Yvan Craipeau (24 September 1911,
La Roche-sur-Yon
La Roche-sur-Yon () is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France. It is the capital of the department. The demonym for its inhabitants is ''Yonnais''.
History
The town expanded significantly after Napo ...
,
Vendée
Vendée (; br, Vande) is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442. – 13 December 2001) was a French
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
activist.
Born in La Roche-sur-Yon, he helped found a local independent
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
organisation while he was still in his teens. Expelled from school, he moved to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
and became associated with the Trotskyist group around ''
La Verité''. In 1930, the group founded the
Communist League
The Communist League (German: ''Bund der Kommunisten)'' was an international political party established on 1 June 1847 in London, England. The organisation was formed through the merger of the League of the Just, headed by Karl Schapper, and the ...
. It considered itself an external faction of the
Communist Party of France
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...
and so admitted current and former members of the
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...
. However, the rule was relaxed, and Craipeau was allowed to join in 1931. He joined the League's
executive committee with the responsibility for developing a youth wing.
By 1933, he was able to organise a meeting attended by 1000 members of the youth wings of the Communist Party and the
Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière
The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was found ...
. In 1933, he was
Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...
's personal secretary.
In 1936, Craipeau became a leading member of the new
Internationalist Workers Party The Internationalist Workers Party (Parti ouvrier internationaliste, POI) was a French Trotskyist party established in 1936 after the exclusion of militant Trotskyists from the French Section of the Workers' International in 1935 and dissolved in 1 ...
(POI). The following year, in reaction to Trotsky's ''
The Revolution Betrayed'', he began a re-analysis of the nature of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. He concluded that it could not be defended, as Trotsky held, as a
degenerated workers' state
In Trotskyist political theory, a degenerated workers' state is a dictatorship of the proletariat in which the working class' democratic control over the state has given way to control by a bureaucratic clique. The term was developed by Leon Tro ...
but that it was a
bureaucratic collectivist
Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society. It is used by some Trotskyists to describe the nature of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and other similar states in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere (such as North Korea).
...
system, an idea that he introduced to Trotskyism.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he was pronounced unfit for duty, and attempted, with
Marcel Hic
Marcel may refer to:
People
* Marcel (given name), people with the given name Marcel
* Marcel (footballer, born August 1981), Marcel Silva Andrade, Brazilian midfielder
* Marcel (footballer, born November 1981), Marcel Augusto Ortolan, Brazilian s ...
, to publish ''La Verité'' secretly. This was difficult, and following a series of setbacks, he turned instead to work influencing the
German Army
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
. He wrote an account of this activity in his books ''Contre vents et marées'' and ''La Libération Confisquée.'' The former work, on the Occupation period itself, was published in English in 2013.
In 1944, Craipeau was the architect of unity between three of France's four Trotskyist groups: the POI itself, the Comités Communistes Internationalistes and the Octobre group. They formed the
Internationalist Communist Party Internationalist Communist Party may refer to:
* Internationalist Communist Party (France)
The Internationalist Communist Party (french: Parti Communiste Internationaliste, PCI) was a Trotskyist political party in France. It was the name taken ...
, and in 1946, he was elected its
General Secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
. In the same year, he was also elevated to the International Secretariat of the
Fourth International. However, he could not agree with the International's perspective that a crisis in
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
was imminent, and soon after the POI sided with the International, he was expelled.
Craipeau temporarily withdrew from politics, and in 1951, he moved to
Basse-Terre in
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...
, where he became a school
teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
and soon secretary of the
National Education Federation
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
.
In 1954, Craipeau returned to mainland France, where he participated in the creation of the
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...
. This fused with the
Movement for the Liberation of the City
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
to form the
Socialist Left Union
The Union of the Socialist Left (french: Union de la gauche socialiste, UGS) was a French movement of left-wing activists, founded at the end of 1957 by dissidents from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO); former resistants, ...
and, in 1960 with several groups to form the
Unified Socialist Party. He remained a leading member of this party for many years, during which he wrote numerous books on
left-wing politics
Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political%20ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically in ...
and
revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
.
See also
*
Bureaucratic collectivism
References
*Patrick Silberstein,
Yvan Craipeau, un "dinosaurio trotskista"'
Yvan Craipeau Papers* Mémoires d'un Dinosaure Trotskyste, L'Harmattan, Paris, 1999
* ''Swimming against the Tide: Trotskyists in German-occupied France'', Merlin, London, 2013. Translation and introduction by David Broder, with a documentary appendix.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craipeau, Yvan
1911 births
2001 deaths
People from La Roche-sur-Yon
Internationalist Workers Party politicians
Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party politicians
Internationalist Communist Party (France) politicians
Unified Socialist Party (France) politicians