Fifth International

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u/jellyfishdenovo

7 months ago

# A brief history of the Fifth International

Lore

**Overview**

The Fifth International is a coalition of leftist groups and individuals intended to advance the interests of the working class and protect workers from capitalist injustice. It was founded in early 2013 after Dick Cheney won the highly controversial 2012 election, with the primary concern at the time being Cheney’s disastrous labor policies. Though it originally consisted mostly of Americans and Europeans, it grew to include leftists from around the world.

Here’s a breakdown of each congress of the International:

**First Congress of the Worker’s International**

**Date:** 2-4 March 2013

**Location:** Chicago, IL

**Attendees:**

* 5 delegates from the AFL-CIO (VD Richard Trumka)
* 3 delegates from the IWW (VD Salvador Gutierrez)
* 3 delegates from the DSA (VD Maria Svart)
* 2 delegates from the Socialist Rifle Association (VD Mariana Cabrera)
* 3 delegates from the United States Green Coalition (VD Ralph Nader)
* 12 delegates from the Party of European Socialists and its national affiliates (VD Hugo Bachelot)
* 2 delegates from the Mexican Party of the Democratic Revolution (VD Eduardo Hernandez)
* 3 delegates from the Blue Movement organizing committee (VD Manuel Simon)
* 3 delegates from the Farm & Field Labor Alliance (VD Saul Burke)
* 2 delegates from the Communist Party USA (VD Lilian Solomon)
* 2 delegates from the Workers World Party (VD Gloria la Riva)
* 2 delegates from the Socialist Party USA (VD Angela Walker)
* 2 delegates from the Socialist Equality Party (VD Joseph Kishore)
* 2 delegates from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (VD Steff Yorek)
* 2 delegates from the Anti-Colonial Action Alliance (VD Mark Charles)
* 13 delegates from other parties and unions (6 VDs)
* Bernie Sanders (unaffiliated)
* Noam Chomsky (unaffiliated)
* Slavoj Žižek (unaffiliated)
* Howard Zinn (unaffiliated)
* Angela Davis (unaffiliated)
* Cornel West (unaffiliated)

**Resolutions:**

* All further votes shall be held among a body of voting delegates (VDs) chosen from each delegation. Each party will be allotted one vote. (21-0)
* Individuals deemed worthy by a vote of the International’s VDs may be allotted one vote each. (12-8)
* A committee shall be organized to investigate and devise a more proportional method of vote allotment. (25-2)
* A manifesto embodying the International’s values and demands shall be drafted before the next Congress, where it shall be approved. (27-0)
* The International demands that all people be given equal and adequate access to healthcare, no matter the circumstances. (27-0)
* The International demands that all workers be compensated for their labor with a living wage, calculated annually to reflect the cost of living. (27-0) *Example: $22 per hour in the US, indexed to inflation*
* The International demands that governments everywhere surrender the authority to injunct a strike. (27-0)
* The International demands that governments everywhere take immediate and direct action to reverse the damage being done to the climate by human affairs. (27-0)

**Notes:**

* From the beginning, a rift emerged between the social democrats and moderate democratic socialists on one side (led by Sanders) and the more radical groups on the other (led by Žižek and Gutierrez). Neither Sanders nor Žižek would attend the next Congress due to the feud.
* The delegates were only able to agree on a few moderate demands, making its platform appear more influenced by social democracy than socialism for the first year of its existence.
* Liam Sutton was in attendance at the First Congress, but is not listed above because he was only a junior member of the BMOC’s delegation at the time. Sutton, Gutierrez, and Trumka, who would go on to be the founders of the AWA, met for the first time here.

**Second Congress of the Worker’s International**

**Date:** 15-17 March 2014

**Location:** New York, NY

**Attendees:**

* All delegates present at the First Congress, not including Bernie Sanders (absent), Slavoj Žižek (absent), or Howard Zinn (deceased), nor the delegations from the CPUSA, WWP, FRSO, or SPUSA (merged into United American Reds)
* 2 delegates from the New Black Panther Party (VD Joshua Washington)
* 4 delegates from the Japanese Communist Party (VD Kazuo Shii)
* 2 delegates from the United American Reds (VD Amy Jacobs)
* 12 delegates from the São Paulo Forum (VD Evo Morales)
* Michael Parenti (unaffiliated)
* Richard Wolff (unaffiliated)

**Resolutions:**

* The International accepts the document drafted by honorary delegate Noam Chomsky and his associate Alain Badiou as its manifesto. (21-5)
* The International recognizes the need for a directive presence in its decision-making process, and elects VD Salvador Gutierrez to provide this role. (18-8)
* The chairman of the International shall serve until the next congress, whereupon another election will be held. (26-0)

**Notes:**

* Little was accomplished at this Congress relative to the others.
* Liam Sutton was the BMOC’s voting delegate this time, rather than an attaché.

**Third Congress of the Worker’s International**

**Date:** 17-19 April 2015

**Location:** Portland, OR

**Attendees:**

* All delegates present at the Second Congress, not including the Blue Movement Organizing Committee’s delegation (dissolved)
* 2 delegates from the International Pride Alliance (VD Gavin Chung)
* 3 delegates from the New Russian Communist Party (VD Nikolai Sidorov)
* 2 delegates from the Human Horizon Foundation (VD Elijah Mutebi)
* 2 delegates from SDS21 (VD May Le)
* Liam Sutton (unaffiliated)
* Bernie Sanders (unaffiliated)
* Slavoj Žižek (unaffiliated)

**Resolutions:**

* The International elects VD Salvador Gutierrez to a second term as Chairman. (26-5)
* No two members of the International shall run competing political campaigns with the International’s endorsement. (28-3)
* The International will not endorse the campaign of any politician without a unanimous vote. (23-8)
* The International demands that all monarchies, juntas, and unrepresentative legislatures be dissolved immediately so that the people may take the power that is justly theirs. (23-8)

**Notes:**

* Liam Sutton, who by this point had a high enough profile to be considered an important figure in the labor movement on his own, attended the Third Congress as an individual following the dissolution of the BMOC.
* The resolutions pertaining to political campaigns arose from a minor conflict between Bernie Sanders and the Green Coalition, both of whom sought the International’s endorsement in their upcoming presidential campaigns.
* The International was becoming noticeably more radical by this point, as the social democrats either drifted away or yielded to the socialists in the organization.

**Fourth Congress of the Worker’s International**

**Date:** 29 April-2 May 2016

**Location:** Philadelphia, PA

**Attendees:**

* All delegates present at the Second Congress, not including Bernie Sanders (absent)
* 3 delegates from the United Socialists of Canada (VD Timothy Gauthier)

**Resolutions:**

* The International elects VD Salvador Gutierrez to a third term as Chairman. (23-9)
* The International demands that all wealth be surrendered by the capitalist class so that the laborers of the world may assume rightful ownership of it. (24-8)

**Notes:**

* Bernie Sanders was unable to attend the Fourth Congress due to scheduling conflicts with a campaign event. At this point in the race, he was still expected to clinch the nomination.
* The International finally went all-in on socialism at this Congress.

**Fifth Congress of the Worker’s International**

**Date:** 12 October 2016

**Location:** Chicago, IL

**Attendees:**

* All American delegates present at the Fourth Congress
* All non-American delegates present at the Fourth Congress (via video conferencing)
* Bernie Sanders (unaffiliated)

**Resolutions:**

* In light of the circumstances, the International suspends the election of its chairman until the next congress. (32-0)
* The International expresses solidarity with the American working class in this time of uncertainty. (32-0)

**Notes:**

* The Fifth Congress was convened in response to the assassination of Jeff Bezos and the ensuing riots. It was the first, and so far only, emergency meeting called by the International.
* Unlike the other eight congresses, all press was barred from the Fifth Congress, which was conducted in complete privacy. Speculation about the meeting’s agenda was rampant in the weeks after it concluded, as were calls to ban participation in the Fifth International or label it a terrorist group.
* Some of the groundwork for the AWA was laid at the Fifth Congress. The biggest subject of discussion was how leftist organizations should handle the skyrocketing class tensions, especially considering the large decentralized arsenal of munitions that American unions had built up over the years with Liam Sutton’s policy of “preventative weaponization”. Some delegates pushed for immediate violent revolution, or armed strikes, while others feared that the Bezos shooting would spur a reactionary wave and wanted the International to do PR damage control.

**Sixth Congress of the Worker’s International**

**Date:** 9-12 June 2017

**Location:** Toronto, Canada

**Attendees:**

* All non-American delegates present at the Fourth Congress

**Resolutions:**

* The International elects VD Hugo Bachelot to the office of Chairman. (7-5)
* The International endorses the American Worker’s Army and its fight against the tyranny of capital. (10-2)
* The International demands that United States President Eric Holder resign immediately and submit himself to be tried by the international community for the war crimes he has committed against his people. (12-0)
* The International denounces the United States government’s coup against the democratic will of the American people. (11-1)

**Notes:**

* This was both the first congress to be held outside of the US and the first to include no American delegates.
* Richard Trumka was originally supposed to represent the AWA by videoconference, but the International decided that the presence of the leader of an active insurgent group at the congress would lead to more backlash than the organization could handle.
* Delegations from other American leftist groups planned to attend either in person or by video, but decided against it as they began to take heat from the public and the government for their connections to the AWA (both real and imagined).
* The third day of the congress was held without any media access. It was then that the International devised its strategy to work alongside the AWA, which included the formation of the International Divisions.

**Seventh Congress of the Worker’s International**

**Date:** 4-7 May 2018

**Location:** London, UK

**Attendees:**

* All delegates present at the Sixth Congress
* 5 delegates from the Combined Indian Communist Parliamentary Front (VD Amoli Malhotra)
* Alain Badiou (unafilliated)

**Resolutions:**

* The International elects VD Hugo Bachelot to a second term as Chairman. (8-6)
* The International demands that the Canadian government release the member of the American Worker’s Army whom it has incarcerated without sufficient cause since the twenty-eighth of April. (14-0)
* The International condemns the leftist infighting within the American Worker’s Army and calls on all leftists to lay down their arms against each other for the sake of their common struggle. (9-5)

**Notes:**

* The western AWA attempted to smuggle a representative out of the United States to attend the Seventh Congress, but he was apprehended by Canadian authorities in a routine inspection of the ship he was stowed away in. He has remained imprisoned on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism since then.
* The schism of the AWA was seen as a huge step back for the International, whose entire purpose was to ensure cooperation between leftists of different stripes. The International tried at one point to reconcile the two branches by smuggling negotiators into both factions’ territory, to no avail.

**Eighth Congress of the Worker’s International**

**Date:** 14-17 June 2019

**Location:** Havana, Cuba

**Attendees:**

* All delegates present at the Seventh Congress
* 4 delegates from the Communist Party of Cuba (VD José Ramón Machado Ventura)
* 2 delegates from the EZLN (VD Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente)
* 2 delegates from the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (VD Besê Hozat)
* 2 delegates from the National Revolutionary Guard (VD Anthony Clements)

**Resolutions:**

* The International elects VD Alain Badiou to the office of Chairman. (18-0)
* The International condemns the genocidal barbarism of the Sons of the South and declares solidarity with the oppressed minorities of America. (18-0)
* The International urges workers around the world to go on strike in defiance of the exploitative class system responsible for such evils as those seen in Montgomery. (18-0)
* The International demands that all governments cease their attempts to disarm the workers, or in any way restrict their access to that which they require to achieve credible arms parity with the state. (18-0)

**Notes:**

* This was the first congress to be held outside of the anglosphere. It was held in Havana at the invitation of the Cuban government, making it the first (and so far the only) congress to be held with the express permission of a nation-state.
* This was the first congress since the outbreak of the war to include an American delegate.
* The topic dominating the discussion was the Rape of Montgomery, which had occurred only a week earlier. Much of the congress was devoted to finding ways to help the APG in its struggle against the Sons. One suggestion raised was to send an International Division to Atlanta to fight alongside the APG, similar to the ones fighting with the two branches of the AWA. This option was explored further after the conclusion of the congress, but failed to pan out thanks to a combination of logistical difficulties and opposition from the right-wing black separatist faction within the APG.
* The Mexican and Turkish governments condemned the Fifth International for hosting members of the EZLN and the PKK, respectively.

**Ninth Congress of the Worker’s International**

**Date:** 8-10 May 2020

**Location:** Paris, France

**Attendees:**

* All delegates present at the Eighth Congress, not including the delegations of the EZLN (absent), the PKK (absent), or the NRG (absent)
* 2 delegates from the South African Communist Party (VD Blade Nzimande)
* 4 delegates from the New Communards (VD Adeline Brodeur)
* 4 delegates from the Pan-African Vanguard Leage (VD Maduenu Adeyemi)

**Resolutions:**

* The International elects Alain Badiou to a second term as Chairman (16-2)
* The International endorses the ongoing French general strike and demands that French President Marine Le Pen resign at once. (15-3)

**Notes:**

* The French government only allowed the International to convene in France on the condition that no delegations from designated terrorist groups would be in attendance.
* The Ninth Congress was interrupted on its third day when French authorities stormed the building and arrested several key members, including the entire New Communard delegation, Chairman Alain Badiou, and three other European delegates. They were accused of attempting to incite violence in France in connection with the recent political turmoil. The remaining delegates were ordered to leave the country immediately. Riots began anew as news of the arrests reached the general public, after months of relative calm due to the stay-at-home orders enforced by police. This new wave of unrest has been much greater in magnitude than the earlier riots, with some rioters going so far as to storm prisons to free their comrades who had been incarcerated over the course of the general strike. On May 15th, President Le Pen called in the army to reinstate order in Paris, leading to a sharp rise in the death toll and, ironically, escalation of the violence.