The French Trotskyism and the debate on partisan resistance: 'Ohé Partisans!', a Trotskyist experience in the maquis (1943-1945)

The Nazi occupation of France gave rise to one of the most important debates within French Trotskyism and the Fourth International: the European national question and the demands for democracy. The national problem presented different aspects in different countries, and throughout Europe it fueled the rise of resistance movements against the occupiers. The French Trotskyists were no strangers to this phenomenon, and the debate over whether they should join the maquis was fundamental in the face of the possibility of a socialist revolution in the postwar period. We will attempt to demonstrate that the position of the French Trotskyists on the Resistance was far from univocal. When the partisan movements in Italy and France became mass movements, the majority of the leadership of the Parti ouvrier internationaliste, with Marcel Hic at the helm, developed a favorable policy towards the maquis, but found strong opposition within the party and the European Provisional Secretariat of the Fourth International. The efforts of some POI leaders to join the resistance were abandoned after the Gestapo raids on the party in October 1943. In mid-1945, a new opportunity for the French Trotskyists emerged with the participation of André Calvès in a Communist maquis, but it was lost due to the policy adopted by the new French section, the Parti communiste internationaliste.