Issuing body: International Secretariat (SI) of the Fourth International
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Summary Minutes of the Proceedings of the Third World Congress
First Session — Thursday 16 August
— Chair: P. Frank, Jungclas, Peng. — Opening address by comrade Pablo. — The congress placed itself under the honorary chairmanship of all the imprisoned comrades of Bolivia, China, Greece and Vietnam, and particularly of comrades René and Liu, of the Vietnamese section, and comrade Lora, of Bolivia [4]. — The congress sends its greetings to all militants of the Fourth International and to all those fighting imperialism throughout the world. — Appointment of a congress organising bureau (Standing Order Committee): Pablo, Edouard, Bos, Livingstone, Peng, Marin. — Technical questions on the running of the congress, [presented] by comrade Pia. — Adoption of the agenda proposed by the SI. — Designation of the commissions (to which the SI will submit the following proposals).
Credentials Commission: Frank, Lawrence, Jungclas, Sendic, Hupasinghe, Renard; Sweden: one mandate; Austria: one mandate for the opposition; Denmark: consultative vote.
Latin American Commission: Raptis, the Latin American delegates, Mandel, Maitan, Clarke, Mauricio, Santen, Goonawardene, Minguet. To adopt a political resolution; to recognise an Argentine section; to approve the decisions of the last Bolivian congress; to appoint a Latin American sub-bureau; to have this sub-bureau publish a Latin American review.
Far East Commission: Banerji, Goonawardene, Hupasinghe, Peng Shuzhi, Chen Bilan, Hoang-Khoï, Lê-San, Santen, Van Tijn, Lawrence, Sendic, Mestre, Bleibtreu. To consider holding a Far East conference in Ceylon; setting up a Far East bureau; publication of a review; relations with Indonesia; to examine the situation in India; to prepare a resolution in line with the texts of the Seventh and Eighth Plenums of the IEC.
Austrian Commission: Mandel, Modlik, Babnik, Gludowats, Jungclas, Boepple, Buchbinder, Drenth, Van Ceulen, Frank. To attempt to draw up an orientation resolution acceptable to both groups and to achieve unification on this basis. To subordinate the question of the expelled members to the settlement of this question [5].
Security Commission: Raptis, Healy, Jungclas, Clarke, Cristalli, Banerji, Peng, Maitan, Grinblat, Jean, Corvin. To prepare for the possible move of certain bodies into clandestinity.
Finance Commission: Clarke, Healy, Boepple, von Steiger, Grinblat, Cristalli, Hupasinghe. Increase and stabilisation of the SI budget; finding new resources.
Central Europe Commission: Mandel, Raptis, Jungclas, Boepple, Babnik, Bleibtreu, Maitan, Premtaj, Berg (Wolfgang Salus). Report on activity in Czechoslovakia; possibility of work in East Germany and Yugoslavia; relations with the Babenko group.
Education Commission: Mandel, Modlik, Boepple, Gambino, Buchbinder, Bleibtreu, Hunter, Goonawardene. To prepare a militants' course for Germany and Italy; to prepare an outline for an ABC of Marxism.
French Commission: Raptis, the French delegates, Clarke, Mandel, Santen, Maitan, Healy, Cristalli, Hoang-Khoï, Modlik, Van Ceulen, Buchbinder. To adopt a political resolution and an organisational resolution.
(The Eastern Europe and Education commissions were unable to meet.)
— Political report by comrade Pablo. Discussion of the political report: interventions by comrades Bleibtreu, Bos.
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Second Session — Friday 17 August
— Chair: Sachs, Burns, Ortiz. — Continuation of the political discussion. Interventions by comrades Herman, Burns, Frank, Livio, Livingstone, Charles. — Continuation of the political discussion. Interventions by comrades Posadas, Peng, Théo, Ortiz, Jacques, Sinclair, Walter, Mestre.
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Third Session — Saturday 18 August
— Chair: Livio, Tilak, Jules. — Continuation of the political discussion. Interventions by comrades Sachs, Tilak, Collins, Bernard, Pia, Robert (Vietnam), Willy, Privas, Lerse, Jean, Cyprien, Renard, Marin, Moth. Reply by the rapporteur. Votes: Pia's proposal to put off the vote until after the discussion of the "buffer zone" question and to defer the vote to the following day so as to prepare amendments; rejected (6 in favour). Herman's proposal for an immediate vote; accepted. Bleibtreu's proposal to vote first on the amendments, since this would determine the vote of the French majority. Livingstone's counter-proposal to vote on the general line of the theses and the resolution, and to refer the texts to the new IEC to incorporate amendments consistent with the general line of these texts; adopted by 37 votes for, 6 against (French majority 2; Switzerland 1; Italy 2; Sachs (majority, Austria) 1). Votes on the theses and the resolution: adopted by 39 votes for, 3 against (French majority 2; Vietnamese minority 1), 1 abstention (Switzerland). Statement of vote by the Swiss delegates and statement by the Vietnamese minority. Bleibtreu's proposal for a vote on the resolution of the Seventh Congress of the French [section] and on comrade Germain's "Ten Theses". Proposal to close the session and to revisit Bleibtreu's proposal the following day; adopted.
• Fourth Session — Sunday 19 August
— Chair: Bos, Bertold, Robert (Ceylon). — Bleibtreu's proposal. — Statement by Walter. — Livingstone's motion, adopted, to proceed to the order of the day for the following reasons: 1. The congress cannot take into consideration and vote on "counter-theses", for the reason that they were not submitted in time for the preparatory discussion for the congress, so as to allow the sections to give them due attention and to select their delegations on this basis. The only position of the French majority known to the sections was the April Central Committee resolution, which was published in a discussion bulletin, but comrade Bleibtreu did not ask the congress to vote on that resolution. 2. Comrade Germain's "Ten Theses" were written by him and discussed by the International not as a resolution or as a document supplementary to the theses of the [Plenum — Roman numeral illegible in source: printed "De Plénum"], but as a contribution to the discussion dealing with various questions raised by the theses of the [Plenum — Roman numeral illegible in source: printed "Ir Plénum"] in support of those theses; adopted.
— Report by Pierre Frank on the class character of the European countries of the Soviet "buffer zone". Discussion of the "buffer zone". Interventions by comrades Jacques, Charles, Sinclair, Théo, Privas, Victor, Bernard, Sachs, Mestre, Moth, Robert (Vietnam), Bertold, Peng, Pia, Pablo. Reply by the rapporteur. Vote on the resolution, the International Executive Committee being charged with amending it and establishing the final text; adopted by 41 votes for, 2 against (Switzerland, Vietnamese minority). — Comrades Bos and Charles will no longer be able to continue following the proceedings of the congress, for professional reasons. — Report of the Credentials Commission by P. Frank; adopted unanimously minus 2 abstentions (Austria). (See the table of delegations below.)
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Fifth Session — Monday 20 August
— Chair: Marin, Rosas, Jean. — Livingstone submits a proposal to amend the agenda on behalf of the Organisation Commission; adopted. — Report on the activity of the International by Walter. Discussion of the report and information from the sections. Interventions by comrades Burns, Bertold, Robert (Vietnam), Bleibtreu, Robert (Ceylon), Bernard, Livingstone, Kinch, Pia, Sachs, Jean, Edouard, Willy, Herman, Livio, Peng, Lerse, Jacques. Reply by the rapporteur. Vote on the report; adopted unanimously. — Proposal to place the question of Yugoslavia as the first item on the agenda when work resumes, after the commissions have met; adopted. — Election of the IEC (in closed session) [6]. — Work of the commissions, drawing up of the timetable. — Personal statement by comrade Pablo concerning a misunderstanding with comrade Pia. — Intervention by Pablo on the closing of the first part of the congress's proceedings. — The congress rises and observes a minute's silence in memory of Trotsky (eleventh anniversary of his assassination). — Remembrance of departed comrades: Coover, Carl, Liu, Chatterjee [7] — Greetings to the veterans present at the congress: Jules, Lerse, Frank, Edouard, Peng, and to comrade Cannon [8]. — Thanks to all those who helped organise the congress. — Greetings to Lesoil's widow, to Natalia Trotsky, and to comrade Hippe's companion [9].
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Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Sessions
— Work of the commissions.
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Ninth Session — Friday 24 August
— Chair: Jacques, Lerse, Kinch. — Adoption of the agenda for the ninth and tenth days. — Report on the Yugoslav revolution and the Fourth International, by Livingstone. Discussion of the report on the Yugoslav question. Interventions by comrades Chen, Jacques, Walter. The rapporteur proposes moving to the vote. Vote on the resolution; adopted by 37 for, 1 against (Switzerland), 1 abstention (Vietnamese minority); 4 absent (Germany 3, Cyprus 1). — Report of the Austrian Commission by Walter; adopted unanimously minus 1 abstention (Sweden) for insufficient knowledge of the question. — Report of the Security Commission, by comrade Pablo; adopted. — Report of the Far East Commission by comrade Bernard. Pablo's proposal to give comrade Peng half an hour to set out his essential ideas, with no discussion to follow. Intervention by Peng. The congress adopts the commission's proposal that the SI hold a meeting with all the Far East delegates on the question of the Far East bureau, and on India. The commission's file will be passed on to the SI to prepare the discussion for the next IEC. — Election of the International Control Commission. Interventions by comrades Livio and Burns. Unanimous vote.
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Tenth Session — Saturday 25 August
— Chair: Chen, Mestre, Minguet. — Report of the Latin American Commission by comrade Pablo. Intervention by comrade Moreno. — Interruption of the discussion on Latin America to hear the report of the Finance Commission by comrade Livingstone. Interventions by comrades Burns, Bernard, Ortiz, Livio, Frank, Posadas. Unanimous adoption of the report and of the suggestions accepted by the rapporteur. — Continuation of the discussion of the report on Latin America. Interventions by comrades Posadas, Guerra, Rosas, Ortiz, Moreno. Reply by the rapporteur. Votes: Comrade Moreno proposes that the document should not become official until after discussion at the next IEC. Rejected. Political resolution adopted by 37 for, 1 abstention (Vietnamese minority). 5 absent (Germany 3, Switzerland 1, Cyprus 1). Appointment of the Latin American bureau. Unanimous vote. — Recognition of the GCI as the Argentine section of the Fourth International. Vote between the commission's proposal and Moreno's proposal. The commission's proposal is accepted by 37 votes. Appointment of two further Latin American comrades and one alternate to the IEC. Unanimous vote. — Chilean mandate. Validated unanimously, minus two abstentions (Marin, Bertold). A letter will be sent to the section to explain. — Report of the French Commission presented by comrade Pablo. Interventions: Frank, Lerse, Marin, Pablo. Unanimous vote. — Miscellaneous questions: Manifesto: the SI will publish it in the name of the Third Congress. IEC: representation of the Spanish section. A place is left for a member of that section. No publicity will be given to the congress before instructions are received from the SI. Intervention by comrade Marin. Apologies from the French section for not having been able to invite the delegates during the congress, owing to the technical arrangements for holding it. — Closing of the Third World Congress. Address by comrade Pablo.
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Delegates and participants at the congress
[Translator's note: the following list of delegates was set out in the source as a multi-column table (country/organisation — pseudonym — real name — mandate: deliberative/consultative). In the scanned text the columns have been reflowed into a single stream and can no longer be reliably re-paired row by row. The material below reproduces, in the same sequence as the French original, the country/organisation headings translated into English and the pseudonyms, names and mandate figures exactly as printed; readers wishing to verify which figures attach to which individual should consult the original table image.]
Countries, organisations — Pseudonyms — Names — Mandates: deliberative / consultative
Albania Victor — Sadik Premtaj
Edouard — Georg Jungclas Willy — Willy Boepple 2 1
Argentina Fourth International Group — J. Posadas — R. H. Cristalli Rev. Workers' Party — Moreno — Hugo Bressan 2
Austria Int. Communists of Austria — Sachs — Hans Babnik (minority) — Lerse — Franz Modlick 1 1
Germany Int. Communists of Germany 1 1
Belgium PCI
Bolivia Rev. Workers' Party Brazil Socialist Orientation
Cyprien — E. Van Ceulen Jules — Jules Hénin Walter — Ernest Mandel
Rosas — Hugo Gonzalez Moscoso
Felipe
1 IEC
2 1
Cameroon Ceylon LSSP
Charles — Charles Assalé
Leslie-Tilak — Leslie S. Simon Goonawardene 2 Don Ph. Hupasinghe 1
Robert-Philippe 1
Chile Rev. Workers' Party Guerra
China Rev. Communist Party Peng — Peng Shuzhi 2
Chen — Chen Bilan 1
Cyprus PCI 1
Jean 1
Kinch 1
Moth 1
Denmark
Spain Int. Communist Group Ernesto — E. Mauricio 1
United States Socialist Workers Party Livingstone — G. Clarke 5
M. Bleibtreu M. Gibelin Daniel Renard Robert Berne L. Abraham Pierre Frank J. Grinblat Simone Minguet 1 1
France PCI Marin (alternate) (alternate) PCI-minority
Garrive M. Mestre Privas
(alternate) Great Britain Rev. Communist Party
Burns Collins
Gerry Healy John Lawrence 1 IEC IEC
1 1
Sinclair Bill Hunter 1
Greece PCI Gabriel-Pablo — Michel Raptis 1
India Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India Ali-Bernard — K. Banerji 3
Livio Maitan Renzo Gambino Franco Vilani Giorgio Modolo 1 1
Herman Théo Bos
H. Drenth Théo Van Tijn Sal Santen 1 1
Bertold Sâfström 1
Pia Jacques
J. von Steiger H. Buchbinder 1
Uruguay Rev. Workers' League Ortiz — A. Sendic 1
Vietnam GCIVF Robert — Hoang-Khoï 1
(alternate) Lé-Van
GCIVF (minority) Charles — Lé-San 1
Italy Rev. Communist Group (alternate) (alternate) Netherlands Rev. Communist Party
Sweden Rev. Socialist Party Switzerland Swiss Marxist Action
IEC
IEC
Guests: about twenty-six militants attended the congress as guests or observers, coming from the following countries: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Spain, China, Ceylon, the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Vietnam, together with members of the political bureau of the French PCI and the team of militants responsible for material tasks — secretarial work, transport, catering, etc.
Sending apologies: the sections of Israel and Canada, together with the guests Babenko, of the Ukrainian Revolutionary-Democratic Party, and the central committee of the Partai Murba of Indonesia, [the party] of the late Tan Malaka, which had decided to be represented but whose delegate could not come owing to the wave of arrests then raging in the country.
Notes:
1. The congress was held from 16 to 25 August 1951, exactly, in a pavilion in the western suburbs of Paris.
2. Ernest Mandel made contact, in March 1950, with A. Babenko and Boris Czornyj, members of the central committee of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Democratic Party (URDP), based in Munich and publishing the newspaper Vpered (Forward). Babenko subsequently met with an SI delegation in Paris, in February 1951, and his presence at the world congress had been agreed. Babenko, pseudonym of Ivan Maistrenko (1899-1984), Ukrainian Marxist, veteran of the civil war, was a militant in the two non-Bolshevik Ukrainian communist parties (Borotbist and Ukapist) that existed until 1925. Subsequently a member of the Bolshevik Party from 1925 to 1935, he was deported to the Gulag from 1936 to 1940. After the war he lived in West Germany.
3. Leon Trotsky (1879-1940). Leon Sedov (1906-1938) joined the Communist Youth at a very young age and from 1923 took part in the activity of the Russian Opposition. Followed Trotsky into exile in Alma-Ata and Turkey. Member of the IS in Berlin, where he settled in February 1931, and subsequently in Paris. Ran the editorial work of the Bulletin of the Russian Opposition. Died on 16 February 1938, in troubling circumstances, in a Parisian clinic run by a Russian probably linked to the GPU, following what was judged a minor operation. Chen Duxiu (1879-1942), university professor, founder of the Chinese CP, general secretary of the party from 1921 to 1927, expelled in November 1929. Joined the Trotskyist Left Opposition. Sentenced to thirteen years' imprisonment in 1932 by the Kuomintang. Died 27 May 1942. Ta Thu Thau (1906-1945), founder and principal leader of Vietnamese Trotskyism, member of the IEC. Assassinated in September 1945 in the Quang Ngai region on the orders of the Stalinist leadership. Léon Lesoil (1892-1942), former member of the CC of the Belgian CP, at the origin of the Trotskyist movement in Belgium and its principal leader, member of the IEC. Arrested on 22 June 1941, died in deportation at Neuengamme on 3 May 1942. Pantelis Pouliopoulos (1900-1943), former secretary of the Greek CP, leader of the Trotskyist movement. Arrested in 1938, shot on 6 June 1943 by the Italian occupying forces. Marcel Hic (1915-1944), member of the youth IS of the Fourth International in 1937-1939, principal Trotskyist leader in France under the occupation; organiser of the clandestine European secretariat. Arrested by the Gestapo in October 1943, deported to Buchenwald and Dora. Died 28 December 1944. Abraham Wajnsztok, known as Léon (1918-1944), secretary of the Belgian section reconstituted under the occupation, member of the ES [European Secretariat]. Arrested at Charleroi on 18 June 1944, died in deportation at Auschwitz on 7 October 1944. Martin Monat-Wittlin, known as Widelin (1913-1944), former Zionist militant, member of the CC of the Belgian section during the war and of the ES, ran work directed at German soldiers in France and edited Arbeiter und Soldat. Arrested in Paris in July 1944, killed by the Gestapo. Liu Jialiang (1911-1950), joined the Trotskyist movement in 1931 while studying at Beijing University. Arrested in Shanghai in 1933, not released from prison until August 1937. Elected to the central committee in December, re-elected by the party Congress in September 1948, member of the political bureau in charge of organisation, he was a leader of the second generation of Chinese Trotskyists. He went to Hong Kong, where the political bureau had been transferred in March 1949, then joined Peng Shuzhi in Vietnam in January 1950 and worked in Saigon with the Vietnamese Trotskyists. He was the victim, on 13 May 1950, together with five Vietnamese militants including Nguyen Van Linh (known as René) and Truong Khanh Thinh, of a trap set by the Stalinist Viet Minh in the Bien Hoa region under cover of a meeting intended to establish a united front with the maquis. He died of the ill-treatment he suffered.
4. Guillermo Lora, born 1922, law student at Cochabamba, joined the POR in that town in 1943. He contributed to establishing the party in the mines, became a member of the leadership and was elected deputy to Parliament in 1947. Exiled to Chile in 1949, he was arrested on his clandestine return and held until April 1952. Nguyen Van Linh (known as René), graduate in arts, a militant in France from 1930 in the Left Opposition, editor of Quan-Ching (Masses) in 1936, organ of the Vietnamese Trotskyist group. Returned to Indochina in 1940. Member of the central committee of the International Communist League in Saigon in 1945. Escaped the hunting-down of Trotskyists by the Vietnamese CP leadership in 1945. Arrested by the Viet Minh in 1946, he managed to escape at Soc Trang. Fell into an ambush set by the Viet Minh on 13 May 1950 with Liu and four other comrades, was tortured and finished off by his Stalinist executioners. Truong Khanh Thinh, young Trotskyist militant active before the war in Hanoi and from 1945 in Saigon, member of the central committee of the League of International Communists, met the same fate.
[Regarding the Vietnamese Trotskyists who fell victim to the Viet Minh mentioned in volume 2 of Les Congrès de la IVe Internationale (p. 468), we must correct an error concerning Tran Van Si, who died in deportation at Poulo Condor in 1941. We offer our apologies to readers.]
5. Following a dispute over entrism in the Socialist Party, two members of the leadership of the Austrian section, Soucek and Gludowatz, were expelled on 5 November 1949, and a split ensued. The IEC disapproved of these expulsions and recognised both groups, which were represented at the world congress, which strove to achieve unification.
6. Elected to the IEC were: three SWP delegates, Ortiz-Sendic, Posadas-Cristalli, one other Latin American delegate, Gerry Healy, John Lawrence, Marcel Bleibtreu, Pierre Frank, Georg Jungclas, Livio Maitan, Sal Santen, Ernest Mandel, Michel Raptis, Kamalesh Banerji, Leslie Goonawardene, Hoang-Khoï, Peng Shuzhi, Eduardo Mauricio and Ross Dawson. Alternate members: Heinrich Buchbinder, Indra Sen, Colvin de Silva, Hans Babnik, Willy Boepple and Jacques Grinblat.
7. Oscar Coover, Sr (1887-1950), railway union leader in Minneapolis, joined the CP in 1920 and was expelled from it in 1928. Founding member of the Communist League of America, the first Trotskyist organisation in the United States, and of the SWP. Member of the leadership of both organisations. Imprisoned from December 1943 to January 1945 with seventeen other SWP leaders. Carl (unidentified), Liu (note 3), Chatterjee, member of the leadership of the Indian section.
8. Jules Hénin (1882-1964), miner in Charleroi, founding member of the Belgian CP and of the Left Opposition, member of the International Control Commission. Franz Modlik, known as Lerse (1902-1986), schoolteacher, member from its origin of the Left Opposition of the Austrian CP, expelled from the party in 1926. Militant in the underground from 1934 to 1945, leader of the Austrian section, member of the IEC. Pierre Frank (1905-1984), chemical engineer, one of the founders and leaders of the Left Opposition in France. Secretary to Trotsky at Prinkipo in 1932-1933. Member of the IS before the war and from 1946 to 1975. Georg Jungclas, known as Edouard (1902-1975), member of the Communist Youth and of the German CP in Hamburg. Expelled from the party in 1928, one of the founders of the Left Opposition. Emigrated to Denmark in 1933, where he directed the clandestine action of the Trotskyists during the war. Arrested by the Gestapo. Rebuilt the German organisation from 1946. Member of the IS. Peng Shuzhi (1895-1983), joined the Chinese CP in 1920, member of the CC and the PB in 1925. Founded the Left Opposition with Chen Duxiu in 1929. Leader of the PCR, Chinese section of the Fourth International, member of the IS after his exile in France, in 1951. James P. Cannon (1885-1974), founder of the CP and then of the Trotskyist movement in the United States, principal leader of the SWP.
9. Oscar Hippe, born 1900, member of the German CP and of the Left Opposition from their origins. Arrested in East Germany in 1948, was released after eight years' detention.