Mexico
70th anniversary of the Fourth International
11/09/2008
Big meeting in the Casa Museo León Trotsky in commemoration of the
70th anniversary of the Fourth International
Mexico City, 5 Sept 2008: Almost 100 people gathered on September 4
to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Fourth
International. With the auditorium of the Casa Museo León Trotsky
completely filled, students, young people and workers responded to
the invitation of the Liga de Trabajadores por el Socialismo -
Contracorriente (LTS-CC). Comrades from the Sindicato de Trabajadores
de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, who are waging a big
struggle for the democratization of their organization, were with us,
as well as city workers from Ecatepec in the state of Mexico, for
whom employment is uncertain, comrades from la Hoja Obrera and from
various factories in the Distrito Federal. Left-wing students from
UNAM, who have been setting up independent committees in different
departments, to defend Mexico’s oil, as well as members of the
student committee in the law school, also attended. We received
greetings from the university group En Clave Revolucionaria, the
youth group Barricada, from Mexico state, and from the different
sections of the Fracción Trotskista Cuarta Internacional, as well as
from the Centro de Estudios, Investigaciones y Publicaciones León
Trotsky [CEIP], from Argentina. Comrades from different organizations, like El Militante, Oposición de Izquierda, the group Acción Revolucionaria, and the Grupo Internacionalista, were also present.
During the meeting, videos about some historic processes of struggle,
like the 1934 Minneapolis Strike, the Russian Revolution, and the
struggle of the Bolivian miners, were shown.
Speeches were given by Pablo Oprinari, member of the Editorial
Committee of the magazine Estrategia Internacional, Mario Caballero,
a leader and founder of the LTS-CC, and Jimena Mendoza, Coordinator
of the Cátedra Libre Karl Marx at UNAM and also a leader of the LTS-
CC.
In the speeches, Pablo Oprinari spoke about the process of founding
the Fourth International in its historical context, and he recovered
the historical memory of the revolutionary Marxists, who, in very
adverse conditions, knew how to continue in the principles of
Bolshevism, put program and theory into practice, in spite of
persecutions from fascism and Stalinism, and lay the foundations of a
new organization of the international working class. Mario Caballero
referred to the relevance of lessons from the Fourth International
and of Trotsky’s theoretical and political thought, for understanding
Latin American reality and struggling to set up revolutionary parties
in semi-colonial countries. For her part, Jimena Mendoza concluded
the meeting by describing the evolution of the international
Trotskyist movement up to the outcome of the Second World War, and
its subsequent development; she also vindicated the validity of
struggling for the rebuilding of the Fourth International by
combating those within the movement who are advancing toward the
dissolution of the socialist program. Finally, we invited those
present, many of whom share with the LTS daily activism in
universities, neighborhoods and work centers, to discuss the bases
for building a superior revolutionary organization in Mexico, as part
of the fight for rebuilding the World Party of Socialist Revolution.
This event is part of a constant practice, by the LTS-CC and our
entire international tendency, the FT, of raising high the banners of
Trotskyism, the revolutionary Marxism of our time.
Finally, with our left fists raised, we who were present sang the
Internationale, the anthem of the world working class.
Press Secretariat - LTS-CC
Translation by Yosef M.
