The 12th World Congress of the Fourth International took place during January. It brought together 200 delegates, fraternal delegates, observers, and invited guests. Six resolutions were on the congress’s agenda: e A resolution on the world situation, focusing on the effects and the developments of the crisis in the different sectors of the world revolution — with special attention to the struggle against austerity and militarization — and focusing on the priorities for activities and campaigns of the International and its sections. e A resolution on the lessons and the perspectives of the revolution in Central America, which pays special attention to drawing the strategic lessons of the Nicaraguan revolution and to defining the present context of the campaign of solidarity against the imperialist intervention and the campaign of solidarity with the April 1, 1985 peoples of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
The discussion dealt with, among other things, the character of the Sandinista government, its economic policy, and the present situation of the revolution in E] Salvador.
e A resolution entitled “Political Revolution and Counterrevolution in Poland,” which deals with the biggest experience of a mass uprising against the bureaucracy, the gains of Solidarity, and the tasks of the resistance under General Jaruzelski’s regime.
In addition to these three documents dealing with the principal questions of international current events, two other documents took up programmatic questions of a more general nature:
e The first, on the relevance of the theory of the permanent revolution and the notion of a workers and farmers government, reaffirms the validity and the relevance of the general programmatic framework of the formation of the Fourth International in light of the main events taking place in the class struggle.
e The second, entitled “Socialist Democracy and Dictatorship of the Proletariat,” continues and concludes a discussion that began at the previous world congress. It summarizes what the bureaucratic degeneration of the first workers states and the antibureaucratic struggles have taught us on the question of the relationship between the revolutionary government and democracy (the relationship between parties, unions, and states after the revolution, guarantee of democratic rights, pluralism, functional character of democracy from the vantage point of economic planning, etc.).
e Finally, a written and oral report on “The Present Stage of Building the Fourth International” laid out the perspectives and tasks for the years to come, and dealt with the question of relations between the International and its sections and other revolutionary currents, the question of the social transformation of the sections and their becoming rooted in the key industrial sectors and popular movements, the question of the functioning and leadership structures of the Intemational as such.
All these resolutions were the subject of reports and counterreports presented either by declared international tendencies (of which there were two) or by delegates representing the majority in their respective sections.
The documents presented by the outgoing majority of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International won a big majority, ranging from 66 percent to 80 percent of the votes depending on the subject. They will be issued in a special publication.
The congress also received written organizational reports from the outgoing leadership on its activity as a whole and on the policy of educating cadres.
A significant part of the work of the congress involved meetings and reports of commissions on the situation of certain sections. On the basis of the report from the credentials commission, five new sections of the Fourth International were recognized (Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador, Senegal, Iceland), as well as new sympathizing groups in several countries. In total, the International is today present in some 50 countries.
At the conclusion of its work, the congress elected a new International Executive Committee (IEC), with a smaller membership than the outgoing body in order to improve its functioning and the regularity of its meetings. The IEC in turn elected a Secretariat.
The International Executive Committee, comprising members from 27 different sections, and the Secretariat, comprising at this point members from 12 different sections (it is reelected by each IEC), are in charge of leading the International until the next world congress.
Having opened with a tribute to the members who died since the last world congress, the 12th World Congress closed with a declaration of solidarity with all the activists and fighters in the anti-imperialist, anticapitalist, and antibureaucratic struggle throughout the world.
In addition to the general orientation resolutions, the congress adopted a series of motions in solidarity with the British miners, the upcoming antiwar demonstations on April 20 in the United States, the liberation struggle of the Irish people, the political prisoners in Syria, and our imprisoned comrades in Japan.