Motion on Unity with the Shachtmanites

Adopted by the 12th National Convention of the SWP, Nov. 15-18, 1946

Adopted: November 12-18, 1946
First Published:January 1947
Source: Fourth International, New York, Volume 8, No.1, January 1947, page 31.
Transcribed/HTML Markup: Daniel Gaido and David Walters, February, 2006
Public Domain: Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line 2006. You can freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Marxists Internet Archive as your source, include the url to this work, and note the transcribers & proofreaders above.

1. The so-called unity proposal of the Shachtmanites has been fully and freely discussed in the party for more than a year.

2. This discussion has established that the theoretical and political differences which caused the split in 1940 have not disappeared or diminished but, on the contrary, have deepened; and new and important differences have arisen in the meantime and continue to arise—as demonstrated in the document adopted by the Political Committee and published in Internal Bulletin Vol. VIII, No. 10.

3. The minority faction of the National Committee, who were ostensibly the original proponents of the unification proposal, were in reality acting as agents and stoolpigeons of the Shachtmanites in our ranks. After a long period of systematic violations of party discipline, disruption and sabotage of party work and party funds, most of the members of the minority faction have split from the party and formally announced their membership in the Shachtmanite party.

4. It is perfectly clear to everybody now that the so-called unity proposal was not put forward with seriousness or good faith. It was a shabby maneuver designed to provoke disruption and split in the ranks of the Socialist Workers Party.

5. Therefore, the 12th Convention of the SWP rejects the so-called unity proposal of the Shachtmanites and closes all discussion of this question in the party.