Audio's Daniel Bensaïd

In this lecture, Bensaïd focuses on the history of the Fourth International in its founding years, which means 1933 and 1938. First of all, he introduces a historical motivation to understand what battles we come from, and what is the problematic heritage we have. Secondly, he points to present interest in the problems that were tackled by the FI in its founding years. He organises the lecture around three points: when did a new international become necessary; on what basis was the new international built; and lastly, how was it built? He discusses the problems of entryism and fusion with a focus on Trotsky's writings on these issues.

In this second part of his lecture, Bensaïd focuses on the concrete facts and phases of building the FI. He underlines Trotksy's efforts of bringing together different currents. Bensaïd analyses the first gatherings, participants, and different currents and organisations against a historical background. In his analyses, he always keeps in sight their meaning for the present.

In this final part of his lecture, Bensaïd discusses the question of entryism and draws conclusions from the building of Fourth International and Trotsky's politics in that historical background for the present.

In this lecture, Bensaïd covers the history of Fourth International from the post-WWII to the split, the reunification process, the Ninth World Congress and finally the Eleventh World Congress. In this part of the lecture, Bensaïd starts with a discussion of the line of argument which contends that the project of building the FI was based on a prognosis of the Second World War and its outcomes. Trotsky believed that, just like WWI, WWII would trigger a strong set of revolutions.