[The following resolution was passed unanimously at the February meeting of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International.]
The February 1976 plenum of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International notes that as a result of a sudden eruption of political and organizational differences inside the Liga Socialista, one of the two sympathizing organizations of the Fourth International in Mexico, a de facto split has occurred in that organization, a minority not recognizing the legitimacy and decisions of the December 1975 congress of the organization. This split has been accompanied by grave public mutual attacks of an organizational nature that threaten to seriously undermine the growing credit which the Fourth International has won in recent years among larger and larger layers of radicalized youth and workers in Mexico.
At the same time, the IEC reaffirms the desirability of implementing the call of the Tenth World Congress (reiterated by the resolution of the February 1975 IEC plenum) in favor of the earliest possible unification of adherents of the Fourth International in Mexico on a principled basis. The existing political differences between members of the Fourth International in Mexico can in no way be considered as making it impossible to work in a single organization functioning on the basis of democratic centralism.
There are no provisions in the statutes of the Fourth International or in the decisions of the Tenth World Congress for the recognition of a third sympathizing organization of the FI in Mexico. In addition the IEC considers it inadvisable to legalize de facto splits and refusals by minorities to recognize majority decisions of congresses such as would be implied by recognizing the existence of two public factions of the Liga Socialista in Mexico. However, in order not to create additional obstacles to rapid unification of the forces of the Fourth International in Mexico, the IEC deems that all those who were members of the Liga Socialista at the opening of the Liga Socialista congress remain members of the FI today.
This extremely precarious situation of individual membership in the Fourth International outside of an organization that has been recognized can, however, represent only a short-term exceptional measure intended to help overcome the organizational crisis created by the de facto split in the Liga Socialista. Its purpose is to help bring about a general unification of the forces of the Fourth International in Mexico.
The IEC therefore resolves:
1. To recommend to the GCI and LS leaderships that they open negotiations aimed at a principled reunification of the two groups, including all those who were members of the GCI and the LS at the moment of the latest congresses of both organizations, and the recruits gained since then.
2. In accordance with the provisions set up by the Tenth World Congress, the unified organization will immediately become the Mexican section of the Fourth International.
3. In advance of the unification, a set of mutually agreed on statutes is to be drawn up based upon the statutes of the Fourth International adopted at the Tenth World Congress. Among other things the statutes will include clauses on the duty of minorities to apply majority decisions and to act in public under majority discipline; the right of minorities to form tendencies or factions, to be represented on leadership bodies by representatives of their own choice roughly on the basis of their numerical strength, and to be protected against organizational reprisals or harassment. The statutes will also specify the right of cells and regional bodies to elect their own leaderships, who are committed, of course, to abide by democratic centralism of the national organization.
4. The unified organization will likewise be guided by (a) a principled program, and (b) a common "Theses on the Mexican Revolution," both to be drafted in common, before the unification, by representatives of all those concerned.
5. A preunification congress discussion will be held among all those concerned around one or more draft political resolutions on immediate tactical tasks; that is, determination of the political line of the daily work of the unified organization. Like the common principled program and the common theses, the drafts of the political resolution are to be submitted to the ranks for discussion, and to a vote of the reunification congress. At the leadership level, a serious effort should be made to work out an agreed upon general line for the unified organization, and to avoid any harsh methods of forcing comrades engaged in specific fields of intervention to change these fields against their convictions. A common effort will also be made to start immediate common activity in all fields of work before the reunification, including a common electoral campaign of all those concerned, in the presidential elections of Mexico. However, given the rather narrow degree of existing political differences, the IEC recommends that even if such an agreement cannot be reached in all cases, this should not prevent unification; decisions will then be taken by majority vote at the unification congress.
6. It is recommended that the unification take place not later than six months after this IEC plenum.
7. The comrades who did not recognize the legitimacy of the Liga Socialista congress pledge:
(a) That they have not placed any charges against Comrade Ricardo and that they consider him to be loyal to the Fourth International. The Steering Committee of the Leninist Trotskyist Faction states that it has no reason to doubt Comrade Ricardo's loyalty to the Fourth International.
(b) They agree not to publish any newspaper with the name of El Socialista and not to speak in public in the name of the Liga Socialista.
(c) They agree to return all the material, except personal belongings, which was present in the Liga Socialista headquarters at the time of the December 1975 congress.
8. All members of the Fourth International in Mexico, and all members or supporters of the Fourth International outside of Mexico pledge to abstain from all acts and writings that might hinder or endanger the course toward a principled unification in Mexico.
9. The IEC appoints a commission of three comrades to observe in Mexico how the present resolution is carried out and to report back to the United Secretariat.