The Communist League (''Ligue communiste'') was a

French Trotskyist In France, several organizations identify with Trotskyism. These groups vary in size, with memberships ranging from a few dozen to several thousand activists. History Beginnings: 1929–1933 In 1929, Leon Trotsky was expulsion of Trotsky, e ...

party established in 1930, which published the journal '' La Vérité''. It brought together French members of the

International Left Opposition The International Left Opposition (ILO) was an organisation founded by Leon Trotsky in 1930. It was meant to be an opposition group within the Comintern, but members of the Comintern were immediately expelled as soon as they joined (or were sus ...

before the proclamation 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 ...

in 1938. Following the far-right riots of February 6, 1934, it joined the

SFIO The C programming language provides many standard library functions for file input and output. These functions make up the bulk of the C standard library header . The functionality descends from a "portable I/O package" written by Mike Lesk at ...

as an organized tendency, forming the "Bolshevik-Leninist group" (BL), which was expelled at the SFIO Congress in Mulhouse in . During this period, the Ligue communiste officially continued to exist but was dormant and its members split.

Formation

Created in as a secret

entryist Entryism (also called entrism, enterism, infiltration, a French Turn, boring from within, or boring-from-within) is a political strategy in which an organization or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organiz ...

tendency within the PCF, the Ligue communiste organized around the magazine '' La Vérité'', launched in under the direction of

Alfred Rosmer Alfred Rosmer (born Alfred Griot, 23 August 1877 – 6 May 1964) was an American-born French communist political activist and historian who was a leading member of the Comintern. Rosmer is best remembered as a political associate of Leon Trotsky a ...

. Rosmer, under direct instruction from

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

, sought to unify two rival factions of French Trotskyism, divided primarily by personal disputes. These factions included

Pierre Naville Pierre Naville (; 1 February 1904 – 24 April 1993) was a French Surrealist writer and sociologist.Stubb, JeremyObituary: Pierre Naville ''The Independent'', 3 June 1993. He was a prominent member of the "Investigating Sex" group of Surreali ...

and

Gérard Rosenthal Gérard ( French: ) is a French masculine given name and surname of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constitu ...

on one side, and

Raymond Molinier Raymond Molinier (1904–1994) was a leader of the Trotskyist movement in France and a pioneer of the Fourth International. Molinier was born in Paris. In 1929, founded the journal ''La Vérité'', and in March 1936 he and Pierre Frank co-fou ...

and

Pierre Frank Pierre Frank (24 October 1905 – 18 April 1984) was a French Trotskyist leader. He served on the secretariat of the Fourth International from 1948 to 1979. Biography Educated as a chemical engineer, Frank was one of the first French Trotskyist ...

on the other. The recently started ''La Lutte de Classe'' (Class Struggle) continued its publication and became the theoretical journal of the Communist League. The Ligue communiste initially comprised about fifty militants, with a small leadership circle around

and

. After disputes, Naville and Rosenthal ousted Molinier and Frank from leadership roles, angering

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

, who sought arbitration through an international delegation including Andrés Nin and

Amadeo Bordiga Amadeo Bordiga (13 June 1889 – 25 July 1970) was an Italian Marxist theorist. A revolutionary socialist, Bordiga was the founder of the Communist Party of Italy (PCdI), a member of the Communist International (Comintern), and later a leading ...

in 1931. Rosmer eventually resigned from the Ligue communiste in .

Entryism into the SFIO

After the 6 February 1934 riots,

advocated for

entryism Entryism (also called entrism, enterism, infiltration, a French Turn, boring from within, or boring-from-within) is a political strategy in which an organization or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organiz ...

, which led the Ligue communiste to join the

and form the Bolshevik-Leninist group. This strategy, known as the

French Turn The French Turn was the name given to the entry between 1934 and 1936 of the French Trotskyists into the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, the contemporary name of the French Socialist Party). The French Turn was repeated by Tr ...

, mirrored similar efforts worldwide, such as the

Workers Party of the United States The Workers Party of the United States (WPUS) was established in December 1934 by a merger of the American Workers Party (AWP) led by A.J. Muste and the Trotskyist Communist League of America (CLA) led by James P. Cannon. The party was disso ...

joining the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...

in 1936. The approach faced challenges, and at the SFIO Congress in Mulhouse (), Trotskyists were sidelined as

Léon Blum André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister of France. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of socialist l ...

favored alignment with the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

Splits and reorganizations

In , after insurrectionary strikes,

abandoned entryism, advocating for an independent revolutionary party. During this period, the Ligue communiste officially continued to exist but was dormant and its members split after being expelled from the SFIO. Most members, including

, joined the

Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party The Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste ouvrier et paysan'', ''PSOP'') was a socialist organisation in France, formed on June 8, 1938, by Marceau Pivert. Its youth wing was the ''Workers and Peasants' Socialist Youth'' (''Je ...

(POI) founded in 1936, while others, such as

and

, joined the

Internationalist Communist Party Internationalist Communist Party may refer to: * Internationalist Communist Party (France), a French political party * Internationalist Communist Party (Italy), an Italian political party {{Short pages monitor