The 18th World Congress of the Fourth International took place in Belgium at the end of February, seven years after the previous one. It provided an opportunity for in-depth discussion on the global and multifaceted crisis of capitalism, in particular the rise of tensions and militarism, and the responses to be made, in particular with the adoption of an ecosocialist manifesto.
Opening the Congress, the speaker for the outgoing leadership recalled that since the previous congress in 2018 there had been major upheavals in the world - Covid, wars, uprisings, the rise of the far right, deepening ecological crisis which have confronted us with new and difficult challenges. The enforced stop to much militant activity and particularly at the international level forced on us by the Covid pandemic had made preparing this congress particularly challenging as the long process of international discussion and exchange necessary for a collective and multilingual discussion started when we could still only meet online.
Tribute was paid to all comrades lost to the pandemic, to far right violence notably in the Philippines and Brazil, to wars especially in Ukraine, and those comrades forced into exile notably from Hong Kong and Russia.
In particular Congress remembered those who had been closely associated with leadership of the Fourth International who had died since 2018: former presidential candidate and anti-colonial activist Helena Lopes da Silva (Portugal), Tito Prado, leader of Súmate, Peru, Alain Krivine the best-known Fourth Internationalist in France, Rosario Ibarra presidential candidate and human rights activist in Mexico, Marijke Colle a leading ecologist and feminist activist in our ranks from Belgium, Hugo Blanco a legend of the Andean peasant movement, Neil Wijethilaka trade-union and leader in Sri Lanka Ahlem Belhadj a nationally-known feminist leader in Tunisia and Stálin Pérez Borges a trade-union and political leader in Venezuela. Congress commemorated the outstanding FI leader and Marxist economist Ernest Mandel who died in 1995, just thirty years ago.
Around 150 comrades - delegates, members of the outgoing leadership, representatives of sympathizing and Permanent Observer organizations and guests – representing 42 countries and 60 organizations gathered for five and a half days of intensive discussion.1 They all contributed to the discussions, providing a broad view of the world situation.
The participants represented a broad range of ages: while only 8 per cent were under 30 almost 50 per cent were under 50; over half had been activists for less than 20 years. This shows a welcome renewal of our activists.
A militant campaign around the Manifesto for Ecosocialist Revolution
The major event of this congress is therefore the adoption of a manifesto for ecosocialist revolution, which addresses the scale of the crisis of the system, the anti-capitalist slogans to be used to confront this ongoing catastrophe and elements of a blueprint for society. The Manifesto shows the current impasse of the system, as wars and the climate crisis place the whole world in a terrifying, destructive situation that can only be stopped by a revolution that overthrows the mode of production and initiates phenomenal transitions in all areas. In particular, the Manifesto proposes to confront the plundering of the planet and of human beings in particular, emphasising the fact that the richest 1% consume twice as much CO2 as the poorest 50%, which shows both the extent to which capitalists capture wealth and the possibility that human beings can live much better while consuming much less overall than today. The Manifesto takes up and updates historical programme documents such as the Manifesto of the Communist Party and the Transitional Programme. The aim is to attack private ownership of the means of production, reduce working hours, work towards the fulfilment of all, massify free public transport, apply fundamental rights such as access to water, housing, health, etc. as part of a militant project aimed at the self-activity and self-organisation of the working classes.
The Manifesto covers many topics, but there was some debate about whether or not to use the term ‘degrowth’. It was decided by a large majority that we are aiming for ‘global degrowth in the context of combined and uneven development’, which means that on a global scale carbon emissions will have to be drastically reduced, otherwise human life will be in mortal danger, for hundreds of millions of people, particularly in the dominated countries, but that in the latter it will be necessary to continue to increase the capacity to satisfy needs, whether in terms of infrastructure or various goods.
An international activist campaign will be developed around this Manifesto, which we want to disseminate and make widely known, so that it can be a tool for struggles and for the regrouping of revolutionary forces.
A highly violent international situation
The debate on the international situation allowed us to address, in addition to the global crisis of capitalism, the current acceleration of global power relations, which combines a reinforcement of the violent and predatory character of imperialist domination with a rise in tensions between the imperialist powers. We are witnessing wars in some thirty countries around the world, the theft of wealth, a war waged against migrants, widespread attacks on the working classes. The rise of the far right, which has already come to power in many countries, is one of the elements of this rise of peril. The election of Trump has also seen a further acceleration of the situation, of the threats to the exploited and the oppressed. This was discussed in detail, as were the genocide in Palestine and the mobilizations to which we are contributing thanks to him, notably thanks to the presence of a delegate from the Revolutionary Communist Group of Lebanon.
The presence of comrades from Ukraine and Russia also enriched the discussion on the war in Ukraine, which gave rise to differing positions. The resolution that was adopted emphasised the need to support the armed and unarmed resistance of the Ukrainian people in the face of the imperialist attack by Putin's Russia, but also in the face of the liberal attacks by Ukrainian President Zelensky, without trusting the imperialists, who are defending their own interests in this war, as the U-turns of the Trump administration in the United States show. We therefore support the resistance from below and call, for example, for the cancellation of Ukraine's debt as one of the ways to deal with the Russian attack. The alternative resolution, which was rejected, saw the current war essentially as a war between NATO and Russia and, while it also argued for the withdrawal of Russian troops and the right of peoples to self-determination, it refused to see the struggle of Ukraine and the struggle for national liberation as a confrontation with Russia.
No campist position, i.e. defending Russia against the Western imperialists, was defended in the Congress, but nevertheless the International Congress decided to break off relations with Socialist Action, a US organisation that defends such a position.
We also addressed our position vis-à-vis left-wing governments around the world (notably the so-called ‘progressive’ governments in Latin America), to emphasise both that we defend them against attacks from the ruling classes, particularly from the far right, and the need to remain independent of them, especially when they betray the hopes of the working classes and their demands by implementing liberal policies, as is the case in many countries.
Developing common visions
An important document was adopted concerning intervention in social movements and the orientation that we defend in them. We consider it necessary to build them in order to help the proletariat – in its broad definition – to constitute itself as an active class, through unity, which requires both building the movements as they are, with their limitations, learning from them, and defending our own positions, in a respectful and democratic way. In particular, we fight against bureaucratic excesses and defend self-organization, but also independence from the state, an internationalist vision, the fight against oppression, while raising the question of power - who rules.
Finally, the document on building the International deals with concrete aspects of the construction of the International and its organizations. It recalls the objective of our International, which is ‘the construction of revolutionary mass parties and a revolutionary mass International’ and, in view of the complex state of the world and the truth in the situations of the organizations of the workers' movement and the interventions of the sections of the International, the text develops proposals that should enable us to strengthen our political coherence, our understanding of the world and therefore our ability to work in the same direction despite the differences between our interventions. Thus, we plan to strengthen our capacities to meet, our capacities to publish our analyses and positions - particularly on the Internet - and to strengthen our educational institutes (Amsterdam, Manila, Islamabad). We also note that the need for an international organization is being felt due to both the difficulties of the situation and the huge mobilizations that are taking place very regularly around the world, and in which we are involved: in India, Algeria, Europe, Brazil, the United States, the Philippines, Ukraine and many other countries.
The congress also saw a substantial strengthening of the International. In Brazil, this provoked a very tough debate due to the opposition of several of the organisation's components to the entry of the Movement of the Socialist Left (MES). We will continue to work to overcome this tension, notably around the project of an edition of Inprecor in Brazilian/Portuguese. However, we have thus recorded the recognition or expansion of several sections, representing an increase in global membership of around 27%: Marabunta and Poder Popular together in Argentina, Anti*Capitalist Resistance and ecosocialist.scot jointly forming the British section, MES entering the Brazilian section, Radical Socialist in India, Solidarity in the United States, and the intention of the NPA-L'Anticapitaliste as a whole to strengthen the Fourth International in France.
Despite the difficulties of the situation, we can therefore analyse this convergence of forces as a sign of the possibilities for strengthening the role of revolutionaries in helping to respond to the crisis of the system.
17 March 2025
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The countries represented were: from Africa: Algeria, Morocco, South Africa; from Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Philippines, Sri Lanka; from Europe: Austria, Belgium, Britain [England/Wales and Scotland], Denmark, France, Germany, Greece (2 delegations), Ireland, Italy (2 delegations), Netherlands, Norway, Portugal (2 delegations), Russia, Spanish state, Sweden, Switzerland, (2 delegations) Turkey, Ukraine; from Latin America Argentine (2 delegations), Brazil (9 delegations), Colombia, Mexico (4 delegations), Panama (2 delegations), Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela; from the Middle East Lebanon, and from North America: Canada and the USA (3 delegations). Organizations from Bangladesh, the French Antilles, Ecuador and Australia were unable to attend.