Marck Chirik (May 13, 1907 – December 20, 1990), also known as Marc Laverne or simply MC, was a communist revolutionary and one of the founding militants of the International Communist Current.

Life

He had seen the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

on his brother's shoulders and he was a founding member of the

Communist Party of Palestine The Communist Party of Palestine ( yi, קאָמוניסט פארטיי פון פּאַלעסטינע) was a communist party in Palestine 1922-1923. It was formed through a split in the Po‘alei Tziyon which led to the formation of the Jewish C ...

in 1922 but was excluded because he disagreed with the positions of the

Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

on the national question. He emigrated to France, where he joined the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

before being expelled at the same time as the members of the

Left Opposition The Left Opposition was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (b) from 1923 to 1927 headed ''de facto'' by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet fou ...

. He became a member first of the (

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

) Ligue Communiste and then of Union Communiste, which he left in 1938 to join the Italian Fraction of the International Communist Left (ICL), since he agreed with the latter’s position on the

Spanish civil war The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

against that of Union Communiste. During the war and the

German occupation of France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

, the ICL’s International Bureau led by Vercesi considered that there was no purpose in the fractions’ continuing their work. He however pushed for the reconstitution of the Italian Fraction around a small nucleus in Marseille. He joined the Fraction française de la gauche communiste internationale which had been formed in 1944 and was close to

Amadeo Bordiga Amadeo Bordiga (13 June 1889 – 25 July 1970) was an Italian Marxist theorist, revolutionary socialist, founder of the Communist Party of Italy (PCI), member of the Communist International (Comintern) and later a leading figure of the Interna ...

. However, he split with the Bordigist tendency in May 1945, when he opposed the decision of the Italian Fraction’s conference to dissolve the fraction, its militants joining the recently formed Partito Comunista Internazionalista as individuals and formed Gauche Communiste de France. After Gauche Communiste de France dissolved in 1952 he left France for

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

in anticipation of World War III. He stayed there until 1968, developing a small current of revolutionaries in a group called Internationalism (Venezuela), then returned to France, where he and some of his Venezuelan recruits launched Revolution Internationale (RI), the only French

left communist Left communism, or the communist left, is a position held by the left wing of communism, which criticises the political ideas and practices espoused by Marxist–Leninists and social democrats. Left communists assert positions which they rega ...

group after 1968 that attempted to systematically build an organization in the shadow of the larger left communist groups. In 1975, the International Communist Current was founded by Revolution Internationale (France), World Revolution (UK),

Internationalism Internationalism may refer to: * Cosmopolitanism, the view that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality as opposed to communitarianism, patriotism and nationalism * International Style, a major architectur ...

(USA), Rivoluzione Internazionale (Italy), Internationalism (Venezuela) and Accion Proletaria (Spain). Chirik had been a leading member of two of these groups and he became a very important militant of the ICC until his death in 1990. Marc Chirik is one of the main characters in ''World Without Visas'', a novel by Jean Malaquais that takes place in Marseille during the Second World War.

References

External links

ICC Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chirik, Mark 1907 births 1990 deaths People from Kishinyovsky Uyezd Moldovan Jews Moldovan emigrants to France Left communists International Communist Current