La Vérité (The éritéTruth) is the first trotskyst publication of History, having its first issue published on August 15, 1929, in French. Its name refers to Pravda, which means Truth, and was chosen because Trotskyists believed that the French labor movement needed "Truth therapy".
Initially built by Trotsky, it has gone through several phases in its years of existence. Created to fight against the bureaucratization of the French Communist Party, it became a reference for the labor movement in that country, always being published by organizations linked to Trotskyism. During the Occupation of France by Nazi Germany, it was published clandestinely, becoming the first publication of the French Resistance, and carrying out emblematic campaigns, such as the fight against the Compulsory Work Service deportations and anti-Semitism.
In the early 1970s it began to be published in other languages, such as Portuguese, English and Spanish, and in 1990 it became the Theoretical Review of Fourth International.
From the Communist Opposition to the FSWI (1929-1936) The first version, in weekly newspaper format, was agitated by Leon Trotsky after the failure of the discussions he had started with a group opposing the leadership of the French Communist Party that distributed the newspaper Contre le Courant (Against the Current). Trotsky made contact with Alfred Rosmer, Raymond Molinier, Pierre Barozine, Jan van Heijenoort, Pierre Frank, Pierre Naville and Gérard Rosenthal who went to Büyükada in Istanbul where Trotsky was in exile. The intention of the publication was to bring together communist militants who fought against the bureaucratic leadership of the CP, both outside and within the party.
During the preparation for the release of La Vérité, Trotsky sent a letter to the direction of the publication in which he stated:
In a few months, the militants who were still in the CP were excluded. The Left Opposition grew even stronger when the group around the magazine La Lutte de Classe (The Class Struggle) met in January 1930. At the end of April 1930, La Vérité became the organ of a new political organization distinct from the CP: the Communist League. La Lutte de Classe continued its publication but became the theoretical journal of the Communist League.
In August 1934, militants from this organization joined the French Section of the Workers' International (FSWI) "with an unfurled flag". La Vérité becomes the organ of the Bolshevik-Leninist group of the FSWI.
During this period in the SFIO, the Bolshevik-Leninists (BL) campaigned for the construction of the Fourth International. At the XXXII congress of the FSWI, in Mulhouse, in June 1935, the BL activists became a large minority that began to have weight in the debates of the party.
In that same period, the CP turned 180 degrees in its policy towards the radicals and no longer opposed an alliance with the latter and the socialists. Trotskyists become embarrassing because the FSWI had to give a vote of "friendship" to the Stalinists, with a view to creating a Popular Front government. The Bolshevik-Leninist group was therefore expelled in January 1936. La Vérité then ceases to be published with issue 255.
ICP and WPSP (1938-1939) In January 1938, the Internationalist Communist Party (PCI) began to publish a theoretical magazine under the name of La Vérité, claiming the continuity of the publication of the Communist League, renumbering it from number 1, but with the indication "new series".
In October 1938, ICP militants decided to join the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party (WPSP) led by Marceau Pivert. In June 1939, the WPSP excluded Trotskyist militants from the party. and the sixth and final issue of that series came out in August 1939.
Clandestine (1940-1946) As of August 30, 1940, the French Committees for the Fourth International once again edited La Vérité in newspaper format. It was the first clandestine publication of the French press and the first newspaper of the French Resistance. Marcel Hic was responsible for the publication until his arrest in October 1943.
The first 19 issues were typed and mimeographed and, from issue 20 onwards, 3,000 copies of each issue were printed (except the October 1942 and April and July 1943 issues). In December 1942 the Committees united under the Internationalist Workers' Party (POI). This unites with the Internationalist Communist Committee (ICC) and the October Group to form the Internationalist Communist Party (ICP) in March 1944. Both maintain La Vérité as their official organ.
