French Communist Party

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 303, 20 December 1922, Page 11

French Communist Party

1 Serious difficulties, whiicii threaten to bring about a split, confront the French Communist Party, which opened its second annual congress in iParfs fn October. ■ A heavy decrease in membership is -reported. In June last year the effec- , tive force of the party was 121,476, ■ and in July this year the total membership had been reduced to 78,828 — a decrease-of over 52,000. It is also reported that "L'HnmanIte," the Socialist daily founded by . Jaures, which passed into the control of the Communists when they obtained a majority in the Socialist Party of France, has lost in two years 25,130 , readers. . The Communist evening journal, "L'lnternational," likewise suffered, and-the loss thereon has been so heavy that delegates at the congress demanded its suppression on November 1. The secretary of the party, Frossard, who held a similar office in the French Socialist Party until the split, has intimated his wish to resign.

A demand has been made by the executive of the Communist International for the exclusion of Verfeuil and his adherents, and as there are five distinct groups within the party a split is almost inevitable.