Pablo Obituary
Thomas Quinn
Michel Raptis became involved in the struggles of the Greek workers'
movement at a young age. From the early thirties on he played a key role in
the construction of anti-capitalist and anti-Stalinist organisations, in
collaboration with Pantelis Piliopoulos, that lucid and courageous
revolutionary Marxist leader, shot by the Italian fascists in 1943.
Raptis found himself in his country's prisons on several occasions, and was
obliged to spend a large part of his life in exile, mainly in France. It was
in France, in September 1938, using the pseudonym Speros, that he
participated in the founding conference of the Fourth International. He
stayed in France during the Nazi occupation, dedicating himself to an
extremely dangerous underground struggle to reorganise the Trotskyist
movement in Europe, after it had been ravaged by repression. It was in these
war years that Michel began to play a major role in the International. A
role that would be his for another two decades.
From 1948-1960, as a member of the International Secretariat, I had the
chance to become familiar with Michel's activities, to observe his
development, and, in our fraternal relations, to appreciate all his
qualities. Each of us has a number of friends and comrades who have
contributed to our development, to the key choices we make in our lives. For
me, looking back after 30 years, I can only conclude that I learned a lot
from Michel Raptis. I consider that his qualities were best in evidence in
the 1950s. Particularly his capacity to understand quickly the essence of a
changing situation. To know when we should re-direct our aim, and when we
should redirect our strategy. And to put into practice, without hesitation,
the result of new analysis and new generalisations.
For example, Michel was certainly one of the first to stress the full
importance of the rupture between Stalin and the Yugoslav leader Tito. One
of the first to adapt when the Korean war started, rejecting any
'equidistance' between the two parties. One of the first to help
revolutionary Marxists understand the importance of the populist movements
in Latin America, such as Peronism in Argentina.
It was Raptis who stressed, after 1951-52, the need for revolutionary
militants, particularly in capitalist Europe, to avoid any 'propagandist'
deviation. He argued for an entryist orientation towards the Communist
Parties, which were profoundly Stalinist at that time. In other words, he
argued for such policies as would permit us to avoid separating ourselves
from the actually existing workers' movement, and make it possible to seize
and exploit, from inside, and contradictions which began to ripen. And it
was Michel's contribution which enabled the Fourth International to rapidly
sketch an analysis of changes in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin.
(See his editorial in the April 1953 issue of Quatrieme Internationale.)
It was Michel's articles and reports, in the later 1950s, which most clearly
stressed the capital importance of the new rise in the colonial revolution.
Even at the price, in my opinion, of underestimating the potential of the
workers' movement in some European countries.
Michel's best writing also dates from this period. Take his numerous
articles in the press of the International, above all those, mostly signed
M. Pablo or Jean-Paul Martin, in Quatrieme Internationale. Or his
contribution to the history of the first 20 years of the Fourth
International. Or his reports to our World Congresses and the sessions of
the International Executive Committee. And his books: Capitalisme or
socialisme, la guerre qui vient (1952), Dictature du prolitariat,
dimocratie, socialisme (1957), and Impressions et problemes de la rivolution
algirienne (1962). We should not forget either his May 1960 text on women's
liberation. Many readers may judge now, more than a quarter century of
reflections and feminist initiatives later, that this work is partly
obsolete, and criticisable in a number of respects. But it had the merit of
being the first text to bring a series of crucial problems to the attention
of revolutionary Marxists. Michel was directly involved, from the beginning,
in a multi-faceted solidarity with the Algerian revolution. He was arrested
in June 1960 in Amsterdam, together with another International Secretariat
member, Sal Santen, and accused of having prepared false papers and forged
banknotes. A wide solidarity movement developed around the world during his
detention, and during his trial in 1961. The appeal launched by Jean-Paul
Sartre and signed, among others, by Simone Beauvoir and the Brazilian writer
Jorge Amado was a central part of this campaign. Michel was finally
sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, and liberated at the end of his trial.
He took refuge in Morocco. After the victory of the revolution he moved to
Algiers, where he collaborated with Ahmed Ben Bella's government.
He rejoined the leading bodies of the International after his release from
prison. His report on the Algerian revolution was one of the most moving
moments of the 1963 world congress.
Nevertheless, something was broken between us. Michel began a minority
struggle, which led to a rupture in 1964-5. Following this split, he led a
revolutionary Marxist current outside the Fourth International. A few years
ago, he wanted to rejoin the International, the historical importance of
which he had never disputed, along with his current. We came to an agreement
but, for various reasons, including the situation of the revolutionary
Marxist movement in Greece, and important differences of opinion on the
approach one should take to the war in former Yugoslavia, the agreement was
not applied in his personal case.
It is for historians of the international workers' movement in the 20th
century to judge Michel Raptis' activities and publications, and that of all
the others who have participated in what was and is our common purpose. All
I can say today is that I will never forget his tireless contribution to the
revolutionary struggle.
Livio Maitan is a leading member of the Fourth International, and of the
left wing within the Italian Party of Communist Refoundation
[See also: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Chile by Michel Raptis (St.
Martin’s Press 1974)]