By Adolfo Santos
From 10 to 13 December 2020, the IWU-FI, the International Workers’ Unity-Fourth International, held on line its VII World Congress. It was a successful task for the quality of the documents; the contributions made during the pre-Congress period, and the intense debates made. We crowned the effort of collective elaboration pursued along several months. We want to highlight the open character of this Congress that had groups and leaders of several countries, apart from the party members and sympathisers of the organisation.
The sessions began with a proposal for an honorary presidency. We named it after Leon Trotsky, eighty years after his assassination; Frederick Engels, 200 years after his birth; the revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East on the tenth anniversary of their beginning, and the struggle of the Chilean people in the name of all struggles against imperialism and capitalist governments. Afterwards, comrade Gabriel Schwerdt (a member of the International Executive Committee) gave an official report of the delegations taking part, their delegates and guests, and read the greetings addressed to the Congress.
The debate begins
The first topic was World Situation, based on a document and its updating reports written at the beginning of the pandemic. Comrade Miguel Sorans, a leader of Socialist Left of Argentina and a leader of the IEC referred to the wave of revolutionary upswing that has been growing since 2019 and the deep economic crisis, aggravated by the pandemic which imperialism cannot overcome by the struggles of the world workers’ and people’s movement (see page 13). There were a lot of discussion and important contributions that helped to clarify even more the characteristics of the situation, the opportunities that are opened for us revolutionaries, and how to act in front of the concrete processes in order to use them better. As a part of the world situation, China and Russia were also specifically discussed based on a report presented by comrade Miguel Angel Hernandez, a member of the IEC and the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL) of Venezuela.
Another topic for discussion was climate crisis. Based on an extensive document written by the International Central Committee, comrade Miguel Lamas from the IEC and ARPT (Revolutionary Alternative for the Working People) Bolivia submitted the report. We held a broad debate with many comrades who show great interest and made several contributions during the pre-Congress period. The richness of the debate contributes to a series of proposals that we incorporated into the final resolutions. We also approved to hold a 2012 on-line conference to spread information on the approved document, “The catastrophe that haunts us and how to fight it”, and to broaden the debate on this important topic.
A positive appraisal
On Saturday 12th, the Congress devoted itself to debate on the organisation Balance and Orientation. After the report of comrade Joseph Lluis, a member of the IEC and the Internationalist Struggle of the Spanish State, the main conclusion of the different sections was that, since the previous congress, the IWU-FI has strengthened both politically and organisationally. The congress itself was a demonstration of that, from the level of the documents, the tenor of the debate, the growth in the number of militants and the extension achieved, shown in the number of groups and leaders from participating countries.
On the last day, after discussing and voting on a series of resolutions dealing with specific issues on political campaigns, an emotional closing was held by singing The International in different languages. The four days of intense debates and collective elaboration, with clear resolutions to implement in the national sections, added to the participation of new leaders and militants, and new groups willing to rebuild the Fourth International, allows us to say that it was a successful task.
