At the end of April, Gerry Healy, the national secretary of the Socialist Labour League, asked to talk with Pierre Frank, a member of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International.
In the following weeks, two conversations were held which included other members of the two organizations.
Comrade Healy raised the question of organizing a mutual discussion that might open the way to the Socialist Labour League and its French sister organization, the Organisation Trotskyste, unifying with the Fourth International.
It should be noted that this move by Comrade Healy stands in strong contrast with the slanderous attacks that have constantly appeared in the press of the SLL and the OT against outstanding figures of the Fourth International, with the systematic refusal to engage in common actions in Britain and France, even in defending victims of repression by imperialism or Stalinism, and with the claim to be "reorganizing" the Fourth International.
In addition to this, it should be noted that on a whole series of political issues the SLL and OT have not modified the very sharp differences they have expressed for years in opposition to the Fourth International. Under these circumstances, unification is not a realistic perspective.
The Fourth International is, of course, in favor of unifying revolutionary forces wherever possible on a principled basis. We are therefore prepared to reexamine the question of the SLL and OT unifying with the Fourth International if objective evidence should show that this is feasible. The SLL and OT might well begin this process by beginning to discuss their political and theoretical differences with us in a frank and comradely way, without the use of slander or falsifying the positions we hold, and by beginning to engage in common actions on such elementary questions as the defense of victims of the class struggle.