Vereeken's eye-witness account of inside the Trotskyist movement in the GPU disruption, sabotage and murder Secretary of the the movements internal niaved Belgian Trotskyists in those years and party to struggles Vereeken documents the sinister role the provocatuer Mars This veteran Trotskyist" has, in fact, been a veteran opponent of the Fourth International since its inception following is an extract from the minutes of the first EC of the Fl after the 1938 Founding conterence •Report of the Ver affair by Cde. L. (Belgium):
He traced the history of Ver's drift away from us up to his recent resignation from the Belgian Party. Ver. violently opposed the "French turn" in 1934 [entry of our French section into the SFIO-CvG] and when in 1935 the Belgian section entered the Labour Party, he and his followers split Later, the comrades who had entered the LP split away from that party...and re-united with V's organisation to form independent party in Belgium. But V had the old differences and regarded all those who supported the "French turn" overwhelming majority of our international organisation) as traitors. Friction speedily developed inside the new party and V began to develop differences with our international organisation on a whole variety of questions, Holland, Spain etc. On nearly every issue that came up he allied himself with the most backward elements in the International. [My emphasis - CvG].
*Nevertheless, L. (Trotsky) did not immediately launch a campaign against him...... He waited until Ver. saw the Transitional Programme and realised he would have to take up a position on this practical question Hasical - spending time ir fruitless polemics. He was not prepared to take the step towards the masses indicated by the programme and gave in his resignation...it appears that he has been working for some time with Sneevliet and Molinier against our international organisation. Sectarian The general opinion was that Verd resignation had removed a persistent obstructionist and confirmed sectarian from our aRKs...
But perhaps, after all, it is not so strange that Healy should find himself in close
RED WEEKLY 9 September 1976 9