Issuing body: Central Committee of the Committees of the Fourth International (French section)
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THE SITUATION IN FRANCE
1. The state of mind of the masses in France is characterized by a general defeatism in all layers of the population, above all in the working class. Rationing, growing poverty, the dictatorship, the repressive measures: all this has contributed to an evolution toward the development of an opposition that is still inarticulate, primitive but violent, against Daladier and his regime.
Already at the beginning of the war we reported several movements in the factories, several mutinies at the front. Since then this state of affairs has taken on considerable proportions. Only the blind can fail to see the explosions that are being prepared. To be sure, this is not a matter of a movement developing gradually, each strike building on the preceding ones, as was the case in June 1936. We can expect movements that will erupt violently, in the midst of chaos, uprisings leading to partial defeats and gruelling experiences. Our task, as the February conference stressed, is to prepare cadres to intervene in the movements at the front and in the factories.
2. Within the working class, the reformists have found themselves very isolated from the masses. They have succeeded only in reorganizing the shadows of trade unions. In the Socialist Party, completely shaken and in full decomposition, oppositions are beginning to develop. On the other hand, the Stalinists, after suffering a severe blow with the German-Soviet pact and the Finnish war, have regained considerable influence, especially in the enterprises, because they appear as the symbol of opposition. There is no doubt that there is much antipathy toward them among the soldiers at the front ("It's the German-Soviet pact that caused the war"). It is equally certain that the Stalinist organization has been profoundly disorganized, especially in the provinces, but it today has popular sympathy behind it.
THE COMMITTEES OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL
3. Events have practically purged the vanguard of all the anarchist and centrist regroupments. Among the latter, the Workers' and Peasants' Socialist Party (PSOP) has simply disintegrated under the pressure of its own contradictions, its lack of technical preparation, and its pacifist and democratic illusions, which it shared with the liberal bourgeoisie.
We tried in vain to save this party. The Freemason leaders opposed any illegal intervention, at the very moment when the "centre-left" tendency was being arrested at the first opportunity. Today practically nothing remains of the PSOP, which has been reconstituted under Freemason leadership. But unfortunately the war caught the members of the Fourth International off guard, at a time when they were engaged in a profound crisis (the Bolshevik-Leninists were divided into several groups). Their former "leaders" were profoundly demoralized. There was no shortage of difficulties: the need to improvise, the lack of material means, the growing poverty in the country, the lack of cadres due to mobilization, imprisonments, defections, political terror, etc.
Beyond the lack of cadres, we suffered from the heterogeneous character of our regroupment: comrades came from the Workers' and Peasants' Socialist Youth (JSOP), from the former Internationalist Workers' Party (POI), from the left and centre of the PSOP, from the "old generation of Bolshevik-Leninists", and some, recently, from the Communist Party (PCF).
Nevertheless, we have succeeded in reconstituting an organization almost equal in numbers to the former POI — not counting our contacts at the front — a young but active organization, increasingly homogeneous, whose seriousness has been demonstrated in the little activity that government repression allows us today.
Our publications appear regularly. Le Peuple acknowledges the growing influence of the Trotskyists. Syndicats polemicizes against the Bulletin de la IVe Internationale (illegal). Together with its lackeys, the bourgeoisie attacks us in its press, on the radio, and in the Chamber (Frossard's speech). At the same time, the Prefecture of Police announces a "general investigation into Trotskyist circles."
As for the small dissident groups, we have tried to achieve unity — chiefly for reasons of morale. Unfortunately the former POI[83] (the more numerous of the two) is pursuing an adventurist course. As for the "leaders"[84] of the former POI, they attempt to justify their total inactivity by the discovery of "divergences" with us over perspectives, in other words by fully theorizing scepticism, pessimism, and abstentionism. As far as they are concerned, our February conference was compelled to spell out our orientation and our means of action in a document published in issue No. 6 of the Bulletin de la IVe Internationale, together with a text presented by the former POI. In that document we call for criticism of the International. Finally, we wish to note that within both dissident groups (especially the former POI) a current favourable to our organization is developing. Their most active militants distribute our material, often work with us, and press for unity with the Committees of the Fourth International.
THE CRISIS IN THE SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY (SWP)
It seems that the American crisis dominates the life of the International itself. The American comrades seem to consider the problems of the International, and even of the war, from the standpoint of the crisis in the SWP. For our part, however, the crisis in the SWP must be resolved in relation to the general situation; that is the task of the Fourth International.
But the comrades must understand that the problems being discussed in the United States are also being discussed in other countries: the prospects of international capitalism and the possibility of an evolution toward bureaucratic capitalism in particular, the nature of the workers' state in the light of present events, and the strategy that follows from it. These problems are posed not by American psychology but by events. They cannot be resolved either by the creation of re-education camps for the minority or by a split with the majority. A split in America, especially over such problems, would mean a catastrophe for the Fourth International, its discredit, and without doubt its disintegration. We are neither a philosophical sect nor a faction, but the embryo of the international of the revolution.
The crisis must be settled in a positive way, by eliminating personal problems and references to Sapronov, by deepening the discussion opened by Trotsky in the USSR in War[85], giving it an international dimension in the face of the working-class vanguard. The facts will decide.
That is why, independently of the position taken by the majority of our Central Committee on the Finnish question (see the Bulletin, No. 6) and of the position taken by both sides on the Russian question, we urgently demand that, on both sides, the unity of the party (in other words, the unity of the International) be preserved.
We believe that unity can be achieved on the following bases: — Continuation of the theoretical debate publicly; — Democratic rights for the minority (in the leading bodies, freedom of expression, etc.); — Respect in action for majority discipline and democratic centralism.
Should agreement prove impossible, we demand that no measure of split be taken before the convening of a world conference within six months.
FOR A WORLD CONFERENCE
Even independently of the crisis in the Socialist Workers Party, a world conference would be very important in the present situation, in order to conclude the debate on world perspectives, to bring it to a close, to test it against practice, and — given that the situation will certainly have evolved considerably — to arm the International for the struggle to come.
The congress could play a great role in the regroupment of revolutionaries. You are better placed than we are to say to what extent such a congress could be organized jointly or with the participation of other organizations, such as the groups of the left wing of the POI[86] (in contact with Oslo). Insofar as the situation appears favourable, maximum latitude can be left to the organizing committee to broaden part of the congress and to arrange a meeting with representatives of communist, trade-union, and colonial organizations, etc., ready to fight alongside us against imperialism.
In any case, the international impact will doubtless be considerable. We are well aware of the immense difficulties to be overcome. To that end, we propose that the necessary measures be taken for political and material preparation (six months, nine months, a year if necessary).
CONCLUSIONS
Beyond the problem of the SWP, we therefore make the following proposals:
1. Effective support from the United States to the European comrades. We are not asking that material aid be drawn from the "war chest of $6,000"; we are asking that the American SWP press follow our struggle and support it.
2. The International Secretariat must break with routine, actively and seriously organize contacts, follow and guide our political combat, by charging a comrade of the IS with relations with France.
3. In Europe: for the establishment of a European committee with your help and support.
4. World congress: to be decided upon and prepared.[87]
Mid-March 1940
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[83] This undoubtedly refers to the former PCI (Molinier-Frank), a group very active at the start of the war.
[84] That is, the former majority of the POI (Hic-Rousset), opposed to entrism into the PSOP, which was disavowed by the bodies of the Fourth International and then dissolved by the IS in June 1939.
[85] "The USSR in War," article by Trotsky of 25 September 1939, in In Defence of Marxism (EDI).
[86] Presumably of the PSOP rather than the POI.
[87] The author of the report is almost certainly Yvan Craipeau (Gilbert).