Editing Fourth International (section)

== Formation of the International Committee of the Fourth International ==
In 1953, the SWP's national committee issued an ''Open Letter to Trotskyists Throughout the World''<ref name="SWP">{{cite magazine|author=Socialist Workers Party |author-link=Socialist Workers Party (UK) |url=http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/swp-us/doc01.htm |title=Open Letter to Trotskyists Throughout the World |magazine=[[Militant tendency|Militant]] |date=16 November 1953}}</ref> and organised the [[International Committee of the Fourth International]] (ICFI). This was a public faction which initially included, in addition to the SWP, [[Gerry Healy]]'s British section [[The Club (Trotskyist)|The Club]], the Internationalist Communist Party in France (then led by [[Pierre Lambert|Lambert]] who had expelled Bleibtreu and his grouping), [[Nahuel Moreno]]'s party in Argentina and the Austrian and Chinese sections of the FI. The sections of the ICFI withdrew from the International Secretariat, which suspended their voting rights. Both sides claimed they constituted a majority of the former International.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fi/1950-1953/ic-issplit/16.htm |title=Resolution forming the International Committee |magazine=SWP Internal Bulletin |author-first1=Michel |author-last1=Pablo |author-link1=Michel Pablo |author-first2=Pierre |author-last2=Frank |author-link2=Pierre Frank |author-first3=Ernest |author-last3=Germain |author-link3=Ernest Germain |date=23 November 1953}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fi/1953-1963/ic/1955/ic01.htm |title=Letter from the International Secretariat "to all Members and All Organizations of the International Committee" |date=July 1955 |magazine=Education for Socialists Bulletin}}</ref>

Sri Lanka's Lanka Sama Samaja Party, then the country's leading workers' party, took a middle position during this dispute. It continued to participate in the ISFI but argued for a joint congress, for reunification with the ICFI.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/dnor-n21.shtml |title=David North addresses Sri Lankan Trotskyists on the 50th anniversary of the ICFI |website=[[World Socialist Web Site]] |date=21 November 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502211745/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/11/dnor-n21.html |archive-date=2 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

An excerpt from the ''Open Letter'' explains the split as follows:
<blockquote>To sum up: The lines of cleavage between Pablo's revisionism and orthodox Trotskyism are so deep that no compromise is possible either politically or organizationally. The Pablo faction has demonstrated that it will not permit democratic decisions truly reflecting majority opinion to be reached. They demand complete submission to their criminal policy. They are determined to drive all [[Orthodox Trotskyism|orthodox Trotskyists]] out of the Fourth International or to muzzle and handcuff them.

Their scheme has been to inject their Stalinist conciliationism piecemeal and likewise in piecemeal fashion, get rid of those who come to see what is happening and raise objections.<ref name="SWP"/></blockquote>