Why Brazil's MES Has Joined the Fourth International
A Contemporary Perspective on Revolutionary Internationalism
In February 2025, while debates raged about the relevance and future of the Fourth International, the Brazilian organization MES (Movimento Esquerda Socialista) made a decisive choice: they formally joined the Fourth International’s section in Brazil. The recently posted video of their internal 2024 meeting discussing this historic decision provides fascinating insights into how contemporary revolutionaries view international organization, programmatic continuity, and the challenges facing the global left today.
The Context: Why Join the Fourth International Now?
The timing of MES's decision is particularly significant. As various Trotskyist tendencies debate splits, formations, and alternatives, MES chose to strengthen rather than abandon the existing Fourth International framework. Their reasoning challenges prevailing narratives about the FI's decline or irrelevance.
Roberto Robaina, a key MES leader, framed their decision in terms of revolutionary continuity: "The Fourth International is nothing more than keeping alive this tradition of Marxism-Leninism." This wasn't nostalgia but strategic calculation - MES sees the FI as the organizational framework best positioned to maintain and develop revolutionary theory and practice in the current period.
Program as Guide to Action, Not Abstract Principles
One of the most striking aspects of the MES discussion was their emphasis on program as practical tool rather than theoretical decoration. One comrade emphasized: "The program is not a declaration of principles; the program is a guide to action."
This programmatic approach shapes how MES understands the Fourth International's role. Rather than viewing it as a federation of discussion groups, they see it as a framework for coordinating revolutionary intervention across national boundaries. The program synthesizes historical lessons - from the Paris Commune through the Russian Revolution to contemporary struggles - into concrete guidance for current political work.
International Coordination as Living Practice
MES's enthusiasm for international coordination directly contradicts claims that the Fourth International has become merely a "discussion club." Fernanda Melchionna highlighted the practical benefits: "The resumption of a tradition I think is very important - international debates... there's much production coming from various comrades who are working in these countries."
Roberto provided additional perspective on the importance of international coordination, noting that their entry into the Fourth International represents "a qualitative leap as an organization and at the same time also a qualitative leap for the Fourth International itself." He emphasized how this opens access to international debates and analysis: "This super positive construction - you gave a presentation on the entire history of the Fourth International in 30 minutes and it was super didactic in a short time, and there's a lot of production coming from various comrades who are working in these countries."
The discussion also highlighted concrete examples of this international coordination. As Fernanda noted: "The text about the trade war issue, for example, is super current with the policy that Trump is implementing regarding tariffs to other countries. So we're resuming the tradition of discussion - whether it's the strike in Greece or other struggles that are happening - and we can drink from these sources."
The State Question and Contemporary Reformism
The discussion revealed sophisticated understanding of classical revolutionary questions applied to contemporary conditions. Roberto's analysis of the state question demonstrated how Fourth International theory illuminates current political challenges:
"See how the question of the state always returns... everything Stalinism did was the idea of strengthening the state... while the experience of the Commune was the opposite - it was a process from below and the necessity of breaking the state machine."
This analysis extends to contemporary Brazil, where MES sees the PT's trajectory as confirmation of classical revolutionary insights about reformism and state power. Roberto observed that the PT "practically today in Brazil has to be the liberal party," administering the bourgeois state rather than transforming it.
Mass Work and Electoral Strategy
MES's approach to electoral work through PSOL (Party of Socialism and Liberty) demonstrates the sophisticated tactical approach that Fourth International sections develop. They maintain revolutionary principles while building mass influence, exemplified by their defense of Deputy Glauber Braga against persecution for his anti-corruption work.
The discussion revealed how they balance parliamentary work with broader organizing: "Although we know parliamentarians are important... it's not through accumulating more parliamentarians that structural changes will be made but through accumulating more struggle and more self-organization of the class."
MES speakers emphasized the need to expand this class organization beyond traditional working-class boundaries: "Today we have many other nuances of this organization of the working class - the struggle of women, the LGBT struggle, the struggle of Black people, the struggle of sectors oppressed by this system."
Historical Consciousness and Contemporary Tasks
Perhaps most significantly, MES demonstrates how revolutionary organizations use historical consciousness to navigate contemporary challenges. Their analysis moves seamlessly from the Paris Commune to Stalinist degeneration to current Brazilian politics, showing how historical lessons inform current strategy.
Luciana Genro’s contribution on internationalism was particularly insightful: "The history of the internationals is the history of solidarity between workers of the world." She traced how each International's collapse related to abandoning this fundamental principle - the Second International through supporting World War I, the Third through Stalinist nationalism.
She explained how the Fourth International was founded in response to these betrayals: "The Fourth International was founded at a moment when the main struggle we had, the most victorious one of 1917, turned into Stalinist bureaucratisation and the Trotskyists were defamed, assassinated, and persecuted."
Confronting Contemporary Challenges
The discussion also revealed MES's engagement with contemporary ideological challenges, particularly "campism" - the tendency to support authoritarian regimes simply because they oppose Western imperialism. As one speaker noted: "Those who think Putin is left-wing - besides being a magnate, he's a reactionary who is persecuting LGBTs and invaded Ukraine... those who think China is communist... it's brutal state capitalism."
This demonstrates the kind of political clarity that Fourth International membership helps develop - rejecting both Western imperialism and its authoritarian opponents while maintaining independent working-class politics.
Organizational Depth and Collective Accumulation
Roberto's reflection on organisational belonging was particularly profound: "Being part of an organisation is very profound because it's not just the individual... when it's an organisation, it's a collective that capitalises, it's a collective that accumulates."
He expanded on this theme: "We are trying to be an organic part of this history, a history that comes from very far back... because we are talking about the Fourth [International] and there are comrades in the Fourth who... I don't know about the third, second, first that I'm talking about, but I started with the Fourth."
This historical consciousness shapes their understanding of contemporary tasks. As Roberto explained: "This is the effort - to be an organic part of this history... because when it's just an individual, just individual talent, what remains when it's just the individual? When it's just individual talent? The accumulation is always exposed to the public... but it's different when it's an organization because an organization is a collective that accumulates."
This insight illuminates why MES chose to join rather than build alternatives - they recognize that revolutionary progress requires collective accumulation across generations and borders, not just individual brilliance or national organizing.
Contemporary Relevance and Future Perspectives
The MES meeting reveals an organization that sees Fourth International membership as essential for contemporary revolutionary work. Rather than viewing the FI as a relic requiring replacement, they see it as a living framework requiring strengthening and development.
Their emphasis on programmatic clarity, international coordination, and mass work challenges narratives of Fourth International decline. Instead, it suggests that organizations committed to serious revolutionary work naturally gravitate toward the FI framework, finding in it the tools necessary for contemporary struggle.
Implications for Revolutionary Debate
The MES decision and its reasoning provide important context for current debates within the international Trotskyist movement. While some formations criticise the Fourth International for alleged opportunism or irrelevance, significant revolutionary organisations see FI membership as the most effective framework for international coordination and programmatic development.
This doesn't resolve all questions about revolutionary strategy and organization, but it provides concrete evidence that the Fourth International's death reports have been greatly exaggerated. For revolutionary organizations serious about building mass influence while maintaining programmatic clarity, the FI framework offers essential tools and connections.
The MES experience suggests that the future of revolutionary internationalism may depend less on building new frameworks from scratch and more on strengthening and developing existing ones that have proven their capacity for growth, adaptation, and political effectiveness across decades of struggle.
This summary is based on "A História das Internacionais Socialistas e o ingresso do MES na IV Internacional," MES's discussion of their decision to join the Fourth International. The meeting took place in December 2024 in Brazil.