DATE: 2–21 April 1948 (ten sessions; first session Friday 2 April 1948) ISSUING BODY: Second World Congress of the Fourth International, Paris
[Translator's note: The delegate table ("Delegates and participants at the congress") that forms part of this document was severely disordered by the OCR/text extraction from the printed page — the original table had parallel columns (country/organization, pseudonym, real name, mandate: deliberative/consultative/observer) that the extraction process appears to have read column-by-column rather than row-by-row, so that entries belonging to one country were in places displaced into the block of an adjacent country. Rather than silently imposing a possibly false row-by-row alignment, the table below reproduces the material in the order in which it was extracted, translating headers and clearly identifiable organization names, while keeping personal names and pseudonyms exactly as printed. Where a pairing of pseudonym to real name is historically certain (e.g. from other Fourth International sources) this is noted in square brackets; all other groupings should be treated as uncertain. No wording has been invented.]
SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE SESSIONS
• First session — Friday 2 April 1948
— Opening of the congress. — Appointment of Robert as chair of the session. — Speech by Jérôme, secretary of the International. — Appointment of the secretaries of the congress. — Election of a presidium composed of comrades Robert, Silva, Haston, Edouard, Frank. — Submission of the motion and preliminary resolution of Munis, Chaulieu, Gallienne, Antony, Pedro and Armstrong: proposal that the assembly not sit as a world congress but as an international conference [3] (rejected). Resolution presented by Jérôme on the character and powers of the world congress. [3] Contributions from Chaulieu, Walter, Pedro, Silva. Adoption of Jérôme's resolution. Statement by Chaulieu, Munis, Gallienne, Antony, Pedro, Armstrong. [3] — Proposals by Jérôme on the congress agenda and the organization of the work:
1st sitting: discussion of procedural questions and appointment of the commissions. After the first sitting, an adjournment of several days to allow the various commissions to work and to present documents. Then, the holding of four to five plenary sessions on the commissions' reports and discussion of all questions. 1st session: political report and discussion; 2nd session: the Russian question; 3rd session: activity of the International during the war, discussion, election of the new IEC; 4th session: discussion of the reports of the other commissions. — Haston motion: that the credentials commission be elected at once and that the presidium prepare a schedule to be submitted the next day; that the [other] commissions be elected after discussion (2 for, 18 against, 1 abstention). — Jérôme motion:
1. A credentials and appeals commission, which will settle and present before the congress all disputed questions concerning the recognition of sections, etc., in addition to its work of resolving the question of mandates, composed of Silva, Robert, Frank, Ernesto, Haston. 2. A political commission, to draw up in its final form the political resolution on the tasks of the Fourth International as well as the activity report of the International, composed of Jérôme, Robert, Ali, Ortiz, Dan, Haston, Bleibtreu. 3. A political commission to draw up the theses on the Russian question and the manifesto to be issued in the name of the congress, composed of Walter, Frank, Blanche, Silva, Edouard, Barois, Santen, Mario. 4. A colonial commission, composed of Frank, Le Van, Poete, Silva, Ali, Jaffe, Davies, Bergson, Antonio, Haston, Louis, Tieleman, Jacqueline, Duret. 5. A commission on the Latin American question, composed of Jérôme, Ortiz, Posadas, Capa, Robert, Munis. 6. A commission on the German question, composed of Walter, Haston, Edouard, Barois, Bergson, Chaulieu, Santen, René. 7. A commission on the statutes of the International, composed of Owen, Capa, Ali, Louis, René. 8. A commission on the Italian question, composed of Walter, Mario, Bruno, Blanche, Ernesto, James, Bleibtreu. 9. A finance commission, composed of Owen, Privas, Louis, Capa, René, Mario, Edouard. 10. A press commission (this one did not function). 11. A commission on the Workers Party question, composed of Silva, Jérôme, Frank, Santen, Chaulieu. 12. A trade-union commission, composed of Lambert, Robert, James, René, Tieleman, Silva, Hunter. 13. A Spanish commission, composed of Walter, Mario, Ernesto, Munis.
Vote (19 for, 6 against, 4 abstentions). Discussion, appointment of the commissions. Letter from Comrade Craipeau referred unanimously to the credentials and appeals commission.
• Second session — Monday 12 April 1948
— Chaired by Silva. — Report of the presidium on the state of the commissions' work and proposal for a six-day schedule. Counter-proposal by Chaulieu for an eight-day duration (rejected by a show of hands, 17 votes to 9). Counter-proposal by Hunter for a seven-day duration with two days on the Russian question (rejected, 15 votes to 10). — Report of the credentials commission, presented by Frank.
The commission unanimously endorsed the IEC's decisions concerning representation and the method of voting. There was therefore no dispute regarding the great majority of the mandates.
Outstanding cases. Cyprus: having heard the report on this organization, which has two hundred members, publishes a weekly paper and adheres to the principles of the Fourth International, the commission asks the congress to recognize this new section and to grant a mandate to its delegate (adopted unanimously). Argentina: the Cuarta Internacional group and the Marxist Workers' Group, represented here by Posadas and Moreno, are both unofficial. The commission proposes giving these two comrades a consultative mandate, pending the opinion of the Latin American commission (adopted). South Africa: the official section, the Workers Party, is not represented here; the two comrades present, Jaffé and Davies, belong to another group which tried unsuccessfully to bring about fusion; we propose a resolution aiming at the creation of a single section and the granting of a consultative voice to one of the delegates, the other being an observer (adopted). United States: given that the Workers Party has gone back on its undertaking to accept the decisions of this congress, we propose giving Comrade Shachtman (who disagrees with this) a consultative voice (adopted). Denmark: the two comrades present belong to the Peterson group; there are apparently three groups in this country and matters are confused; in the absence of precise information, we propose that one of the comrades have a consultative voice, the other being an observer. Indochina: no difficulty as to the representation of the Vietnamese Group in France; [4] having come to France a few months ago, Comrade Antony states that he held a mandate from the Octobre group but has been unable to furnish any evidence of this; moreover, his point of view is not endorsed by Comrade Lucien (Lu Sanh Hanh), who belongs to the same group; the group recognized in Indochina was the "La Lutte" group of Ta Thu Thau; in the absence of information on the state of the organizations, the commission proposes that Comrade Antony be present in the capacity of observer. Mexico: Comrade Benjamin Péret requests a mandate on behalf of a small group of six to eight members, recently expelled from the Mexican section, who have not appealed against this decision and who cannot undertake to accept the decisions of the congress; the commission has, under these conditions, been unable to grant Péret's request.
Some information regarding the absent organizations. Italy: Comrade Mangano wrote that he could not come, having been unable to obtain a passport. China: the comrades of both groups are in correspondence with the IS; they have received the congress documents and cannot come. Austria: the comrades wrote that they would try to come and the IS wished to help them, but this came to nothing. The following organizations cannot come for material reasons: Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Canada, Australia, the South African WP, Bolivia, Czechoslovakia. The Swiss comrades have declined to come, the texts not suiting them and they complaining of not having been able to make their point of view sufficiently known; moreover the security conditions did not seem to them assured. We have had no news of the comrades from Bulgaria for over a year, nor from Egypt for two months, nor from Cuba.
Unanimous adoption of the report and proposals of the credentials commission, the cases of Péret and Antony being held in reserve. Proposal to recognize Antony as delegate of the Indochinese section and to grant him a deliberative mandate (2 for, 15 against, 4 abstentions). Proposal that Péret be given a consultative voice (2 for, 15 against, 4 abstentions). Contributions from Munis, Capa, Antony, Adrien, Le Van, Chaulieu, and reply from Frank. Vote on the report on mandates as a whole: 21 for, 0 against, 2 abstentions. France: the commission heard Craipeau, who had tendered his resignation from the party, and proposed that he withdraw it; it wrote to those expelled from the PCI informing them of their right to appeal their expulsion to the credentials commission or to submit any other proposal to it. No reply has been received to date. We recommend that the congress appoint a special commission and place the French question on its agenda. Contributions from Haston, Robert, Frank, Bleibtreu and Lambert. Appointment of the French commission, composed of Robert, Walter, Haston, Silva, Filiatre, Le Van, Ortiz, Chaulieu, Privas. — Proposal of the presidium concerning the organization of the debates, accepted unanimously:
We will proceed by reports and counter-reports on the Russian question and the political resolution. Each rapporteur will have one hour. The question of the counter-rapporteurs' time involves two points: the number of counter-reports and the time to be allotted to them. We will deal first with the time to be given to the rapporteurs. We propose that the question of the time for the rapporteurs and for the minorities be discussed at a meeting of the presidium. We propose that this meeting be held after the session. Each tendency will designate one member to discuss with the presidium in order to arrive at a decision. — Report on the activity of the IS presented by Robert. Motion by Haston to approve the report (adopted). — Statement by Bergson.
• Third session — Tuesday 13 April 1948
— Chaired by Santen. — Report on the Russian question presented by Walter.
Counter-report presented by Haston; counter-report presented by Bergson; counter-report presented by Munis; counter-report presented by Pedro. Contributions from Capa, Chaulieu, James, Ortiz, Robert, Ali, Barois, Dan, Jaffé, Louis, Hunter, Bleibtreu, Posadas, Armstrong, Santen, Colvin. Replies from the counter-rapporteurs Munis, Pedro, Bergson, Haston, and from the rapporteur Walter.
• Fourth session — Wednesday 14 April 1948
— Chaired by Frank. — Receipt of a letter from Grégoire (Georges Vitsoris), referred to the French commission, and of letters from two Danish groups. — Report of the Italian commission presented by Walter.
Contributions from Dan, Pedro, Munis, Mario, Chaulieu, Bleibtreu, Frank, René. Reply from Walter. Vote. — Report of the statutes commission presented by Owen. Contributions from Chaulieu and Capa.
• Fifth session — Thursday 15 April 1948
— Chaired by Haston. — Report of the German commission presented by Edouard.
Contributions from Adrien, Bergson, Santen, Jérôme, Walter, Silva, Frank. Reply from Edouard. Vote. — Report of the colonial commission presented by Silva. — Proposal of the trade-union commission to hold a trade-union conference after the congress.
• Sixth session — Friday 16 April 1948
— Chaired by James. — Report of the political commission presented by Jérôme.
Counter-report by Bergson and by Munis. Discussion. Reply by Bergson and Munis.
• Seventh session — Saturday 17 April 1948
— Chaired by Jaffé. — Reply by Jérôme to the discussion on the report of the political commission. Vote. — Motion by Privas.
The discussion on "the military policy of the proletariat" not having been able to take place, the congress decides that the IS will place this question on the agenda of the next IEC [5] (13 for, 16 against, 3 abstentions). — Election of the International Executive Committee. United States: three members and one alternate; England: two members and one alternate; India: two members and one alternate; France: two members; Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Holland, Uruguay, Peru, Germany, Austria, China and Indochina: one member each; Switzerland: one alternate. — Reception of the congress by the Paris region of the PCI.
• Eighth session — Sunday 18 April 1948
— Chaired by Privas. — Report of the colonial commission, presented by Silva.
Discussion of the report. Reply by Silva. Vote. — Report of the Latin American commission, presented by Posadas and Capa.
Discussion. Motion on Latin America by Jérôme (adopted). — Reports of the commission on the Workers Party, presented by Silva, Robert and Pedro.
• Ninth session — Wednesday 21 April 1948
— Chaired by Walter. — Discussion on the report of the commission on the Workers Party.
Replies from Pedro, Robert, Silva. Vote. — Vote on the political resolution presented by the German commission (adopted). — Election of the International Control Commission, composed of one Belgian, one French and one Italian comrade (Jules Hénin, Roger Foirier and Bellamio). — Resolution on the designation of a German delegate to the IEC (Georg Jungclas), on a provisional basis, pending the choice of the German section (adopted).
• Tenth session — Wednesday 21 April 1948
— Chaired by Robert. — Greeting from the representative of the JCI (France) and reply by Jérôme. — Statement by Walter on his vote concerning the Lambert resolution on the Workers Party question. Protest by Haston. — Report of the French commission presented by Walter. Reading of the letter from Grégoire. Contributions from Dunoyer, speaking in a personal capacity, and from Privas for the PCI political bureau. Contributions from Lambert, Adrien, Michèle, Chaulieu, Filiatre, Jérôme, Frank, Ernesto. Vote on the commission's resolution (Adopted). — Closing speech by Comrade Jérôme, and singing of the Internationale.
DELEGATES AND PARTICIPANTS AT THE CONGRESS
[As extracted from the source table; see the translator's note above on the disordering of the original columns. Headings: Country, organization — Pseudonym — Real name — Mandate (deliberative / consultative / observer).]
South Africa — Fourth International Organisation of South Africa Hosea Jaffé — 1 A. Davies — 1
Germany — Internationale Kommunisten Deutschlands Edouard [pseudonym] — Georg Jungclas [real name]
Argentina — Grupo Cuarta Internacional / Grupo Obrero Marxista J. Posadas [pseudonym] — Cristalli [real name; i.e. Homero Cristalli] — 1 Capa-Moreno [pseudonym] — Hugo Bressano [real name] — 1 René [pseudonym] — R. Groslambert [real name] (these two entries, and the following, appear to belong with Belgium below — see translator's note) Walter-Germain [pseudonym] — Ernest Mandel [real name]
Ceylon — LSSP Silva [pseudonym] — C. R. de Silva [real name] — 2
Cyprus — Communist Internationalist Party Antonio [pseudonym] — Varkaris [real name] — 1
Belgium — Communist Internationalist Party Denmark — Peterson Group [mandate figures as extracted: 2 / 1 / 2] Andersen [real name] X... [name could not be established — see note 6]
Spain — Communist Internationalist Group G. Munis [pseudonym] — M. F. Grandizo [real name] — 1
United States — Socialist Workers Party / SWP (minority) Ernesto [pseudonym] — E. Mauricio [real name] — 1 Adrien [pseudonym] — Font-Farran [real name] Robert-Stein [pseudonym] — Morris Lewit [real name] — 3 Blanche [pseudonym] — Sylvia Blecker [real name] — 2 Bergson — R. Stone — Grace Lee — IEC — 1 Owen-Patrice [pseudonym] — Sherry Mangan [real name] — IEC
Workers Party Pedro [pseudonym?] — Max Shachtman [real name] — 1
France — PCI Tanguy [pseudonym] — Marcel Bleibtreu [real name] — 1 Dumas-Privas [pseudonym] — Jacques Grinblat [real name] — 1 (alternate) Lambert [pseudonym] — Pierre Boussel [real name] Pierre Frank [real name] — IEC-IS Barois [pseudonym] — Benno Sternberg [real name] — 1 Chaulieu [pseudonym] — 1 1 Michèle Mestre; Jacqueline Duret; Duret; C. Castoriadis; Roland Filiatre; L. Abraham; M. Bonnet; Rodolphe Prager [names extracted in this block, pairing to the above uncertain]
England — Revolutionary Communist Party / PCI (minority) James [pseudonym] — Jock Haston [real name] — 1 Louis [pseudonym] — Bill Hunter [real name] — 1 Gerry Healy [real name] — 1 John Goff [real name] — 1
Greece — Communist Internationalist Party Jérôme-Pablo [pseudonym] — Michel Raptis [real name] — 2
India — Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India Ali-Bernard [pseudonym] — K. Barnerji [real name] — 2
Indochina — Vietnamese Communist Internationalist Group in France Le Van [pseudonym] — Bui-Thanh [real name] Poéte [pseudonym] Octobre Group, Saigon — Antony [pseudonym] — Nguyen van Nam [real name]
Ireland — Revolutionary Socialist Party Bob Armstrong [real name] — 1
Italy — Communist Workers' Party Mario [pseudonym] — Livio Maitan [real name] — 1 Bruno [pseudonym] — Bruno Nardini [real name] — 1
Palestine — Revolutionary League of Palestine Dan [pseudonym] — Ali Frölich [real name] — 1
Netherlands — Revolutionaire Communistische Partij Sal Santen [real name] — 1 Wout Tieleman [real name] — 1
Uruguay — Liga Obrera Revolucionaria Alberto Sendic [real name] — 1
Ortiz [pseudonym] — BP-PCI / col. comm. / col. comm. — 1 1
Notes:
1. [This note, printed with the congress documents, concerns the Fourth Internationalists killed under the Occupation and named in the memorial declaration "To Those Who Were Not There":] Marcel Hic (1915-1944), member of the youth SI of the Fourth International in 1937-1939, principal Trotskyist leader in France under the Occupation; organizer 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 SE. Arrested at Charleroi on 18 June 1944, died in deportation at Auschwitz on 7 October 1944. Léon Lesoil (1892-1942), former member of the central committee of the Belgian CP, at the origin of the Trotskyist movement in Belgium and its principal leader, member of the IEC. Arrested 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. Chen Chi-Chang (1905-1943), one of the principal Chinese Trotskyist leaders. Died under torture by the Japanese gendarmerie in 1943. Ta Thu Thau (1906-1945), founder and principal leader of Vietnamese Trotskyism, member of the IEC. Assassinated in September 1945 in the Shanghai region on the orders of the Stalinist leadership. Pietro Tresso, known as Blasco (1893-1943), former member of the political bureau of the Italian CP, expelled by Togliatti in 1930, founded the Trotskyist NOI. Member of the SI and of the leadership of the POI in France. Arrested at Marseille on 2 June 1942, took part in a collective escape organized by the PCF from Le Puy prison on 1 October 1943, and was taken to a FTP maquis in the region. Disappeared mysteriously with three other Trotskyists; to all appearances executed on the orders of the PCF leadership. Nicola Di Bartolomeo, known as Fosco (1901-1946), member of the Italian CP in 1921, expelled from it in 1928. Militant in emigration in the French Trotskyist organizations and in the CCTU, and collaborated with the POUM in Spain from 1936 to 1939. Deported by the Italian authorities to the island of Tremiti in 1940, worked, after his release in 1943, on the reconstruction of the trade-union movement in the Naples region and on the regrouping of Trotskyist forces. Founded the POC. Died January 1946. Heinz Epe, known as Walter Held (1910-1942), leader of the German section in emigration, close collaborator of Trotsky, member of the SI. Travelling from Stockholm to the United States via the USSR, was arrested near Moscow on 17 May 1941 with his wife and child. Died in prison at Saratov on 28 December 1942. Martin Monat-Wittlin, known as Widelin (1913-1944), former Zionist militant, member of the CC of the Belgian section during the war and of the SE; ran the work aimed at German soldiers in France and edited Arbeiter und Soldat. Arrested in Paris in July 1944, killed by the Gestapo. Eric Starkey Jackson (1908-1941), British Trotskyist leader. Henk Sneevliet (1883-1942), social-democratic militant and trade-union leader from 1902; at the origin of the founding of the Indonesian CP and co-founder of the Chinese CP; member of the Comintern executive after its Second Congress in 1920. Leader in Holland of the RSP and of the RSAP, affiliated to the Fourth International from 1933 to 1937. Founded in 1940, underground, the Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front. Arrested in March 1942 with the whole leadership of the movement, sentenced to death with his comrades by a Nazi tribunal; shot on 12 April 1942. Herman Peters, expelled with other RSAP militants in 1947, founded the Dutch Bolshevik-Leninist Group affiliated to the Fourth International in 1938. Arrested in June 1941, shot in August 1942 at the Amersfoort camp.
2. James Patrick Cannon (1885-1974), one of the founders of the CP and later of the Trotskyist movement in the United States, leader of the Socialist Workers Party.
3. See the texts in "Miscellaneous Resolutions."
4. Represented on the European executive committee since June 1945, this group was strongly established in the camps of Vietnamese workers who had been requisitioned to Indochina in 1939 to serve as labour in the French arms industry. A constituent congress of the Vietnamese Communist Internationalist Group was held from 28 to 30 June 1947, and this group would come to number up to five hundred members.
5. The SE of the Fourth International called, in April 1945, for the opening of a debate on "the military policy of the proletariat," in an internal bulletin devoted entirely to this question, reproducing Trotsky's last writings (see the Œuvres, volume 24). But this call had no follow-up and no discussion took place. The subject had been raised by a paragraph of the manifesto Imperialist War and the World Proletarian Revolution, written by Trotsky and adopted by the emergency conference of the Fourth International in May 1940 (Les Congrès de la IVe Internationale, vol. 1, p. 377-378; and Œuvres, volume 24, p. 74-75). It stated, in particular: "A Bolshevik strives to become not only the best trade unionist but also the best soldier. We do not wish the bourgeoisie to throw onto the battlefields, at the eleventh hour, soldiers who have received no training or only half-training. We demand that the state immediately provide workers and the unemployed with the opportunity to learn to handle the rifle, the grenade, the machine-gun, the cannon, the airplane, the submarine, and other instruments of war. Special military schools are needed, functioning in conjunction with the trade unions, so that workers may become qualified specialists in the military art, capable of holding command posts." On Trotsky's suggestion, the SWP adopted a programme along these lines at its congress in September 1940. This translation of a transitional demand was rather poorly understood and widely disputed in a number of sections.
6. The name of this representative could not be established.
[Photograph caption:] From left to right: Marcel Bleibtreu, Sal Santen, Pierre Frank, Jock Haston, Colvin de Silva, Munis.