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Pierre Frank | |
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| Born | (1905-10-24)24 October 1905 Paris, France |
| Died | 18 April 1984(1984-04-18) (aged 78) Paris, France |
| Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Political party | Internationalist Communist Party |
| Movement | Trotskyism |
Pierre Frank (24 October 1905 – 18 April 1984) was a FrenchTrotskyist leader. He served on the secretariat of theFourth International from 1948 to 1979.
Educated as a chemical engineer, Frank was one of the first French Trotskyists, working withsurrealistPierre Naville and thesyndicalistAlfred Rosmer. In 1930, he joined Trotsky on the island ofPrinkipo to work as a member of the secretariat that prepared the first conference of theInternational Left Opposition. Returning to France, he was a leader of theCommunist League, the French Trotskyist organisation, in the 1930s.
After the rise of the 1934Popular Front government in France, Frank was a part of the faction within the movement led by his friendRaymond Molinier that remained inside theSFIO after the majority followed Trotsky's advice to leave. Frank and his co-thinkers were expelled from the Movement for theFourth International 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."[1]
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 calledInternational Correspondence but, as an illegal resident, was briefly interned in a Britishinternment camp. Apart from the help ofBetty 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 theInternationalist Communist Party (PCI). At the 1948 World Congress he joined the international leadership team that includedErnest Mandel andMichel Pablo.
He was important in maintaining the PCI in the 1950s and into the 1960s. He was elected to theUnited Secretariat of the Fourth International in 1963 and served as an editor ofIntercontinental Press. 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 entitledThe Long March of the Trotskyists andHistoire de l'Internationale communiste (1919–1943), ed. La Breche, 1979.
His ashes are in theCimetière du Père Lachaise.
