10. The Fourth International and strategic debates - Penny Duggan
Youth School 2018 The Fourth International and Strategic debates Penelope Duggan 25th August 2018
1. Our strategic goal - a dream we have - society without oppression and exploitation • Different ways of expressing it: - overthrow capitalism - make the revolution - transform society and install the dictatorship of the proletariat. - dictatorship = rule of the majority - the proletariat? = the exploited and oppressed
• How to get there : the emancipation of the workers the act of the workers themselves (Marx 1st International) - “those on top can’t rule any more and those below won’t stand for it any more” - mass mobilization -> different forms - no schemas, anything can be a spark
2. The need for a party • What is a party - has a political programme - attempt at synthesis of interests of exploited and oppressed - different parties can be authentically “revolutionary” - collective decisions, acts together, balance sheets - memory and education - the party, its relationship to the movements of exploited and oppressed
3. The FI's orientation today to party building - a bridge between where we are now and what we want
• The founding of the Fl as a minority current, Trotsky's approach, shaped history
• The 1995 World Congress: - the period opened by 1968 - fall of the wall in 1989 - the political consequences : old political divisions could be overcome
• The development of this orientation in 2003, 2010 continued in 2018 - lessons learnt from national experience - towards a balance sheet, the discussion in the FI - 17th World Congress
• What sort of parties? - activist, which intervene, which have an effect - build the struggles and movements of the exploited and oppressed - democratic - aim to ensure a non-oppressive internal climate through policies which prefigure the society we want
• The forces and the situation of the FI today - overview of where we are present - some elements on particular national experiences - a conclusion: necessity to build FI today
Pierre Rousset - Reflections on the “party question” (expanded version) – an overview
FI: Role and party-building tasks of the Fourth International