Preface to the thirtieth anniversary edition of The Heritage We Defend

by David North

The Heritage We Defend was published thirty years ago, in 1988, in the aftermath of the desertion of the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) of Britain from the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). As the International Committee subsequently proved in numerous documents, the WRP’s renegacy was the outcome of its retreat, over a period spanning more than a decade, from the Trotskyist principles that it had once played a critical role in defending.  [Read more…]

The Heritage We Defend is a history of the Fourth International during the half century following the assassination of its founder, Leon Trotsky, in 1940. Originally published in 1988, this book reviews the issues of theory, politics and principle that confronted the Fourth International during World War II and the post-war era.

Remarkably, David North clearly and precisely anticipated the political crisis that erupted in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991, resulting in the dissolution of the Stalinist regimes. The Heritage We Defend remains an unsurpassed introduction to the history of the Trotskyist movement and obligatory reading for anyone seeking to understand Marxist theory and practice in the present period of capitalist crisis and intensifying class struggle.