Issuing body: Third World Congress of the Fourth International
---
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE ON THE DELEGATE TABLE
The source is a four-column table (Country/organisation | Pseudonym | Name | Mandate: deliberative/consultative) printed across pages 94–98 of the French volume. The OCR text layer behind this table does not preserve the original row order: cells appear to have been extracted column-by-column in short runs rather than row-by-row, so that, for example, the names of several Dutch delegates and of the Italian delegation appear physically interleaved with the entry for India, and the mandate figures for one country sometimes appear after the heading for the next. Where cross-checking against Prager's own endnotes (reproduced below) and against well-documented identities of these Fourth International cadres allowed a confident correction, the entry has been placed under what is almost certainly its correct country heading. Where no such confirmation was possible, the pairing or the mandate figure is flagged as uncertain. Readers requiring the exact original layout should consult the facsimile of pp. 94–98 of the French edition. Nothing has been invented: uncertain items are marked as such rather than resolved by guesswork.
---
DELEGATES AND PARTICIPANTS AT THE CONGRESS
Country, organisation | Pseudonyms | Names | Mandates: deliberative / consultative
Albania — [section, no organisation name given]: Victor = Sadik Premtaj (mandate uncertain, apparently 1 deliberative)
Germany — Internationalist Communists of Germany (Int. Kom. Deutschl.) — Edouard = Georg Jungclas — Willy = Willy Boepple (mandate figures for this entry are entangled in the source with those of Albania; the surrounding numerals read "2" and, after the page break marked "94," "1" and "1" — most probably 1 deliberative each for Jungclas and Boepple, but the exact split could not be confirmed from the extracted text)
Argentina — Grupo Cuarta Internacional: J. Posadas = R. H. Cristalli — Partido Obrero Revolucionario: Moreno = Hugo Bressan (mandate: 2 deliberative)
Austria — Internationale Kommunisten Österreichs (minority) — Sachs = Hans Babnik (1 deliberative) — Lerse = Franz Modlick [Modlik] (1 deliberative)
Belgium — PCI (Internationalist Communist Party) — Cyprien = E. Van Ceulen — Jules = Jules Hénin — Walter = Ernest Mandel (mandate figure not recoverable with confidence from the source table)
Bolivia — Partido Obrero Revolucionario — Rosas = Hugo González Moscoso (1 deliberative; elected to the CEI — cf. note 6, "another Latin American delegate")
Brazil — Orientação Socialista — Felipe = [name not given in the source] (mandate uncertain)
Cameroon — Charles = Charles Assalé (consultative mandate, apparently 1; attendance and country attribution as printed, unconfirmed by the endnotes)
Ceylon — LSSP (Lanka Sama Samaja Party) — Leslie–Tilak = Leslie S. Simon / Goonawardene (2 deliberative; the exact one-to-one pairing of these two pseudonyms with these two names could not be confirmed) — Robert-Philippe = Don Ph. Hupasinghe (1 deliberative)
Chile — Partido Obrero Revolucionario — Guerra = [name not given] (present, mandate consultative)
China — Revolutionary Communist Party (Parti communiste révolutionnaire) — Peng = Peng Shuzhi (2 deliberative) — Chen = Chen Bilan (1 deliberative)
Cyprus — PCI (1 deliberative, for the section as a whole) — Jean (1) — Kinch (1) — Moth (1) (names corresponding to these three pseudonyms are not given in the source; each carries the figure "1" beside it in the extracted text, meaning is uncertain — possibly individual consultative mandates)
Denmark — [heading present in the source with no further entry; apparently unrepresented]
Spain — Grupo Comunista Internacionalista — Ernesto = E. Mauricio (1 deliberative)
United States — Socialist Workers Party — Livingstone = G. Clarke (5 deliberative) (two further figures, "1" and "1", appear immediately after and may belong to this entry or to the France entry that follows; not confidently attributable)
France — PCI — Marin — [alternate] — [alternate] PCI (minority) — Garrive — M. Mestre — Privas — [alternate] Names given for the French delegation as a whole (exact pairing with the above pseudonyms not recoverable from the source): M. Bleibtreu, M. Gibelin, Daniel Renard, Robert Berne, L. Abraham, Pierre Frank, J. Grinblat, Simone Minguet.
Great Britain — Revolutionary Communist Party — Burns = Gerry Healy (1 deliberative; elected to the CEI) — Collins = John Lawrence (1 deliberative; elected to the CEI) — Sinclair = Bill Hunter (1 deliberative)
Greece — PCI — Gabriel-Pablo = Michel Raptis (1 deliberative)
India — Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India — Ali-Bernard = K. [Kamalesh] Banerji (3 deliberative)
Italy — Gruppo Comunista Rivoluzionario — [alternate], [alternate] (heading and mandate figures printed with no accompanying pseudonyms/names) Names appearing elsewhere in the source and attributable to the Italian delegation on internal and biographical grounds (cf. note 6, Livio Maitan elected to the CEI): Livio Maitan, Renzo Gambino, Franco Vilani, Giorgio Modolo (mandate figures nearby read "1" and "1"; precise deliberative/consultative split not recoverable)
Netherlands — Revolutionaire Communistische Partij — Herman = H. Drenth — Théo = Théo Van Tijn — Bos = Sal Santen (elected to the CEI) (mandate figures nearby read "1" and "1")
Sweden — Revolutionary Socialist Party (Parti socialiste révolutionnaire) — Bertold = Säfström (1 deliberative)
Switzerland — Marxistische Aktion der Schweiz — Pia = J. von Steiger — Jacques = H. [Heinrich] Buchbinder (alternate member of the CEI) (1 deliberative)
Uruguay — Liga Obrera Revolucionaria — Ortiz = A. Sendic (1 deliberative; elected to the CEI)
Vietnam — GCIVF [Vietnamese Internationalist Communist Group] — Robert = Hoang-Khoï (1 deliberative; elected to the CEI) — [alternate] = Lé-Van GCIVF (minority) — Charles = Lé-San (1 deliberative)
[Two further "CEI" markers appear in the source near the end of the table, most likely tagging the Swiss and/or Dutch entries above as having a member elected to the CEI; this is consistent with note 6 but could not be pinned to a specific individual beyond what is noted above.]
Guests: some twenty-six militants attended the congress as guests or observers, coming from the following countries: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Spain, China, Ceylon, the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Vietnam, together with members of the Political Bureau of the French PCI and the team of militants responsible for practical arrangements — secretariat, transport, catering, etc.
Sent apologies: the Israeli and Canadian sections, together with the following invited guests: Babenko, of the Ukrainian Revolutionary-Democratic Party, and the central committee of the Murba Party of Indonesia, of the late Tan Malaka, which had decided to be represented but whose delegate could not come because of the wave of arrests then raging in the country.
NOTES
1. The congress was held, precisely, from 16 to 25 August 1951, in a pavilion in the western suburbs of Paris.
2. Ernest Mandel entered into contact, in March 1950, with A. Babenko and Boris Czornyj, members of the central committee of the Ukrainian Revolutionary-Democratic Party (URDP), based in Munich and publishing the newspaper Vpered (Forward). Babenko subsequently met in Paris with a delegation from the International Secretariat, in February 1951, and his presence at the world congress had been agreed. Babenko, pseudonym of Ivan Maistrenko (1899-1984), Ukrainian Marxist, a veteran of the civil war, had been a militant in the two non-Bolshevik Ukrainian communist parties (Borotbist and Ukapist) that existed until 1925. A member thereafter of the Bolshevik Party from 1925 to 1935, he was deported to the Gulag from 1936 to 1940. After the war he lived in West Germany.
3. Léon Trotsky (1879-1940). Léon Sedov (1906-1938) joined the Communist Youth very young and took part from 1923 in the activity of the Russian Opposition. Followed Trotsky into exile in Alma-Ata and Turkey. Member of the International Secretariat in Berlin, where he settled in February 1931, and afterwards in Paris. Edited the Bulletin of the Russian Opposition. Died on 16 February 1938, in murky circumstances, in a Paris clinic run by a Russian probably linked to the GPU, following an operation judged to be minor.
Chen Duxiu (1879-1942), university professor, founder of the Chinese CP, general secretary of the party from 1921 to 1927, expelled in November 1929. Joined the Trotskyist Left Opposition. Sentenced to thirteen years' imprisonment in 1932 by the Kuomintang. Died 27 May 1942.
Ta Thu Thau (1906-1945), founder and principal leader of Vietnamese Trotskyism, member of the CEI (International Executive Committee). Assassinated in September 1945 in the Quang Ngai region on the orders of the Stalinist leadership.
Léon Lesoil (1892-1942), former member of the central committee of the Belgian CP, originator of the Trotskyist movement in Belgium and its principal leader, member of the CEI. Arrested on 22 June 1941, died in deportation at Neuengamme on 3 May 1942.
Pantelis Pouliopoulos (1900-1943), former secretary of the Greek CP, leader of the Trotskyist movement. Arrested in 1938, shot on 6 June 1943 by the Italian occupying forces.
Marcel Hic (1915-1944), member of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International's youth organisation in 1937-1939, principal Trotskyist leader in France under the occupation; organiser of the clandestine European secretariat. Arrested by the Gestapo in October 1943, deported to Buchenwald and Dora. Died 28 December 1944.
Abraham Wajnsztok, known as Léon (1918-1944), secretary of the Belgian section reconstituted under the occupation, member of the European Secretariat. Arrested at Charleroi on 18 June 1944, died in deportation at Auschwitz on 7 October 1944.
Martin Monat-Wittlin, known as Widelin (1913-1944), former Zionist militant, member of the central committee of the Belgian section during the war and of the European Secretariat; in France he led activity directed at German soldiers and edited Arbeiter und Soldat. Arrested in Paris in July 1944, killed by the Gestapo.
Liu Jialiang (1911-1950), joined the Trotskyist movement in 1931 while a student at Peking University. Arrested in Shanghai in 1933, not released from prison until August 1937. Elected to the central committee in December, re-elected by the party congress in September 1948, member of the political bureau in charge of organisation, he was a leader of the second generation of Chinese Trotskyists. He went to Hong Kong, where the political bureau had been transferred in March 1949, then joined Peng Shuzhi in Vietnam in January 1950 and worked in Saigon with the Vietnamese Trotskyists. On 13 May 1950, together with five Vietnamese militants including Nguyen Van Linh (known as René) and Truong Khanh Thinh, he fell victim to a trap set by the Stalinist Viet Minh in the Bien Hoa region under cover of a meeting proposed to establish a united front with the maquis. He died of the ill-treatment inflicted on him.
4. Guillermo Lora, born 1922, a law student in Cochabamba, joined the POR in that city in 1943. He helped establish the party in the mining areas, became a member of its leadership, and was elected deputy to parliament in 1947. Exiled to Chile in 1949, he was arrested on his clandestine return and held until April 1952.
Nguyen Van Linh (known as René), a graduate in literature, was active in France from 1930 in the Left Opposition, editor of Quan-Ching (Masses) in 1936, organ of the Vietnamese Trotskyist group. Returned to Indochina in 1940. Member of the central committee of the International Communist League in Saigon in 1945. Escaped the hunt for Trotskyists mounted by the leaders of the Vietnamese CP in 1945. Arrested by the Viet Minh in 1946, he managed to escape at Soc Trang. Fell into a Viet Minh ambush on 13 May 1950 with Liu and four other comrades; was tortured and finished off by his Stalinist executioners.
Truong Khanh Thinh, a young Trotskyist militant active before the war in Hanoi and, from 1945, in Saigon, member of the central committee of the League of International Communists, met the same fate.
Regarding the Vietnamese Trotskyists who fell victim to the Viet Minh, mentioned in volume 2 of Les Congrès de la IVe Internationale (p. 468), we must correct an error concerning Tran Van Si, who died in deportation at Poulo Condor in 1941. We offer our apologies to readers.
5. Following a dispute over entrism in the Socialist Party, two members of the leadership of the Austrian section, Soucek and Gludowatz, were expelled on 5 November 1949, and a split ensued. The CEI disapproved of these expulsions and recognised both groups, which were represented at the world congress, which strove to bring about their reunification.
6. Elected to the CEI were: three delegates of the SWP, Ortiz-Sendic, Posadas-Cristalli, another Latin American delegate, Gerry Healy, John Lawrence, Marcel Bleibtreu, Pierre Frank, Georg Jungclas, Livio Maitan, Sal Santen, Ernest Mandel, Michel Raptis, Kamalesh Banerji, Leslie Goonawardene, Hoang-Khoï, Peng Shuzhi, Eduardo Mauricio, and Ross Dawson. Alternate members: Heinrich Buchbinder, Indra Sen, Colvin de Silva, Hans Babnik, Willy Boepple, and Jacques Grinblat.
7. Oscar Coover, Sr (1887-1950), trade-union leader among railway workers in Minneapolis, joined the CP in 1920 and was expelled from it in 1928. Founding member of the Communist League of America, the first Trotskyist organisation in the United States, and of the SWP. Member of the leadership of both organisations. Imprisoned from December 1943 to January 1945 together with seventeen other SWP leaders.
Carl (not identified), Liu (see note 3), Chaterjee, member of the leadership of the Indian section.
8. Jules Hénin (1882-1964), a miner in Charleroi, founding member of the Belgian CP and of the Left Opposition, member of the International Control Commission.
Franz Modlik, known as Lerse (1902-1986), a schoolteacher, a member from its origins of the Left Opposition of the Austrian CP, expelled from the party in 1926. Active underground from 1934 to 1945, leader of the Austrian section, member of the CEI.
Pierre Frank (1905-1984), chemical engineer, one of the founders and leaders of the Left Opposition in France. Secretary to Trotsky at Prinkipo in 1932-1933. Member of the International Secretariat before the war and from 1946 to 1975.
Georg Jungclas, known as Edouard (1902-1975), a member of the Communist Youth and of the German CP in Hamburg. Expelled from the party in 1928, one of the founders of the Left Opposition. Emigrated to Denmark in 1933, where he directed the clandestine activity of the Trotskyists during the war. Arrested by the Gestapo. Rebuilt the German organisation from 1946. Member of the International Secretariat.
Peng Shuzhi (1895-1983), joined the Chinese CP in 1920, member of the central committee and of the political bureau in 1925. Founded the Left Opposition with Chen Duxiu in 1929. Leader of the PCR, the Chinese section of the Fourth International, member of the International Secretariat after his exile to France in 1951.
James P. Cannon (1885-1974), founder of the CP and then of the Trotskyist movement in the United States, principal leader of the SWP.
9. Oscar Hippe, born 1900, member of the German CP and of the Left Opposition from their beginnings. Arrested in East Germany in 1948, was released after eight years' detention.