International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) was formed in 1953 by a number of national sections of the Fourth International (FI), who were opposed to ‘Pabloism’ - the infuence of Michel Pablo - in the FI leadership. This resulted in a split in the FI between the International Secretariat of the Fourth International (ISFI - the existing FI leadership) and the ICFI.

The most prominent sections of the ICFI were the US Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) and the UK Healyite group, The Club (later called the Socialist Labour League (SLL) and then the Workers’ Revolutionary Party).

In 1963 the ISFI and most of the ICFI agreed to reunify, creating the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI). However, the British and French sections of the ICFI, the Socialist Labour League (SLL) and the Organisation Communiste Internationaliste (OCI), did not agree to re-unification and continued the ICFI.

The ICFI split further in 1971, when disagreements between the SLL and OCI caused the OCI to leave and form the Organising Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International.

The League for a Workers’ Republic (LWR) was affiliated to the ICFI in Ireland. When the OCI left in 1972, the majority of the party supported them, with a smaller group of members who supported the SLL leaving to form the League for a Workers’ Vanguard.