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Towards a History of the Fourth International, Part II
From Towards a History of the Fourth International, Part 2: Towards a History of the Fourth International, Part II (Education for Socialists, Socialist Workers Party, New York, November 1973). Reproduced with the permission of Pathfinder Press. Scan: Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line.
Introductory note
The articles in this collection deal with aspects of the history of the Fourth International from its founding to the Second World Congress held in 1948. Jean van Heijenoort's "How the Fourth International Was Conceived" appeared in the August 1944 issue of Fourth International, predecessor to the International Socialist Review. Van Heijenoort left France in 1932 to become Trotsky's secretary in Prinkipo, Turkey. He continued to assist Trotsky in this capacity until shortly before Trotsky's assassination. Van Heijenoort withdrew from politics in the 1940s and is now a professor of mathematics and philosophy. His article was written in French and translated for publication in Fourth International.
"Trotsky's Struggle for the Fourth International" by John G. Wright first appeared in the August 1946 issue of Fourth International. John G. Wright was the pen name of Joseph Vanzler (1902-1956) who, for almost a quarter of a century, was one of the leaders of American Trotskyism. He was the translator of many of Trotsky's works, notably The First Five Years of the Communist International, The Stalin School of Falsification, and The Third International After Lenin.
The essays by van Heijenoort and Wright are also available in Leon Trotsky: The Man and His Work (Merit Publishers, 1969, New York -- now distributed by Pathfinder Press, New York).
Michel Pablo's "The Fourth International (A History of Its Ideas and Its Struggles)" first appeared in four issues of 4th International (Spring 1958, Summer 1958, Autumn 1958, and Autumn 1959), the publication of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International, one of the two public factions the Trotskyist movement was divided into at that time. Pablo joined the Greek Trotskyist movement in the late 1920s. Shortly after the second world war, he emerged as the central leader of European Trotskyism. He soon began to develop positions on the question of Stalinism that were sharply at variance with traditional Trotskyist views. His attempts to impose these views, by organizational means, on Trotskyist parties led to a de facto split in 1953 that lasted for ten years. Shortly after the reunification of the Fourth International in 1963, Pablo left to form the Revolutionary Marxist Tendency. This grouping has since given up all pretense of adhering to Trotskyism or attempting to build the Fourth International.
Contents
- How the Fourth International Was ConceivedJean van Heijenoort · pp. 3-5
- Trotsky's Struggle for the Fourth InternationalJohn G. Wright [Joseph Vanzler] · pp. 6-9
- The Fourth International (A History of Its Ideas and Its Struggles)Michel Pablo · pp. 10-39