Pierre Lambert (; real name Pierre Boussel ; June 9, 1920 – January 16, 2008) was a French Trotskyist leader, who for many years acted as the central leader of the French Courant Communiste Internationaliste (CCI) which founded the Parti des Travailleurs. He was born 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 ...

to a family of

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

ish immigrants. Lambert began his activity as 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 ...

militant before the

Second World War 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 ...

when he was a member of the Internationalist Workers Party (POI) led by Raymond Molinier. After the war he continued his activism, as a member of the now united French section of the

Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International (also known as Comintern or the Third Inte ...

, the Internationalist Communist Party (PCI). In the PCI he was known as a specialist in

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 ...

matters. When

Michel Pablo Michel Pablo (; ; 24 August 1911, Alexandria, Khedivate of Egypt, Egypt – 17 February 1996, Athens) was the pseudonym of Michalis N. Raptis (), a Trotskyist leader of Greek origin. Education Pablo studied at the National Technical Univers ...

, the secretary of the Fourth International, raised the question of entrism ''sui generis'' he eventually came to oppose this and helped to challenge Pablo within the French Section of the FI, backing the PCI leadership around Marcel Bleibtreu (also known as Pierre Favre). Differences between Lambert and Bleibtreu forced the latter to leave the PCI. By this time, 1952, the PCI had split into two mutually hostile groups on the question of entrism ''sui generis'' and the associated perspective of hundreds of years of deformed workers states propagated by Pablo. As leader of the PCI by 1954 Lambert forged an alliance with the Socialist Workers Party in the United States and others opposed to Pablo. Lambert lead the PCI to join with these anti-Pabloist fores to form the

International Committee of the Fourth International The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) is a public faction of the Fourth International founded in 1953. Today, two Trotskyist List of Trotskyist internationals, internationals claim to be the continuations of the ICFI; o ...

(ICFI). This alliance would last for nearly a decade at which point the SWP (US) and its international faction fused with the

International Secretariat of the Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International (also known as Comintern or the Third Inte ...

, within which Pablo was now marginalised, to form the

United Secretariat of the Fourth International The Fourth International (FI), founded in 1938, is a Trotskyist international. Following a ten-year schism, in 1963 the majorities of the two public factions of the Fourth International, the International Secretariat of the Fourth Internationa ...

. Lambert was left in 1963 to continue the ICFI in an alliance with the

Gerry Healy Thomas Gerard Healy (3 December 1913 – 14 December 1989) was an Irish-born British political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International and the leader of the Socialist Labour League and later the Work ...

-led

Socialist Labour League The Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) is a Trotskyist group in Britain once led by Gerry Healy. In the mid-1980s, it split into several smaller groups, one of which retains possession of the name. The Club The WRP grew out of the faction Ger ...

, based in Britain. The much shrunken ICFI consisted at this point of the SLL, Lambert's

Organisation Communiste Internationaliste The Internationalist Communist Organisation (, OCI) was a Trotskyist political party in France. Its successor was the Internationalist Communist Current of the Workers Party (France), Workers Party. History Origins The group's origins lay in the ...

(the PCI as rebranded in 1966) and smaller groups around Europe and Latin America, most notably the POR in Bolivia led by Guillermo Lora and the Politica Obrera group in Argentina led by Jorge Altamira. By the time of the ICFI's congress in 1966, pressures were building between the OCI (which thought the SLL to be "ultimatistic") and the SLL. In 1971 the OCI left the ICFI to form the Organising Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International and in 1973 and 1974 proposed discussions to the USFI. This was supported by the US SWP but the Nicaraguan Revolution intervened in 1979 and instead the OCRFI eventually united with

Nahuel Moreno Nahuel Moreno (real name Hugo Miguel Bressano Capacete; 24 April 1924 – 25 January 1987) was a Trotskyist leader from Argentina. Moreno was active in the Trotskyist movement from 1942 until his death. Biography 1950s–1960s During the 1953– ...

's group to form the Parity Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International. The parity commission failed, leaving Lambert's supporters organised in the Fourth International (ICR). In 1996 the Fourth International (ICR) reproclaimed the Fourth International and goes by that name since. Under his real name of Pierre Boussel, Lambert was candidate at the presidential election in 1988. He gathered 116,823 votes (0.39% of validly cast ballots). Lambert died in Paris January 16, 2008.

External links

Lambert biography (in French)De la IVe Internationale au Parti des travailleurs
Tribute in

Libération (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...

, 16 January 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lambert, Pierre 1920 births 2008 deaths Politicians from Paris 20th-century French Jews French people of Russian-Jewish descent Internationalist Workers Party politicians Internationalist Communist Party (France) politicians Internationalist Communist Organisation politicians Members of the General Confederation of Labour (France) Workers' Force members Jewish socialists Candidates in the 1988 French presidential election Jewish French anti-Zionists