Michel Pablo - "Pabloism"

"Pabloism"

In 1953 the American, British and part of the French Trotskyists declared themselves in opposition to this course of action, and withdrew from the FI to form a public faction, the International Committee of the Fourth International. The hostility of the ICFI to what became known as "Pabloism" was legendary. Decades later, the ICFI still writes in opposition to what it calls "Pabloite revisionism."

Pablo continued with the European International Secretariat of the Fourth International, operating from Amsterdam and Paris. The entryist tactic he proposed could not be implemented in many countries and succeeded only to some extent in countries where a large social-democratic party could be 'entered'.

None of the various Trotskyist splinter groups gained large numbers of new members in the early Cold War years, whether 'independent party-builders' or 'entryists'. After the invasion of Hungary in 1956, many intellectuals split from the Communist Parties, and there was further political fragmentation resulting from the Sino-Soviet split, but the Trotskyists gained almost no new adherents from them.

As the 1950s became the 1960s, Pablo was convinced that the best revolutionary prospects were now in what was to become known as the Third World of Africa, Latin America and Asia. He also wrote a prophetic essay anticipating the women's liberation movement.

He was personally closely involved in supporting the Algerian national liberation struggle against France, which led to imprisonment in Holland in connection with counterfeit money and gun-smuggling activities. A campaign for his release was launched by Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1961 Pablo was finally sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, and liberated at the end of his trial. He took refuge in Morocco. After the victory of the Algerian revolution, he became a minister in the FLN government.

By 1963, ICFI forces around the Socialist Workers Party (USA) were moving back towards unity with the ISFI, sharing common positions towards the Cuban revolution. Pablo was regarded by the SWP as a barrier to that unification. The world congress in 1963 formed the reunified Fourth International. Pablo moved a counter-resolution at the 1963 reunification congress, as well as the main resolution on Algeria, and was elected to the international executive committee. Tensions grew, and Pablo and his African Bureau were outside the International by the end of 1965 for partly disputed reasons: in the view of Pablo's supporters, reunification rapidly led the new majority to oust Pablo; in the International's view, Pablo's tendency broke with the International publicly and placed itself outside the FI. What is not disputed is that by then Pablo had key political differences with the FI.