International Socialist Notes (9 September 1946) (original) (raw)

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E.G.

(9 September 1946)


From Labor Action, Vol. 10 No. 36, 9 September 1946, p. 6.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.


We are, with this issue, changing the title of this column from Fourth International Notes to International Socialist Notes. The purpose of this change is to permit us a broader reference to socialist and working class activities among the peoples of the world. As partisans of the Fourth International (Trotskyist) movement, we will of course continue to give primary emphasis to the activities of the Trotskyist organizations internationally. We wish, however, to include in our column reports on socialist activity generally, or activity that is socialist in its objective meaning as reflecting the struggle of the working class against capitalism or Stalinism.

For Trotskyist Unity in the U.S.

As reported in last week’s Labor Action, the French Trotskyist Party (PCI) is preparing for its national convention. Various resolutions will come before the convention, including resolutions on the Russian Question. One group in the party is developing a point of view on Russia similar to that of the Workers Party. This same group has introduced a resolution which reads as follows:

“In the U.S. we believe that the fusion (of the Socialist Workers Party) with the Workers Party is an urgent task. To prevent that organization from joining the Fourth International is to deny the possibility of collaboration by comrades having different points of view on Russia. We recall the fact that Trotsky in 1937 was for the maintenance of unity in the French POI (former name of the PCI) between majority and minority on the defense of the USSR. We protest against the decisions of the International Secretariat and the lack of information of the comrades of the International on this question and demand the rapid realization of the unification of the Trotskyists in the U.S., with this sole reservation: that all tendencies accept tlic necessary organizational discipline.” (This the Workers Party takes for granted.)

La Verité Publishes Special Strike Issue

The PCI put out a special edition of its newspaper. La Verité, in support of the postal strike reported in this column last week and elsewhere in this issue of Labor Action. The PCI also sent telegrams of support to the strikers. Comrade Arpin writes that:

“A number of Postal, Telegraph and Telephone workers, including former Communist Party men, have written in to La Verité praising the PCI for its stand and many have asked for application blanks in the only party that carries on the struggle for labor’s interests.”

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