American Committee of the Fourth International

The American Committee of the Fourth International was formed from the Reorganized Minority Tendency of the Socialist Workers Party. They were expelled in September of 1964 and founded the group in the same month with less than ten people. They published Bulletin of International Socialists. The group and its newspaper were originally orientated towards recruiting other socialists, as opposed to workers, due in part to their small size. The CPUSA split Progressive Labor was somewhat open at that time so ACFI'ers used to go to their office and have discussions with the PL'ers. Several of ACFI's members got jobs and were in the Social Services Employees Union, where they recruited some new members. In 1965, the American Committee of the Fourth International (ACFI) moved its office out of Tim Wohlforth's upper west side apartment in New York City and down to 339 Lafayette Street, next door to the anarchist Libertarian League. ACFI was involved with the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee. In late 1965, the British Socialist Labour League (SLL), which ACFI was associated with, began suggesting that the ACFI and Spartacist League merge. The Spartacist League denounced the ACFI's involvement with the Fifth Ave. Parade Committee as "popular front", and the SLL agreed so the ACFI withdrew from it. In 1966 the SLL became unhappy with the Spartacist League and decided a merger would not be a good idea. The ACFI, which had grown somewhat in membership, launched the Workers League in 1966.