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Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International

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The Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International (WIRFI) was a Trotskyist international organisation. It was established in the United Kingdom in 1990, following a split from the Workers Revolutionary Party.[1] It was considered part of the radical branch of Trotskyism, and was led by Bob Archer. It ceased operation in 2015.[2]

History

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In 1985 the Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) (WRP) underwent a fragmentation which split the organization apart.[3] Initially the organization split into two: with the WRP remaining under the leadership of Sheila Torrence and the newly created Workers Press being established by Cliff Slaughter.[4] Infighting continued to divide and fracture these groups, and ultimately, seven new organizations formed out of this split, one of which was the Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International (WIRFI).[3]

The WIRFI was founded in 1990 under the leadership of Bob Archer.[2] The prominent British economist Geoff Pilling was one of the organization's founding members,[5] and Dot Gibson served as the longtime secretary of the organization. The WIRFI initially had support in the Workers Revolutionary Party (Namibia) and a South African section which renamed itself WIRFI and took 5,481 votes in the 1994 South African general election, as well as Michel Varga's Group of Opposition and Continuity of the Fourth International.

The majority of the South African section left the international in 1996 and renamed itself the Workers International Vanguard League.[6]

Following the WRP(WP)'s dissolution and reconstitution as the Movement for Socialism (Britain), Gibson and Bob Archer led the remainder of the international in splitting from Slaughter.

The organisation retained its British section and has the support of the WRP of Namibia and remnants of the South African group. It publishes the "Workers International Journal".

In Britain, the group's supporters were active in the Socialist Alliance and then the Democracy Platform of that grouping. By 2004 they had also become involved with the Liverpool-based Campaign for a Mass Workers Party and its offshoot, the United Socialist Party.

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Kelly 2018, p. 243.
  2. ^ a b Kelly 2018, Chapter: "Trotsky and the Origins of Trotskyism".
  3. ^ a b Kelly 2022, Chapter 3: The Current State of World Trotskyism.
  4. ^ McLaughlin 1991, p. 365.
  5. ^ Gibbard 2013, p. 1-5.
  6. ^ "Andrew Nash on South Africa: Is the Revolution Over?". Archived from the original on 2004-08-09. Retrieved 2006-06-29.

Bibliography

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  • Banks, Arthur S.; Day, Alan J. (2016). Political Handbook of the World 1998. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 9781349149513.
  • Bell, Paul; Schwartz, Pat (1995). An End to Waiting: The Story of South Africa's Elections, 26 April to 6 May 1994. South Africa Independent Electoral Commission. ISBN 9780620186254.
  • Gibbard, Keith (2013). "Introduction". In Pilling, Doria (ed.). Marxist Political Economy: Essays in Retrieval: Selected Works of Geoff Pilling. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781136261275.
  • Hippe, Oskar (1991). And Red is the Colour of Our Flag: Memories of Sixty Years in the Workers' Movement. Indexreach. ISBN 9781871518023.
  • Kelly, John (2018). Contemporary Trotskyism: Parties, Sects and Social Movements in Britain. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317368946.
  • Kelly, John (2023). The Twilight of World Trotskyism. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781000816457.
  • McLaughlin, Martin (1991). "The Working Class and Imperialist War: An Answer To the WRP Renegades". In Workers League (U.S.) (ed.). Desert Slaughter: The Imperialist War Against Iraq. Detroit: Labor Publications, Inc.
  • Ngo, Van (1995). Revolutionaries They Could Not Break: The Fight for the Fourth International in Indochina 1930-1945. Indexreach. ISBN 9781871518078.
  • Pilling, Doria; Iida, Kazuto; Gibson, Dot; Ibrahimović, Faruk (2013). "Recollections". In Pilling, Doria (ed.). Marxist Political Economy: Essays in Retrieval: Selected Works of Geoff Pilling. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781136261275.
  • Schlemmer, Lawrence; Johnson, Richard William, eds. (1996). Launching Democracy in South Africa: The First Open Election, April 1994. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300063912.
  • Vogt-Downey, Marilyn, ed. (1993). The USSR 1987-1991: Marxist Perspectives. Humanities Press. ISBN 9780391037724.

See also

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