The Fourth Internationalist Tendency (FIT) was a public faction of the Socialist Workers Party (US), formed after the 1983 expulsion from that organization of a group of supporters of the Fourth International. While the SWP was not formally affiliated with the International for legal reasons, it had until that time been in close political relations with it. At the time of the expulsions, the SWP was starting to withdraw from relationships with the International. The FIT argued for the SWP to rescind their expulsions and to resume its participation in the International. The FIT's books and publications included the Bulletin In Defense of Marxism, a monthly journal of education and discussion which later became the Labor Standard.
After the SWP's 1990 decision to cut its political relationship with the International, the rationale for the FIT to exist as an external faction of the SWP was reduced. The FIT dissolved in the period prior to the 1995 world congress. Most of its activists became members of the Fourth International Caucus inside Solidarity.
Famous quotes containing the words fourth and/or tendency:
“And he was lost among the waves,
His ship rolled helpless in the sea,
The fourth month of his voyage
He shouted grievously
“Beloved, do not think of me.””
—Alun Lewis (1915–1944)
“When any relationship is characterized by difference, particularly a disparity in power, there remains a tendency to model it on the parent-child-relationship. Even protectiveness and benevolence toward the poor, toward minorities, and especially toward women have involved equating them with children.”
—Mary Catherine Bateson (20th century)