Vol. 7, No. 26 0 1969 Intercontinental Press July 14, 1969 $1 DOCUMENTS World Congress of the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL 666 fied to the active way in which the Trotskyists in most countries are participating in vanguard struggles. Special Issue A noticeable feature of the congress was the youthful- ness of many of the delegations. They represented the most politically conscious sector of the new generation One of the features of Intercontinental A.ess which of rebel youth that is stirring the world today. The many of our well-wishers have told us is especially question of how the Fourth International can take still appreciated is the number of documents which we reg- better advantage of the great new openings interna- ularly make available in translation from various lan- tionally to recruit fresh contingents from this source guages and from various sectors of the political spec- was one of the major items on the agenda. It was trum. In this issue the entire contents comes under the likewise interlaced with other points in the deliberations heading of rrdocuments” and these documents are all of the delegates. from a single gathering, the world congress of the Fourth The discussion was an intense one throughout the International held last April. congress, constituting the most graphic evidence of how In our opinion, this was a political event of some the democratic side of the principle of democratic cen- importance to the revolutionary-minded left. As the tralism is observed in the Fourth International in con- Third World Congress since the Reunification, it reg- trast to the stultifying, antidemocratic practices charac- istered the solidity achieved by the world Trotskyist teristic of the Stalinist and Social Democratic organiza- movement after a major split that lasted for almost tions with their iron-fisted and ivory-headed bureau- ten years until the breach was closed in 1963 on a cracies. principled programmatic basis. As the Ninth Congress The most warmly debated issues at the congress in- since the founding of the Fourth International in 1938, volved three resolutions, one dealing with perspectives it marked the continuity of the program and tradition and orientation in Latin America, another assessing handed down from Lenin through his coleader and the “cultural revolution” in China, and a third con- disciple Leon Trotsky. cerning work among the student and worker youth. The congress itself did not meet under ideal conditions. The majority resolutions on Latin America and the It could not hold open sessions. It could not invite the “cultural revolution,” published in this issue of Inter- press. It was not the guest of any state power. It had continental Press, passed by considerable majorities. no extensive facilities. The Fourth International, more In view of the importance of the issues, however, the than thirty years since it was founded, remains a per- delegates decided in both instances to continue an in- secuted, proscribed organization, membership in which ternal discussion on the questions in dispute following can mean long prison terms and worse not only in the the congress. The resolution on the youth was accepted capitalist countries under military or totalitarian die as the basis for further discussion on this subject. tatorships but in both the Soviet Union of the Khrush- We are pleased to be able to make available to the chevists and the China of the Maoists and their satellites. English-speaking world these documents presenting the Despite the hazards and difficulties, not least of which current Trotskyist view on the most crucial political was finances, some 100 delegates and observers were issues in the world today. present from about thirty countries. Of the English- We are, in addition, publishing a translation of an speaking world, observers or delegates were present editorial which appeared in the May issue of Quatrieme from Britain, India, Ceylon, several African countries, Internutionale concerning the congress. In our next Canada, and the United States. issue we will publish the message that was sent to the One of the most interesting aspects of the gathering congress by the well-known Mexican literary figure was the wide range of information and experience re Jose Rwueltas, who is now being held in Lecumberri flected in the contributions of the delegates. This testi- prison by the Diaz Ordaz regime as a political prisoner. In this issue Page 667 689 700 706 715 723 733 734 735 Resolution on New Rise of the World Revolution At the Reunification World Congress, held in 1963, the among the three main sectors of the world revolution, and international Trotskyist movement adopted a resolution, an important change has occurred in the dynamics of "Dynamics of the World Revolution Today," which took their interrelation -revolutionary struggles in the imperi- up the interrelation of the three sectors of the world revo- alist countries themselves occupying a more important lution as it stands today- the colonial revolution, the place in this worldwide process today than in the past political revolution in the bureaucratically degenerated twenty years. workers states, and the proletarian revolution in the im- perialist countries. In the five years since then the world We must assess the implications of these changes and revolution has suffered serious setbacks but it has also from them determine the major perspectives of the world scored new successes, the most imposing of which was revolution in the period before us. At the same time, the the May 1968 revolutionary upsurge in France. As a recent developments make it possible to answer in a de- result, the global balance of forces is continuing to turn tailed way a whole series of ideological questions being against imperialism, a still clearer interaction has emerged debated in the international revolutionary movement. 1. Failure of the Imperialist Counteroffensive and the New Relationship Among the Three Sectors of the World Revolution After the victory of the Cuban revolution, the colonial by military force all revolutionary movements which in revolution unquestionably marked time. its view threatened even incipiently to touch off the pro- In fact, starting early in the sixties the colonial revolu- cess of permanent revolution. Ever more systematically tion suffered a series of spectacular reverses. The rise to it brought to bear its strategy of permanent counterrevolu- power of military dictatorships and the momentary de- tion against such revolutionary movements. cline of the mass movements in Brazil and Argentina (the Caught between the masses seeking a clear revolutionary two principal countries of Latin America); the overthrow socialist solution and imperialism, which strove to crush of the Lumumba regime in the Congo, the Nkrumah such tendencies in embryo, the Sukarnos, the Nkrumahs, regime in Ghana and the Ben Bella regime in Algeria; the Nassers, and the Nehrus, who had dominated the scene the victory of the Indonesian counterrevolution in October in the semicolonial countries for fifteen years, reached the 1965; and the military defeat of the United Arab Republic end of their era. and Syria in the six-day war of June 1967 constitute the Since the formation of new revolutionary vanguards, main milestones in each of the epicenters of the colonial even of the Fidelista type, lagged behind this process, the revolution - Latin America, Black Africa, the Arab world, initiative passed for a whole stage to American imperialism and Southeast Asia. with its CIA-financed plots, its counterrevolutionary inter- ventions, and its ever-widening wars of aggression. Whatever the specific reasons for each of these setbacks, An acceleration of economic growth in the United States two general causes explain why the colonial revolution coincided with this stage of more direct and overt counter- leveled off at the beginning ofthe sixties. On the one hand, revolutionary moves and created the means by which the the capacity to lead the anti-imperialist struggle of the imperialists could finance these projects for five or six masses - though strictly limited for well-known historical years -which from "military missions" and "counterin- reasons - which the colonial bourgeoisie and the petty- surgency" in Latin America to the war in Vietnam, in- bourgeois nationalist governments had for a certain cluding the upkeep and expansion of dozens of air-naval period came to an end. bases throughout the world, cost tens of billions of dol- The colonial revolution had reached the point where it lars-without opening up an assault on the living stan- could go no further unless it made the transition into a dard of the workers in the United States. i socialist revolution- and for that the subjective factorwas The might, expansion, and arrogance of Yankee im- lacking. On the other hand, American imperialism, draw- perialism seemed to reach new heights after its failure in ing its own conclusions from the victory of the Cuban the fifties in relation to both the colonial revolution and revolution, shifted more and more openly to repressing the power struggle with the Soviet Union. 668 The Vietnam war also was the culmination and, as it At the same time, a sector of the American bourgeoisie were, the crest of this imperialist counteroffensive. The has recognized with dismay that even its colossal resources Vietnam war became the turning point in the situation. are not sufficient to simultaneously finance the nuclear As a result of the indomitable resistance of the Vietnamese arms