On the march from Coalisland to Dunganson She makes speeches and pretends it Wich we went to go in she turned really pure white, and And tac youse girl scho was in front screws said. of us going in to see Peter said to me, the Cardinal!
The door opened and the two of them came in. A felow came first with a massive beard and thin like a years to go ghost. Hewarwhile was recheere! him. He said, 1 don*t know you, but thaiks.' And we just clapped and HESITE water over them Then Jo and Peter came Jo was very spiritually He's only young and he A Patrick Pearse he'd never be: used to say. But now, mayhe he would be. Because I've keen Tetters Trom them. In siotple wordsthey write what you couldn't make up to write if you PRINCIPLE He took some cignretter back for he hoys. He doesn't smoke himself Northern Ireland wanted to see His face was white and his bands aere white and his mails... But the rest of him was filth and dirt. He showed me. His feet were so dirty that they had gone green. And his body was all priest.
If you were dying.
Hesald, 'My friend down there has anybody.
Then we heard this great big shout, Is your ma there?! the forgetting It's Danay. Gaelic laside there *Is your wee Sean with night, 'Send mim down to se. says. "Clara, Clara, are And she says, "Yes, Danus, son.
He says, 'It's me, Danny, and Tr I thoaght it was the most touching thing. Bar they wouldn't let wee Sear Jo and Peter were next to each WHIC other, so we were able to kiss them and hug them and kiss them and hug And we said could we see Danny for No. you can't were angry because we really thonght they were so wonderful, that they could suffer so much for so long He said, What do you think about I said I thought his slatement covered everything. but I didn't appreciale that he waited for two > Ivere.
Tsaid, How are your hands clean.
sor?
They didn't throw any water over for it Danny's so he has got, like, paws.
Myson was clean all of his life, and, when he was younger, a Rod Stewart fun. And he had Tone hair down te here, auburn, all shiny. Now it nail matted and dirty and grey.
His father is sick, and be sent to the Office that he his son. He doesn't understand H Block, becaus he left a long time ago. He doesn't understand that they wan't see anytady.
Traid. 'Son, if anything happens 1o him l1l let you know through Hesaid, That'salright. Because If it micans going off the blanket, ! people HoldE teven go to see you, Mummy, 1said. :And 1 wouldn't ask you son. Don't break your principle for wilt said, No, 1 won't, and never because he speaks in He said, We had a singsong last Trom.
Traid, What were you singing?"
Hesaid, I did my Rod Stewart, and WE BESUS But it's cold because there isn't any Isaid, Are you lying on the floor?
Hesaid, "Yes, [haven't anything to He os about six months now since he has washed himself. They were being beaten constansly. They felt that they just couldn't bruralise them any
was there and describes the experience.
The Founding Conference of the Fdurth described as having taken 'somewhere in Switzerland'. This was for security reasons, In actual fact, WILS formally lauoched in a small room near the Gare du Nord in Paris towards the end of August 1938.
Iwas privileged to be among those -no more than forty people — who attended this His OTIC gathering, representing the Fourth International South (FIOSA). As this International Communist League, I OCTOR DRAGO LEEKS TA delegate.
The founding of the Fourth International took place under vastly different conditions from those in which is three predecessors were CHRYSALIS When Marx and Enge founded class in the advanced capitalist states was emerging from is chrysalis and beginning itself as an independent political foroe challengung the hea class.
TRiC tHons and Working class parties were springing up everywhere penetrate its ranks, giving direction and historical perspective to what had hitherto been only aspirations of the new class The Second International was built on the foundations of the mass social democratic parties which had Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and other countries. Formally it was based on an acceptance of Marxist theory, but the insidious poison of reformism was already seeping into its veins, leading to the ultimale betrayal in August 1914.
The Third (Communist) interna and Trotsky in the wake of the first victorious proletarian revolution the Russian October — on the crest of reflected the growing sterneti and these Internationals self-confidence of the working class.
The Fourth International, in stark contrast, was born in the trough of world reaction. In the first workers state, the Soviet Union, Stalinism had decimated the Bolshevik Party, Its leaders murdered in the frame-up Moscow Trials Leon Trotsky, the outstanding leader October Revolution place forty years ago this month. CHARLIE VAN GELDEREN In Paris that August of 1938. They usually sw themscives as the commuatOrs of place the movement which had begun with Max and Engels. Bo cares oT history, the vanguard of the future.
dominating the conference, was Leon Trotsky. With literally only a handful of followers, he had set himself the carrying Bolshevik beritage, despite the elfort» of the rule class. Lhe stainists. and the reformists to stop him. Africa And what blows he suffered: The physical destruction of his family and the group of comrades in the Sovie Union he had done so much to bring into being; the murder of his ciosest companions in exile, Erwin Wolle, Rudolf Klement, Ignace Reiss — mention only some of the many who fell victim to Stalin's murder squads, determined to strangle the infant new International in it womb.
The then was the atmosphere 1r which we met. Rotthe mood, as I have For we believed firmly that ours was the future.
Some of the participants have not stayed the course. A recital of name would be pointless. nature of their work har internationally organised revolutionaries, growing in strength despite serbacks and shil 3s conden in the future of humanity as the founders of 1938.
HEROIC That first conference many Issues. First there was the safute to our living martyrs and heroic dead; greetings to the anti-fascist fighters in Spain and to Leon Trotsky.
Of course the conference dealt with the current issues which contronted the working class in chose days American imperialism; the tasks of problem of trying to heal the splits among British Trotskyists.
We discussed the Canadian, Circek and Mexican sections and problems which confronted thent; the organisation for the defence and relief of persecuted revolutionaries; and a resolation on youth which called for the formation (The Founding Conference of the new Youth International took place a lew days later and 1 was clected, as Beitish representative, on the crocutive. ALlas, L owing to the imminence of war.)
The coming imperialist war twelve monthsahead — played a large • to butlived the body of the Second International The Transitional Comintern.
Programme is not
Tole of -the needs of the 1970s and not 1938 perennial the need for thie masses and to development of the class strugele.
ADAPTED
Youth workers government, first goverument formulation was shorl-ive to be class consciousness would organise the workers in the scrusale for power combined with a programme to be put into operation of their machismo immediately after the workers took power. This was in contrast to the old of homosexuals minority, educated in straggle.
Programme
therefore emphasised the continuity of the Fourth International with th congresses of Lenin' The importance of the Transitional British section. demandsil contains, though many af the actual them are still very relevant today. It be adapted to the 1938, is What is important is the method of Transitional Programme, the programme which combines a series of slogais fo democratic and transitional demands CENTULISE corresponding to the hoods of tbe the logic of the against this theory where the workers It culminates in the call for a which 15. not synonymous with the dictatorship of the proletariat but is a transitionni.
which has organisational situation and degree of adapted to the masses moment. A programe lacking any perspective for a workers governtent taking anti-capitalist measures is not a The Transitional Prograntue is the which the Fourth process — alas, by no means complete each — of educating the men comrades out In 1938,too, we did not even think oppressod Here, ma, we have been Apari from myself, there were po representatives from the imperialist colonies. The only black delegate present was CLR James who, though born in Trinidad, represented the Today, forty years on, the capitalist world is in mortal crisis, Stalinism, a seemingly indestructible monolith in Driven with contradictions The Stalinist theory of socialism in one country! has proved, as Trotsky predicted, to he a deadly poisun whicl saps the very fibre of the socialis History has demonstrated only too tragically that the Trotskyist struggle was no mere academic exercise. As a direct result of this Stalinist theory we see state have conquered power, the USSR, China, Yugoslavia Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc., a 15,16817 September. The dates to remember for the second other's throats instead combining 1o finally -crush the HE POT BOISE CUCILI Similarly: Stalin's theory of the deselopment revolution through the successive stages of bourgeois-democratic to the socialist phase, or ones to Trotsky's theory permanent revolution, has distorted the resoliction in the 'underdeveloped countries of Africa, Asia and South America into hideous caricature reflections of the deformed revolution in the Sovier Union itself.
Everywhere Stalinism, whether in its Muscovite or Maoist forn, has become a brake on the advance of the world revolution, a counter-revolu tionary foroe which must be destroyed and replaced by the соловів incernationalism which is the sur foundacion on which the Fourth International was founded.
flag of the Fourth International flies bravely. ETONITEL Internationalism and the same firi faith in humanis's future whic Inspired that small gathering in 1936
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stairs Fe Year Plans scre THE FOUNDING Conference of the Fourth International took