Dear Jim,
Nobody here is enthusiastic over the possibilities of fusion with the Pabloites. We are constantly being attacked by their British adherents who now openly boast that in the event of fusion that Pablo and his "International" will "protect" them in the fused organisation. In other words we are to run the danger of a repetition of the Lawrence episode right from the start. There is no doubt in my mind that the sole reason why Pablo maintains this wretched little outfit of all sorts of quitters from our movement in the past is because he wishes to utilise them against us.
We will under no circumstances have any sort of fusion under conditions which will allow anything of this sort to happen. Our group is growing rapidly and has just completed a first rate job inside the CP. If we are forced to keep constantly looking over our shoulders to see what Pablo is doing next and at the same time return to Pablo's globe trotting politics, this work will suffer.
Our group is ready to seek out ways and means to draw all the orthodox Trotskyists under one roof so to speak. In this respect we agree with your proposals but would like to stress that these are a definite minimum.
What worries the comrades here is the deep-going methodological differences which exist between ourselves and Pablo. All our experiences emphasise that it is impossible to bridge such a gulf unless Pablo himself is prepared to learn. Personally I cannot see this happening, but it is worth doing everything possible to get one world organisation if we can.
The IC has not yet met and the next meeting is on May 11th. It is very important that we get the maximum agreement on this body and that all negotiations are done through them. The Pabloites are constantly spreading the false rumor that the Americans are negotiating directly with them and think nothing about the IC. The French will use this unless everything is done through the IC.
I agree with your observations regarding the French.
Please keep in regular touch with us so that we are together on all the issues.
Warmest regards,
Jerry