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:''This article focusses on the Fourth International prior to 1963. See [[Fourth International (Post-Reunification)]] for later developments.''
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'''The Fourth International (FI)''' is an international [[communist]] organisation which opposes both [[capitalism]] and [[Stalinism]]. Consisting of followers of [[Leon Trotsky]], it is dedicated to helping the [[working class]] bring about [[socialism]].

The Fourth International was established in [[France]] in 1938. Trotsky and many of his supporters, having been expelled from the [[Soviet Union]], considered the [[Comintern]] (Communist International, also known as the Third International) to have become lost to Stalinism and incapable of leading the international [[working class]] towards [[political power]].<ref name=%26quot%3B"transitional%26quot%3B%26gt%3B">''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/index.htm The Transitional Program]''. Retrieved November 5, 2008.</ref> Thus, they founded their own, competing "Fourth International." 

(contracted; show full)w.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1932/11/oct.htm In Defence of October]''</ref>  Furthermore, Trotsky and his supporters harshly criticised the increasingly [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] nature of [[Joseph Stalin]]'s rule.  They argued that [[socialism]] without [[democracy]] is impossible.  Thus, faced with the increasing lack of democracy in the Soviet Union, they concluded that it was no longer a socialist workers' state, but a [[degenerated workers' state]].<ref name=
%26quot%3B"transitional%26quot%3B" />

==Political internationals==
A [[political international]] is an organisation of [[political party|political parties]] or activists with the aim of co-ordinating their activity for a common purpose.  There had been a long tradition of [[Socialism|socialist]]s organising on an international basis, and [[Karl Marx]] had led the [[International Workingmen's Association]], which later became known as the "first international."

(contracted; show full)ialist [[Revolution]]", the Trotskyists were publicly asserting their continuity with the Comintern, and with its predecessors. Their recognition of the importance of these earlier Internationals was coupled with a belief that they eventually degenerated. Although the Socialist International and Comintern were still in existence, the Trotskyists did not believe those organisations were capable of supporting revolutionary [[socialism]] and [[proletarian internationalism|internationalism]].<ref name=
%26quot%3BComintern%26quot%3B%26gt%3B[http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emarxists%2Eorg%2F"Comintern">[http://www.marxists.org/history%2F/etol%2F/document%2Ffi%2F/fi/1938-1949%2Fww%2F/ww/1943-ww04%2E.htm  "Manifesto of the Fourth International on the Dissolution of the Comintern"], ''Fourth International'', July 1943.</ref>

The foundation of the Fourth International was therefore spurred in part by a desire to form a stronger political current, rather than being seen as the communist opposition to the Comintern and the Soviet Union. Trotsky believed that its formation was all the more urgent for the role he saw it playing in the impending [[World War II|World War]].<ref name=%26quot%3B"transitional%26quot%3B" />

==Decision to form the International==
{{Communism sidebar |expanded=Internationals}}
{{Socialism sidebar |expanded=Organizations}}

Trotsky and his supporters had been organised since 1923 as the [[Left Opposition]], and later the [[International Left Opposition]], an opposition within the Comintern. They opposed the [[bureaucratisation]] of the Soviet Union, which they analysed as being partly caused by the poverty and isolation of the [[economy of the Soviet Union|Soviet economy]].<ref name=%26quot%3BComintern%26quot%3B"Comintern" />  Stalin's theory of socialism in one country was developed in 1924 as an opposition to Trotsky's Theory of [[Permanent Revolution]], which argued that capitalism was a world system and required a [[world revolution]] in order to replace it with socialism. Prior to 1924, the [[Bolshevik]]'s international perspective had been guided by Trotsky's position. Trotsky argued that Stalin's theory represented the interests of bureaucratic elements in direct opposition to the working c(contracted; show full)ot;Declaration of Four".<ref>[http://marx.org/history/etol/document/1930s/four.htm "Declaration of the Four"], ''The Militant'', September 23, 1933.</ref> Of those, two soon distanced themselves from the agreement, but the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[Revolutionary Socialist Party (Netherlands)|Revolutionary Socialist Party]] worked with the International Left Opposition to declare the '''International Communist League'''.<ref name=
%26quot%3Brocky%26quot%3B%26gt%3B"rocky">[[George Breitman]], ''[http://www.bolshevik.org/history/Tr-breit.htm The Rocky Road to the Fourth International, 1933–38]''</ref>

(contracted; show full)

In 1935, Trotsky wrote an ''[[Open Letter]] for the Fourth International'', reaffirming the ''Declaration of Four'', while documenting the recent course of the Comintern and the Socialist International.  In the letter, he called for the urgent formation of a Fourth International.<ref name=
%26quot%3Brocky%26quot%3B"rocky" />  The "First International Conference for the Fourth International" was held in Paris in June 1936, reports giving its location as [[Geneva]] for security reasons.<ref>[http://www.workersrepublic.org/Pages/Ireland/Trotskyism/clrjames.html CLR James Interview]</ref>  This meeting dissolved the International Communist League, founding in its place the '''Movement for the Fourth International''' on Trotsky's perspectives.

The foundation of the Fourth International was seen as more than just the simple renaming of an international tendency that was already in existence. It was argued that the Third International had now degenerated completely and was therefore to be seen as a [[counter-revolutionary]] organisation that would in time of crisis defend capitalism.  Trotsky believed that the coming [[World War II|World War]] would produce a [[revolutionary wave]] of class and national struggles, rather as [[World War I]] had done.<ref name=%26quot%3B"transitional%26quot%3B" />

Stalin reacted to the growing strength of Trotsky's supporters with a major political massacre of people within the Soviet Union, and the assassination of Trotsky's supporters and family abroad.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isr/vol24/no3/vorkuta.htm "Trotskyists at Vorkuta: An Eyewitness Report"], ''International Socialist Review'', Summer 1963.</ref> He had agents go through historical documents and photos in order to attempt(contracted; show full)tee members who happened to be in the city, most of whom were co-thinkers of Shachtman.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fi/1938-1949/emergconf/fi-emerg03.htm "Declaration on the status of the resident International Executive Committee"], in ''Documents of the Fourth International'', Vol. 1, pp. 351–355</ref> The disagreement was centred around the [[Shachtmanism|Shachtmanite]]s' disagreements with the SWP's internal policy,<ref name=
%26quot%3Bdecline%26quot%3B%26gt%3B"decline">[[Duncan Hallas]], ''[http://listserv.cddc.vt.edu/marxists/cd/cd1/Library/archive/hallas/works/1973/xx/fidecline.htm Fourth International in Decline]''</ref> and over the FI's unconditional defence of the USSR.<ref>[[Trotsky]], ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/idom/dm/index.htm In Defense of Marxism]'', New York 1942.</ref>

Trotsky opened a public debate with Shachtman and Burnham and developed his positions in a series of polemics written in 1939–1940 and later collected in ''[[In Defense of Marxism]]''.  Shachtman and Burnham's tendency resigned from the International in early 1940, alongside almost 40% of the SWP's members, many of whom became founder members of the [[Workers Party (US)|Workers Party]].<ref name=%26quot%3Bfactional%26quot%3B%26gt%3B"factional">[[James P. Cannon]], [http://www.marxists.org/archive/cannon/works/1953/facstrug.htm "Factional Struggle And Party Leadership"], ''Fourth International'', November 1953; David Holmes, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/cannon/bio/index.htm James P. Cannon: His Life and Work]''.</ref>

===Emergency Conference===
In May 1940 an emergency conference of the International met at a secret location "somewhere in the Western Hemisphere." It adopted a manifesto drafted by Trotsky shortly before his murder and a range of policies on the work of the International, including one calling for the reunification of the then-divided Fourth Internationalist groups in Britain.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fi/1938-1949/emergconf "Emergency Conference of the Fourth International"], ''International Bulletin'', Nos. 1 & 2, 1940.</ref>

Secretariat members who had supported Shachtman were expelled by the emergency conference, with the support of Trotsky himself.<ref name=%26quot%3Breport%26quot%3B%26gt%3B"report">[[Michel Pablo]], [http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fi/1938-1949/fi-2ndcongress/1948-congress01.htm "Report on the Fourth International Since the Outbreak of War, 1939–48"] ''Fourth International'', December 1948 & January 1949.</ref>  While leader of the SWP [[James P. Cannon]] later said that he did not believe the split to be definitive and final, the two groups did not reunite.<ref name=%26quot%3Bfactional%26quot%3B"factional" />  A new International Executive Committee was appointed, which came under the increasing influence of the [[Socialist Workers Party (US)|Socialist Workers Party]].<ref name=%26quot%3Breport%26quot%3B"report" />

The Fourth International was hit hard during World War II.  Trotsky was assassinated, many of the FI's European affiliates were destroyed by the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]] and several of its Asian affiliates were destroyed by the [[Empire of Japan]].  The survivors, in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, were largely cut off from each other and from the International Secretariat.  The new secretary, [[Jean Van Heijenoort]] (also known as Gerland), was able to do little more than publish articles in the SWP's theoretical journal ''Fourth International''.<ref name=%26quot%3Breport%26quot%3B"report" />  Despite this dislocation, the various groups sought to maintain links and some connections were kept up throughout the early part of the war by sailors enlisted in the [[U.S. Navy]] who had cause to visit [[Marseille]].<ref>[[Rodolphe Prager]], [http://www.revolutionary-history.co.uk/backiss/Vol1/No3/Prager.html "The Fourth International during the Second World War"], ''Revolutionary History, Vol. 1 No. 3, Autumn 1988.</ref>  Contact was steady, if irregular, between (contracted; show full)

Pablo and Mandel aimed to counter the opposition of the majorities inside the British Revolutionary Communist Party and French Internationalist Communist Party.  Initially, they encouraged party members to vote out their leaderships.  They supported [[Gerry Healy]]'s opposition in the RCP.  In France, they backed elements, including [[Pierre Frank]] and [[Marcel Bleibtreu]], opposed to the new leadership of the PCI{{ndash}} albeit for differing reasons.<ref name=
%26quot%3BWar%26quot%3B%26gt%3B"War">[[Sam Bornstein]] and [[Al Richardson]], ''War and the International'', London 1986.</ref>

The Stalinist occupation of [[Eastern Europe]] was the issue of prime concern, and it raised many problems of interpretation. At first, the International held that, while the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] was a [[degenerated workers' state]], the post-World War II East European states were still [[bourgeois]] entities, because revolution from above was not possible, and capitalism persisted.<(contracted; show full)Congress, Central Committee and Members of the Yugoslav Communist Party"], ''Fourth International'', July 1948.</ref>  In their analysis, it differed from the rest of the [[Eastern Bloc]] because it was established by the [[Partisan (military)|partisan]]s of World War II who had fought against Nazi occupation, as opposed to by Stalin's invading armies.  The British RCP, led by [[Jock Haston]] and supported by [[Ted Grant]], were highly critical of this move.<ref name=
%26quot%3BWar%26quot%3B"War" />

==Third World Congress==
[[Image:Ungcannon.jpg|thumb|right|[[James P. Cannon]] in 1922, later leader of the U.S. section of the Fourth International]]

(contracted; show full)

In line with this geopolitical perspective, Pablo argued that the only way the Trotskyists could avoid isolation was for various sections of the Fourth International to undertake long-term [[entryism]] in the mass Communist or Social Democratic parties.<ref name=
%26quot%3Brearms%26quot%3B%26gt%3B"rearms">[[Michel Pablo]], [http://www.marxists.org/archive/pablo/1951/11/congress.htm "World Trotskism Rearms"], ''Fourth International'', November 1951.</ref> This tactic was known as entrism ''sui generis'', to distinguish it from the short-term entry tactic employed before World War II.  For example, it meant that the project of building an open and independent Trotskyist party was shelved in France, because it was regarded as not politically feasible alongside entry into the French Communist Party. 

This perspective was accepted within the Fourth International, yet sowed the seeds for the split in 1953.  At the Third World Congress, the sections agreed with the perspective of an international civil war.  The French section disagreed with the associated tactic of [[entryism]] sui generis, and held that Pablo was underestimating the independent role of the working class parties in the Fourth International.  The leaders of the majority of the Trotskyist organisation in France, Marcel Bleibtreu and [[Pierre Lambert]], refused to follow the line of the International.  The International leadership had them replaced by a minority, leading to a permanent split in the French section.<ref name=%26quot%3Bletters%26quot%3B%26gt%3B"letters">''[http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fi/1950-1953/ic-issplit/05.htm Letters exchanged between Daniel Renard and James P. Cannon, February 16 and May 9, 1952]''</ref>

In the wake of the World Congress, the line of the International Leadership was generally accepted by groups around the world, including the U.S. SWP whose leader, James P. Cannon, corresponded with the French majority to support the tactic of entrism ''sui generis''.<ref name=%26quot%3Bletters%26quot%3B"letters" />  At the same time, however, Cannon, [[Gerry Healy]] and [[Ernest Mandel]] were deeply concerned by Pablo's political evolution.  Cannon and Healy were also alarmed by Pablo's intervention into the French section, and by suggestions that Pablo might use the International's authority in this way in other sections of the Fourth International that felt entrism "sui generis" was not a suitable tactic in their own countries.  In particular, minority tendencies in Britain around [[John Lawrence (political activist)|John Lawrence]] and the U.S. around [[Bert Cochran]] that supported entrism "sui generis" hinted that Pablo's support for their views indicated that the International might also demand Trotskyists in those countries adopt that tactic.<ref>''International Committee Documents 1951–1954, Vol. 1'', Section 4, (Education for Socialists)</ref>

==Formation of the International Committee of the Fourth International==
In 1953, the SWP's national committee issued an ''Open Letter to Trotskyists Throughout the World''<ref name=%26quot%3BSWP%26quot%3B%26gt%3BSWP%2C"SWP">SWP, [http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/swp-us/doc01.htm "Open Letter to Trotskyists Throughout the World"], ''Militant'', November 16, 1953.</ref> and organised the [[International Committee of the Fourth International]] (ICFI).  This was a public faction which initially included, in addition to the SWP, [[Gerry Healy]]'s British section [[The Club]], the Internationalist Communist Party in France (then led by [[Pierre Lambert|Lambert]] who had expelled Blei(contracted; show full)

Their scheme has been to inject their Stalinist conciliationism piecemeal and likewise in piecemeal fashion, get rid of those who come to see what is happening and raise objections.<ref name=
%26quot%3BSWP%26quot%3B%2F%26gt%3B%26lt%3B%2F"SWP"/></blockquote%26gt%3B>

==From the Fourth World Congress to reunification==
[[Image:fourthinternational1959.jpg|left|thumb|180px|The IS published ''Fourth International'' until reunification]]

(contracted; show full)isions between the majority of supporters of the International Secretariat and the leadership of the SWP in the United States.  In particular, the congress stressed support for the [[Cuban revolution]] and a growing emphasis on building parties in the imperialist countries. The sixth congress also criticised the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, its Sri Lankan section, for seeming to support the [[Sri Lanka Freedom Party]], which they saw as bourgeois nationalists; the U.S. SWP made similar criticisms.<ref name=
%26quot%3Bcuban%26quot%3B%26gt%3B[http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2E"cuban">[http://www.whatnextjournal%2Eco%2Euk%2F.co.uk/Pages%2F/History%2F/Cuba%2E.html "Trotskyism and the Cuban Revolution: A Debate"], ''Intercontinental Press'', May 11, 1981, on the ''What Next?'' website.</ref>

In 1962 the IC and IS formed a Parity Commission to organise a common World Congress.  The supporters of Michel Pablo and [[J. Posadas|Juan Posadas]] opposed the convergence. The supporters of Posadas left the International in 1962.<ref name=%26quot%3Bcuban%26quot%3B"cuban" />  At the 1963 reunification congress, the sections of the IC and IS reunified (with two exceptions: the British and French sections of the IC). <ref name=%26quot%3BFarrell%26quot%3B%26gt%3B"Farrell">[[Farrell Dobbs]] and [[Joseph Hansen]], [http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/swp-us/reunif.htm Reunification of the Fourth International]'', International Socialist Review 1963.</ref> This was largely a result of their mutual support for Ernest Mandel and [[Joseph Hansen (socialist)|Joseph Hansen]]'s resolution ''Dynamics of World Revolution Today'' and for the [[Cuban Revolution]]. This document distinguished between different revolutionary tasks in the [(contracted; show full)

* The reunified [[Fourth_International (Post-Reunification)|Fourth International]] is the only current with direct organisational continuity to the original Fourth International at an international level. The International Committee and International Secretariat reunified at the 1963 congress, but without the [[Socialist Labour League|SLL]] and [[Internationalist Communist Organisation|OCI]].<ref name=
%26quot%3BFarrell%26quot%3B%2F%26gt%3B"Farrell"/>  It is sometimes known as the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI) after the name of its leading committee, although that committee was replaced in 2003.  It is also the only current to have continuously presented itself as "the" Fourth International. It is the largest current and leaders of some other Trotskyist Internationals occasionally refer to it as "the Fourth International": ICFI secretary Gerry Healy, when proposing reunification discussions in the 1970s, descr(contracted; show full)

Echoing Marx's ''[[Communist Manifesto]]'', the ''Transitional Programme'' ended with the declaration "Workers{{ndash}} men and women{{ndash}} of all countries, place yourselves under the banner of the Fourth International. It is the banner of your approaching victory!".  It declared demands to be placed on capitalists, opposition to the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and support for workers' action against fascism.<ref name=
%26quot%3B"transitional%26quot%3B" />  Most of the demands on capitalists remain unfulfilled.  The collapse of the Soviet Union occurred, but through a [[social revolution]] leading to the restoration of capitalism, rather than the [[political revolution]] proposed by the Trotskyists.  Many Trotskyist groups have been active in anti-fascist campaigns, but the Fourth International has never played a major role in the toppling of a regime.

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