[Pierre Frank, a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) of France and of the Fourth International, died in Paris in the early morning of April 18.
[Born in 1905, Frank was won to revolutionary communism when he was 15. He became an activist in the Union of Technicians in Industry, Commerce, and Agriculture (US- TICA) and in 1925 joined the French Communist Party.
[Two years later, in 1927, he learned about the platform of the supporters of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky within the Soviet Communist Party. Frank supported this program, which defended the proletarian internationalism of the Communist International in its first five years under the leadership of Lenin. With other French communists, Frank helped launch, in 1929, the first Trotskyist periodical in France, La Vérité.
[The following year, Frank helped found the Communist League, and in 1931 he became a member of the International Secretariat of the International Left Opposition led by Trotsky. In 1932, he served as one of Trotsky's secretaries in Prinkipo, Turkey, and later helped prepare for Trotsky's move to exile in France.
[In late 1934, the Communist League decided to send its members into the Socialist Party, where they formed the Bolshevik-Leninist Group (GB-L); but a few months later Frank and others were expelled from the Socialist Party. Differences subsequently emerged within the French Trotskyist movement, and Frank, along with Raymond Molinier, formed the Internationalist Communist Party (PCI). Trotsky continued to back the GB-L, but attempted to get the two groups to reunify.
[But the wartime repression against the French Trotskyists and the assassination of Trotsky by the Stalinists in August 1940 undermined the efforts to heal the split. Both Frank and Molinier had been sentenced to 10 years in prison by the French government on the eve of World War II. Frank escaped to Britain, but in October 1940 was arrested and confined in a British detention camp until the end of 1943.
[After the war, the two French groups reunified, shortly before Frank's return to the country. In 1946, he attended a world conference of the Fourth International and was elected to the International Secretariat.
[While continuing to play a prominent role in the Fourth International until the time of his death, Frank was also active in building the French Trotskyist movement. He participated in struggles against French imperialism's wars in Indochina and Algeria and was jailed by the French government for his solidarity activities with the Algerian National Liberation Front.
[During the massive May-June 1968 revolt of students and workers in France, Frank was again jailed for 10 days, on charges of plotting against state security. The Internationalist Communist Party and the Revolutionary Communist Youth, which had been outlawed during the revolt, fused the following year to form the Communist League, the forerunner of today's LCR. Until his death on April 18, Frank helped build and lead the LCR.
[We are reprinting below two statements on Frank's death. The first was issued on April 18 by the Bureau of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International and the Political Bureau of the LCR. The second is a solidarity message sent to the LCR from the National Committee of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party, meeting in New York City on April 24.]
The United Secretariat of the Fourth International and its French section are in mourning. With the death of Pierre Frank we have lost one of our most valiant members, one of our best leaders.
Pierre Frank was a companion of Leon Trotsky and with him a cofounder of the Fourth International and of its French section. He was in the thick of every battle. His life is an example of a militant in the service of the revolution and the working class. He never faltered, right to the last, even during those terrible years when there were only a handful of isolated Trotskyists who denounced Stalin's crimes as well as the abominations of imperialism.
Pierre Frank, along with the generation of militants who shared his commitment, passed on to us an irreplaceable heritage — the heritage of Marxism and the revolutionary tradition of Lenin and Trotsky. Against the social democratic and Stalinist betrayals he was in the front ranks of those who kept alive the revolutionary experience which is the cornerstone of our struggle today. We benefited from his vast knowledge of the French workers movement and his acute understanding of its debates and traditions.
Throughout his life Pierre Frank placed internationalism and building the Fourth International at the centre of his political activity. In all the debates and when there were big political and organisational choices to be made he taught us that — as Rosa Luxembourg said — "the center of gravity of the class organisation of the proletariat rests on internationalism."
The United Secretariat of the Fourth International and its French section pay their respects to the memory of this workers militant, of this exemplary revolutionary leader. We call on our members and sympathisers to pay him solemn homage on Friday the 27th of April. At this difficult time the LCR especially sends its militant solidarity to his companion Marguerite, who was deported to Revensbruck [a Nazi concentration camp in Germany| for the same ideal and was at his side in all his battles.
The Socialist Workers Party extends warmest fraternal solidarity to the comrades of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire at this time when you are paying tribute to our longtime leader, comrade, and friend, Pierre Frank. We celebrate with you his long and productive political life and pay homage to what he contributed to our movement both in France and internationally.
Pierre became a revolutionary communist when he was 15, and for more than 60 years, neither imperialist jails, political isolation, nor any of the many other pressures that sap the staying power of those who choose revolutionary proletarian politics as their vocation forced him to flinch or deviate from that course. His steadfastness and his confidence in the capacity of the exploited to overturn capitalist rule has inspired several generations of younger fighters in our movement.
He was a high school rebel, a young activist in the newly-born French Communist Party, a pioneer leader of French Trotskyism, secretary to Leon Trotsky, a prisoner in a British detention camp during World War II, and a longtime member of the elected leadership bodies of the Fourth International.
Pierre was a first-rate communist journalist, and most comrades in the SWP and the International know him best through the many articles that he wrote for the press of the world movement. When World Outlook, the predecessor of Intercontinental Press and Inprecor, began publishing in Paris in 1963, he was one of its contributing editors — as well as always ready to pitch in to assure its production on a shoestring budget. Over the years his many articles published in the pages of Intercontinental Press brought the important events of the class struggles in France alive and made them comprehensible for working-class fighters around the world.
Pierre's most indispensable contribution was undoubtedly his steadfast leadership throughout the difficult years of the post- World War Il reaction, and his determination to reunify the Fourth International in the early 1960s. His efforts were essential in assuring that there was a party nucleus in France capable of winning a whole new generation of youth out of the revolutionary upsurge of 1968.
Pierre remained active until the very end of his life, writing, participating in meetings of the International, and following closely the discussions and debates of the world movement.
Pierre served for decades on the International Executive Committee of the International, and at the 1979 World Congress this long service was given special recognition. It was an honor for one of the delegates of the SWP to present the motion that was adopted, naming Pierre a consultative member of the IEC and paying tribute to his many contributions.
We know that Pierre's example will continue to serve as a source of strength to the party he helped to build.
Long live the LCR!
Long live the Fourth International!
Long live the world struggle for a communist future!