David Korner (also known as Barta, Albert, and A. Mathieu; October 19, 1914 – September 6, 1976) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n and French

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

militant,

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist, and journalist. A

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

for most of his life, he was active in the

labor movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

of France from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Life and career

Born into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, Korner was a member of the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

(PCR) in 1932–1933.''How the Bolshevik-Leninist Group of Romania was Founded''
(with introduction), at the

Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive, also known as MIA or Marxists.org, is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Enge ...

; retrieved July 19, 2007

Stelian Tănase Stelian Tănase (born February 17, 1952) is a Romanian writer, journalist, political analyst, and talk show host. Tănase was from November 2013 to October 2015 the president of TVR. Having briefly engaged in politics during the early 1990s, aft ...

"Dej - omul resentimentului"
, in ''

Magazin Istoric ''Magazin Istoric'' () is a Romanian monthly magazine. Overview ''Magazin Istoric'' was started in 1967. The first issue appeared in April 1967. The headquarters is in Bucharest. The monthly magazine contains articles and pictures about Romanian ...

'', January 2002; retrieved July 19, 2007 In July 1933, alongside

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian politician. He was the first Socialist Republic of Romania, Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party ...

Constantin Doncea Constantin Doncea (September 26, 1904 – November 4, 1973) was a Romanian communist activist and politician. A railway worker, he played an important part in the Grivița Strike of 1933. Subsequently, imprisoned, he escaped and ended up in Mo ...

and other PCR activists, he was brought to trial in front of a

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

court for his part in convening the Griviţa Strike, and ultimately sentenced to 18 months in jail. Recruited to Trotskyism as a student in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in the 1934, he formed the ''Bolshevik Leninist Group of Romania'' upon his return to Romania (April 1935). The latter faction opposed the

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

PCR, as well as the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

and the Unitary Socialist Party of Leon Ghelerter. When the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

and the June 1936 strikes took place, Korner again returned to France and was a member of the Internationalist Workers Party (POI). In line with

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

's advice to his French followers to enter the Workers and Peasants Socialist Party (PSOP) he joined that party and stood on its

far left Far or FAR may refer to: Government * Federal Acquisition Regulation, US * Federal Aviation Regulations, US * Florida Administrative Register, US Military and paramilitary * Rebel Armed Forces (Spanish: '), a defunct guerilla organization ...

(''see

French Turn The French Turn was the name given to the entry between 1934 and 1936 of the French Trotskyists into the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, the contemporary name of the French Socialist Party). The French Turn was repeated by Tr ...

''). Upon the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, as the PSOP collapsed, he formed the tiny ''Trotskyist Group'' in opposition to what he considered the petty bourgeois methods of organization of the other French Trotskyist groups, as well as to the politics of mainstream

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

party (the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...

). This group was active in clandestinity under the

Nazi German Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

occupation of France The Military Administration in France (; ) was an Military Administration (Nazi Germany), interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western French Third ...

, and later became the ''Communist Union'' (UC). The group concentrated on factory work but also maintained the regular production of its political publications and took part in agitation against the colonial politics of France. The factory work came to fruition with the

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

strike of 1947, which Korner's group helped lead and organize. The request for support addressed by the newly formed Democratic Trade Union of Renault (SDR) was accepted by the UC, which effectively caused a merger between the two. While the SDR broke apart in 1949, the political grouping was revived only briefly in 1950, without enlisting support; when some former militants of the UC began publishing '' Voix Ouvrière'' in 1956 (later known as ''Lutte Ouvrière''), Barta did not partake in the move (although, as late as 1964, Bois, a leader of ''Voix Ouvrière'', was still writing to him to request his involvement). Relations between Barta and the leadership of the ''Voix Ouvrière'' group remained poor until his death, in part because Barta believed that the group had wrongly appropriated his work and was philistine in its methods.

References

External links

Barta Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korner, David 1914 births 1976 deaths Romanian Jews Romanian Trotskyists Internationalist Workers Party politicians Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party politicians Jewish socialists French trade unionists Romanian emigrants to France Romanian trade unionists