Dear colleagues, although I cannot be physically present at this great event, I wanted to communicate, as founder of the Socialist Workers Party and the Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International, with all of you and make a small but common reflection.
To start, I’m going to read a quote from the great book The banished prophetwhich is part of the trilogy by Trotsky’s biographer, Isaac Deutscher, and which goes more or less like this:
“Trotsky, on some occasions, compared the progress of humanity to the march of barefoot pilgrims who advance towards their sanctuary taking only a few steps forward at a time, and then retreating or jumping to one side to advance again and deviate or retreat; thus, zigzagging all the time, they approach painfully towards their goal.
Trotsky thought that his mission was to incite the “pilgrims” to continue advancing. Humanity, however, when after some progress it succumbs to a rout, allows those who urge it to continue its advance to be insulted, defamed and trampled to death. Only when he has resumed his march forward does he pay sad tribute to the victims, treasure their memory and devoutly collect their relic. Then, they thank them for every drop of blood they gave, because they know that with that blood they nourished the seeds of the future.”
There is no better definition of the activity of the entire Trotskyist movement, from before and after Trotsky’s death, than this activity of resilience, with deviations, with marches forward and backward. In a situation in which the labor movement has been defeated on several occasions, Trotskyism, in various variants, has remained, and one of those tendencies—which we are proud to have founded—is the Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International.
We arrive, as other colleagues have said, to this occasion with several triumphs, such as the events in France, in Spain, and this one that begins the Conference. In this we are going to discuss what the real situation is, because it is no longer just about resisting, but about moving forward. The ruling classes have not lost their ferocity, but there is beginning to be a response from the mass movement, as demonstrated by the tendency in Italy towards the general strike. Accordingly, we must raise our organization to the occasion, and that is what this Conference is for.
In my party, the PTS of Argentina, Miriam and Nico have already proposed that this Thursday, when this Conference is in session, we are going to participate in a unity march where the left, according to the newspapers, has marked the field for the General Confederation of Labor, which is the right wing of the faltering Peronist movement, forcing it to call a demonstration.
Within it, as PTS and as a Left Front, we will carry out our United Workers’ Front policy, formulated by the Third International of Lenin and Trotsky. That is to say, we will strike together with the traitors of the CGT, but we will march separately, because it is not just about holding a march, but about having continuity in a struggle that can only culminate with the general strike that defeats Milei’s plan, which is still Trump’s plan, of colonization of our entire continent.
For this, marching with the different detachments that the unions will call, the left will be present and will raise the slogan of setting a date for a strike within the perspective of a general strike that defeats the government.
It is one of the tasks that we have set and I believe that it marks the direction that our organization must follow, not only to build parties in each of our countries, but to reconstruct the world Party of the socialist revolution, the Fourth International.
There is no possibility of any progressive regrouping that does not take into account their program, whatever it is called. Because Trotsky’s great background and theoretical legacy, given not only in his fight against fascism or against capitalism – whatever form it takes – but also against Stalinist degeneration, cannot be missing from any program that is revolutionary and that sows seeds for the future.
In this sense, I wish this Conference success and that it will be a new step forward so that revolutionaries and Trotskyists can impose our mark on the harsh reality of the present.
A hug to all, thank you very much.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
