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Volume 4: the International Committee Against Liquidationism TROTSKYISM VERSUS REVISIONISM A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY VOLUME FOUR The International Committee against liquidationism NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS TROTSKYISM VERSUS REVISIONISM TROTSKYISM VERSUS REVISIONISM A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY edited by C. Slaughter VOLUME FOUR The International Committee against liquidationism NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS Published by New Park Publications Ltd., 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG 1974 Set up, Printed and Bound by Trade Union Labour Distributed in the United States by: Labor Publications Inc., 135 West 14 Street, New York, New York 10011 ISBN 0 902030 57 4 Printed in Great Britain by Plough Press Ltd.(TU) Wo 180 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG Contents FOREWORD xiii CHAPTER ONE: THE PRINCIPLED STANDPOINT ON UNIFICATION Document 1 Minutes of the First Meeting of the Parity Committee, Sep­ tember 2, 1962 Document 2 Declaration on Reunification of the World Trotskyist Move­ ment by the 23rd Plenum of the IEC (Pabloite), June 23-24, 1962 7 Document 3 A Comment on the Declaration of the IEC 23rd Plenum by the NEC of the Socialist Labour League, September 8, 1962 12 CHAPTER TWO: THE SWP, CASTRO AND TROTSKYISM Document 4 Cuba - The Acid Test: A reply to the Ultra left sectarians, by Joseph Hansen, November 20, 1962 20 Document 5 Letter from James P. Cannon to Farrell Dobbs, October 31, 1962 72 CHAPTER THREE: OPPORTUNISM AND EMPIRICISM Document 6a Opportunism and Empiricism, National Committee of the SLL, March 23, 1963 76 6b Letter from Pierre Broue to the leadership of the SWP, February 14, 1963 108 CHAPTER FOUR: REUNIFICATION' AND THE FINAL REJECTION OF DISCUSSION Document 7a Letter from Capa (Argentina) to G. Healy, March 6, 1963 112 7b Letter from G. Healy to Capa, March 25, 1963 114 7c Letter from Joseph Hansen to G. Healy, March 19, 1963 115 7d Letter from G. Healy to Joseph Hansen, March 29, 1963 118 7e Letter from Joseph Hansen to G. Healy, April 13, 1963 123 7f Letter from G. Healy (for the SLL) to Joseph Hansen, April 25, 1963 138 Document 8a Letter from Farrell Dobbs to G. Healy, May 7, 1963 141 8b Letter from G. Healy to Farrell Dobbs, May 16, 1963 143 8c Letter from Farrell Dobbs to Tim Wohlforth, May 14, 1963 145 8d Letter from G. Healy to Farrell Dobbs, May 22, 1963 146 8e Correspondence between G. Healy and Farrell Dobbs, January — March 1963 152 8f Call for the Reorganization of the Minority Tendency in the SWP 154 8g Letter from G. Healy (fortheSLL)to E. Germain (for the IS), May 23,1963 156 Document 9a Letter from G. Healy (for the SLL) to the National Commit­ tee of the SWP, June 12, 1963 159 9b Letter from Farrell Dobbs to G. Healy, May 24, 1S54 165 9c Letter from Farrell Dobbs to all SWP locals and branches, May 24, 1954 167 Document 10a Letter from G. Healy (for the IC) to the International Sec­ retariat, September 27, 1963 168 10b Statement of the United Secretariat, November 18, 1963 170 10c Resolution of the SLL Conference February 29-March 2, 1964: From Revisionism to Opportunism 175 CHAPTER FIVE: BALANCE SHEET AND PERSPECTIVES AFTER THE REUNIFICATION' Document 11 Report on the International Situation made to the Interna­ tional Conference of Trotskyists by C. Slaughter, Sep­ tember 1963: The Future of the Fourth International 186 CHAPTER SIX: CEYLON AND THE FRUITS OF REUNIFICATION' Document 12 Ceylon: The great betrayal, by G. Healy, July 4 and 11, 1964 224 Document 13 Statement of the Political Committee of the SLL, July 20, 247 1964 Document 14a Statement by the International Committee of the Fourth International, July 5, 1964 253 14b Resolution of the Revolutionary Minority to the LSSP Con­ gress, June 6-7, 1964 255 14c Resolution of the Centre' group to the LSSP Congress, June 6-7, 1964 257 14d Resolution of the Renegade Majority to the LSSP Con­ gress, June 6-7, 1964 258 14e Letter from the IEC (Pabloites) to members of the LSSP. May 25, 1964 265 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL AFTER THE CEYLON BETRAYAL Document 15 Problems of the Fourth International, by G. Healy, August 1966 268 APPENDIX: ONCE AGAIN, DISCUSSION IS REJECTED Document 16a Statement on talks with the Unified Secretariat, July 7, 1970: Fourth Congress of the IC in preparation 330 16b Further comments on the need for joint discussion between the International Committee and the Unified Secretariat, by G. Healy, September 8, 1970 331 Document 17a Letter from Tim Wohlforth to Jack Barnes, October 5,1973 335 17b LetterfromJackBarnestoTimWohlforth,October20,1973 336 17c Letter from the International Committee to Jack Barnes, December 12, 1973 338 GLOSSARY OF NAMES 343 INDEX 347 8. International Bulletin No. 16 of the International Committee of the Fourth International 9. Fourth International, Vol. 2, No. 1, Summer 1965, pp.35-38 10.a, b. Internal Bulletin of the International Committee of the Fourth International 10c. Fourth International, Vol. 2, No. 1, Summer 1965, pp.39-42 11. Fourth International, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1964 12. The Newsletter, July 4 and 11, 1964 13. The Newsletter, July 20, 1964 14. Ceylon: The Great Betrayal, Newsletter pamphlet, Summer 1964 15. Problems of the Fourth International, Newsletter pamphlet, August 1966 16a. Workers Press, July 7, 1970 16b. Workers Press, September 8, 1970 17. Bulletin International Series No. 11, For a Discussion on the problems of the Fourth International Note on sources The documents published in these volumes have been collected from the journals, internal bulletins and correspondence of the Trotskyist movement over the period since 1951. The series is designed to provide the basic documentation of the fight within the Fourth Inter­ national during that time. Editing of the text has been kept to a minimum: footnotes and bracketed explanatory notes have been added only for essential reference. In all other respects the documents have been reproduced as they appeared in the sources indicated below. Each volume has a foreword introducing the reader to the main developments covered in it, with a glossary of names and an index provided as additional guides to the documents. The sources for the documents used in this volume are as follows: 1, 2, 3. International Bulletin No.10 of the International Committee of the Fourth International 4. International Bulletin No. 12 of the International Committee of the Fourth International 5. Fourth International, Vol.2, No. 1, Summer 1965, p.34 6. Ibid., pp. 17-30; pp.32-3 7. International Bulletin No. 14 of the International Committee of the Fourth International Foreword The starting point of this fourth volume of documents of the International Committee is the spurious 'reunification' in 1963 of the Socialist Workers Party (USA) with the revisionists (Pabloites) who had earlier split from the Fourth International in 1953. When the SWP severed its association with the International Committee in order to effect this 'reunification' (forming the so-called 'United Secretariat of the Fourth International') they were warned that this could only prepare the most disastrous betrayals. Above all, the SWP's cynical decision to forbid discussion on the political issues which had earlier split the movement gave the surest indication of their theoretical degeneration. According to them, the advantages of unification were such as to override any such discussion. It did not take long for the opposed positions to be verified. As the documents here reprinted make abundantly clear, down to the smallest detail, the unprincipled unification was directly responsible for the events in Ceylon in July 1964 which are perhaps the most significant turning point in the history of Trotskyism. The Ceylonese section of the Pabloite 'International', the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) had long been hailed as the most success­ ful of sections in achieving roots in the mass movement and a national political identity. In July 1964, less than one year after the SWP's 'reunification', the LSSP leaders accepted ministerial positions in the bourgeois coalition government of Mrs. Bandaranaike. The great majority of the LSSP at a special congress endorsed this action. XIII XIV THE IC AGAINST UQUIDATIONISM Accordingly, this majority was expelled from the 'United Sec­ retariat' . But this expulsion did not begin to answer the real questions: what was the responsibility of the United Secretariat itself for the betrayal? Proof can be found in the documents below that the SWP and the United Secretariat were directly responsible for what happened in Ceylon. The primary result of the agreement (by the SWP and the Pabloites) not to discuss contentious matters was that the United Secretariat, fully warned of the impending disaster in Ceylon, suppres­ sed any discussion of it because, they said, such discussion would be 'divisive'! Once more we see, however, that the refutation of a revisionist position by objective developments did not turn the revisionists off course. On the contrary, Mandel, Hansen, Frank and all the revisionist leaders refused to face up to their responsibility for the events in Ceylon, and in this way they walled off the cadres inside their own parties from the lessons of the experience. The International Committee, on the other hand, pointed out very sharply to the Ceylon minority, now formed into the LSSP (Revolutionary), that it was not sufficient to reject empirically the treacherous step taken by the majority. Only if the entirely false conceptions of internationalism which had nurtured the betrayal were understood and rejected could the LSSP (R) possibly avoid the same fate. The fact is that since 1964 the LSSP (R), refusing to break from the Pabloite International, has become completely opportunist, as evi­ dence in the policies of its leader Bala Tampoe. The International Committee based itself on the handful of comrades who fought to start from the international struggle against revisionism.
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