Socialist Equality Party (US) holds Fifth National Congress

3 August 2018





Also attending the Congress were delegations from the sister parties of the SEP in the International Committee of the Fourth International. Supporters of the ICFI from Central and South America were also in attendance.

The Congress delegates participated in a broad-ranging and extensive discussion that reviewed the political situation in the US and internationally, examined the experiences of the working class and the party over the past two years and outlined the tasks of the SEP. There were separate reports and discussions on the teachers’ strikes and the growth of the class struggle in the US, the fight by the SEP against Internet censorship, the campaign of the SEP and the ICFI against the persecution of Julian Assange, the attack on immigrant workers by the Trump administration, and the right-wing character of the #MeToo campaign and the politics of the pseudo-left.

The main resolution adopted by the Congress stresses the immense crisis of the world capitalist system. It begins:


Elaborating on this theme, David North, in his report introducing the Congress, reviewed the extraordinary conditions in which the Congress was being held: the breakdown of international alliances; the eruption of American imperialism and the military buildup of all the major capitalist powers; the ferocious conflicts within the highest levels of the state; the turn to authoritarianism by the ruling class, including the censorship of the Internet; and the extreme growth of social inequality.

North stressed the reactionary and anti-democratic character of all factions of the ruling class in the United States. He said:

It would be the height of naïveté to believe that there exists a profound political divide between Trump and his Democratic opponents. Attempting to determine who is “worse” is like being asked whether you prefer to be bitten by a cobra or strangled by a boa constrictor. At one moment one may think that no one could be worse than Trump. But then, one watches Democratic Party Senator Mark Warner threaten war against Russia and House Democrats bellowing “USA, USA!” and, in comparison, Trump appears almost civilized. The only appropriate answer, therefore, is that suggested by Shakespeare: “A plague on both your parties!”

A central theme of North’s report, the main congress resolution and the discussion at the Congress was the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International, founded by Leon Trotsky, which held its first Congress in September 1938. Many contributions to the Congress discussed the relationship between the heritage defended by the Fourth International throughout its history and the developing consciousness of broad masses of workers and youth.

“From the vantage point of 2018,” the main resolution states, “there is no question but that the historical analysis, principles and program upon which the Fourth International was founded in 1938, and which were upheld in the issuing of the Open Letter that established the International Committee in 1953, have been vindicated by the entire course of historical development.”

North explained in his report the relationship between historical consciousness and socialist consciousness. “The working through of past experiences has always been, for Marxists, an essential preparation for future struggles,” he said.


The main resolution stresses that the development of a mass socialist movement of the international working class depends on the activity of the SEP and the ICFI. During the discussion, many participants cited the section of the resolution that states:


The central task of the SEP is to build an independent, revolutionary and socialist movement in the working class. This requires a fight against the politics of the pseudo-left, including groups like the Democratic Socialists of America and the International Socialist Organization, which represent the social interests of privileged sections of the upper-middle class. It also requires a fight against the trade unions, which function as agents of corporate management and the state and work to suppress the class struggle.

A critical section of the main resolution, which was the topic of extensive discussion at the Congress, is titled “The logic of the class struggle and the general strike.” It states that the eruption of social struggles on a scale never before seen is all but inevitable in the US, and that these struggles, “whatever the immediate issue or wherever the location,” will “rapidly draw millions of workers into active participation in the struggle.” It continues: “Given the historical experience of the working class, the logical outcome of this coalescence of social struggles will be a general strike, which will raise the question of political power.”

To prepare for such a struggle, the resolution states, the working class must develop “an interconnected network of popular workplace and neighborhood committees,” the necessity of which arises out of the experiences of the workers themselves with the anti-working class trade unions. In one of the main reports to the Congress, Jerry White, the labor editor for the WSWS, reviewed in detail the experiences of the past year, including the wave of teachers’ strikes in the US that developed in opposition to the unions.

Joseph Kishore, national secretary of the SEP, said that the Congress was animated by a consciousness of the immense tasks that face the party. “The ruling class is moving rapidly to implement far-reaching attacks on democratic rights,” he said, “including efforts to shut down and censor the Internet, which are targeted above all at the World Socialist Web Site. The oligarchy is bringing its political forms into alignment with the character of capitalist society—including unsustainable levels of social inequality and advanced preparations for world war.”

However, he added, the Congress was also characterized by a spirit of revolutionary optimism rooted in an understanding that the principles and history of the SEP and the ICFI correspond to and express the interests of masses of workers all over the world. “I have no doubt,” he said, “that the SEP will emerge in the leadership of working class struggles, and that it will win to the banner of Trotskyism great masses of workers and youth seeking a way to fight against the capitalist system.”

Contribute to the fight for socialism in 2020
