Issuing body: Latin America Commission — report presented to the Emergency Conference of the Fourth International
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The Movement of the Fourth International in Latin America
Report presented to the Emergency Conference of the Fourth International by the Latin America Commission.
We are obliged to limit our report to general observations on the various sections and organizations in Latin America, for the following reasons:
1. The information at our disposal is general and limited; we do not have detailed information on the strength of the various groups' and sections' organizations.
2. The movement is in the process of political and organizational crystallization. This situation reflects that of the workers' movement in Latin America, characterized on the whole by a process of political and organizational evolution. For this reason, we consider it preferable to refrain, at least for the time being, from a political appraisal of the groups and sections, since it would be premature to offer a firmly settled opinion on so important a question.
3. Given the nature of the representation of our movement in Latin America at this conference, we do not have the means to discuss the political and organizational problems of these countries.
4. In several countries, which we shall name, two or more groups claim allegiance to the Fourth International, with political differences that have not yet become clearly apparent. The Latin America Commission (CAL) has set itself the perspective of unifying these groups into a single organization. For this reason, given the situation, any categorical judgment on the political character of the groups in these countries could prove harmful to the interests of the Fourth International.
Brazil
The movement for the Fourth International in Brazil is one of the oldest on the continent; it was organized around 1930-1931. Since its formation it has gone through a number of crises. Politically it has been among the most active, but for want of a firm and stable political leadership its political life has been troubled and has often resulted in organizational crisis. The "French turn" (of 1934) brought about its complete disintegration, and it took a long time to reorganize. At present, according to the information at our disposal, the Brazilian section supports the position of those who left the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). It has constituted itself under the name Partido Socialista Revolucionário (PSR). On the basis of a report from comrade Smith, its membership is estimated at around 50 militants. We have no direct relations with it, because Lebrun, their representative, who left the Fourth International, has obstinately refused to give us their address.
Argentina
In Argentina, the movement for the Fourth International was born around 1930. Today we have approximately three groups, all belonging to the Fourth International: the Grupo Obrero Revolucionario, the Liga Socialista Revolucionaria (both in Buenos Aires) and the Liga Marxista (in Córdoba).
The Grupo Obrero Revolucionario (GOR) was formed a short time ago by comrades Fossa and Quebracho. It publishes a newspaper called Nueva Internacional. Comrade Quebracho has published several pamphlets: Qué Quiere la Cuarta Internacional; La Revolución Mundial y la Traición Stalinista; Centrismo, Oportunismo, y Bolchevismo; Nuestras Perspectivas Políticas, etc. This group has recently gone through a crisis, but we do not yet know the nature of this crisis.
The Liga Socialista Revolucionaria was formed very recently; it emerged from the fusion of the Nueva Etapa and Inicial groups. The political basis of this fusion is unknown to us. Both of these groups had existed for eight or nine years. Around 1933, they had joined their forces in a single organization, but this unification did not last long. Their newspaper is called Inicial.
The Liga Marxista of Córdoba is made up of about ten comrades. We have had no news of them for a long time. They have no official organ.
The Latin America Commission (CAL) has tried to unite all these groups into a single organization, but so far its attempts have failed. At the outset, the differences between them were fairly minor and above all of a personal nature. But now it appears that the differences are taking on a political character. In issue no. 7 of Inicial, a substantive article appeared on the nature of the revolution in Argentina, which attempted to demonstrate that it will necessarily be of an exclusively socialist character. Recently the GOR sent a letter to the CAL asking to be recognized as the Argentine section of the Fourth International. The Commission decided not to settle this question before a fuller study of the political evolution of the various groups. The Inicial group made the expulsion of comrade Quebracho a condition for unification with the GOR. The CAL sent them a text expressing its disapproval of this ultimatum. The article on the program that appeared in Inicial somewhat alters the situation, in our view. We are faced with a situation in which the differences are taking on a political character, and consequently it will be much easier for us to decide which of the groups expresses the ideas of the Fourth International.
Chile
In this country we had two groups belonging to the Fourth International: the Partido Obrero Revolucionario (POR) and the Grupo Internacionalista Obrero (GIO). A new movement has appeared: the Partido Socialista Revolucionario (PSR), which recently split from the Socialist Party and has taken a position for the Fourth International.
The POR is composed mainly of comrades who belonged to the former Izquierda Comunista. They periodically publish Alianza Obrera. Recently they successfully held meetings in Santiago on the question of the war. Their position on the nature of the USSR is not yet known to us. Their public organ of the press gives no reason to suppose that they have adopted a position contrary to the official position of the Fourth International. We have had no news of them for some months.
The GIO also emerged from the former Izquierda Comunista. It has no regular official public organ, but it has published several bulletins and other material. It appears to have obtained good results in its work within the Socialist Party and its youth wing. According to the report of comrade Fermín Olea, a member of the PSR, the GIO is part of a committee working to unify all the forces claiming allegiance to the Fourth International into a single organization.
With the PSR we have not yet established official relations. The CAL, after hearing the report of comrade Fermín Olea, decided to send him a letter to establish official contacts, and also decided to invite him to send a fraternal delegation to the conference.
In Chile as in Argentina, the CAL has set itself the objective of unifying the groups into a single organization. It should be noted that in Chile, from the outset, the disagreements had a political basis. The GIO displayed an opportunist tendency on certain political questions, while the POR displayed a completely opposite tendency: a lack of flexibility in approaching practical problems. It is still difficult to determine whether these political traits have a theoretical basis or whether they are fortuitous and belong to a process of political and organizational construction. The GIO is for unification, but the POR is against it. It justifies its position by a refusal to associate with centrists. Recently, the POR wrote to the Commission to ask to be recognized as the official section of the Fourth International in Chile and to break off relations with the GIO. We have rejected this proposal, arguing that it would be incorrect to exclude a group of revolutionaries from the ranks of the Fourth International on the basis of vague and ill-defined political attitudes. We have advised them to abandon this hostility toward the GIO in favor of fraternal relations. We do not yet know the reaction to this at the present hour.
Uruguay
Our movement in Uruguay is extremely weak. There are today two groups, both claiming allegiance to the Fourth International. Until recently these two groups were united in a single organization. According to the information we have received, the split had no political basis. These groups are called the Liga Bolchevique-Leninista (LBL) and the Grupo Obrero Revolucionario (GOR). The GOR publishes a review that does not appear regularly: Contra la Corriente. Its first issue contained a very confused editorial on the Russo-Finnish question. In general this review is politically mediocre. The LBL has no official organ, but it has published several statements on the problem of the war. According to the information we have received, the comrades making up the GOR are responsible for the split. We have this information from the secretary of the LBL. We do not yet have the GOR's version. The CAL has written to the GOR to ask for clarification.
Bolivia
The movement for the Fourth International in Bolivia was born around 1934, under the name Partido Obrero Revolucionario (POR). From the outset it was a politically confused organization, so much so that it has gone through a series of crises. One of its leaders, Tristán Marof, the very type of the petty-bourgeois radical who makes use of socialist phraseology, has betrayed and deserted the movement, although he continues to claim allegiance to the Fourth International. He is tirelessly attempting to form a new socialist party. He collaborated with the semi-fascist dictatorship of Busch, thereby discrediting our movement in Bolivia. In order to properly grasp the real significance of the crisis that our Bolivian section has gone through, it must be borne in mind that Tristán Marof is a figure with a revolutionary past and who is for that reason popular in certain sectors of the anti-imperialist forces. The revolutionary militants who have remained faithful to revolutionary socialism are trying to reorganize their forces under the banner of the POR and of the Fourth International. Recently they officially requested affiliation from us. On the basis of the documents drafted in the form of theses that we have received, we consider that their line may be defined as revolutionary, though weak in many respects. Of course, we must bear in mind that our current, not only in Bolivia but also in most of the other Latin American countries, is still in the process of being formed. Our Bolivian section does not yet have an official organ.
Cuba
The Partido Bolchevique-Leninista of Cuba is one of the oldest sections on the Latin American continent. It was formed around 1932. Its initial nucleus came to our movement following a split with the Cuban Communist Party. Many leaders of the first period have deserted our current and joined the ranks of the petty bourgeoisie. At the outset they had a certain influence and even a leading role in certain unions, but in recent years, owing to the situation in the country and the departure of some of their leaders, their ties with the proletarian movements have loosened, which has led to certain internal difficulties. According to the latest information, our Cuban section has taken exceptional measures to resolve these difficulties. A provisional Executive Committee has been set up, composed of former members of the National Executive Committee and the most active militants of Havana. This committee's task is to organize the preparation of a national conference. The Latin America Commission has assisted our Cuban section by advising the comrades of Santiago de Cuba, who had written to it asking for its intervention, not to take any measure that might endanger the unity of the party. According to the latest news, they are working to penetrate the trade union movement and break out of their isolation. Since their formation, they have published several newspapers and pamphlets. Owing to their very difficult financial situation, they are today unable to publish a regular organ. They have issued a long manifesto on the question of the war and several others dealing with the problems of the revolutionary movement.
Mexico
Our Mexican section is also one of the oldest on the American continent; it was formed around 1930. For want of leading political cadres, it has gone through several crises. Recently it went through an internal crisis that resulted in the departure of the Galicia and Carvajal groups, who left our section, followed by the painter Diego Rivera, who abandoned the revolutionary movement to enter bourgeois politics. Our Mexican section, with the cooperation of the CAL, has reorganized its forces under the name Partido Obrero Internacionalista (POI), which numbers around thirty comrades in Mexico City and has contacts in certain provincial towns. The POI publishes a theoretical review, Clave, and, irregularly, an agitational organ, Lucha Obrera. Its ties with the trade union movement are weak. It is one of the most active sections among the Latin American countries.
Puerto Rico
Our Puerto Rican section was formed around 1933 under the name Partido Comunista Independiente (PCI). Its principal leader, Vergne Ortiz, was the organizer of the local Communist Party. It is a numerically weak group, on account of extreme financial difficulties and the situation and state of the workers' movement. It irregularly publishes Chispa and pamphlets. Given the financial difficulties hampering the work of our comrades in Puerto Rico, and the fact that it is a colonial possession of American imperialism, we consider that our United States section should devote more attention than it has so far to the needs and problems of these comrades.
Small groups and contacts in other countries
In Cali, Colombia, we have had for several years a small group of comrades with no leading elements among them. This group is politically very weak. In Panama we also had a small group, but it has disappeared as an organized force, and today we are in contact with only a single comrade. In Peru, according to a report that appeared in an Argentine review, Claridad, there is a group that supports the Fourth International, but we have not so far been able to enter into relations with it. There are also comrades of the Fourth International in certain Central American countries.
The various centers that were created directly under different names and forms by the Fourth International and by our North American section were of such a nature that they could not meet the demands and needs required. On the whole, all have proved incapable of functioning as bodies of management and coordination, and it is only exceptionally that they have played the role of political centers.
Up to now we have not been able to normalize or stabilize the CAL, above all because we lacked the necessary forces to be able to devote ourselves to this particular work. Since the World Congress of the Fourth International, the existence and work of the commission have gone through a great many difficulties which have inevitably affected the work of the Fourth International in the Latin American countries. Before that congress, after a reorganization of the CAL's forces, we had succeeded in establishing relations with all the forces of the International in Latin America and had taken measures to coordinate its activities; but following the congress's decision to bring Lebrun to the United States and place him in charge of the work in the Latin American countries, the work already accomplished was thrown into disarray and disorganized. In the course of the six or seven months during which he was secretary of the CAL, he showed lamentable inefficiency. His administrative failure went so far as to bring virtually all relations with the sections and groups of Latin America to a halt and to paralyze the life of the CAL. Letters went unanswered; the commission's meetings were called not according to the problems that arose but according to his own whim. Since he was relieved of his functions, we have been able to renew relations and to normalize, to a certain degree, the life and work of the CAL. On this subject it should be said that the controversy over the question of the USSR has had repercussions on the commission. Of the five members composing it, two, Lebrun and Montañez, have deserted the ranks of the Fourth International. It should also be noted that, as regards our work of coordinating the relations and activities of the Fourth International in the Latin American countries, the CAL has not received the necessary assistance from our groups and sections on the continent, above all for the reasons mentioned: the fact that our movement is in the process of constituting itself and that the CAL itself is weak, unable so far to play the role of a genuine leading center. This situation is perfectly reflected in the Boletín de Información, the official organ of the CAL. The bulletin has not been able to appear regularly, and has not been in a position to take on the exposition of the political and organizational problems facing the revolutionary movement in Latin America. In the space of more than a year, only seven issues have appeared.
In summary, we propose the following measures:
1. A reorganized provisional CAL should be created, with the task of preparing the political and organizational conditions for a Latin American conference, with the aim of drafting the Fourth International's programmatic documents on the nature of the specific problems of the revolutionary movement in Latin America, and of creating the leading bodies that are required.
2. Since we lack the indispensable forces to carry through the tasks of the provisional CAL, we consider it necessary to make an effort to bring a comrade from Latin America in order to strengthen this center and thereby promote a continental leadership.
3. In this task, we consider that our North American section, which is the strongest politically and organizationally, should in future devote more attention to the work and problems of the Fourth International in the Latin American countries.
4. The life of the Boletín de Información should be regularized. Today more than ever, given the crisis of the war and the general evolution of our forces on the continent, such an organ is absolutely indispensable.
Colay, Gonzales, May 1940.
P.S. After drafting this report, we received news from Chile: the Grupo Internacionalista Obrero, the Partido Socialista Revolucionario and the Izquierda Revolucionaria Socialista — the latter two organizations having recently separated from the Socialist Party — have joined their forces into a single organization under the name Partido Obrero Internacionalista, and are requesting their admission to the Fourth International. They also inform us that the Partido Obrero Revolucionario is conducting negotiations to join this party.