Communist Workers' International

The Communist Workers' International (German: Kommunistische Arbeiter-Internationale, KAI) or Fourth International was a council communist international. It was founded around the Manifesto of the Fourth Communist International, published by the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD) in 1921.

The organisation was founded in 1922, following a split in the KAPD, by members of the Essen Faction, including Herman Gorter and Karl Schröder, the Berlin Faction holding that the formation of an international was premature. It was joined by the Communist Workers' Party of the Netherlands, Sylvia Pankhurst's Communist Workers' Party in Britain, the Left Communists in Russia (who accordingly renamed themselves the Communist Workers' Party), the Communist Workers' Group in Russia and some left communists in Belgium and Bulgaria.

The International was never able to organise joint activities and probably never reached 1,000 members. It was weakened by the dissolution of some of its members groups, and the departure of the Russian Communist Workers' Group, who disagreed with its opposition to a united front with the Third International. The KAI appears to have disbanded in the mid-1920s.

References

• Richard Gombin, The Radical Tradition: Council Communism
• Herman Gorter, The World Revolution
• Commentary on Herman Gorter's Open Letter to Comrade Lenin
• Tibor Szamuely, The Communist Left in Russia after 1920