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Michel Pablo (; ; 24 August 1911,
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
,
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
– 17 February 1996,
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
) was the pseudonym of Michalis N. Raptis (), 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 ...
leader of Greek origin.


Education

Pablo studied at the
National Technical University of Athens The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; , ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, a university in Athens, Greece. It is named in honor of its benefactors Nikolaos Stournaris, Eleni Tosi ...
and continued at the
University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...
, specializing in urban planning.


Early activism

Pablo joined the
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 ...
faction of the
Archeio-Marxist Archeio-Marxism () was a radical left political movement active during the interwar period in Greece (mainly from 1921 to 1934). The main motto of its supporters was "first education and then action" ("πρώτα μόρφωση μετά δράση ...
party
KOMLEA Archeio-Marxism () was a radical left political movement active during the interwar period in Greece (mainly from 1921 to 1934). The main motto of its supporters was "first education and then action" ("πρώτα μόρφωση μετά δράση ...
in 1928. In 1930, a group led by him split from KOMLEA and formed the Communist Unification Group (Κομμουνιστική Ενωτική Ομάδα, ΚΕΟ, KEO), which had Trotskyist leanings and renounced Archeio-Marxism. KEO, after failing to merge with the Trotskyist group
Spartacus League The Spartacus League () was a Marxism, Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. It was founded in August 1914 as the International Group by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, and other members of the So ...
(led by
Pandelis Pouliopoulos Pandelis Pouliopoulos (; 10 March 19006 June 1943) was a Greek communist, anti-fascist, and one-time general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). He stood for the internationalist and revolutionary character of the communist movement ...
), was renamed in 1932—following the involvement of
Agis Stinas Agis Stinas (; 1900–1987), real name Spyros Priftis (Σπύρος Πρίφτης), was a Greek politician. He was an executive of the Communist Party of Greece and then executive of various small Trotskyist parties. During the Axis occupation of ...
, who had been expelled from the KKE—to
LAKKE The Organization of Internationalist Communists of Greece (Greek: Οργάνωση Κομμουνιστών Διεθνιστών Ελλάδας, ''Organosi Kommouniston Diethniston Elladas'') is a Greek Trotskyist political party. It is also know ...
. In 1933, Stinas left the group, and in 1934, LAKKE merged with Spartacus to form the
OKDE The Organization of Internationalist Communists of Greece (Greek: Οργάνωση Κομμουνιστών Διεθνιστών Ελλάδας, ''Organosi Kommouniston Diethniston Elladas'') is a Greek Trotskyist political party. It is also know ...
. During the
4th of August Regime The 4th of August Regime (), commonly also known as the Metaxas regime (, ''Kathestós Metaxá''), was a dictatorial regime under the leadership of General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled the Kingdom of Greece from 1936 to 1941. On 4 August 1936, ...
(1936–1941) of
Ioannis Metaxas Ioannis Metaxas (; 12 April 187129 January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who was dictator of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for the first four months of his tenure, and thereafter as th ...
, Pablo was arrested and exiled in the Aegean island of
Folegandros Folegandros (also Pholegandros; ) is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea that, together with Sikinos, Ios, Anafi and Santorini, forms the southern part of the Cyclades. Its surface area is and it has 719 inhabitants (2021). It has three small ...
. There he was not admitted by the orthodox communists, also in exile, so he joined the company of cattle and horse thieves, who at that time were punished with exile. In Folegandros, he met his future wife, Elli Dyovounioti (Ελλη Δυοβουνιώτη). In 1937, he was transferred to
Acronauplia The Acronauplia (; , "Inner Castle") is the oldest part of the city of Nafplion in Greece. Until the thirteenth century, it was a town on its own. The arrival of the Venetians and the Franks transformed it into part of the town fortifications. ...
and was eventually deported to Paris, France, with his wife. There, Pablo assumed his pseudonym (he had previously been known by his birth name, Raptis) and represented the Greek Trotskyist group
EOKDE The Organization of Internationalist Communists of Greece (Greek: Οργάνωση Κομμουνιστών Διεθνιστών Ελλάδας, ''Organosi Kommouniston Diethniston Elladas'') is a Greek Trotskyist political party. It is also know ...
(formerly OKDE) at the founding conference 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 ...
(its First World-Congress), held just outside Paris in September 1938. When
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
occupied France in 1940, Pablo stayed in Paris where he organized illegal propaganda and was involved in the re-construction and re-unification of the French Trotskyist movement, which was operating underground into the Provisional European Secretariat of the Fourth International.


Leadership of the Fourth International

By 1944, Pablo was fully involved with the movement and was elected the general secretary of its European Bureau, which had re-established contact between the Trotskyist parties. As leader of the European Bureau, Pablo also played a key role in re-unifying, re-centralising and re-orienting 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 ...
(FI). In July 1946, he visited Greece to help convene the Unification Congress of the Greek Trotskyist groups in
Penteli Penteli () is a village and a municipality in the North Athens regional unit, Attica, Greece. Belonging to the Athens rural area, it takes its name from Mount Pentelicus. Municipality The municipality Penteli was formed at the 2011 local governm ...
, which successfully reunified the two main Trotskyist parties,
EDKE The Organization of Internationalist Communists of Greece (Greek: Οργάνωση Κομμουνιστών Διεθνιστών Ελλάδας, ''Organosi Kommouniston Diethniston Elladas'') is a Greek Trotskyist political party. It is also know ...
(formerly EOKDE) and (
Agis Stinas Agis Stinas (; 1900–1987), real name Spyros Priftis (Σπύρος Πρίφτης), was a Greek politician. He was an executive of the Communist Party of Greece and then executive of various small Trotskyist parties. During the Axis occupation of ...
')
DEKE The Workers Revolutionary Party (, ''Ergatiko Epanastatiko Komma'', EEK) is a Trotskyist communist political party in Greece, taking part in the elections independently, since the departure from Radical Left Front (MERA, ΜΕΡΑ) coalition in s ...
were merged into
KDKE KDKE (102.5 FM, "Duke FM") is a classic country radio station located in Duluth, Minnesota (licensed to Superior, Wisconsin). KDKE is owned by Midwest Communications, which also owns WDSM, WDUL, KDAL, KDAL-FM and KTCO in Duluth. All the Dulu ...
. Pablo and
Ernest Mandel Ernest Ezra Mandel (; 5 April 1923 – 20 July 1995), also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter, was a Belgian Marxian economist, Trotskyist activist and theorist, and Holocaust survivor. He f ...
were instrumental in winning the FI to a position that asserted that the Eastern European states conquered by the
Soviet Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republi ...
in 1944–45 had by 1948 become what they described as
deformed workers' states In Trotskyist political theory, deformed workers' states are states where the capitalist class has been overthrown, the economy is largely state-owned and planned, but there is no internal democracy or workers' control of industry. In a deform ...
. Pablo participated in the Second World-Congress in April 1948 and served as General Secretary of the FI from 1948 to 1960.


Turn to the mass parties

In the uncertain aftermath 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 ...
, when the Trotskyists were numerically dwarfed by the mass communist parties and their hopes for a revolutionary breakthrough were dashed, Pablo also advanced a new tactic for the FI from its Third World-Congress in 1951 onward. He argued that a
Third World War World War III, also known as the Third World War, is a hypothetical future global conflict subsequent to World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). It is widely predicted that such a war would involve all of the great powers, l ...
, which was believed by many people to be imminent. In his document "Where are we going", Pablo writes "such a war would take on, from the very beginning the character of an international civil war, especially in Europe and in Asia. These continents would rapidly pass over under the control of the
Soviet bureaucracy The Soviet bureaucracy played a crucial role in the governance and administration of the USSR. A class of high-ranking party bureaucrats, known as the ''nomenklatura'', formed a ''de facto'' elite, wielding immense power over public life. History ...
, of the Communist Parties, or of the revolutionary masses". Splits of revolutionary dissenters were likely to develop in the traditional mass parties of the working class. To gain influence, win members, establish a Marxist wing and most importantly to avoid becoming isolated sectarian circles with no connection to the working class, the Trotskyists should—where possible—join, or in Trotskyist terminology
enter Enter or ENTER may refer to: * Enter key, on computer keyboards * Enter, Netherlands, a village * ''Enter'' (magazine), an American technology magazine for children 1983–1985 * ''Enter'' (Finnish magazine), a Finnish computer magazine * Enter ...
, the mass
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 ...
or social democratic (Labour) parties. This form of Entryism was intended to be a long-term tactic. It was understood by all that the FI would retain its political identity and its own press. Entry was seldom carried out without splits or even violent conflict within the local propaganda circles, but proved to greatly add to local groups' flexibility where it was put into practice. Independent work should continue in Latin America, Ceylon, the United States, India. The innovative part of Pablo's proposed "Entryism sui generis", which was accepted by the Tenth Plenum of the Third World-Congress of the Fourth International, was in the approach to the Stalinist parties wherever they were a majority working-class party. Due to the extremely bureaucratic leadership of the Stalinist parties, Trotskyists would be prevented from proceeding in the same way as they would with reformist mass-parties, and had to maintain separate independent work, which "must be understood as having its chief aim to assist the work of entry". These changes in policy were adopted by the Fourth International in the early months of 1952.


The "Pabloite" Fourth International

Under the weight of the controversy that was caused by the resolutions adopted at the Third World-Congress of the Fourth International, factions in the US-SWP as well as the British section of the FI started to build a faction within the International, which broke away in 1953, constituting 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).


Rise and decline of Stalinism

The Fourth World-Congress of the Fourth International in 1954 was entitled "Rise and Decline of Stalinism". Inspired by the
Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...
as well as the
Tito–Stalin split The Tito–Stalin split or the Soviet–Yugoslav split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, respectively, in the years following World W ...
demonstrating that the Stalinist Communist Parties may not unalterably subordinate to Stalin, Pablo also started to argue that even the Stalinist parties who were in power in various countries at the time could be pushed into taking leadership in revolutionary conflicts by the mass activity of the working class, which caused further controversy and division within the ranks of the FI. Pablo was speculating on a split between the Stalinist regimes in China and the USSR as early as 1951. Pablo writes: "the rise of Communist Parties to power is not the consequence of a capacity of
Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...
to struggle for the Revolution, does not alter the internationally counter-revolutionary role of Stalinism, but it is the product of an exceptional combination of circumstances which has imposed the seizure of power either upon the Soviet bureaucracy (in the case of the European buffer zone) or upon certain Communist Parties (
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
)".


Colonial revolution and guerrillaism

The Fifth World-Congress in 1957 recognized for the first time that a major world depression was not likely in the near future. The central document emphasized the basic role of workers' democracy, not only as political factor, but also as indispensable for economic development. The second document was on "Colonial Revolution since the End of the Second World War", focusing on conflicts between French imperialism and the Vietminh, the
Algerian War The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...
, and the
Suez crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...
which led to the nationalisation of the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
. The document argued that since the world revolution had first been successful in the East, instead of—as was expected by Marxist theoreticians—in the Western countries. Colonial revolution, which could only be victorious as
permanent revolution Permanent revolution is the strategy of a revolutionary class pursuing its own interests independently and without compromise or alliance with opposing sections of society. As a term within Marxist theory, it was first coined by Karl Marx and ...
, thus was an integral part of the
world revolution World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class. For theorists, these revolutions will not necessarily occur simultaneously, but whe ...
, and constituted a link between
October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôctō'' meaning "eight") after Januar ...
and the triumph of the world revolution. The document contained a detailed study of the colonial movements, examined the respective roles of proletariat and peasantry in the colonial countries and emphasised the importance of
guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...
in colonial countries, not only as a military factor but as a factor in the organisation and political education of the masses. The congress insisted on the necessity for the Trotskyist movement, especially in the imperialist countries, to devote a large part of its activity to aiding colonial revolution. Pablo was personally engaged in supporting the Algerian national liberation struggle against France. In 1959, he set up and operated a secret munitions factory, hidden within a citrus plantation in the Moroccan city of Kentire, where they manufactured a lightweight version of the Sten submachinegun while also overseeing a workshop on the Dutch-German border that produced counterfeit passports and cash to support the FLN.


Arrest in Amsterdam

In 1960, it was decided to move the headquarters of the Fourth International from Paris to Amsterdam because of the return of
Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
to power, which made it less advisable to stay in Paris. In Amsterdam, it was thought, the Trotskyists would be freer to operate, and they would be closer to the European headquarters of the Algerian Revolution, which was in
Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
. In July 1960, he was arrested in Amsterdam along with Sal Santen. A campaign for his release was launched by
Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...
. After Pablo's arrest, it was decided to move the International Secretariat to Rome, with the reason being that of the members of the Bureau of the Secretariat –
Pierre Frank Pierre Frank (24 October 1905 – 18 April 1984) was a French Trotskyist leader. He served on the secretariat of the Fourth International from 1948 to 1979. Biography Educated as a chemical engineer, Frank was one of the first French Trotskyist ...
,
Ernest Mandel Ernest Ezra Mandel (; 5 April 1923 – 20 July 1995), also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter, was a Belgian Marxian economist, Trotskyist activist and theorist, and Holocaust survivor. He f ...
and
Livio Maitan Livio Maitan (April 1, 1923 – September 16, 2004) was an Italian Trotskyist, a leader of Bandiera Rossa Association (Italy), Associazione Bandiera Rossa and of the Fourth International. He was born in Venice and died in Rome. Life and career H ...
– Maitan was the only one who could devote full-time to work for the IS. Pablo opposed this decision. In 1961, Pablo was finally sentenced to 15 months imprisonment and liberated at the end of his trial. After his release, he went to Great Britain, where through the intervention of supporters of his in Morocco, he was provided with a Moroccan passport. He took refuge in
Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
. After the victory of the Algerian Revolution in 1962, he became an adviser in the economic reconstruction in the Government of Ahmed Ben-Bella. Pablo was also part of a four-man committee tasked with drawing up a decree concerned with property that had been seized by the Algerians after the French colonials had fled the country. He served in these positions until the Algerian government was overthrown in the
1965 Algerian coup d'état Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...
. Pablo then moved to Switzerland in 1965.


Reunification

Meanwhile, in 1963, ICFI groups around the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) were moving back towards unity with the ISFI, sharing common positions towards the Cuban Revolution. Pablo was regarded by the SWP as a barrier to that unification. The 1963 World Congress (the seventh one) formed the
reunified 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 ...
. Pablo moved a counter-resolution at the 1963 reunification congress, as well as the main resolution on Algeria, and was elected to the international executive committee. Tensions grew, and Pablo and his African Bureau were ousted from the International by the end of 1965 for partly disputed reasons: in the International's view, Pablo's tendency's orientation on what was commonly portrayed as "Third-World guerrillaism" broke with the International publicly and placed itself outside the FI. Being busy with the situation in Algeria also made it difficult for him to defend himself against accusations leveraged against him by the FI's leadership. By then, Pablo had key political differences with the FI. In addition, Pablo was critical on the prospect of re-unification of the Trotskyist movement as advocated by
Ernest Mandel Ernest Ezra Mandel (; 5 April 1923 – 20 July 1995), also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter, was a Belgian Marxian economist, Trotskyist activist and theorist, and Holocaust survivor. He f ...
, Joseph Hansen and others. Pablo himself declared his differences with the United Secretariat as follows: # Disagreement with the assessment of Maoism as evolving towards revolutionary Marxist positions, to which it was necessary to offer critical support. # Disagreement with the assessment of the Khrushchev tendency of the Soviet bureaucracy as a simple personal quarrel. Pablo had maintained that the Khrushchev tendency was more receptive to pressures of Soviet society than the Stalinist tendency that sought to overthrow it. # Disagreement with the support given by the executive committee of the United Secretariat to
Holden Roberto Álvaro Holden Necaca Roberto Diasiwa (Angolan ; January 12, 1923 – August 2, 2007) was an Angolan politician who founded and led the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) from 1962 to 1999. Early life Son of Roberto Garcia Diasiwa an ...
against the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in Angola. Pablo favored supporting the latter. Publicly defending those positions would lead to Pablo and his supporters being accused of having violated
democratic centralism Democratic centralism is the organisational principle of most communist parties, in which decisions are made by a process of vigorous and open debate amongst party membership, and are subsequently binding upon all members of the party. The co ...
, thus placing themselves outside the Fourth International. This was followed by expulsions of Pablo's supporters from the United Secretariat.


Outside the Fourth International

During the Greek Colonels' Dictatorship in Greece in 1967, Pablo, together with
Andreas Papandreou Andreas Georgiou Papandreou (, ; 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek academic and economist who founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and served three terms as Prime minister of Greece, prime minister of Third Hellenic Repu ...
, established a network to assist resistance members' escape abroad. After being expelled, Pablo and his supporters regrouped as the International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency of the Fourth International (TMRIQI; 1965–1992; known as International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency or IRMT after 1972) internationally. This group dropped the reference to the Fourth International during its meetings in 1972 and at the same time proclaimed it no longer considered itself Trotskyist nor a party of world revolution. Instead they considered themselves a Marxist tendency fostering
self-government Self-governance, self-government, self-sovereignty or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any ...
on all levels within social movements. This coincided with Pablo being politically active in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
under Allende's government. In 1979, the TMRI would send an open letter to members of the Fourth International, calling for the need to "develop new directions, new forms of struggle and of organization" as well as "the elaboration of a transition program based on socialist autogestion". The United Secretariat paid little attention to this letter. A resolution of the Seventh International Conference of the TMRI in 1980 declares the adoption of
Christian Rakovsky Christian Georgiyevich Rakovsky ( – September 11, 1941), Bulgarian name Krastyo Georgiev Rakovski, born Krastyo Georgiev Stanchov, was a Bulgarian-born socialist Professional revolutionaries, revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet Un ...
's theory of "bureaucratic centrism". After the fall of the Greek Colonels' Dictatorship, Pablo returned to
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
, played a role in the founding of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and, from 1981, served as Special Advisor to Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou; The sections of the IRMT rejoined the reunified Fourth International in 1994 and 1995, although the agreement was not applied in Pablo's individual case. Unusually for a revolutionary, his funeral was a state event in his native Greece. This is explained by his personal friendship from the 1930s with Papandreou, who had been a Trotskyist in his youth. Pablo's motto was: "The meaning of life is life itself" (Νόημα της ζωής είναι η ίδια η ζωή).As quoted by Savas Michael Matsas i
"Intellectual Revolutionary in Lean Times"
''Efimerida ton Syntakton'', 25-02-2014.


Bibliography

*Michel Raptis, ''Revolution and Counter Revolution in Chile: A Dossier on Workers' Participation in the Revolutionary Process'' (London:
Allison & Busby Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher. Background Launching as a publishing company in Ma ...
, 1974). *Michel Raptis, ''Socialism, Democracy & Self-Management: Political Essays'' (London: Allison & Busby, 1980). *Michel Raptis, ''Étude pour une politique agraire en Algerie''.


See also

* Dimitris Giotopoulos


Notes


References


Further reading

*Pierre Frank, ''The Fourth International: The Long March of the Trotskyists''. *Francois Moreau, ''Combats et debats de la Quatrieme Internationale''. *Klaus Leggewie, ''Koffertrager. Das Algerienprojekt der Deutsche Linken in Adenauer Deutschland''. *Lena Hoff, ''Resistance in Exile. A study of the political correspondence between Nicolas Calas and Michel Raptis 1967-72'', *Robert J. Alexander, ''International Trotskyism, 1929–1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement''.


External links


Genesis of Pabloism
by the Spartacist League

provides a bio-bibliographical sketch of Michel Pablo

Includes Papandreou's comment on Pablo's death {{DEFAULTSORT:Pablo, Michel 1911 births 1996 deaths Egyptian emigrants to Greece Egyptian people of Greek descent Greek communists Greek Marxists Greek Trotskyists National Technical University of Athens alumni Politicians from Alexandria