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
threat of 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)
- what type of party
°transitional nature of these projects
°FI framework at the national level
°independence from the apparatuses and institutions
°involvement and priority of self-activity, self-organization of the workers' movement and social movements
°wage political battles
on these principles - class independence...
on politically priority themes: ecosocialism, feminism, anti-racism,
°militant and political practice
internal democracy
against the reproduction of oppression
°theoretical and programmatic education
°renewal through specific work with youth
- Understanding the national situation
° an orientation, not a tactic to adopt
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 2018
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