Editing Fourth International (section)

== From the Fourth World Congress to reunification ==
Over the following decade, the IC referred to the rest of the International as the "International Secretariat of the Fourth International", emphasising its view that the Secretariat did not speak for the International as a whole.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fi/1950-1953/ic-issplit/01.htm |title=Resolution of the International Committee instructing publication of the documents, August 24, 1973 |magazine=[[News Line|Workers Press]] |date=29 August 1973}}</ref> The Secretariat continued to view itself as the leadership of the International. It held a Fourth World Congress in 1954 to regroup and to recognise reorganised sections in Britain, France and the U.S.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Parts of the International Committee were divided over whether the split with "Pabloism" was permanent or temporary,<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" |magazine=Education for Socialists Bulletin |date=July 1955}}</ref> and it was perhaps as a result of this that it did not declare itself to be ''the'' Fourth International. Those sections that considered the split permanent embarked on a discussion about the history of the split and its meanings.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

The sections of the International that recognised the leadership of the International Secretariat remained optimistic about the possibilities for increasing the International's political influence and extended the entryism into [[social democratic parties]] which was already underway in Britain, Austria and elsewhere. The 1954 congress emphasised entryism into [[Communist party|communist parties]] and nationalist parties in the colonies, pressing for democratic reforms, ostensibly to encourage the left-wing they perceived to exist in the communist parties to join with them in a revolution.<ref>{{cite magazine|author-first=Michel |author-last=Pablo |author-link=Michel Pablo |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/pablo/1953/xx/newcourse.htm |title=The Post-Stalin 'New Course' |magazine=Fourth International |date=March 1953}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-first=Michel |author-last=Pablo |author-link=Michel Pablo |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/pablo/1958/fi/index.htm |title=The 4th International: What it is, What it aims at |publisher=Publications of the Fourth International |date=1958}}</ref> Tensions developed between those who subscribed to the mainstream views of Pablo and a minority that argued unsuccessfully against open work. A number of these delegates walked out of the World Congress, and would eventually leave the International, including the leader of the new British section, [[John GM Lawrence|John Lawrence]], [[George Clarke (socialist)|George Clarke]], [[Michele Mestre]] (a leader of the French section), and [[Murray Dowson]] (a leader of the Canadian group).<ref>{{cite journal|author-first=John |author-last=McIlroy |url=http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/Back/Wnext26/Lawrence.html |title=The Revolutionary Odyssey of John Lawrence (Part 1) |journal=What Next |number=26 |year=2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050513050736/http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/Back/Wnext26/Lawrence.html |archive-date=13 May 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Secretariat organised a Fifth World Congress in October 1957. Mandel and [[Pierre Frank]] appraised the [[Algerian revolution]] and surmised that it was essential to reorient in the colonial states and neocolonies towards the emerging [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]]-led revolutions.<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Pierre |author-last=Frank |author-link=Pierre Frank |chapter-url=http://marxists.org/history/etol/writers/frank/works/march/ch07.htm |title=The Fourth International: The Long March of the Trotskyists |chapter=Splits and Reunification (1953–68) |location=London |date=1979}}</ref> According to Robert Alexander, Ernest Mandel has written that an organisation in Indonesia, the [[Acoma Party|Partai Acoma]], was affiliate to the FI from 1959 until the 1965 coup in that country.<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Robert |author-last=Alexander |author-link=Robert J. Alexander |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_eUtQjseKaIC&dq=%22Fourth+International%22+%22tan+malaka%22&pg=PA534 |chapter=Indonesian Trotskyism |title=International Trotskyism 1929–1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement |date=September 1991 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-0975-8}}</ref>

The Sixth World Congress in 1961 marked a lessening of the political divisions between the majority of supporters of the International Secretariat and the leadership of the SWP in the United States. In particular, the congress stressed support for the [[Cuban revolution]] and a growing emphasis on building parties in the imperialist countries. The sixth congress also criticised the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, its Sri Lankan section, for seeming to support the [[Sri Lanka Freedom Party]], which they saw as bourgeois nationalists; the U.S. SWP made similar criticisms.<ref name="cuban">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/History/Cuba.html |title=Trotskyism and the Cuban Revolution: A Debate |magazine=Intercontinental Press |date=11 May 1981 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060814101805/http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/History/Cuba.html |archive-date=14 August 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1962 the IC and IS formed a Parity Commission to organise a common World Congress. The supporters of Michel Pablo and [[J. Posadas|Juan Posadas]] opposed the convergence. The supporters of Posadas left the International in 1962.<ref name="cuban" /> At the 1963 reunification congress, the sections of the IC and IS reunified (with two exceptions: the British and French sections of the IC).<ref name="Farrell">{{cite journal|author-first1=Farrell |author-last1=Dobbs |author-link1=Farrell Dobbs |author-first2=Joseph |author-last2=Hansen |author-link2=Joseph Hansen (socialist) |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/swp-us/misc-1/reunif.htm |title=Reunification of the Fourth International |journal=International Socialist Review |date=Fall 1963}}</ref> This was largely a result of their mutual support for Ernest Mandel and [[Joseph Hansen (socialist)|Joseph Hansen]]'s resolution ''Dynamics of World Revolution Today'' and for the [[Cuban Revolution]]. This document distinguished between different revolutionary tasks in the imperialist countries, the "[[workers' state]]s", and the colonial and semi-colonial countries.<ref>{{cite journal|author-first1=Ernest |author-last1=Mandel |author-link1=Ernest Mandel |author-first2=Joseph |author-last2=Hansen |author-link2=Joseph Hansen (socialist) |url=http://www.trotskyism.org/document/fi/1963-1985/usfi/7thWC/usfi01.htm |title=Dynamics of World Revolution Today |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728130440/http://www.trotskyism.org/document/fi/1963-1985/usfi/7thWC/usfi01.htm |archive-date=28 July 2011 |journal=International Socialist Review |date=Fall 1963}}</ref> In June 1963, the reunified [[Fourth International (1963)|Fourth International]] elected a United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI), by which name the organisation as a whole is often still referred.<ref name="Farrell"/><ref>{{cite book|author-first=Livio |author-last=Maitan |author-link=Livio Maitan |title=Per una storia della IV internazionale: La testimonianza di un comunista controcorrente |language=it |trans-title=For a history of the IV International: The testimony of a communist against the tide |date=October 2006 |location=Rome |isbn=9788889772089}}</ref>