User:Covoxkid/Committee for a Workers' International (2019)

The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), sometimes referred to as the Refounded CWI, is an international association of Trotskyist political parties. The organization in its current form originated out of the 2019 split of the Committee for a Workers' International (1974), which also produced the International Socialist Alternative and International Revolutionary Left. It currently has seventeen member organizations^[1] across six continents.

History

The Committee for a Workers' International (1974) was founded in 1974 by members of the Militant tendency.

Split

In 2018 and 2019, a dispute developed in around the questions of socialism, opportunism, and identity politics,^[2][3] the role of the trade unions and the working-class movement, and the methods and tactics that Marxists should use to organize internationally, which ultimately led to multifaceted split. These tensions divided the highest governing bodies of the CWI, the International Executive Committee (IEC) and the International Secretariat (IS).

In late 2018, the IS was informed of an unauthorized access of an Irish comrade's personal accounts by a member of the leadership of the Irish section^[4]. The incident had occurred in mid-July, but the IS had not been informed until September 2018. The IS condemned the hack, and raised criticisms of the handling of the incident by the Irish NEC, who had conducted themselves without discussing with the IS or even without the agreement of the full Irish NEC.^[5] The debate quickly expanded to include issues over opportunism, identity politics, and women's oppression, criticisms raised of the Irish section by the IS as far back as 2016, that had been heightened by increasing tensions in the organization.^[6]

As this conflict grew to include more and more of the international, supporters of the IS formed the IDWCTCWI faction at the December 2018 meeting of the IEC, to defend "the correct orientation that will allow [the CWI] to successfully face up to the challenges of the next period."^[7] Refusing to declare a faction, the remaining IEC members who supported the Irish section were referred to as the "Non-Faction Faction", or the NFF.^[8]

A Special Congress of the Socialist Party (England and Wales) voted by a margin of 173 to 35 to support the faction and sponsor an international faction conference, held from July 22nd to July 25th, 2019^[9]. The conference was attended by delegates from thirteen countries.^[10] The conference voted to "reconstitute the CWI as a revolutionary Trotskyist working class international", electing to continue use of the name as "the defenders of the methods, tradition and programme that [the CWI] was founded on in 1974."^[11] The Portuguese, Mexican, Spanish, and Venezuelan sections, former members of Izquierda Revolucionaria who had merged with the CWI in 2017, originally sided with the IDWCTCWI faction, but eventually left the CWI to form the International Revolutionary Left. The remaining members were de-facto expelled from the organization, constituting an estimated third of its membership.^[12] This group, the so-called "NFF", declared itself the CWI Majority in August 2019 and renamed itself International Socialist Alternative in February 2020.^[13][14]

In September 2019, a faction in the Workers and Socialist Party, who had sided with the NFF, split to form the Marxist Workers Party, rejoining the CWI.^[15] The same month, the pro-CWI faction of Socialist Alternative (Germany) split to form Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität (Sol), also rejoining the international.^[16]

In November 2019, a faction in Socialist Alternative (United States), split over what they saw as a rightward movement of SA leadership, especially in relation to the Democratic Party. This new organization, the Independent Socialist Group (ISG), voted unanimously in February 2020 to rejoin the international.^[17]

2020 & On

In June 2020, supporters of the CWI in Ireland relaunched their organization as Militant Left.^[18] The organization holds one seat in the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council as of January 2021.^[19]

In July 2020, the Socialist Party of England and Wales relaunched the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition,^[20] and at a conference in September agreed to resume standing candidates, starting in May 2021.^[21]

Structure

The CWI continues the democratic centralist structure as established since the organization's founding in 1974. The international consists of sections, parties that organize on a national basis. Party members are affiliated on a local basis with their branch, the basic unit of the party. There are three leadership bodies in the party:

This structure is reflected in the international, with the World Congress consisting of delegates elected from sections, the International Executive Committee (IEC) consisting of delegates elected by the congress, and the International Secretariat (IS) acting as the day-to-day leadership of the organization. As this is an organization on an international scale, the World Congress meets every three to five years, and the IEC meets every year.^[22]

Sections

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Theoretical works Terrorism and Communism (1920) Literature and Revolution (1924) New Course (1924) Lessons of October (1924) History of the Russian Revolution (1930) The Revolution Betrayed (1936) Transitional Program (1938) Thesis of Pulacayo (1946) The Stalinist Legacy (1984) The Dilemmas of Lenin (2017)
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Parties Current Internationalist Workers' Left (Greece) Lanka Sama Samaja Party Lutte Ouvrière Organisation of Communist Internationalists People Before Profit Socialist Action (Hong Kong) Socialist Alternative (Australia) Socialist Alternative (U.S.) Socialist Equality Party (U.S.) Socialist Party (England and Wales) Socialist Workers Party (UK) The Struggle Pakistan Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Workers' Cause Party Workers' Left Front Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) Historical Bolshevik–Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma Communist League of America International Marxist Group International Socialist Organization League for Socialist Action (Canada) Militant tendency Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1944) Socialist Appeal (UK, 1992) Socialist Workers Party (U.S.) Young Socialist Alliance Workers Party of the United States
Internationals Current Committee for a Workers' International (refounded) Fourth International (post-reunification) International Committee of the Fourth International International Communist League International Revolutionary Left International Socialist Alternative International Socialist Tendency International Workers' League Internationalist Communist Union League for the Fourth International Revolutionary Communist International Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International Historical Committee for a Workers' International (1974–2019) Fourth International Fourth International Posadist Permanent Revolution Revolutionary Workers Ferment
Related topics Campism Chavismo Democracy in Marxism Fifth International Johnson–Forest Tendency Leon Trotsky bibliography List of Trotskyist internationals List of Trotskyist organizations by country Maoism Marxism–Leninism Orthodox Marxism Shachtmanism Socialist economics Socialist Equality Party Socialist Worker Stalinism
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References

External links

• "CWI website".

Category:Committee for a Workers' International Category:Trotskyist political internationals