INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF

THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL

ABOUT THE ICFI HISTORY OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL SOCIA

The World Socialist Web Site is published by the International

Committee of the Fourth International, the World Party of
Socialist Revolution founded by Leon Trotsky. Its aim is to unite
the international working class, on the basis of a socialist and
internationalist program, to put an end to the capitalist system
and establish socialism on a world scale.

The International Committee of the Fourth International is the

sole representative of the historical continuity of the struggle
waged by Trotsky, dating back to 1923, to defend the principles,
program and heritage of the 1917 October Revolution.

The Fourth International was founded in 1938 in response to

catastrophic defeats of the working class caused by the crimes
and betrayals of the Stalinist and social democratic parties and
organizations. In the founding document of the Fourth
International, Trotsky declared that the crisis of mankind is the
crisis of revolutionary leadership. The International Committee
was founded 15 years later, in November 1953, to defend the
Fourth International against an opportunist and revisionist
current, known as Pabloism, that sought to liquidate the Fourth
International into the parties and organizations controlled by
Stalinism, social democracy and bourgeois nationalism. The
struggle against Pabloism within the Fourth International
spanned more than three decades. It was brought to a conclusion
in 1986 with the defeat of the opportunists by the orthodox
Trotskyists of the International Committee.

Still, the resolution of the crisis of revolutionary leadership

remains the central task that must be overcome by the
International Committee of the Fourth International through the
building of sections of the world party in every region and
country.

The documents, lectures, political reports, essays, statements

and videos posted below will introduce readers to this history,
program, present-day policies and activities of the International
Committee.

SEP (US) 2023 International Summer

School

SEP 2023 Summer School Opening Report

Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for

Socialism in the Epoch of Imperialist
War and Socialist Revolution
The following report was delivered by David North,
national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US)
and chairman of the World Socialist Web Site, to the
opening session of the SEP summer school last week.

David North • 7 August 2023

SEP 2023 Summer School Lecture

The Historical and Political Foundations

of the Fourth International
This lecture on the origins of the Fourth International was
delivered by Clara Weiss and Johannes Stern at the 2023 SEP
(US) international Summer School.

Clara Weiss, Johannes Stern • 14 August 2023

SEP 2023 Summer School Lecture

The Origins of Pabloite Revisionism, the

Split Within the Fourth International and
the Founding of the International
Committee
This lecture was delivered by Joseph Kishore, the national
secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (US), to the SEP (US)
International Summer School, held between July 30 and
August 4, 2023.

Joseph Kishore • 18 August 2023

The Cuban Revolution and the SLL’s

opposition to the unprincipled Pabloite
reunification of 1963
Last June marked 60 years since the infamous congress of
reunification between the Socialist Workers Party (SWP),
alongside its supporters in Latin America and Asia, and the
Pabloite International Secretariat.

Tomas Castanheira • 25 August 2023

The continuing struggle against

Pabloism, the centrism of the OCI and the
emerging crisis within the ICFI
The following lecture was delivered by Samuel Tissot, a
member of the Parti de l’égalité socialiste (PES), the French
section of the International Committee of the Fourth
International (ICFI), and Peter Schwarz, a leading member of
the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP), the German section
of the ICFI. It was delivered to the Socialist Equality Party (US)
International Summer School, held between July 30 and
August 4, 2023.

Samuel Tissot, Peter Schwarz • 5 September 2023

The ICFI’s exposure of Ernest Mandel’s

“neo-capitalism” and the analysis of the
global economic crisis: 1967–1971
This lecture was delivered by Max Boddy, assistant national
secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), to the SEP
(US) International Summer School, held between July 30 and
August 4, 2023.

Max Boddy • 8 September 2023

Wohlforth’s renegacy, the renewal of the

struggle against Pabloism in the Workers
League, and the turn to the working class
The break with Wohlforth is among the most significant events
in the history of the ICFI, involving fundamental issues of
historical perspective, political principle, organizational
security and the defense of dialectical materialism.

Evan Blake, Tom Mackaman • 13 September 2023

The role of Security and the Fourth

International in the fight for the
continuity of the International
Committee of the Fourth International
The following lecture was delivered by Eric London, a leading
member of the Socialist Equality Party (US), to the SEP (US)
International Summer School, held between July 30 and
August 4, 2023.

Eric London • 21 September 2023

International Committee: History, Program

and Tasks

The Political Origins and

Consequences of the 1982–86 Split in
the International Committee of the
Fourth International
This lecture was delivered by David North, chairman of the
International Editorial Board of the WSWS, at the opening
of the Socialist Equality Party (US) Summer School on July
21, 2019.

David North • 3 August 2019

The fight for Trotskyism and

the political foundations of
the World Socialist Web Site

The World Socialist Web Site is

publishing 1) The report delivered
by David North 25 years ago, on February 1, 1997, motivating
the proposal to end publication of the SEP’s printed
newspaper and replace it with an international website; and 2)
North’s reply to the National Committee ‘s discussion of the
proposal.

David North • 31 January 2022

Preface to the Turkish-

language edition of Leon
Trotsky and the Development
of Marxism

This is a preface by David North to

a new Turkish translation of North’s essay, Leon Trotsky and
the Development of Marxism, written in 1982 to commemorate
the fi!h anniversary of the political assassination of Tom
Henehan.

David North • 6 October 2021

Part One
Cliff Slaughter: A Political
Biography (1928–1963)

Cliff Slaughter died on May 3,

2021, in Leeds, England, at the age of 92. His enduring
contribution in the 1960s to the defense of Trotskyism stands
in tragic contrast with his subsequent political opportunism
and repudiation of revolutionary Marxism.

David North • 4 August 2021

Sylvia Ageloff and the assassination of Leon Trotsky

David North, Eric London • 14 February 2021

Tom Henehan: A revolutionary life

David North • 16 October 2020

Trotsky’s Last Year

David North • 19 August 2020

One Hundred and Fi"y Years Since the Birth of Lenin

David North • 22 April 2020

The Socialist Equality Parties

The ICFI is composed of Socialist Equality Party national sections

around the world. Use these links to find out more about the
SEPs, including their history, political leaderships, statements of
principles, ongoing campaigns, program and resolutions.

PERSPECTIVES AND POLICY

How to end the pandemic

The decade of socialist revolution begins

Preface to the thirtieth anniversary edition of The

Heritage We Defend

The bicentenary of Marx’s birth, socialism and the

resurgence of the international class struggle

Why Study the Russian Revolution?

Socialism and the centenary of the Russian

Revolution: 1917-2017

Socialism and the Fight Against War

The Political Lessons of Syriza’s Betrayal in Greece

Report to the Second National Congress of the

Socialist Equality Party

The Egyptian Revolution

Perspective and tasks of the Socialist Equality

Party in 2009

The capitalist crisis and the return of history

Into the maelstrom: The crisis of American

imperialism and the war against Iraq

A!er the Slaughter: Political Lessons of the

Balkan War

No to Imperialist War and Colonialism

Essential Reading

How the Workers Revolutionary Party

Betrayed Trotskyism
In 1985, a!er a protracted process of political degeneration, the
Workers Revolutionary Party, the British section of the ICFI, broke
decisively from Trotskyism. This work demonstrates that the
crisis in the WRP was bound up with its retreat from the
principles that the British Trotskyists had previously defended.

READ

The ICFI Defends Trotskyism

This volume—first published in Autumn 1986 as Volume 13, No. 2
of the ICFI’s quarterly journal, Fourth International—is composed
of original documents from the struggle by the ICFI from 1982 to
defend Trotskyist principles and oppose the betrayal of
Trotskyism by the WRP.

READ

DAVID NORTH
The Heritage We Defend: A Contribution to
the History of the Fourth International
The Heritage was published in book form in 1988. Its origins lie in
the political struggle waged by the ICFI and the Workers League,
the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party (US), from 1982-
1986, to defend Trotskyism against the nationalist opportunism
of the ICFI’s former British section. It establishes the continuity of
orthodox Trotskyism in the 20th Century.

READ

International Lectures

The Second Congress of the Communist International (Trotsky is third

from the le!, next to Paul Levi and Zinoviev)

SEP SUMMER SCHOOL 1998

Marxism and the Fundamental Problems of
the 20th Century
In January 1998, the ICFI held its first-ever International Summer
School. Their central premise is that an answer to the burning
issues of the day—growing social inequality, deepening economic
crisis, the decline in the cultural level of society and the
prevailing political paralysis in the workers’ movement—is bound
up with examining and assimilating the lessons of the 20th
century.

ALL LECTURES

Lenin addressing a crowd during the Russian Revolution of 1917

SEP SUMMER SCHOOL 2005

Marxism, the October Revolution and the
Historical Foundations of the Fourth
International
These speeches addressed critical problems of the 20th century.
Lecturers addressed the foundations of Marxism, the science of
perspective and the defense of objective truth; the origins of
WWI; the rise of fascism in Germany; the origins of Stalinism in
the Soviet Union, Leon Trotsky’s Theory of Permanent
Revolution, and problems of art and culture in the Soviet Union.

ALL LECTURES

US soldiers during the battle of Ramadi

2006
Meeting of the International Editorial
Board of the World Socialist Web Site
The reports at this meeting constituted a worked-out Marxist
analysis of the state of world affairs at the beginning of 2006 and
a perspective to guide the struggles of the working class in the
period ahead.

ALL LECTURES

SEP SUMMER SCHOOL 2007

The Le" Opposition and the Founding of
the Fourth International
These lectures address critical political and historical issues
related to the struggle by the Trotskyist Le! Opposition, founded
by Trotsky in 1923, against the nationalist policies of the Stalinist
bureaucracy and its usurpation of political power inside the
Soviet Union and the Communist International.

ALL LECTURES

2017 ONLINE LECTURES

1917-2017: The Centenary of the Russian
Revolution
In 1917, the Russian working class, acting under the leadership of
the Bolshevik Party led by Lenin and Trotsky, overthrew the
bourgeois provisional government and established the first
workers’ state in world history. The ICFI commemorated the
centenary in 2017 with an online lecture series.

ALL LECTURES

SEP SUMMER SCHOOL 2019

Origins and Consequences of the 1982-
1986 Split in the ICFI
These lectures address the history of the ICFI from 1982-1995:
from the initial formulation of a detailed critique of the Workers
Revolutionary Party’s revisions of the theory and program of
Trotskyism, to the decision to transform the leagues of the ICFI
into parties.

ALL LECTURES

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