Michel Pablo ( Greek Μισέλ Πάμπλο , English Michel Pablo , August 24, 1911 - February 17, 1996 ); real name Michalis Raptis ( Greek Μιχάλης Ν. Ράπτης ) - leader of the Trotskyist movement of Greek origin.
| Michelle Pablo | |
|---|---|
| Μισέλ Πάμπλο | |
 | |
| Birth name | Michalis Raptis |
| Date of Birth | August 24, 1911 |
| Place of Birth | Alexandria |
| Date of death | February 17, 1996 (84 years old) |
| Place of death | |
| Citizenship | |
| Occupation | , |
| Education | |
Content
Early Activities
Michalis Raptis (future Michel Pablo) was born in Alexandria ( Egypt ) in the family of a Greek engineer . He spent his childhood in Crete . After graduating from the Athens Polytechnic University , he continued his education at the Sorbonne , where he studied urban planning.
He joined the revolutionary movement in the late 1930s , became an archaeomarxist , then joined the Trotskyist faction "Spartakos". Together with the first Secretary General of the Communist Party of Greece, Pandelis Puliopoulos, Michel Pablo acted as a representative of the International Left Opposition , but was criticized by L. D. Trotsky . At the founding conference of the Fourth International in Paris in 1938, Pablo represented the Greek Trotskyists.
Pablo was harassed by the right-wing regime of the Greek military dictator Ioannis Metaxas , was arrested and exiled to the island of Folegandros in the Aegean. Although Pablo’s attempts to establish contacts with members of the Communist Party of Greece, who also served a link here, were unsuccessful, he met Elli Diovunioti on the island, who became his wife. They managed to escape together from the island and leave Greece. The outbreak of World War II found him seriously ill in Paris . Because of this disease, he played an insignificant role in the activities of the French Trotskyists until 1944 , although it was reported that he gave educational classes to the Communist Union of David Corner .
In the leadership of the Fourth International
In 1944, Pablo was fully involved in the movement and was elected the organizational secretary of the European Bureau of the Fourth International , whose task was to restore contacts between Trotsky groups in Europe lost during the war years.
After the war, Pablo became a central figure in the International , with the support of the PSA and James P. Cannon . During this period, Pablo played a key role in the reunification of the International, its centralization and the definition of its strategy. In 1946, Pablo visited Greece, where he helped unite the four Trotskyist groups.
After the Second World War, the leaders of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International, Michel Pablo and Ernest Mandel, believed that the countries of Eastern Europe, liberated by the Red Army in 1944 - 1945 and soon transformed into " people's democracies ", remained bourgeois states. This view was based on the assertion that the destruction of capitalism is impossible to carry out from above. Subsequently, this position was revised, and the Third World Congress of the Fourth International , held in 1951 , recognized the countries of Eastern Europe as deformed workers states [1] .
At the same time, Pablo proposed a tactic of long-term entrism , known as a special type of entrism ("entryism sui generis"). Pablo argued that only long-term entrism into mass communist and social democratic parties would help the Trotskyist movement avoid isolation [2] . At that time, this tactic was criticized by part of the former British Revolutionary Communist Party led by Jock Huston and Ted Grant , who did not want to work inside the Labor Party .
Pabloism
In 1953, the American, English, and part of the French (a group in the International Communist Party led by Pierre Lambert and Marcel Blaibtroy ) sections of the Fourth International , opposed to the International Secretariat, left the International, forming the International Committee of the Fourth International . The main object of their criticism was the tactics of entrism of Michel Pablo, designated by them as "Pabloism".
In the 1950s and 1960s , Pablo began to pay more attention to the prospects for the development of the revolutionary movement in the Third World countries, and also wrote a program article anticipating the important role of the women's emancipation movement . In the early 1960s, new disagreements arose within the framework of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International (MFIS) . In addition, by the end of the 1950s, the sections of the International that remained under the leadership of the International Secretariat began to move away from the Pabloist tactics of entrism.
Pablo was very closely involved in the solidarity movement of the Algerian national liberation struggle against France. He was arrested in the Netherlands on charges of counterfeiting money and arms smuggling in favor of the National Liberation Front rebels. The campaign to free Pablo was initiated by Jean-Paul Sartre himself . As a result, in 1961, Pablo was sentenced to 15 months in prison and released at the end of the trial. After his release, Michel Pablo, who was in danger of staying in France, took refuge in Morocco . After the victory of the Algerian Revolution, Pablo in 1962 became an adviser to the president of the country, Ahmed Ben Bella , on self-government in rural areas. In Algeria, Pablo is trying to introduce the socialist principles of workers' self-government and meets Che Guevara .
In 1963, a unifying congress took place, at which the reunion of most of the two Trotskyist trends - the International Committee and the International Secretariat of the Fourth International. One of the initiators of the association was the Socialist Workers Party of the USA and James P. Cannon . At the Unity Congress, Pablo put forward a counter-resolution, which was supported by a minority of participants, as well as a resolution on Algeria. At the same time, supporters of Pablo received several seats in the International Executive Committee. However, the friction between the supporters of Pablo and the majority of the International grew, and in 1965 they left it.
Beyond the Fourth International
The central theme of Michel Pablo's work in the 1960s and 1970s was workers' self-government . In the early 1970s, he was invited to Chile as an adviser to Socialist President Salvador Allende . After the military coup of 1973, Pablo returns to Greece. In the 1980s , he departed from active political activity.
After leaving the Fourth International, Pablo organized the Revolutionary Marxist Trend, which later became known as the International Revolutionary Marxist Trend (MRMT). This was a small trend, based in France and having organizations in Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Australia and some Latin American countries . In 1994 - 1995, the sections of the MRMT reunited with the Reunited Fourth International . However, Michel Pablo himself did not return to the International.
Pablo maintained comradely relations with such large figures as Salvador Allende and Che Guevara, as well as with the Portuguese revolutionary Otelu Saraiva di Carvalho and the Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios III .
The funeral of Pablo in Greece wore state status, which is quite unusual for a revolutionary . This is due to the fact that he maintained friendly relations with the Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou , who was also a Trotskyist in his youth.
Notes
- ↑ P. Frank. The evolution of Eastern Europe. Congressional Report Archived March 28, 2007. (1951 )
- ↑ M. Pablo. World Trotskyist rearmament. Keynote Report for Congress (1951 )