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Mehring Books UK publishes The Heritage We Defend 30th anniversary edition

Mehring Books UK is proud to announce the publication of the 30th anniversary edition of The Heritage We Defend: A Contribution to the History of the Fourth International by David North.

This new edition of the foundational 1988 work by David North, chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, is now available for order (post free) in the UK and Ireland. It contains a new preface and glossary, as well as a photo section.

The Heritage We Defend is a history of the Fourth International during the half century following the assassination of its founder, Leon Trotsky, in 1940. Originally published in 1988, this book reviews the issues of theory, politics and principle that confronted the Fourth International during World War II and the post-war era. It remains the only account of the history of the Fourth International that employs the Marxist method of historical materialism in explaining the emergence of political tendencies and the struggle between them.

Rejecting the subjective approach that proceeds from the characteristics of individual leaders, good or bad, and their motives, noble or ignoble, The Heritage seeks to identify the objective social and political processes—arising from the contradictions of world capitalism and the global and national development of the class struggle during and in the aftermath of the second imperialist world war—that underlay the conflicts within the Fourth International.

This history places central emphasis not on the subjectively conceived intentions of the main political actors—James P. Cannon, Michel Pablo, Ernest Mandel and Gerry Healy—but, rather, on the real objective driving forces of the class struggle, which, to borrow the words of Engels, “in the minds of the acting masses and their leaders—the so-called great men—are reflected as conscious motives …”

The Heritage We Defend remains an unsurpassed introduction to the history of the Trotskyist movement and obligatory reading for anyone seeking to understand Marxist theory and practice in the present period of capitalist crisis and intensifying class struggle.

Order your copy today at mehringbooks.co.uk.

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