National Insurrection or Proletarian Revolution? A Comparative Study of the French Communist Party and the Fourth International in France during World War II (1941-1944)

Abstract

This article compares the politics of the Fourth International and the French Communist Party between 1941 and 1943, analyzing their printed documents. We will focus on the resistance strategies that each organization carried out and investigate the policies designed by each organization toward German soldiers. The comparative analysis between these two organizations in this period is fundamental since both developed their politics underground and suffered persecution from the Nazis. Still, the question remains as to why their influence on the masses and their growth in the post-war decades were radically different. Thus, it is necessary to consider the conditions in which each party found itself when the war began. The contrast between the pcf's policy of "national insurrection" and the "international proletarian revolution" perspective of the Fourth International demarcated the alliances and objectives of each organization facing the post-war period. Likewise, the relationship between the two parties was marked by crossed denunciations and attempts at joint work, but also by the historical disputes of the Bolshevik party and the Stalinist policy of persecuting Trotskyist militants.