International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)
Encyclopedia
The International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist), earlier known as the international Spartacist tendency is a Trotskyist international. Its largest constituent party is the Spartacist League (US)
. There are smaller sections of the ICL (FI) in Mexico
, Canada
, France
, Germany
, Ireland
, Italy
, Japan
, South Africa
, Australia
, Greece
, Poland
and the United Kingdom
.
The group originated within the "Revolutionary Tendency" of the Socialist Workers Party and, upon its expulsion from the SWP, it named itself "Spartacist" in 1964 in homage to the original Spartacist League
in World War I Germany
co-led by Rosa Luxemburg
.
. The library has published a number of bulletins and books and houses the tendency's archives and other material on the history of Trotskyism.
In addition to Spartacist the national sections of the ICL(FI) each publish a regular paper of varying regularity. For example the U.S. group publishes the newspaper Workers Vanguard, which is known for its acerbic running commentary on the activities of other leftist groups, its sarcastic wit, and its obituaries of leftist figures whose lives often are inadequately analyzed and/or memorialized in the mainstream media, recently including Bill Epton
, Richard Fraser, Robert F. Williams
, and Myra Tanner Weiss
. Since the 1990s Workers Vanguard has also featured original essays on the history of Marxist and pre-Marxist radical ideas written by long-time member Mark Tishman under the name Joseph Seymour. From time to time Workers Vanguard also carries features under the rubrics Women and Revolution and Young Spartacus, these being the titles of once separate publications since discontinued.
and the Ku Klux Klan
; in the late-1980s it was an early campaigner to save Mumia Abu-Jamal
from death row
.http://www.icl-fi.org/english/csdn/oldsite/aff.htm, a campaign later taken up primarily by the Revolutionary Communist Party USA. The Spartacist League regards what they term the "struggle for black liberation" as central to communist revolution
in the U.S.; to that end, they promote "revolutionary integrationism"http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/864/fraser.html and also prominently support the right to bear arms. The party is radically liberal
in personal issues such as sexual offences, going as far as calling for legalization of pedophilia
and drug trade.http://www.icl-fi.org/english/spc/163/witchhunt.html
s and campaigns believing they are popular front
s aimed at providing platforms for bourgeois politicians from the Democratic Party
and the U.S. Green Party
, a strategy the SL's ideas abhor. Instead, the League denounces all support to "capitalist
parties," especially the left-wing ones founded through popular front formation, and instead argue for an independent workers' party aiming for state power
.
The Spartacists also devote much attention to polemic
izing against other communist and socialist groups. These polemics are usually exceptionally forceful and are often seen by the groups being attacked as unnecessarily disruptive of their activities. The Spartacist League is also highly critical of groups associated with the reunified Fourth International
, whose politics they characterize as Pabloite. The International Bolshevik Tendency (IBT), a split from The Spartacists, are targeted frequently, with Spartacist members attending IBT public meetings regularly to oppose their organisation. It has been reported that at times, The Spartacists will not even engage in political debate regarding the issue of the meeting, but rather criticise the history of other organisations.
In a book entitled Death Agony of the Fourth International, Workers Power
and the Irish Workers Group claim the iSt's strategy was/is based on, and they quote from an iSt document, "destroying" other left wing groups. They claim this involves occupying rooms where other left groups are due to have meetings as well as other methods. Furthermore, they argue that the Spartacists, while developing a correct position that the SWP were centrist, did not recognise that the Fourth International had degenerated before it split, and therefore were more critical of one section than of the other.
. The Socialist Workers' Party
supported Ayatollah Khomeini during the Islamic Revolution in Iran
as "anti-imperialist
," but the Spartacists gave no support to this. The League was one of the few communist groups other than the Workers World Party
to hail the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the occupation that followed. At the time the Spartacists believed it provided an opportunity to extend the gains of the October Revolution
to the Afghan
people, especially women, in a struggle against the misogynistic Islamic fundamentalists of the U.S.-backed Mujahideen
. Later, when the U.S. intervention led to the formation of the successive Islamic governments of the Mujahideen
and the Taliban, the League echoed its condemnation of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and denounced these governments as theocratic, capitalist and anti-woman.
and East Germany from what they termed capitalist counterrevolution. Their group in Germany waged a campaign in 1989 calling for political revolution
against Stalinism and opposition to the capitalist reunification
. Today, the Spartacists defend what they see as the remaining deformed workers' states and have called for the defense of North Korea
's right to nuclear arms as a necessary component keeping it free of U.S. military intervention. This is a continuation of their earlier positions on what they consider the deformed workers states of the Republic of Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the People's Republic of China
. On these countries they continue to call for political revolution
against the ruling communist parties while at the same time calling for the defense of these revolutions from imperialism and internal capitalist counter-revolution.
that had emerged within the Socialist Workers Party
. Among their criticisms of the SWP was its embrace of "Pabloism" and its decision to leave the International Committee of the Fourth International
and join the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. After its expulsion from the SWP both the Spartacists and the American Committee for the Fourth International were considered affiliates of the ICFI. However, at the 1966 London Conference of the ICFI the positions of the Spartacists were condemned and the ACFI was recognized as the only American ICFI section.
formed another Spartacist League in New Zealand in the early 1970s. Logan later expanded the group to become the Spartacist League of Australia and New Zealand. The two groups signed a "Declaration for the organizing of an International Trotskyist Tendency" in July 1974 which proclaimed the combined central committees
an International Executive Committee and an International Secretariat as its executive arm.
led by Edmund Samarakkody
and the Lega trotskista d'Italia
. They attempted to recruit both groups to their tendency, but only succeeded with the latter. A new International Executive Committee was also elected.
By the 1985 conference of the iSt an "external tendency" had split from the iSt. This group had adherents in the US, Canada and Germany.
Initially based in the San Francisco Bay area and Toronto the ET was to define itself as a public faction of the SL and sought to be readmitted to the ranks of the parent organization. Said efforts were rebuffed by the SL who have since waged a polemical war with the ET and its successor groups the BT and IBT.
The iSt changed its name to the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) in 1989 and adopted a new Declaration of Principles and Some Elements of Program International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) in February 1998.
editor Jan Norden and other founders of the League for the Fourth International
were expelled, allegedly for maneuvering with a group from Brazil
involved in bringing court suit against a trade union
.http://www.internationalist.org/igbrazila98.html
The Australia
n section of the Spartacist League, which had previously been involved in IBT events, split again in 2005, with one member leaving to found the Trotskyist Platform.
Former sections include:
Spartacist League (US)
The Spartacist League/ US is a Trotskyist organization in the United States. It was the original Spartacist group that helped to inspire and organize similarly oriented groups around the world...
. There are smaller sections of the ICL (FI) in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and the United Kingdom
Spartacist League of Britain
The Spartacist League of Britain is a Trotskyist political party in Britain. It is the British section of the International Communist League ....
.
The group originated within the "Revolutionary Tendency" of the Socialist Workers Party and, upon its expulsion from the SWP, it named itself "Spartacist" in 1964 in homage to the original Spartacist League
Spartacist League
The Spartacus League was a left-wing Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic...
in World War I Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
co-led by Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
.
Publications
The central theoretical journal of the ICL(FI) is Spartacist which is published in four languages approximately once a year. Apart from the above the ICL(FI)'s American section, the Spartacist League, operates the Prometheus Research Library in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The library has published a number of bulletins and books and houses the tendency's archives and other material on the history of Trotskyism.
In addition to Spartacist the national sections of the ICL(FI) each publish a regular paper of varying regularity. For example the U.S. group publishes the newspaper Workers Vanguard, which is known for its acerbic running commentary on the activities of other leftist groups, its sarcastic wit, and its obituaries of leftist figures whose lives often are inadequately analyzed and/or memorialized in the mainstream media, recently including Bill Epton
Bill Epton
William Leo "Bill" Epton Jr. , was a Maoist African-American communist activist. He was Vice Chairman of the Progressive Labor Party until approximately 1970, and chairman of its Harlem branch until that position went null upon Epton's incarceration for incitement to violence in 1964.Epton was "the...
, Richard Fraser, Robert F. Williams
Robert F. Williams
Robert Franklin Williams was a civil rights leader, the president of the Monroe, North Carolina NAACP chapter in the 1950s and early 1960s, and author. At a time when racial tension was high and official abuses were rampant, Williams was a key figure in promoting both integration and armed black...
, and Myra Tanner Weiss
Myra Tanner Weiss
Myra Tanner Weiss was an American Communist following Trotskyism, and a three time U.S. Vice-Presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party....
. Since the 1990s Workers Vanguard has also featured original essays on the history of Marxist and pre-Marxist radical ideas written by long-time member Mark Tishman under the name Joseph Seymour. From time to time Workers Vanguard also carries features under the rubrics Women and Revolution and Young Spartacus, these being the titles of once separate publications since discontinued.
Regarding domestic policy
Since the early 1980s the League and affiliates have also organized mobilizations against NazisNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
; in the late-1980s it was an early campaigner to save Mumia Abu-Jamal
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner and sentenced to death. He has been described as "perhaps the world's best known death-row inmate", and his sentence is one of the most debated today...
from death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
.http://www.icl-fi.org/english/csdn/oldsite/aff.htm, a campaign later taken up primarily by the Revolutionary Communist Party USA. The Spartacist League regards what they term the "struggle for black liberation" as central to communist revolution
Communist revolution
A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, typically with socialism as an intermediate stage...
in the U.S.; to that end, they promote "revolutionary integrationism"http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/864/fraser.html and also prominently support the right to bear arms. The party is radically liberal
Social liberalism
Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding...
in personal issues such as sexual offences, going as far as calling for legalization of pedophilia
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
and drug trade.http://www.icl-fi.org/english/spc/163/witchhunt.html
Regarding similar groups
The League rejects left-wing political coalitionCoalition
A coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant...
s and campaigns believing they are popular front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
s aimed at providing platforms for bourgeois politicians from the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and the U.S. Green Party
Green Party (United States)
The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties...
, a strategy the SL's ideas abhor. Instead, the League denounces all support to "capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
parties," especially the left-wing ones founded through popular front formation, and instead argue for an independent workers' party aiming for state power
State power
State power may refer to:*Police power, the capacity of a state to regulate behaviours and enforce order within its territory*Government force, state coercion to induce conforming social results* The extroverted concept of power in international relations...
.
The Spartacists also devote much attention to polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
izing against other communist and socialist groups. These polemics are usually exceptionally forceful and are often seen by the groups being attacked as unnecessarily disruptive of their activities. The Spartacist League is also highly critical of groups associated with the reunified Fourth International
Reunified Fourth International
The Fourth International is a Trotskyist international. In 1963, the majorities of the two public factions of the Fourth International, the International Secretariat and the International Committee, reunited, electing a United Secretariat of the Fourth International...
, whose politics they characterize as Pabloite. The International Bolshevik Tendency (IBT), a split from The Spartacists, are targeted frequently, with Spartacist members attending IBT public meetings regularly to oppose their organisation. It has been reported that at times, The Spartacists will not even engage in political debate regarding the issue of the meeting, but rather criticise the history of other organisations.
In a book entitled Death Agony of the Fourth International, Workers Power
Workers Power
Workers' Power is a Trotskyist group which is the British section of the League for the Fifth International. The group publishes the magazine Workers Power and distributed the English language journal Fifth International.-Origin:...
and the Irish Workers Group claim the iSt's strategy was/is based on, and they quote from an iSt document, "destroying" other left wing groups. They claim this involves occupying rooms where other left groups are due to have meetings as well as other methods. Furthermore, they argue that the Spartacists, while developing a correct position that the SWP were centrist, did not recognise that the Fourth International had degenerated before it split, and therefore were more critical of one section than of the other.
On Islamic states
The Spartacists are one of few leftist groups which do not shy away from criticizing IslamCriticism of Islam
Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages. Early written criticism came from Christians, prior to the ninth century, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy...
. The Socialist Workers' Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
supported Ayatollah Khomeini during the Islamic Revolution in Iran
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
as "anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...
," but the Spartacists gave no support to this. The League was one of the few communist groups other than the Workers World Party
Workers World Party
Workers World Party is a far-left political party in the United States, founded in 1959 by a group led by Sam Marcy. Marcy and his followers split from the Socialist Workers Party in 1958 over a series of long-standing differences, among them Marcy's group's support for Henry A...
to hail the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the occupation that followed. At the time the Spartacists believed it provided an opportunity to extend the gains of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
to the Afghan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
people, especially women, in a struggle against the misogynistic Islamic fundamentalists of the U.S.-backed Mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
. Later, when the U.S. intervention led to the formation of the successive Islamic governments of the Mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
and the Taliban, the League echoed its condemnation of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and denounced these governments as theocratic, capitalist and anti-woman.
On communist states
The League also fought hard in mobilizing to defend the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and East Germany from what they termed capitalist counterrevolution. Their group in Germany waged a campaign in 1989 calling for political revolution
Political revolution
A political revolution, in the Trotskyist theory, is an upheaval in which the government is replaced, or the form of government altered, but in which property relations are predominantly left intact...
against Stalinism and opposition to the capitalist reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
. Today, the Spartacists defend what they see as the remaining deformed workers' states and have called for the defense of North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
's right to nuclear arms as a necessary component keeping it free of U.S. military intervention. This is a continuation of their earlier positions on what they consider the deformed workers states of the Republic of Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. On these countries they continue to call for political revolution
Political revolution
A political revolution, in the Trotskyist theory, is an upheaval in which the government is replaced, or the form of government altered, but in which property relations are predominantly left intact...
against the ruling communist parties while at the same time calling for the defense of these revolutions from imperialism and internal capitalist counter-revolution.
Background
The first Spartacist League developed in the United States from the Revolutionary TendencyRevolutionary Tendency (SWP)
The Revolutionary Tendency within the US Socialist Workers Party was an internal faction that disagreed with the direction the leadership was taking the party on several important issues...
that had emerged within the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
. Among their criticisms of the SWP was its embrace of "Pabloism" and its decision to leave the International Committee of the Fourth International
International Committee of the Fourth International
The International Committee of the Fourth International is the name of two Trotskyist internationals; one with sections named Socialist Equality Party which publishes the World Socialist Web Site and another linked to the Workers Revolutionary Party in Britain.-Foundation:The International...
and join the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. After its expulsion from the SWP both the Spartacists and the American Committee for the Fourth International were considered affiliates of the ICFI. However, at the 1966 London Conference of the ICFI the positions of the Spartacists were condemned and the ACFI was recognized as the only American ICFI section.
Establishing an International
The American Spartacists remained isolated until Bill LoganWilliam Logan
William Logan may refer to:*William Edmond Logan, Canadian geologist*William Logan , U.S. Senator from Kentucky*William Logan , U.S. poet and critic*William Logan , Scottish author of Malabar Manual*William F...
formed another Spartacist League in New Zealand in the early 1970s. Logan later expanded the group to become the Spartacist League of Australia and New Zealand. The two groups signed a "Declaration for the organizing of an International Trotskyist Tendency" in July 1974 which proclaimed the combined central committees
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
an International Executive Committee and an International Secretariat as its executive arm.
international Spartacist tendency
The iSt held its first international conference in England in the summer of 1979. Delegates attended from the United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France and Canada. There were also fraternal delegates from the Revolutionary Workers Party of CeylonRevolutionary Workers Party (Sri Lanka)
Revolutionary Workers Party, initially known as Revolutionary Samasamaja Party is a Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was formed in 1968, as a split from the Lanka Sama Samaja Party . The founding secretary of the party was Edmund Samarakkoddy...
led by Edmund Samarakkody
Edmund Samarakkody
Edmund Samarakkody was a leading Trotskyist in Sri Lanka and at one time a member of that country's parliament. He was a leader of the Fourth International's section, the LSSP, and a supporter of the establishment of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International in 1963...
and the Lega trotskista d'Italia
Lega trotskista d'Italia
The Lega trotskista d'Italia of Trotskyist League of Italy is an Italian Trotskyist group. It is the Italian section of the International Communist League , or "Spartacist" tendency within international Trotskyism....
. They attempted to recruit both groups to their tendency, but only succeeded with the latter. A new International Executive Committee was also elected.
By the 1985 conference of the iSt an "external tendency" had split from the iSt. This group had adherents in the US, Canada and Germany.
Initially based in the San Francisco Bay area and Toronto the ET was to define itself as a public faction of the SL and sought to be readmitted to the ranks of the parent organization. Said efforts were rebuffed by the SL who have since waged a polemical war with the ET and its successor groups the BT and IBT.
The iSt changed its name to the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) in 1989 and adopted a new Declaration of Principles and Some Elements of Program International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) in February 1998.
Later splits
In 1996, Workers VanguardWorkers Vanguard
Workers Vanguard is a Marxist bi-weekly newspaper published by the Spartacist League, a Trotskyist political organization in the United States. It is now affiliated also with the International Communist League, a confederation of similar groups....
editor Jan Norden and other founders of the League for the Fourth International
League for the Fourth International
The League for the Fourth International is a Trotskyist international organisation, whose most noteworthy section is the Internationalist Group/Grupo Internacionalista in the United States. It has other affiliates in Mexico, Brazil and France. All of these are very small and based in at most one...
were expelled, allegedly for maneuvering with a group from Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
involved in bringing court suit against a trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
.http://www.internationalist.org/igbrazila98.html
The Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n section of the Spartacist League, which had previously been involved in IBT events, split again in 2005, with one member leaving to found the Trotskyist Platform.
Affiliates
The current members of the ICL include:- Spartacist Group Japan
- Spartacist League of BritainSpartacist League of BritainThe Spartacist League of Britain is a Trotskyist political party in Britain. It is the British section of the International Communist League ....
- Spartacist League (US)Spartacist League (US)The Spartacist League/ US is a Trotskyist organization in the United States. It was the original Spartacist group that helped to inspire and organize similarly oriented groups around the world...
- Trotskyist Group of Greece
- Trotskyist League of Canada
- Spartacist League of Australia
- Spartakist-Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands
- Spartacist Group Ireland
- Lega trotskista d'ItaliaLega trotskista d'ItaliaThe Lega trotskista d'Italia of Trotskyist League of Italy is an Italian Trotskyist group. It is the Italian section of the International Communist League , or "Spartacist" tendency within international Trotskyism....
- Grupo Espartaquista de México
- Spartacist/South Africa
- Ligue trotskyste de FranceLigue trotskyste de FranceThe Ligue trotskyste de France is a French Trotskyist group. It is a section of the International Communist League or "Spartacist" tendency....
- Spartakusowska Grupa Polski
Former sections include:
- Spartacist League (Sweden)Spartacist League (Sweden)The Spartacist League was a small Trotskyist political party in Sweden. It was a member of the international Spartacist tendency .The League consisted of a small nucleus of supporters, from the late 1970s until the early 1980s. The members of that group are today found in other Trotskyist groups...
- Spartacist League of Israel
External links
- International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)
- International Bolshevik Tendency
- Internationalist Group (League for the Fourth International)
- Workers Vanguard biweekly paper of the Spartacist League
- Trotskyist Work in the Trade Unions, by Chris Knox
- Sect appeal Scott McLemee of Salon on the entertainment value of the 1996 split in the ICL.