lutte de classe / class struggle / lucha de clase FRA/ENG/ESP (1972-80) #12

22 Pages·1973·1.459 MB·English

by  Lutte Ouvriere

FOR THE REBUILDING OF THE. FOURTH INTERNATIONAL
CONTENTS
• Lift the Ban on the Ligue Communiste
• The Inglorious End of What Was
the International Committee
·Two Conceptions of Permanent Revolution
September 1973
CLASS STRUGGLE
CONTENTS
Page 2 Lift the Ban on
the Ligue Communiste
Page 5 The Inglorious End of What Was
the International Committee
Page 12 Two Conceptions of
Permanent Revolution
NUMBER 12
CLASS STRUGGLE
LIFT THE BAN ON THE LIGUE COMMUNISTE
On June 28, the French government banned the Ligue Communiste
(French section of the Fourth International -United Secretariat). A few
days before, Pierre Rousset, a Ligue leader, was arrested during a police search
at the Ligue's Paris headquarters -the police also took this opportunity to
ransack the bookshop and part of the printshop. Two days after, the most
famous leader of the Ligue, Alain Krivine, was also arrested.
The pretext for the ban given by the Home Secretary was the counter
demonstration organized by some extreme-left groups (the Ligue being the
most important one) protesting against a racist meeting, «against uncontrolled
immigration», held in Paris by the extreme-right organization Ordre Nouveau.
The pretext was as good as a blessing falling from heaven for the government.
By putting the two organizations into the same bag, it banned both at the
same time the Ligue Communiste and Ordre Nouveau -though it had sent
its police to protect the latter's meeting a few days before. So the government
could appear as the impartial champion of order against the troublemakers
whoever they be, on the right or on the left.
Still, it was against the Ligue that the blow was actually directed. It was the
Ligue militants who have been arrested and prosecuted. For this purpose,
the government had to rummage amongst 40-year old laws, whereas it did not
even charge Ordre Nouveau and its members, who ought to have been prose
cuted according to the recent laws against racism which the government itself
has just promulgated.
Messmer (Prime Minister) and Marcellin (Home Secretary), i.e. the ex
legionnaire and the No 1 cop in France were probably convinced they would
hit a heavy blow at the extreme left with a ban on one of its main organizations.
Also, as our politicians are accustomed to stooping low, they may well have
just looked forward to getting some revenge over the extreme left which had
just a few weeks before led the fight of university, high-school and tech.
stlidents -a fight which demonstrated that the government was totally help
less before youth revolt. And, last but not least, the ban on the Ligue Commu-
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CLASS STRUGGLE
niste fitted in nicely with the image that the government has chosen to give
itself : that of a champion of moral order. Chief of government Messmer
makes one conservative or reactionary statement after another. Minister of
Cultural Affairs Maurice Druon, who is also a member of the Academy,
attacks rebel artists and intellectuals. Mayor of Tours Royer, who has become
famous as a sanctimonious puritan, was brought into the government as Mi
nister of Trade, and his first deed was to demand that school age should be
lowered from 16 to 14. Marcellin wanted to give the last touch to the picture
and prove that the reactionary champions of law and order, and morals, were
not only big mouths, but that they were also capable of acting.
But the government did not expect such a large protest before that lowly
blow. There have been reactions within the extreme-left of course, but also from
within the traditional left. For the first time the French Communist Party
has protested publicly against the blows brought to bear on a Trotskyist orga
nization ; . it even took part in sponsoring meetings of solidarity. This was
unknown of so far in France. Since 1968, every time the French CP men
tioned the «leftists», it was to attack, to insult and to shout them down.
There were reactions in France and abroad too. From many parts of the world,
numerous extreme-left and left organizations -some British Labour MPs for
instance- expressed their disapproval of the ban and their solidarity with the
Ligue Communiste.
As always when the government faces a powerful stream of public opinion,
their authority they like to see as firmly based~ faltered and eventually re
treated. Very ~uickly some Ministers proclaimed they did not approve of the
ban. A part of the ruling majority did not refrain from stating that the gov
ernment had taken a· wrong decision : far from striking ·a blow against
the revolutionary opposition the ban had actually contributed to a greater
union of the opposition full-stop. Within the state apparatus itself, among
the police and the courts, loud and heavy criticism was raised.
So the government is not only hesitant now, but it also hushed up an
affait that it concocted itself. Alain Krivine, who was kept in jail for several
weeks has eventually been released on bail, right in the middle of vacation time;
the date was probably chosen so that the release .....:a true disavowal of Marcelli n's
initiative- be effected with the least possible publicity. As for Pierre Rousset,
he was judged a few weeks later and got himself two months prison. From
a strictly judicial point of view, the sentence is perfectly iniquitous. But from
a political point of view, it is new proof that the government is beating a
retreat. Two months prison is in effect the exact lenght of time that Rousset
has just spent in detention awaiting trial (and it is common knowledge in
France that judges are accustomed to justifying this detention by inflicting
on the accused wheter they judge him condemnable or not, a sentence
corresponding to the prison term which he had already spent in detention).
It is also the limit beyond which he would have had to have served time
corresponding to a suspended sentence he had already received at an earlier
trial.
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CLASS STRUGGLE
It would appear that the courts are not confirming the repressive policy of
the executive and that the governme11t is leading a retreat. If this tendency
is confirmed, it is worth betting that Alain Krivine's trial will never see the
day.
However this retreat is not sufficient. It is not enough that the govern
ment, now aware of its error of the 28th June, discretely abandons the
proceedings it had instituted. The ban on the i...igue Communiste is still
there. And it is this ban that the revolutionary movement, the workers'
movement must have lifted.
That is why from everywhere. in France and abroad, the protests must
continue to be voiced and the campaign pursued to obtain the nullification
of the decree of dissolution of the Ligue Communiste.
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CLASS STRUGGLE
THE INGLORIOUS END
OF WHAT WAS THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE
The «International Committee» -which was one of the many regroupings
claiming they represent the organizational and political continuation of
Trotsky's International- has just undergone its second split in a little more
than one year. Following the 1971 split between two of its leading organiza
tions, the British Socialist Labour League and the French AJS-OC I. another
split was recently consummated between the AJS-OCI and the Hungarian
League of Revolutionary Socialists and various other Eastern European
groupings of militants. The International Committee as such seemingly has
not recovered from this last split. Indeed, the new grouping around the
AJS-OCI had altogether given up the International Committee brand name
and chosen to call itself Organizing Committee for the Reconstruction of the
Fourth International, while those who recently chose to team up with the
Hungarian League of Revolutionary Socialists have formed an international
bloc called the International League for the Reconstruction of the Fourth
International.
Politically. the way in which the factional strug had been working in some cases for more than ten
gle was led and the methods that were used are years is worthy of any Stalinist organization. The
much more characteristic of the true nature of the basic argument of their campaign is to fill the
former International Committee and its consti columns of their various publications (Informations
tuting organizations than all the actual political Ouvrieres, La Verite or Correspondances lnterna
reasons that were put forward by both sides tionales) with statements about the International
-when they did advance such reasons, which was League being a «political agency at the service of
not always the case. To the empty phrasing, to the the Kremlin bureaucracy» or about Michel Varga,
hollow grandiloquence and to the bluffing over its most prominent leader, being «an agent of the
their respective activities and political importance GPU» and, incidentally, a former CIA man.
that are characteristic of both organizations, the
AJS-OCI has added a touch of its own. The abject For years and years, the OCI did not simply
ness of the slanderous campaign they launched collaborate with Varga within the same interna
against organizations and people with whom they tional grouping and the same national organiza-
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CLASS STRUGGLE
ti on : it was in the habit of flattering him and Their past complicity in the covering-up of the
steadfastly exagger;:it ing the political and organiza- criticizable aspect of Varga's political past has given
tional activities of the Hungarian League of Revo- way to the most vicious attacks and filthiest slan-
lutionary Socialists. For years and years, they ders. The only reason for such a turnabout is
assisted in keeping the more questionable sides Varga's disclosure of some of his political disagree-
of Varga's political past a confidential matter ments with the OCI.
(some of his stands had nothing to do with so
cialism, Varga was lmre Nagy's collaborator dur The slandering and skulduggery that went along
ing the Hungarian uprising) ; at least they did so with the IC split are not secondary as compared to
as long as they did not dare put Varga's past for the official political motives of the split ; they are
ward in order to try and capitalize on it for their in fact at the very heart of the problem. All the
own political profit. Now that the break is consum international blocs that came in the wake of the
mated, the OCI has fished out 15 year-old Varga disintegration of the Fourth International have
texts. These texts certainly have nothing to do utterly failed in creating a true international di
with revolutionary socialism but they were al rection, because they are all gangrene-infested with
ready known to the OCI when Varga was one of political practices of which the OCI gives us but an
the leaders of the IC. extreme example.
THE SPLINTERING OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE
The International Committee was undoubtedly the lnternational's policy; they were but a logical
a fiasco. And by changing the old name of their outcome after a series of opportunistic deviations.
international bloc to that of Organizing Commit After having endorsed all the deviations, the organ
tee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth I nterna izations that were to launch the International Com
tional, those who were the political initiators of mittee were ultimately refusing to make the decisi
the grouping, somewhat official ize its failure. How ve step.
ever, for years on end, the International Committee
had claimed to be the one and only political and But even though, starting with the 1952-53
organizational inheritor of Trotsky's Fourth Inter split, the International Committee was all out -and
national. at times irrevelantly-stressing the need to fight
Pabloism, and even though they clearly and some
The organizations which initiated the Commit times harshly criticized some of the stands of the
tee in 1953 -the majority of the French Section International Secretariat most foreign to revolu
of the Fourth International, followed by the Eng tionary socialism, they in turn were never able to
lish SLL and the American SWP among others - explain why the Fourth International had been rot
could rightfully contend that they had been the only ten to the point of seeing its majority adopt the
sections of the Fourth International not to fall in Pabloist theses; why its cadres had held fast to
line with the analysis of the then leadership who petty-bourgeois currents, up to the point of em
considered the world to be on the brink of a new bracing their political ideas and class prejudices,
war and who consequently committed themselves coating them with a Trotskyist-like phraseology ;
\
to a policy of entrism «sui generis» which implied why the sections were unable to cut loose from
they integrated with the Stalinist (or reformist) these cadres ; and why they were unable to create a
' parties and abandoned the building of independent new international leadership.
I
revolutionary proletarian organizations.
For the near 20 years of its existence, the
The Pabloist theses were adopted by a majority International Committee has been incapable of an
of the sections of the Fourth International and swe1 ing these questions. They were even incapable
thus clearly exemplified this organization's deser of seriously coping with them. In order to d<:i that,
tion of the cause-of the proletariat. However, in no these organizations would have been obi iged to
way did they constitute an unexpected change in scrutinize their own past and anaLyse their respon-
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CLASS STRUGGLE
sibilities in the failure of the Fourth International International Committee thus endorsed the nation
as well as their present political practice and organ alist deviation of a number of sections -among
izational methods. The International Committee them the French section-during World War II.
has chosen to draw the curtain and thus explains They endorsed the lnternational's refusal to clear-
that Pabloism is somewhat an accident, creditable ly criticize its past positions and try to determine
either to Pablo's diabolical influence or, at times, -their causes. And by keeping the analyses of the
to the objective situation; but they never link both / Fourth International concerning the post-war pe
explanations, they never ask themselves what could / riod, the People's Democracies and China, they
have been done by the International to prevent the ! endorsed its political responsibility (and they
objective conditions from bringing about the death adopted those analyses in spite of the fact that,
of the International. By refusing a serious and cri by so doing, they found themselves in contradic
tical re-appraisal of its own past, the International tion with their own posterior analyses of similar
Committee precluded itself from the possibility of social events; they do not even realize that one
ever taking the needed measures to prevent the po cannot logically draw the sword against the Inter
litical and organizational practice which led to the national Secretariat's characterization of Cuba as
total collapse of the International from developing a deformed workers' state and give that very same
in their own ranks. label to Mao's China). The politica·I program of the
International Committee -as far as one can draw
up such a program out of the divergent or even
In fact, even though the International Committee contradictory political stands of its national sec
was more and more violently denouncing Pabloism tions- was but a pragmatic aggregate of analyses
as years passed by. their organizational methods and positions arrived at according to the opportu
and political practice (a medley of skulduggery, nities of the moment and zested with bits and
bluff and opportunistic deviations) remained the pieces of the Transitional Program.
faithful duplicate of those of the Pabloist Inter
national Secretariat.
The national sections were never bound together
by a common understanding of the tasks to be
As for the political continuity with Trotsky's undertaken for the reconstruction of the Inter
International, which was vied for by the Interna national -that would have implied a common un
tional Committee as well as by the International derstanding of the causes of its past failures. Not
Secretariat, it can only belong to those who are all of these sections were even willing to give a
capable of answering in a fruitful way, in a way thought to the problems of the other national
consistent with the interests of the proletarian re sections. In fact, the International Committee was
volution, the questions raised by the various poli but a loose association of organizations pursuing
tical events since Trotsky's death. But with the their own ends. The International Committee never
exception of some correct (although generally was an international leadership, not even at the
partial) criticisms of the Pabloist stands, the his level where it could have played such a role, that
tory of the International Committee is strewn is, try to politically help the member-organizations
with nothing but errors or even actual treasons of and establish relations of confidence between them.
revolutionary socialism. Here are but a few ex
amples of the incapacity of the International
Committee to assume any type of political leader
ship: their support of the Algerian nationalist or The successive departures (that of the SWP in
ganization MNA, their likening of De Gaulle new 1963, who joined the Pabloist International Secre
born regime to fascism and their failure in pro tariat which became the United Secretariat for the
ducing ar:iy_ll_<l_l~able analysis of de-Stal inisa_1jgn. occasion), then the 1971 split with the SLL (which
Moreover, by claiming the heritage of the Fourth formed a new international bloc where they did
International from the forties up to 1952, the not have to share the leadership with the OCI)
International Committee has endorsed the political could have been the starting points of a reflection
failure of that organization, which on all the im upon the flaws in the methods used for the re
portant questions posed to the workers' movement construction of the International. But they were
in that period, in all their analyses of new poli seen as mere opportunities to charge the departing
tical events, had taken non-proletarian stands. The organizations with all the sins of Israel.
CLASS STRUGGLE
AN OPEN INTERNATIONAL REGROUPING
At first glance, the SLL split had at least one the official organizations, including those of the
positive consequence. If the OCI did not at all United Secretariat, searching for the way toward
feel compelled to try and understand the funda the new revolutionary party of the International.
mental causes of those repeated failures, they at Certainly, once again, we are not harboring any.'
leas; could not avoid reconsidering the Interna illusions. This new crystallization is very slow,
tional Committee's pretense to being the one and very painful. We must begin.11
only political and organizational successor to the
Fourth International or to represent the only hope We could have rejoiced at such a reserve and
of salvation for a Trotskyist organization. such an unusual sense of reality flowing from the
pen of the leaders of the OCI. The comprehension
So it is that in the January 1973 issue of cind the recognition that the Fourth International
«La Correspondance Internationale», Stephane Just no longer exists is the first indispensable step on
Jave the following appraisal of the International the way to its reconstruction. But in fact this is
Committee: «... the IC never was a 'leading not the first time that for opportunity's sake the
r:enter', simply because the dislocation of the OCI makes such proclamations. Given the oppor
Fourth International made this impossible. The tunism and the lack of a sense of responsibility
dislocation of the Fourth International has polit of this and similar organizations, nothing prevents
ical as well as organizational consequences. The them from declaring without the slightest embar
organizations, groups and militants who stand for rassment exactly the opposite the day after.
the program of the Fourth International, who
are ready to fight the Pabloist liquidators and who Thus it was, that, during its third, and last,
take a firm stand for the reconstruction of the conference in 1966 the International Committee
Fourth International, are not theoretically and invited as observers a certain number of Trotskyist
politically homogeneous enough to set up a 'lead organizations, among them Voix Ouvriere, on the
ing center'; and at the present time, there exists basis of a statement claiming the following : «Petty
no recognized leadership of the International, no bourgeois opportunism in the guise of a crystal,
leadership formed and selectioned through com lized revisionist tendency infiltrating all the sections
mon political struggles, that could constitute such of the Trotskyist movement has destroyed the
a center. There is no 'leading center'.» Fourth International as an organization founded
on the Transitional Program, and today requires
, An undoubtedly true statement, but a super a complete break with the theoretical, political, and
ficial one too. Put in clear, it means that no organizational methods of the revisionists.»
organization could rightly claim to be the only or
ganizational or even political continuation of But having half-opened the door tow~1 c' the
Trotsky's International, and that this situation does possibility of a real discussion between the dif
not simply go back to the SLL-OCI split. Therefore, ferent Trotskyist organizations regarding the ways
everything remains to be rebuilt, and one should and means of rebuilding an international recognized
not start with the sole IC ex-members. as dead by all the participants, the International
Committee shut it again immediately in the very
In the April 1973 issue, which reprints a middle of the conference, suggesting the replace
resolution of the Organizing Committee's Inter ment of the sentence quoted by an amendment
national Bureau, there is also a quite clear state which began : «The Fourth International has held
ment about this : «This is why we must harbor its own and been victorious over petty-bourgeois
no illusions. The Fourth International has long opportunism which ... etc. ''·
ago entered a period. of splits and confusion.
Of course, at such a stage in our common task, Whereas in the original statement it was said
the Organizing Committe cannot claim for itself that the lnternotional had been destroyed, after
the role of a leading center. But in the political the amendment not only had it revived itself
struggle, the aim is to build an independent line but what is even more, it had won a victory 1
to crystallize all the elements which emerge from And this International which had suddenly recov-
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CLASS STRUGGLE
ered its vigour, was, of course. represented by the London in 1966 during. the 3rd conference of the·
International Committee. And those who did not International Committee of which we reproduce
agree with resolving so unquestioningly that which some extracts in the following pages>>.
remained the central task of all revolutionaries of As· so follow the extracts where it is claimed,
our time, were sent to the Furies. among other things :
«The conference states that the 4th International
This is not just a simple reminder of the past, has not degenerated. The historical continuity of
or a slip which will not necessarily be repeated the 4th International founded by Leon Trotsky
tomorrow. It is a question of basic irresponsibility in 1938, restructured in the years 1943-46, that
that we find above and beyond all the shifts in Pabloism wanted to destroy in 1950-53, has been
posrtions. kept alive since 1953 by the struggle carried out by
the Trotskyist organizations regrouped in the Inter
It is not without reason that Varga who remains national Committee.
on the past positions of the International Com Thus, the International Conference declares that
mittee, reproaches the OCI of trampling lightly the continuity of the 4th International has been
on these past positions without even making an ef preserved by the action of the International
fort to give the reasons for this change of position, Committee.»
which is, however, very important. Moreover, the
OCI managed the remarkable performance of pre There you have it. And those who cannot see
senting this change in attitude as the straight line any continuity in these successive positions, unless
of continuation of its past policy.
they can see this continuity in the pitiful contor
tions of a «leadership» unable to take its own
It. is on the front and back of the same page affirmations seriously -well, those, will definitely
of the July issue of La Verite (pp 93-94) that
attract themselves the wrath of the OCI.
these two contradictory positions are found, pre
sented as the expression of the same continuity
What are the reasons for these new contorsions ?
of thought.
The multiple invitations thrown in the direction of
the other organizations, even members of the Un it
Going through the opinions expressed in the
ed Secretariat, could let us think that the OCI
above quotation, La Verite declares : «Given the
feels the need for leaving the door open to attract
present situation of the International it is out of
a certain number of organizations, in order to en
the question to claim to be a leading international
large the international regrouping that the success
center (IS or IC) which does not lead anything, as
ive scissions reduced to so I ittle. Furthermore, the
the experience of the United Secretariat and the
crises which are shaking several organizations of the
International Committee proves, the OCI will sug
United Secretariat and which already have given
gest, at the second session of the preparatory inter
birth to, or are in the process of giving birth to,
national conference, that an organizing committee
scissions, leave very I ittle hope to the plan of the
for the reconstruction of the 4th International be
OCI. The new regrouping which could result
formed» ... «We observe that the 4th lnternatio[lal
would be as unstable as its precedent. It would not
proclaimed under the direction of Leon Trotsky
in 1938 h~s been destroyed by the Pabloist li allow them to move one iota forward on the route
of the construction of the International but deep
quidators as an international organization based on
down, is it important to the OCI ? As long as they
democratic centralism. We observe that because
find here a new opportunity for new declarations !
they did not understand this, the leadership of the
SLL attempted to present itself as the international
leadership assigning the International Committee The OCI claims to be for the Transitional
the role of international leadership center, while Program. But it is not enough to have the right
refusing to accomplish the international tasks. program. one should be able to apply this program.
These are the facts. We have to build the 4th To put this revolutionary program into practice
International as the world party of the socialist Bolshevik organizations are needed, Bolshevik sec
revolution ... We organized ourselves to accomplish tions, and not opportunist groups which sign any
this task in an 'Organizing Committee for the thing and act the way they like later on. or more
Reconstruction of the International'. In so doing precisely. according to the dominant winds in their
we remain faithful to the resolution adopted in respective areas.
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