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In May 1940, five years ago, the Emergency Conference of the Fourth International adopted its historic Manifesto on the Imperialist War and the Proletarian Revolution. It was the last great programmatic document written by Leon Trotsky. In it he made the following appraisal of the world movement which he founded:
… It is impermissible to put on the same plane the present revolutionary vanguard with those isolated internationalists who raised their voices at the outbreak of the last war. Only the Russian party of the Bolsheviks represented a revolutionary force at that time. But even the latter, in its overwhelming majority failed, except for a small emigre group around Lenin, to shed its national narrowness and to rise to the perspective of the world revolution.
The Fourth International in numbers and especially in preparation possesses infinite advantages over its predecessors at the beginning of the last war. The Fourth International is the direct heir of Bolshevism in its flower. The Fourth International has absorbed the tradition of the October Revolution and has transmuted into theory the experience of the richest historical period between the two imperialist wars. It has faith in itself and its future.
On May Day 1945, the day which for more than half a century has symbolized the international solidarity of the working class and the struggle for the communist future of mankind, we the followers of Leon Trotsky can proudly record the undeniable great strides achieved by world Trotskyism. No other movement has withstood the test of the second imperialist war.
GROWTH OF THE CADRES
In country after country the organizations of the Fourth International are emerging from the crucible of the war much stronger than they entered it. The Fourth International was the only world organization that met on the eve of the war. It was the only world working class organization that was able to convene international conferences in the course of the war. The first of these was the Emergency Conference held in May 1940; the second was the European Conference which met in France in February 1944 under the very noses of the Gestapo.
In the very midst of the war fusions took place of Trotskyist groups into unified parties, among them the Revolutionary Communist Party of Great Britain, the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India and Ceylon, and most recently, the Internationalist Communist Party of France. Throughout, our comrades in India and France have had to conduct their activities, as they still do, under conditions of illegality.
In other countries where the original cadres were decimated by the Nazi executioners, the movement has been reconstituted. The revolutionary Communist Party of Belgium and the reorganization of our Greek thinkers are among the sections that have passed through this experience.
Some groups, like the German and Spanish, have continued their work under conditions of emigration -- in many instances in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Among the most significant conquests of the world Trotskyist movement are its sections in the colonies and semi-colonies: India, China, Indo-China, Egypt, South Africa, Palestine, Cuba, Mexico, Chile and other lands.
Revivals of working class movements are swiftly followed by news of the formation of Trotskyist groups where none had existed previously. Thus, shortly after the downfall of Italian fascism, we received word of Italian Trotskyists in Southern Italy. We confidently expect in the near future to hear from our co-thinkers in Northern Italy.
GRANITE FOUNDATIONS OF MARXIST THEORY
The newspapers, theoretical organs and publications of the Trotskyists appear in many languages. The readers of our magazine have had the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the Marxist documents of our Indian and European comrades. These writings faithfully reflect the great vitality of the respective sections of the Fourth International and the unbreakable ideological bonds between them.
The unity of the world Trotskyist movement is sealed by the revolutionary will to struggle, indomitable perseverance, unswerving loyalty, iron discipline and the glorious tradition of struggle that they share in common. It can be said without any fear of exaggeration that no other political movement in history has ever faced such odds and withstood such persecution as have the Trotskyists.
The bourgeoisie, whether “democratic” or fascist, does not mistake its mortal enemies. The “democratic” jailers in the USA kept guard over 18 leaders of the American Trotskyist movement, who were sentenced for their opposition to imperialist war on the day this country entered the conflict. Churchill's police clapped the leaders of the English Trotskyists in prison at the first favorable opportunity. Our Indian co-thinkers suffered the same fate at the hands of the colonial despots. Both the Gestapo and the GPU have ruthlessly hounded the Trotskyists.
OUR MARTYRS
The list of our martyrs is very long. Among those who fell in the course of the second world war while fighting under the banner of the world revolution are:
Leon Trotsky, murdered by Stalin's GPU, August 20, 1940.
Robert Sheldon Harte, member of Socialist Workers Party, US; slain by the GPU in Mexico, May 24, 1940.
Comrades Renery, Van Belle and Lemmens, members of the Revolutionary Socialist Party of Belgium, murdered by Hitler's Gestapo in 1943.
Leon Lesoil, Belgian Trotskyist leader, died in a Nazi concentration camp, 1942.
Eleven members of the Archeo-Marxist Party of Greece; seven, including General Secretary Vite, shot in Athens and four executed in Salonika by Nazi firing squads, 1944.
C. Poulipoulis, Secretary of the Greek Trotskyist Party, and two other leaders, shot by Nazi firing squads in 1943.
Wintley, leader of the German Trotskyist group in France, executed by the Nazis, 1944.
Sixty-five comrades who edited Der Arbeiter (The Worker) including 30 German soldiers arrested in Brittany in October, 1943, deported and murdered by the Nazis.
Jean Meickler, former manager of Unser Wort, killed by the Nazis in Paris, 1941.
Marc Bourhis, former secretary of Concarneau district of the French Internationalist Communist Party, shot by the Nazis in October 1941.
Guegen, former Communist Party Mayor of Concarneau, who joined the Trotskyist movement --shot by the Nazis in 1941.
Timbaud, member of French Internationalist Communist Party, slain by Nazis in October, 1941.
Lebacher, young Trotskyist worker of Drancy, France, brutally tortured and murdered by the Gestapo.
Thiolon, a teacher in the 11th Arrondissement, Paris, murdered by the Gestapo.
Van Hulst, young Trotskyist worker of Suresnes, slain by the Gestapo in France.
Cruau, regional leader of the Trotskyist movement in Nantes, slain by the Gestapo.
Jules Joffe, member of the French Internationalist Communist Party, shot by Nazis, 1942.
Lucian Brawlowski and Belle Lampert, arrested with Comrade Joffe; fate unknown.
In his May 1940 Manifesto, Leon Trotsky wrote:
At the beginning of the new revolution, the opportunists will once again strive, just as they did a quarter of a century ago, to imbue the workers with the idea that it is impossible to build socialism on ruins and devastation. As if the proletariat is free to choose! It is necessary to build on those foundations which history provides.
The Fourth International marches forward and, will conquer because it is consciously carrying out the task inexorably posed by history: the organization of the working class for the conquest of political power and the establishment of socialism throughout the world.
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