Internationalist Communist Party

The Internationalist Communist Party (French: Parti Communiste Internationaliste, PCI) was a Trotskyist political party in France. It was the name taken by the French Section of the Fourth International from its foundation until a name change in the late 1960s.

The party was founded in March 1944 by the fusion of three Trotskyist groups: the Internationalist Workers Party, the Internationalist Communist Committee and the October group.

After World War Two ended the PCI had expectations of rapid growth and for a time did expand. but that growth was soon ended when a majority of the organisation broke away when a projected fusion with the Socialist Youth federation of the Seine failed to materialise. This led to a series of internal crises and in 1952 the small party split into two rival groups both of which continued to use the same name.

1. The official PCI supported the International Secretariat of the Fourth International, and became the French section of the reunified Fourth International in 1963. Its leaders included Pierre Frank. It fused in 1969 with the Revolutionary Communist Youth (JCR) to become the Ligue Communiste, which was re-established in 1974 as the Revolutionary Communist League.
2. The other PCI supported the International Committee of the Fourth International until 1971. It was led by Pierre Lambert. In 1967, that organisation renamed itself the Internationalist Communist Organisation (OCI).