MANIFESTO
To the Toiling Masses of the Entire World!-
The breadth and depth of the colonial revolution, the growing dynamism of the development of the workers' states, and capitalism's own constantly recurring contradictions, are sharpening the crisis of the capitalist regime and opening up an ever wider prospect for the socialist rebuild-
While scientific discoveries, the enormous advances made with the application of atomic energy, and the tremendous successes in the exploration of space, show the incalculable possibilities that humanity possesses to free itself from need and destitution, in the same way the mobilization of hundreds of millions of men and women in the fight against the regime of imperialist oppression and the development of the creative spirit of the masses in building a new economy, show the tremendous subjective possibilities that humanity may count on in utilizing all this creative force, wresting away from imperialism its power of destruction, and constructing a harmonious society with a potential of
Never have the economic and social contradictions of humanity been brought into the open on so broad a scale, with so great a mobilization of forces. From Algeria to Indonesia and Japan, the masses are everywhere entering the arena, even those who were heretofore considered the most backward, the farthest removed from world problems. In a few years, come their dispersion, their historical lateness, their backward forms of social and political organization, and by their irruption on the scene pose the most advanced and timely tasks of humanity for its development.
The powerful military and political apparatuses of imperialism — as also, on another level, those of the Soviet bureaucracy - are gradually losing their grasp and power of initiative in the face of the revolutionary initiative of the masses. The critical points that threaten a world conflict emerge from an uprising based in its origin on Cuban peasants, or Congolese semi-tribal sectors, or the most exploited masses of Iraq or Algeria.
The enormous human forces mobilized by the workers' states and their tremendous technical and scientific development, are confronted, on the other hand, by the fact that imperialism power and, for several years now, a relative social stability. It is these gigantic forces mobilized by the colonial revolution and the workers' states on the world scale, and the old forces of imperialism centralized for the defense of its regime, that pose the clash of contradictions on a scale and with a potential, and at the same time with a creative and destructive power, hitherto unknown to humanity.
The tremendous dynamism produced by this conjunction Sod Demonste of the forces of the colonial revolution and the workers' states has overwhelmed the old Stalinist, Social-Democratic, or bourgeois and petty-bourgeois nationalist leaderships, who must constantly adapt themselves or readjust their tacties to the new developments that escape from their control. The Sino-Soviet contradictions; the deep distortions to which the "nationalist" leaders are subjected, and the qualitative changes taking place in them (as in the case of Cuba); and the new developments of the crises occurring in the Communist Parties and some Social-Democratic Parties — all these are showing how these old leaderships are lagging behind the new dynamics of this revolu-
The growing alliance between the workers' states and the colonial revolution and their interaction are giving a historical drive to this process, which requires a new leadership. To the extent that the European proletariat — as the Belgian strike showed — enters the arena, shaking the power of imperialism at its very centre, the dynamic elements of the situation can make a leap forward and render much more profound the process of the world re-
The revolution has entered on a new course of its development, on a course that is on the whole irreversible, that cannot be reäbsorbed by imperialis with all its might, nor by the bureaucratic leaderships, which, on the contrary, are shaken and are being gradually broken at home.
The Cuban revolution, triumphing in the very jaws of imperialism, overthrowing capitalism and setting up a workers' state of a new type and of a special origin, is an indication of the irresistible power of the revolution, of its objective and subjective dynamism, which is winning out over all the limitations of its leadership of petty-bourgeois origin, overcoming the opposition of Stalinism, and triumphing over all the old tendencies and conceptions of the leadership of the colonial and semi-colonial revolution. Rather than the old leadership, it is this revolution today that is showing the road and the possibilities of the revolutionary action of the masses to the other peoples of Latin America and of other continents.
The great demonstrations of the Algerian masses have shaken all the plans of French imperialism. But at the same time they have given a new dynamism and a new dimension to the Algerian revolution, opening roads to new ideological and political developments.
The Congolese crisis demonstrates, after some months, a faci which, in a quite different context and form, is nevertheless comparabie to what the Bolivian revolution has been demonstrating for years: simultaneously the lack of a current with sufficient clarity and strength to solve the situation by way of the proletarian revolution, and the powerlessness of imperialism to reëstablish imperialist domination over these countries.
The Belgian strike, like the previous development and political successes of the left wing of the Labour Party in Great Britain, shows the revolutionary energies that the European proletariat has kept despite its retreats and partial defeats, as well as the lack of solid foundations for the stability thai the imperialist regimes have enjoyed.
It is not by chance that this whole situation, together
8 with the pressure of the successes and economic and social developments within the workers' states themselves, is upselting to the Stalinist leadership of the workers' states and the Communist Parties.
Bureaucratic administration and monolithic and Stalinist methods clash ever more flagrantly and clearly with an economy and a society in expansion, with a proletariat, peasant masses, and technicians and researchers who are engaged in deep creative efforts. The divergences of the Chinese with the conceptions of the Soviet bureaucracy are registering elements of differentiation under the pressure of this new stage of development of colonial revolution and internal growth. The attempt carried out at the Conference of the Eighty-One to stabilize the thought of the Communist Parties at a new level that maintains conceptions of conciliation with capitalism at the same time that new ideas, under the pressure of the colonial revolution, are opening up a way for themselves, is simply a compromise which cannot last. It also shows Stalinism's inability to adapt itself to the new requirements of a world leadership for this stage.
The discussion in the Central Committee of the Soviet C. P and the crisis in the French and other C Ps are an indication. The new attempt by Khrushchev to appeal directly to the rank and file over the heads of the middle cadres, at the same time that it makes plain the inadequacy of the bureaucratic apparatus concerning the new needs of growth of the economy, is also the indirect expression of concern and growing intervention by the masses in the problems of economic administration.
The workers' states are not divided into some that are more dynamic and others that are more conservative, but in a development clashing with the bureaucratic superstructures, which are stronger in the US SR, but they continue to develop everywhere in a way that is ever more dynamic and full of revolutionary possibilities.
This new course in the development of the revolution, which compromises the old leadership and spurs on continues to provide the objective elements for the development of a new leadership.
The drive and audacity of the new revolutionary developments continue in general to be accompanied, in the way they are unleashed and carried out, by the growing intervention of the youth, generally not involved in the old orientations and leaderships, disposed to go forward under the pressure of the mass movement.
The Cuban revolution has been gradually overcoming the class limitations of its leadership and the opposition of the old leaderships, and developing its tasks into socialist tasks. The uprisings in Turkey and South Korea; the irruption of the masses in the big Algerian cities; the action of the South African masses; the struggle of the Belgian masses opening the way to a situation ripe for a change of regime; the actions kept up for years by the Latin American masses, leaving their old bourgeois and petty-bourgeois leaderships — all these are developing the objective and subjective bases for a new lead-
The Fourth International, which has maintained and developed the programme for this stage of the revolution, the programme for the revolutionary mobilization of the masses of the entire world for socialism, must play an increasing part in building this new leadership to lead this new stage of the revolution.
This course of the revolution, which is developing incal.
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL culable forces, objectively goes beyond any prediction and programme save those of Trotskyism. The parties of the Fourth International, even though small, are able in various parts of the world to lead or play a port in the leadership of the revolutionary movements. The construction of this new leadership of the revolution requires more daring and aggressive action than ever by the revolutionary Marxist vanguard, since the old leaderships bring every pressure to keep their control, and try to channel, divert, and check new developments and the new strata who are entering into the struggle.
The problem of the alliance of the colonial revolution with the workers' states — which, as the Cuban revolution has shown, opens up very great and dynamic possibilities — the problem of the worker-peasant alliance in the colonial revolution, the growing importance taken on by guerrilla warfare in the development and centralization of revolutionary forces, require going beyond Stalinist and reformist methods, and open the way to the creative spirit and initiative of revolutionary Marxism. The experience of the masses ripens in a matter of months - what in other periods would have required years and decades. To develop, guide, and concentrate the most gigantic and dynamic forces that have ever moved humanity for the socialist reconstruction of society, and to build the leadership capable of doing so - this is the task that must be solved in the next decades, based on the new course of development of the revolution. Youth of the Entire World! -
In the colonial revolution, in the workers' states, in the imperialist countries, this development of the revolution is connected with the entry on the scene of new strata capable of ridding themselves of the tradition of the old leaderships, capable of learning and acting with immediacy and the greatest daring. Where the youth have entered the arena they have provided a new channel for the masses by their intervention and the development of their struggle for the liquidation of colonialism, for socialism, and for the liquidation of Stalinist and reformist control. Oppressed Women of the Entire World! _
In the immense revolution that is arousing the colonial and semi-colonial peoples, hundreds of millions of women are winning in high struggle their right to complete emancipation. From South Africa to Algeria, from Latin America to Asia, they are thus breaking the chains with which they have been loaded by a society based not only on the exploitation of man by man, but fundamentally on the absolute oppression of woman, keeping her in a situation of total inferiority. In China, the participation of women in the revolution is one of the essential bases for building the new society. In the capitalist countries, the participation of women in the struggles of the proletariat (as in the Belgian general strike) or in the struggle against colonial war (as in France) steadily increases.
In their struggle against a society of exploitation, women must take a place of capital importance in the leadership ef the workers' and anti-imperialist movement and in the construction of the new revolutionary leadership required by the progress of the world revolution. Toilers of the Colonial and Semi-Colonial Countries! _ Capitalism blocks the possibilities of development, of access to human living conditions. Drive out imperialism, overthrow capitalism! As in Cuba, it is necessary to
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL transform the revolution, to carry out the socialist tasks, to expropriate the capitalists, and to put all economic and human resouroes at the service of a planned development of the economy and of greater well-being! Toilers of Cuba! -
The masses of Latin America, the masses of the other workers' states, the colonial masses, and the Trotskyist vanguard in every country, are with all their strength defending your workers' state, born of the peculiar conditions of your revolution, faced with imperialist aggression. Your revolution is regarded as the road to be followed in other countries. Develop your struggle with confidence. Develop workers' democracy, vernment of the workers and peasants through their organs of power, so that this step, added to those already taken, will give the conquests of the Cuban revolution the force of a programme for all the masses. North American Workers! _
It is on you that depends to a great extent whether humanity is swallowed up in a war of destruction, whether the steps forward taken by other peoples are checked by the armed action of North American imperialism. Support the revolutionary conquests of other peoples, support their right freely to choose their path, defend the Cuban revolution by opposing any attempt at counter-revolution.
9 ary intervention! Prevent your government from preparing its war-machine, fight against atomic war, for your own future! Toilers of the Soviet Union, People's China, and the Other
Workers' States! -
The example of your successes is opening up the socialist path to new sectors of humanity. But the bureaucratic police regimes are limiting your development and that of the rest of the peoples who are watching your example. The fight for the building of socialism can triumph only by breaking the oppression of a bureaucratic caste, of a police apparatus, reopening the road to soviet democracy! Workers of the Imperialist Countries! -
Your struggle can be decisive for liquidating colonialism, the sanguinary war of Algeria, and oppression in vast regions of Africa, Asia, and other continents. Follow the example of the Japanese masses, of the Belgian masses: fight to overthrow the capitalist power in your own country. Amid the development of the colonial revolution and of the workers' states, your generalized struggle can fundamentally weaken imperialism and give a vast stimulus to the struggle for socialism.
Long live the World Revolution!
Long live the Fourth International!
THE SIXTH WORLD CONGRESS OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL