The 1985-1986 split in the ICFI with the Workers Revolutionary Party

In 1985, after a protracted process of political degeneration, the Workers Revolutionary Party, the British section of the ICFI, broke decisively from Trotskyism. Documents written contemporaneously in the course of the struggle within the International Committee demonstrated that the political collapse of the WRP was the outcome of its retreat and betrayal of the principles of genuine Trotskyism that it had previously defended, and its adaptation to Pabloite opportunism.

The struggle waged within the ICFI against the WRP leadership from 1982-1986 ensured the continuity of orthodox Trotskyism and of the ICFI. In this page, readers can find the major documents of this struggle.

Fourth International Magazine V. 13 N. 2 (1986)

How the Workers Revolutionary Party Betrayed Trotskyism

This statement of the ICFI was written in August, 1986, in the immediate aftermath of the split with the Workers Revolutionary Party. It provides a detailed analysis of the causes and consequences of the political degeneration of the WRP over more than a decade, and its betrayal of Trotskyist principles.

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Fourth International Magazine V. 13 N. 2 (1986)

The ICFI Defends Trotskyism

This volume of Fourth International, then the quarterly theoretical journal of the ICFI, contains the original documents of the struggle waged within the ICFI against the WRP leadership.

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David North, 1987

The Heritage We Defend: A Contribution to the History of the Fourth International

This work was written as a polemic against Michael Banda, the former WRP General Secretary, and his document, “27 Reasons why the International Committee Should be Buried Forthwith and the Fourth International Built.” It establishes the continuity of the fight for orthodox Trotskyism in the political conflicts that arose inside the Fourth International in the 20th Century.

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Socialist Equality Party 2019 Lecture Series

Origins and Consequences of the 1982-1986 Split in the ICFI

These lectures address the history of the ICFI from 1982-1995: from the initial formulation of a detailed critique of the Workers Revolutionary Party’s revisions of the theory and program of Trotskyism, to the decision to transform the leagues of the ICFI into parties.

All lectures

From the Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party

David North, 1989

Gerry Healy and His Place in the History of the Fourth International

Gerry Healy (1913-1989) was a longtime leader of the Fourth International, whose struggle in the British and international Trotskyist movement spanned five decades, until his break with the International Committee in 1985. This book contains a critical Marxist assessment of the life of Healy and its relationship to the historical development of the Fourth International.

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Marxism, Opportunism and the Balkan Crisis

The following statement was originally published by the International Committee of the Fourth International in 1994, in the midst of the 1992-95 civil war in Bosnia. In light of the present NATO bombardment of Serbia, the issues addressed below—the history of the Balkan region, the attempts made to free it from manipulation by the major imperialist powers, and the struggle of the Marxists to unite workers of all ethnic and religious backgrounds to establish a socialist federation—have an immense and immediate significance.

International Committee Fourth International•7 May 1994

How the WRP joined the NATO camp

Imperialist war in the Balkans and the decay of the petty-bourgeois left

Fifty years after the end of World War II, the great powers are once again embarked on a violent redivision of the world. This is the significance of the intervention by the United States and Western Europe into the four-year-old conflict caused by the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

International Committee Fourth International•14 December 1995