The Fourth International and strategic debates today

The strategic importance of internationalism and the role of an international

Speaker: Penelope Duggan

1. World Capitalism and the need for an international

- today Bolsonaro, rise of authoritarian regimes, pandemic, climate catastrophe - an unprecedented situation

- when the FI was founded

- the class nature, the imperialist and oppressive nature of the global system

- resistance

- global justice movement in the 1990s

- return of strategic issues

- socialism in the 21st century

2. The Fourth International today

- The Fourth after three failures

- the difficult road to the foundation

- world war

- transitional programme

- post war

- 1953 split -> different tendencies

- 1963 reunification

- the FI since 1968

- FI sections

- “broad anti-capitalist” or new parties (1995)

Readings

Bureau statement: “Trump’s defeat interrupts momentum of authoritarian right worldwide”

September 1938 - the founding of the Fourth International

Role and party-building tasks of the Fourth International

Additional reading: Daniel Bensaïd: The formative years of the Fourth International (1933-1938)

Gus Massiah: The new world struggles to be born

Michael Löwy: The Fourth International is 80 years old!

Pierre Rousset: Reflections on the “party question” (expanded version) – an overview