Bensaïd focuses on the third question in his outline: How to establish a new international? He discusses the first five years of building the FI. For Trotsky, founding of a new international was less a declaration than forming a unity of different forces and trends. Bensaïd depicts the situation of the forces in the 1933 and the situation of the Left Opposition internationally in the 1933. In the second part of the recording, he discusses the fusions. He describes the "modern centrism" concept of Trotsky - between social democracy, Stalinism, and revolutionary Marxism. He then takes up the question of the united front, the inclusion of mass organisations and agreement on a general political line. He discusses examples of 68 France, and Spain in the end of 1970s.
Audio
Duration: 93:22
History of the 4th international (1933-1938) - the aimis to understand what battles we come from and what is the programmatic heritage that we have. Bensaïd provides contextual information regarding the foundation of the FI, and introduces the discussion along the axis of five questions/subheadings: 1- Why a new international is necessary? 2- What basis, what is the programme to build this new international? 3-How to establish a new international? 4- What are the problems of its building and how Trotsky himself discussed them along problems of centrism-fusions, and problem of entryism in mass parties. 5- Results and conclusions. In this first part of the recording, Bensaïd focuses on the first question and talks about the degeneration of the Second International and Third International, and the "historic tests" that evidenced the impossibility of their re-generation. He contextualises the foundational years of the FI and continues with a discussion of the programmatic basis. He describes for what the programme stands, and in terms of strategy, he goes thorough the Eleven Points, underlining the necessity to adapt them to present conditions and learn from them to evaluate present conditions.
Audio
Duration: 42:52
Bensaïd focuses on polemical aspects of Leninist theory of organisation, and starts with a discussion of two Leninist positions. Firstly, the Leninist theory of organisation represents a very historic moment in the history of working class, where the political party tends to dissolve itself in the social organisation of the proletariat. The ideas of Lenin entail a distinction between party and class. Dictatorship of the proletariat, trade unions, working class and party do not mean the the same in Lenin's thought. Bensaïd here touches upon the difference between Leninism and Bolshevism, and elaborates on the fight between Leninism and the Second International. The ambiguity in the 1st Congress of the Comintern: On the one hand, the Party as an organisation of all workers organisations including the soviets (subordinated politically and organisationally to the party), at the same time, as the party is a vanguard party, it is just one part of the soviet. Therefore, the party is only part of and subordinate to the soviets. Secondly, the Leninist concept of party as a vanguard party, selected party, doesn't eliminate at all the question of a mass party.
In discussing this position, Bensaïd sets out two levels of action: the problem of political independence of the working class for building workers party remains a task. He gives the example of Guatemala and the militarist organisation versus the Leninist organisation of a party. He sees the solution in auto-organisation in the party at different levels. He concludes by underlining that the degree of centralisation can change, the members can change, the system -as it shows the political conditions- can change; whereas, the difference between party and class should be maintained.
Audio
Duration: 39:24
In this lecture, Bensaïd provides a general survey of the conditions for building a revolutionary proletarian party. He begins with a discussion of Marx's and Engels's points on the party question. He later focuses on Leninist concept of party, and concludes with clarifications of some ambiguities of Leninism valid for today.
Audio
Duration: 91:42
Dear friends of the IIRE,
The IIRE's upcoming Ecosocialist School this November is looking to become again a truly internationalist activity with participants from five continents. Participants are coming from Haiti, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Colombia, India, Belgium, Netherlands, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries.
Participants in the schools have described them as 'very rich and important places' to 'form an internationalist perspective' and as valuable opportunities to learn from 'struggles of the peoples from around the globe'. The international attention for the school shows it fulfills a need of activists to discuss strategy, exchange views and prepare a long term engagement for a more just and sustainable world.
At the same time, this global participation poses another challenge for us. The increase of participants and the wider reach of the school also mean an increase in the money needed. Participating organizations make large contributions to the travel costs but social movements from the Global South need our solidarity to make the most of their participation. That is why we appeal to everyone to contribute to the school with donations large and small. Your money will help to make possible the participation of activists from the Global South who contribute an essential perspective to our social justice movements.
Contributions can be made out to:
SOWS (Stichting voor Onderzoek naar en Vorming in het Wetenschappelijk Socialisme)
Address: Postbus 1962
1000 BZ Amsterdam
Account number: 1039161
IBAN : NL55INGB0001039161
BIC: INGBNL2A
Bank: ING
Postbus 1800
1102 BW
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
(please mark your donations as 'school')
You can find recordings of our previous sessions on iire.org.
Support the IIRE
To make a continued extension of the work of the IIRE possible, we have launched a call for people to support us with a monthly donation. One hundred people donating 25 euro monthly would ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the IIRE, enabling the staff to further develop our effort to renew socialist thought through seminars and schools, educating new generations of activists and continuing and expanding our publication line. As a thank you, everyone who donates at least 25 euro per month will receive a free subscription to all the IIRE publications serie. Donations can be made out to the above account. Please contact us if you want to receive our Notebooks.
Teaching
Research
Publications
Advocacy/public scholarship
Women’s Seminar 2015 assembled successfully at IIRE from 4th to 8th July. Organized by the women’s commission of the Fourth International , the seminar was attended by 30 women from 12 countries. Apart from Western European countries, there were participants from Philippines, Mexico, and the USA. The participants came from wide range of ages, from 17 to 70.
The program started with country reports and continued with rich presentations and discussions on key topics for socialist feminists. Women’s oppression in a class society, the link between exploitation and oppression, intersectionality, domestic labour, experiences of autonomous women’s movement, how to feminise our organizations in terms of fighting sexism and sexual aggression and strengthening women’s role in the organizations and leadership were the main subjects that were discussed thoroughly by participants.
The Women’s seminar 2015 was made possible partly by the solidarity campaign launched at our website in early spring 2015 (see ). The Commission already started to work on the next women’s seminar. Audio files from the seminar and selection from the reading materials will be added soon.
In sisterhood,
IIRE
The Institut International de Recherches et de Formation (IIRF) or in English International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE), is a Belgian Non Profit International Association. It was founded by Ernest Mandel and has been recognized as an International Scientific and Non Profit Association by Royal decree on 11 June 1981.
The IIRF is being registered in Brussels, Belgian at the Kruispuntbank nr. 421632274.
In Amsterdam the IIRF/IIRE is registered at the Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam nr. 34242044, as congress and study centre, as well as organiser of education sources, seminars, conferences and research. The VAT number of the IIRF is: NL 8153.35.210.B01.
The IIRF has members and a board.
The present board members are:
| Joost Kircz | - Chairman |
| Marijke Colle | - Secretary |
| Penelope Duggan | - Member |
Historian Jan Willem Stutje has published on the Dutch and international workers movement. Stutje has written the biography of the Dutch communist Paul de Groot (Paul de Groot, De man die de weg wees). His biography of Ernest Mandel (Ernest Mandel, Rebel tussen droom en daad) was translated into German and English. In May 2012 he published the biography of Dutch socialist pioneer Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis.
