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The political fraud of International Viewpoint’s statement on Ukraine

On March 2, International Viewpoint, a web site that posts statements of pseudo-left organizations that comprise the remnants of the former Pabloite United Secretariat, issued a pro-imperialist declaration on the events in the Ukraine. It claimed that this statement had been “adopted by the International Committee of the Fourth International.”

The attribution of this statement to the International Committee is a political provocation whose purpose is to discredit Trotskyism by associating it with the right-wing politics of the neo-Pabloite organizations. It is an example of what is known in imperialist intelligence circles as a “false flag” operation.

This statement advances a political line that has absolutely nothing in common with socialist politics and the Trotskyist principles advocated by the ICFI. The reactionary declaration employs cynical and deceitful arguments that are intended to legitimize the regime-change operations of the US State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The ICFI publishes the World Socialist Web Site. We must warn the readers of the WSWS and all those who look to the ICFI for political guidance: Any statement purporting to be authored by the International Committee that has not been published and posted by the World Socialist Web Site should be viewed as a political fabrication.

The political history of the International Committee of the Fourth International is well known and thoroughly documented. The ICFI was formed in November 1953 as a result of a split with the revisionist International Secretariat, which was led at the time by Michel Pablo and Ernest Mandel. Ten years later, the organizations associated with the Pabloite International Secretariat reconstituted themselves as the United Secretariat.

The political divisions between the Pabloite organization and the ICFI were clearly drawn and are a matter of historical record.

Beginning in 2003, after innumerable political splits within the Pabloite movement, International Viewpoint began issuing statements that appeared, without explanation, under the byline of the International Committee.

There were two reasons for this illegal appropriation of the name of the only organization that bases itself on the revolutionary socialist principles of the Fourth International. First, the name of the United Secretariat had been thoroughly discredited by decades of unbridled opportunism. Many of these operations were so alien to anything resembling socialist politics that they fairly reeked of state-intelligence involvement. Second, the leaders of the Pabloite organization were anxious to discredit the International Committee of the Fourth International, whose influence had grown rapidly since the launching of the World Socialist Web Site in February 1998.

The statement on Ukraine is intended to legitimize the imperialist-backed coup in Kiev. While acknowledging that “the main organized political forces [in the Ukraine opposition movement] are, for now, from the right and the far right,” the statement declares that “we support the social and political forces which are trying to build a left opposition within that movement.”

The new regime, the statement concedes, “has no progressive programme on democratic, national and social issues and lacks a workers’ movement.” Yet it is precisely this movement, dominated by fascists, with which the authors of this statement declare their solidarity and within which they propose to work.

The political line and dubious operations of International Viewpoint have nothing to do with Trotskyism, the Fourth International or socialism. Its fraudulent use of the name of the International Committee is a political provocation that is directed against the working class and international socialism.

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