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From New International, Vol. XII No. 6, August 1946, p. 162.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
In our May issue an omission was made from the letter of A. Arlins in reply to Ruth Phillips. A quotation from Max Shachtman given by Comrade Arlins in its original English text was not recopied by the translator and was overlooked by the editors. The quotation and the preceding sentence follow the sentence that begins a paragraph in the left-hand column of page 159 with the words, “And so, the Editorial Note of December ...” and ends with “community of interest.” The omitted material reads:
However, a whole month before my article was published in The New International, Max Shachtman wrote as follows on the Fourth International:
“During the war, the Fourth International simply ceased to exist as any (!) kind of real movement. It is amazing, but a fact, that for five or six years the International had nothing (!) to say (or was prevented from saying anything) on a dozen of the most important problems of world politics. There was no (!) international leadership; and that which arrogated this role to itself was far worse than bad (!): it was arrogantly bureaucratic (!), theoretically sterile (!) or psittacotic (!), politically a thousand times ( !) wrong or impotent (!). In a word: the International failed completely (!) during the war, failed in every (!) respect, failed inexcusably (!). If we do not (!) start by establishing this fact, we will not (!) make the progress that must be made ...) It is possible, we think, to overcome the terrible theoretical confusion (! ) and political disorientation (!) of the various sections, provided the problem is tackled correctly.” (My exclamations – A.A.)
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