Pierre Frank (24 October 1905 – 18 April 1984) was a French

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. He served on the 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 ...

from 1948 to 1979.

Biography

Educated as a chemical engineer, Frank was one of the first French Trotskyists, working with

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

Pierre Naville and the

syndicalist Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gainin ...

Alfred Rosmer. In 1930, he joined Trotsky on the island of Prinkipo to work as a member of the secretariat that prepared the first conference of the International Left Opposition. Returning to France, he was a leader of the Communist League, the French Trotskyist organisation, in the 1930s. After the rise of the 1934 Popular Front government in France, Frank was a part of the faction within the movement led by his friend Raymond Molinier that remained inside the SFIO after the majority followed Trotsky's advice to leave. Frank and his co-thinkers were expelled from the Movement for the

as a result. Frank was a founder-member of the "La Commune" group formed by Molinier. Ernest Mandel comments that the group "was chiefly identified with a thorough-going preparation of anti-militarist and anti-imperialist work that earned them repression and persecution at the hands of the French imperialist government." When the Second World War broke out, Frank was sent to Great Britain in order to continue legally publishing the movement's documents. He issued a publication called ''International Correspondence'' but, as an illegal resident, was briefly interned in a British

internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

. Apart from the help of Betty Hamilton, the British Trotskyists were not in sympathy with his views. At the end of the Second World War he returned to France where his current campaigned for the reunification of the French Trotskyists. He joined the leadership of the Internationalist Communist Party (PCI). At the 1948 World Congress he joined the international leadership team that included Ernest Mandel and

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 ...

. He was important in maintaining the PCI in the 1950s and into the 1960s. He was elected to the United Secretariat of the Fourth International in 1963 and served as an editor of

Intercontinental Press ''Intercontinental Press'' (IP) was a weekly news magazine produced on behalf of the Fourth International (FI) between 1963 and 1986. The magazine was founded in Paris as ''World Outlook'' in 1963 under the editorial direction of Joseph Hansen, P ...

. When the PCI was dissolved into the new Communist League in 1968, he was a part of the leadership and continued in it until his death. He was the author of a history of Trotskyism entitled
''The Long March of the Trotskyists''
' and ''Histoire de l'Internationale communiste (1919–1943)'', ed. La Breche, 1979. His ashes are in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise.

References

External links

Obituary
by Ernest Mandel
Frank's writings from the Marxist Internet Archive

provides a bio-bibliographical sketch of Pierre Frank {{DEFAULTSORT:Frank, Pierre 1905 births 1984 deaths Politicians from Paris Internationalist Communist Party (France) politicians Revolutionary Communist League (France) politicians French Jews Jewish socialists Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery