Issuing body: European Conference of the Fourth International
Resolution on the Revolutionary Upsurge and the Second Front
1. The revolutionary upsurge in Europe, combined with the advance of the Red Army, puts on the agenda a landing by American and British imperialism in Europe. What is at stake is at once to outstrip the proletarian revolution and to prevent a further advance of the Red Army into the capitalist countries.
2. The revolutionary explosions will be neither the direct consequence of the second front nor determined in their scope and intensity by the scale of the landing. They will be determined by the dynamic of the relationship of forces between the classes. While it is more than probable that a landing will favour the revolutionary explosions and precipitate the upsurge, one cannot rule out in advance either the possibility of a revolutionary movement before the landing or the possibility of a non-immediate reaction of the masses to the second front. In any case, one thing is certain: the pivot of the situation in Europe remains the situation in Germany. It is only by directly or indirectly triggering the German revolution that the revolutionary explosions in the occupied countries, whether or not provoked by military operations, can open the revolutionary period in Europe.
3. The character of any mass movement set off by whatever cause will, under present conditions, be specifically proletarian, both in its content and in its methods of struggle. Nationalist, democratic or other forms of struggle or demands that the movement may take on at the outset will be of a superficial nature and will detract nothing from its profoundly revolutionary character, which from the very start poses the problem of power in its full scope.
4. In the event of a mass movement set off by the second front, the political and organisational task of the sections of the Fourth International will consist above all in having a clear appreciation of the scope and the stakes of the struggle, in linking together the scattered movements, in giving, through appropriate slogans, consistent expression to the revolutionary aspirations of the autonomous movement of the masses, and in resolutely orienting it towards the transformation of the imperialist war into civil war.
The general strike must be organised and led. Organs of proletarian power must be created wherever they do not appear spontaneously, and coordinated in their action.
The general arming of the proletariat must be organised. The workers' militia will protect, against the nationalist organisations and imperialist terror, the occupation of factories, railway stations, printing plants, broadcasting stations, key positions, etc. The workers' militia will support the workers' and peasants' committees in the requisitioning, transport and distribution of provisions to the labouring masses.
The most tenacious propaganda for fraternisation with German workers in uniform, with English and American proletarian soldiers, against every form of chauvinism, will combine, from the very beginning of the German revolution, with a vast movement coordinating the German soldiers' councils and the workers' committees.
In the period opened up by the outbreak of the revolutionary crisis, the mobilisation of the masses will take place around the organs of proletarian power, for their determined defence against every form of capitalist counter-offensive, against every attempt to encroach on the prerogatives of the proletarian organs, to confine them within parliamentary bodies, even ones composed more or less exclusively of "workers' representatives." Under no circumstances and on no pretext whatsoever may the sections of the Fourth International participate in "popular fronts," local commissions, economic councils, or socialisation commissions alongside representatives of the bourgeoisie or even alongside exclusively working-class representatives of a coalition government.
5. American imperialism will in any case try to use the mass movement for its counter-revolutionary military purposes, attempting to enlist it into the nationalist organisations, reconstituting the national capitalist armies, and making use of Stalinist activity. It will also try to prevent the junction between the revolutionary explosions in the occupied countries and the German revolution, striving to give the movement a nationalist character. It will strive in particular to crush the movement between German imperialist repression and Anglo-American repression. This tactic will stand the best chance of success in the event of a limited landing and of a movement artificially provoked by the Stalinists and the nationalist organisations. Nevertheless, all these eventualities are becoming increasingly improbable in the face of the scale of the revolutionary upsurge and the weakening of German imperialism.
However, should a limited workers' movement break out nonetheless, the sections of the Fourth International will adapt their slogans to the scale of the revolutionary action. They will strive to avert a bloody catastrophe by giving the movement as much cohesion and serious leadership as possible, by developing by every means the work of fraternisation with the German, English and American soldiers, by developing the movement into an openly revolutionary movement — the only means of winning the allegiance of the German workers in uniform.
Two points must nonetheless be fixed from now on:
a) Under no circumstances and on no pretext (defeatism, sabotage) may the sections of the Fourth International call on the masses, their sympathisers or their members to take part in any form whatsoever in the military action of the nationalist organisations;
b) The slogan of a general strike or of the general arming of the proletariat may only be launched if significant movements are taking shape in at least several industrial centres.
6. The sections of the Fourth International must root out, from now on, all the illusions that the bourgeoisie and its agents within the working class are sowing among the masses in order to subordinate them to the aims of American imperialism. They must unmask the true nature and the true counter-revolutionary objective of the landing, denouncing the deceptive slogan of "national insurrection." They must show that the second front will not bring peace, that the imperialists are incapable of bringing peace. In putting forward the slogan of immediate peace and fraternisation, they must clearly explain that only the transformation of the imperialist war into civil war, that is, the proletarian revolution, can bring peace. They must call on the masses to take advantage of the situation created by the second front, not in order to facilitate the game of American imperialism but in order to free themselves from capitalist exploitation.
7. The sections of the Fourth International must take, from now on, all concrete measures to safeguard their own cohesion, their liaison with the vanguard in the factories, and the uninterrupted continuation of their work, even in the event of exceptional material difficulties (bans on leaving one's home, on movement, etc.). The Technical Bureau of the International Secretariat must make the technical preparations to maintain international liaisons even in the event that international communications should be interrupted. Furthermore, the sections of the Fourth International must make use of this period, as far as possible, for the general technical strengthening of their organisations.