A real working class united front has emerged in dejence of the ll - ат of the Left Opposition led by Trotsky. remained a political activist and thinker. Montreux, France. IT IS a sad duty to inform our readers of the death of the French socialist and Marxist, Pierre Frank. His death leaves the ranks of international socialism just that bit poorer, and is one more rupture of the few remaining links with those socialists who rallied to the banner of the Russian revolution in its heroic Pierre was born in 1905, the year that the Russian workers were staging their dress rehearsal for 1917. In 1925 he joined the French Communist Party and worked as an activist in both the Party and in its trade union wing, the CGT. By 1927 Stalin was tightening his grip on the 3rd International and 'socialism in one country' was becom. ing the official gospel of the Communist Parties. It was a doctrine Pierre soon rejected and by 1927 he ma reda me programme ana become a supporte In 1929 he started La Verité, which was the first Trotskyist journal in France and was a founding member in 1930 of the Trotskyist Ligue Communiste. In 1932 he joined Trotsky in exile in Prinkipo, and for the next year worked as his secretary. Throughout the dark days of the rise of Spanish working class, he remained committed to the cause of socialism and workers' democracy.
In 1939, to avoid a warrant for his arrest, issued by the very people in the French government who in two vears time were to capitulate to Hitler he fled to Britain. But in 1940 his opposition to the imperialist war earned him the hostility of the British government and they shipped him to the Isle of Man where he was interned for nearly five At the same time his companion, Marguerite, who had stayed in France, was sent by the Nazis to Ravensbruck concentration camp. At the end of the war and their release, both were involved in the political struggle again, building the French Trotskyist movement, the Parti Communiste InternaIn the late 1940s, Pierre was elected to the leadership of the Fourth International, and remained a member of its Secretariat until his death. He was one of the main organisers of the Trotskyists work in the Communist student movement, which led to the creation of the Jeunesses Communistes Revolutionaries which played a vital breakthrough for the whole of the European TrotIn the 1950s Pierre was back behind bars again - this time for his support for the Algerian FLN engaged in its liberation war against French imperialism. Alter his release he carried on his work of solidarity with the Algerian peoples and later was active in the Vietnam solidarity movement. In May 1968 he welcomed and gave active support to the youth who took to the streets and barricades against the regime of Charles De Gaulle. Despite advancing years and, in later life, failing health, he History of the Communist International. Right up until his death his belief in international socialism remained as firm as it did in his youth.
cremated on Friday 27 April the ceremony will take place in the Cemetery of the Père Lachaise. Like the martyrs of the Commune who made their last stand in that very cemetery, Pierre Frank never made his peace with capitalism and its exploiters.
And surely no socialist can leave a better legacy • Messages for the cremation service can be sent to: LCR c/o Rouge, Rue Richard Lenoir, 93100