(Subject to ratification by the International Secretariat and the International Executive Committee, and acceptance by the New Zealand [SWP] National Committee and the International Committee.)
1. The IEC of the Fourth International continues to defend the concept of the International as a democratically centralized world party composed of national sections, and rejects any proposal to convert it into a federation of autonomous national parties loosely associated.
2. In view, however, of the present grave split, which spreads confusion and weakens the effectiveness of world Trotskyism, in view of the contention of many cadre elements of the sections which left the FI in 1953 that the degree of centralism then and now applied is excessive in the light of its present strength in numbers, cadres, and the authority of its international leadership, the IEC proposes two series of measures to aid reunification, to increase the representativeness of the international leadership, and to reassure the distrust expressed by the parties that left in 1953 that they would be, in any reunification, discriminated against and subjected to excessive centralism:
a. The full effective participation of those parties in the International's organisms; and, as a minimum, the permanent presence of a leading member of the New Zealand party at the seat of the IEC and the IS, and his active sharing in the day-by-day work.
b. Two exceptional measures until the Sixth World Congress:
(1) an exceptionally large representation, in the sense of voting rights, considerably greater than that normally accorded on the basis of numbers, of the parties that left the international in 1953, at the Fifth World Congress, and a strong recommendation to that Congress that it give similar exceptionally large representation in the IEC that it elects.
(2) a temporary revision of the powers of the IEC in favor of the World Congress, and of the IS in favor of the IEC, in the sense of a much lesser delegation of powers than has been the practice since the Second World Congress, details to be worked out at the Fifth World Congress (as a suggestion as a basis for the present discussion, a provision that the opposition of one-third of its members to an action by the IEC requires postponement of that action until it can be decided on by the next World Congress, and that the opposition of two of its members to an action by the IS requires postponement of that action until it can be decided by the next IEC).
3. Upon acceptance of these proposals, the present measure of suspension of the former sections in New Zealand [the U.S.], Canada, and Switzerland, where the situation is not complicated by the existence of a rival group, shall be lifted, and they shall immediately resume full standing in the FI, with all corresponding rights.
[p. 22]
4. In the case of England, where two groups exist but do not have differences so fundamental as to preclude unification, a unification is to be arranged, and the unified group, recognized as the British section, is to resume full standing in the FI, with all corresponding rights.
5. In the case of France, where there are sharp differences between the two groups: a serious attempt at unification is to be made, with however special guarantees that the Lambert group does not destroy the long, patient, and fruitful fraction work of the section, and if unification is achieved, the unified group (etc., as above), if, despite all efforts, unification cannot be achieved, the French problem is to be put on the agenda of the Fifth World Congress and there decided by the usual democratic process of discussion and decision.
6. The already well-advanced preparations for the Fifth World Congress are to be continued, once the step described in Point 3 has been taken, by a parity commission set up by those sections and the IEC, the English and French sections to be associated in it as soon as the steps mentioned in Point 4 and 5 have been taken.