, rightly, animated generations of revolutionaries in the search, the necessary search, for some kind of international configuration of workers' parties and workers' republics that would give weight and meaning to the slogan and lead, at some point, to that communist future that we so fervently desire, and given just a quick look at this old benighted world today, desperately need.
The idea of some kind of workers international has animated my political work for most of my life, even before I learned idea number one in the Marxist catechism. Hell, when I was nothing but scared rabbit, wet behind the ears, wonky little know-it-all little sophomore or sometime around that period, in high school I was trying to create such an organization (or, better, a youth auxiliary to such an organization) with a now preposterous sounding little name, Student Union For World Goals. That youth organization was, besides being mildly anti-communist, programmatically, a left-center rehash of the (adult) Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) program, that I took as my political model in those days. The folly of that activity is neither here nor there today, but what remains in that from very early on I sensed that if the oppressed of the world (although I would not have used such a term at that time) were to get a fair shake in this wicked old world then they would have to make up for the political weaknesses and not having ruled previously stemming from a feeling of powerlessness by being organized massively on an international basis.
Recently, 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 by Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. Moreover, it must be something in the air (maybe caused by these global climatic changes) because I have also seen recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looks very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course, 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) is 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.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
* “Workers of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains”-The Struggle For Trotsky's Fourth (Communist) International-From The Archives
Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for a very general outline of the history of the fifth international movement that is being highlighted today (see today's earlier post)as part of revisiting the history of the Leon Trotsky-led and inspired Fourth International.
Markin comment:
Recently, 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 by Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. Moreover, it must be something in the air (maybe caused by these global climatic changes) because I have also seen recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looks very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course, 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) is 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.
Markin comment:
Recently, 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 by Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. Moreover, it must be something in the air (maybe caused by these global climatic changes) because I have also seen recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looks very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course, 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) is 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.
* “Workers of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains”-The Struggle For Trotsky's Fourth (Communist) International-From The Archives
Click on the headline to link to the International Marxist Tendency website for the article listed in the commentary about the call for a fifth international.
Markin comment:
As a devotee of founding father Karl Marx’s communist work and writings started in the 1840s, especially the founding document, The Communist Manifesto, I know that the slogan-“Workers of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains”- has been honored more in the breech than in the observance for more historical reasons than I want to go into in this commentary. Nevertheless the idea behind that slogan has, rightly, animated generations of revolutionaries in the search, the necessary search, for some kind of international configuration of workers' parties and workers' republics that would give weight and meaning to the slogan and lead, at some point, to that communist future that we so fervently desire, and given just a quick look at this old benighted world today, desperately need.
The idea of some kind of workers international has animated my political work for most of my life, even before I learned idea number one in the Marxist catechism. Hell, when I was nothing but scared rabbit, wet behind the ears, wonky little know-it-all little sophomore or sometime around that period, in high school I was trying to create such an organization (or, better, a youth auxiliary to such an organization) with a now preposterous sounding little name, Student Union For World Goals. That youth organization was, besides being mildly anti-communist, programmatically, a left-center rehash of the (adult) Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) program, that I took as my political model in those days. The folly of that activity is neither here nor there today, but what remains in that from very early on I sensed that if the oppressed of the world (although I would not have used such a term at that time) were to get a fair shake in this wicked old world then they would have to make up for the political weaknesses and not having ruled previously stemming from a feeling of powerlessness by being organized massively on an international basis.
So, recently, 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 by Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. See linked post above for IMT article.) Moreover, it must be something in the air (maybe caused by these global climatic changes) because I have also seen recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looks very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course,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 got 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) is 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.
Markin comment:
As a devotee of founding father Karl Marx’s communist work and writings started in the 1840s, especially the founding document, The Communist Manifesto, I know that the slogan-“Workers of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains”- has been honored more in the breech than in the observance for more historical reasons than I want to go into in this commentary. Nevertheless the idea behind that slogan has, rightly, animated generations of revolutionaries in the search, the necessary search, for some kind of international configuration of workers' parties and workers' republics that would give weight and meaning to the slogan and lead, at some point, to that communist future that we so fervently desire, and given just a quick look at this old benighted world today, desperately need.
The idea of some kind of workers international has animated my political work for most of my life, even before I learned idea number one in the Marxist catechism. Hell, when I was nothing but scared rabbit, wet behind the ears, wonky little know-it-all little sophomore or sometime around that period, in high school I was trying to create such an organization (or, better, a youth auxiliary to such an organization) with a now preposterous sounding little name, Student Union For World Goals. That youth organization was, besides being mildly anti-communist, programmatically, a left-center rehash of the (adult) Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) program, that I took as my political model in those days. The folly of that activity is neither here nor there today, but what remains in that from very early on I sensed that if the oppressed of the world (although I would not have used such a term at that time) were to get a fair shake in this wicked old world then they would have to make up for the political weaknesses and not having ruled previously stemming from a feeling of powerlessness by being organized massively on an international basis.
So, recently, 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 by Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chavez, I got to thinking a little bit more on the subject. See linked post above for IMT article.) Moreover, it must be something in the air (maybe caused by these global climatic changes) because I have also seen recent commentary on the need to go back to something that looks very much like Karl Marx’s one-size-fits-all First International. Of course,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 got 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) is 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.
Friday, March 26, 2010
*From The "Renegade Eye" Blog- The Fifth International?
Click on the headline to link to a "Renegade Eye" blog entry on Hugo Chavez's call for a Fifth International.
Markin comment:
I have already made a preliminary comment earlier in this space on this issue but I will write a longer one when I get a chance to think about it some more, and think about Leon Trotsky's struggle for a new communist International, the Fourth International and its Marxist program, that seems to respond to the objective needs of this historic moment in the capitalist crisis.
Markin comment:
I have already made a preliminary comment earlier in this space on this issue but I will write a longer one when I get a chance to think about it some more, and think about Leon Trotsky's struggle for a new communist International, the Fourth International and its Marxist program, that seems to respond to the objective needs of this historic moment in the capitalist crisis.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
*From The Pen Of Friedrich Engels- "On The 20th Anniversary Of The Paris Commune"
Click on the title to link to a "Marx-Engels Internet Archive" article by Friedrich Engels in honor of the 20th anniversary of the heroic fighters of the Paris Commune in 1891.
Markin comment:
I should note that there was a little historical controversy over the 'editing' of this piece by the leaders of the German social-democracy like Bernstein and Kautsky. The purpose: to blunt the edge of Engels' rapier-like analysis of the changed military conditions that the urban proletariat would have to fight under, and making it appear that Engels, like them, thirsted on for socialism to be "voted" in. We know the sorry fate of that strategy, although some left militants have still not learned the lesson. So much for untrammelled freedom of expression so beloved of the social democrats, then and now.
Markin comment:
I should note that there was a little historical controversy over the 'editing' of this piece by the leaders of the German social-democracy like Bernstein and Kautsky. The purpose: to blunt the edge of Engels' rapier-like analysis of the changed military conditions that the urban proletariat would have to fight under, and making it appear that Engels, like them, thirsted on for socialism to be "voted" in. We know the sorry fate of that strategy, although some left militants have still not learned the lesson. So much for untrammelled freedom of expression so beloved of the social democrats, then and now.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
*The Latest From "The New York Review Of Books" Corner- Tristam Hunt On Friedrich Engels
Click on title to link to a "The New York Review Of Books" review of a book on Friedrich Engels, Marx's co-thinker. I am in the process of reading this book and will give my own review later. I am trying to see how I can put the whole article in this space. Later on this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)