THE reformist parties in Europe like Labour Party political instruments of the labour bureaucrats to keep control of the working class. The revolutions between 1917 and 1923 demonstrated the need for new mass revolutionary parties in each country of the type Lenin built in Russia as part of a new, world party of socialist revolution. The Third, Communist, International was built in the wake of the victorious Russian Revolution. Leon Trotsky The Third International was immediately forced to grapple with a problem which is still tre centrar one for marxists today. After the betrayals of the revolutions in Europe the ad vance of the working class had halted. illusions in the old parties were reinforced and the Communists found themselves a tiny minority almost everywhere. How could mass parties be built in this situation?
The Fourth World Congress of the Third International, guided by Lenin and Trotsky front. This tactic is still a central policy of the Fourth International, the world party founded by Trotsky after the Thra interatonal hao degenerated and been bureaucratised by Stain are the main common class enemy.
through thei blems tion rather The hopelessly the bureaucracy.
Socialist Challenge ARGUMENTS for SOCIALISM The tactic of the united front is based on the understanding that as the workers' move the capitalist enemy it instinctively seeks te maxiruse its unity and strength. If difference on programme prevent fusion of the workind class parties then the minimum demand of workers is their joint action against the The united front aims to show the worker.
own experience of struggle which programme, and theretore wich pal ty. genuinely expresses this need for workin class unity. Marxists seek unity in action wi the roformist leaders against the capitalists on the best possible terms. But even when the bureaucrats initiate such actions under thei own reformist slogans the Marxists support the actions while simultaneously advancing the revolutionary answers to the workers pro The marspensible condition for Marxists entering into a united front is their complete freedom to advance their own ideas, avoing me most ruiness concism of the "partners' in action whenever necessary. This is one reason why a revolutionary newspaper. like Socialist Challenge, is so important for building a revolutionary party The reformists are only exposed wher tested out as leaders by the mass movement The united front tactic is applied to the ques of government this Therefore in Britain Marxists fight for a than Tory government Elsewhere in Europe the slogan of a Com munist Party and Socialist Party government is often raised by other sections of the Fourth International for the same reason The workers! council, or soviet, is the Jughest form of the united front as it organises the whole of the working class in the struggle for power. But historical experience shows that soviets are not enough by themselves.
revolution succeeded in Hussr because the party was built to a point where it could lead the united front embodied in the soviets. To be successfully applied the united front tactic needs the revolutionary party to be built openly at the same time. • Correction. In the 18 February issue ar unfortunate editing error occurred in The Labour Bureaucracy Today. A key sentence in the article spoke of the labour aristocracy when it ought to have said bureaucracy. The whole point of the article was to show how the old labour aristocracy was replaced by 4 March 1982 page 11
Solidarity with Solidarnosc tour JEAN-YVES POTEL, French Trotskyist