David Korner

Who was David Korner?

David Korner was a Romanian and French communist militant, trade unionist, and journalist. A Trotskyist for most of his life, he was active in the labor movement of France from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Born into a Jewish family, Korner was a member of the Romanian Communist Party in 1932-1933. In July 1933, alongside Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Constantin Doncea and other PCR activists, he was brought to trial in front of a Bucharest court for his part in convening the Griviţa Strike, and ultimately sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Recruited to Trotskyism as a student in Paris in the 1934, he formed the Bolshevik Leninist Group of Romania upon his return to Romania. The latter faction opposed the Stalinist PCR, as well as the Social Democrats and the Unitary Socialist Party of Leon Ghelerter. When the Spanish Civil War and the June 1936 strikes took place, Korner again returned to France and was a member of the Internationalist Workers Party.

In line with Leon Trotsky's advice to his French followers to enter the Workers and Peasants Socialist Party he joined that party and stood on its far left.