Yvan Craipeau (24 September 1911, La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée – 13 December 2001) was a French Trotskyist activist.
Born in La Roche-sur-Yon, he helped found a local independent Marxist organisation while he was still in his teens. Expelled from school, he moved to Paris and became associated with the Trotskyist group around La Verité. In 1930, the group founded the Communist League. It considered itself an external faction of the Communist Party of France and so admitted current and former members of the French Communist Party. However, the rule was relaxed, and Craipeau was allowed to join in 1931. He joined the League's executive committee with the responsibility for developing a youth wing.
By 1933, he was able to organise a meeting attended by 1000 members of the youth wings of the Communist Party and the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière. In 1933, he was Trotsky's personal secretary.
In 1936, Craipeau became a leading member of the new Internationalist Workers Party (POI). The following year, in reaction to Trotsky's The Revolution Betrayed, he began a re-analysis of the nature of the Soviet Union. He concluded that it could not be defended, as Trotsky held, as a degenerated workers' state but that it was a bureaucratic collectivist system, an idea that he introduced to Trotskyism.
During World War II, he was pronounced unfit for duty, and attempted, with Marcel Hic, to publish La Verité secretly. This was difficult, and following a series of setbacks, he turned instead to work influencing the German Army. He wrote an account of this activity in his books Contre vents et marées and La Libération Confisquée. The former work, on the Occupation period itself, was published in English in 2013.
In 1944, Craipeau was the architect of unity between three of France's four Trotskyist groups: the POI itself, the Comités Communistes Internationalistes and the Octobre group. They formed the Internationalist Communist Party, and in 1946, he was elected its General Secretary. In the same year, he was also elevated to the International Secretariat of the Fourth International. However, he could not agree with the International's perspective that a crisis in capitalism was imminent, and soon after the POI sided with the International, he was expelled.
Craipeau temporarily withdrew from politics, and in 1951, he moved to Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe, where he became a school teacher and soon secretary of the National Education Federation trade union.
In 1954, Craipeau returned to mainland France, where he participated in the creation of the New Left. This fused with the Movement for the Liberation of the City to form the Socialist Left Union and, in 1960 with several groups to form the Unified Socialist Party. He remained a leading member of this party for many years, during which he wrote numerous books on left-wing politics and revolution.
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Some of their strengths
Yvan Craipeau has many admirable traits.
Based on spiritual traditions from around the world, they are someone who can be described as Intelligent, Kind, Diplomatic, Feeling, Courteous, Energetic, and Inquisitive.
Intelligent and Inquisitive
According to Mysticism’s Astrology tradition, Yvan Craipeau is someone who is an intelligent, inquisitive, and imaginative person, who is practical, considerate, kind, and diplomatic in dealings with others. A person who is a bit of a "lone wolf".
Warm and Caring
Based on Daoism’s Ba-Zi or ‘Chinese Zodiac’ tradition, people who know Yvan Craipeau well know them as someone who can be warm, caring, and compassionate, like a lamp or torch.
Courteous and Easygoing
According to Hinduism’s Jyotisha or ‘Vedic Astrology’ tradition, many would also describe Yvan Craipeau as someone who is polite, modest, and diplomatic.
A person who tends to be socially popular, who loves intellectual or creative activities, who has a talent for communicating with and understanding the needs of others, and who seems to have a knack for getting recognized for their efforts.
Assertive and Protective
Based on the Mayan Tzolk’in or ‘Mayan Astrology’ tradition, Yvan Craipeau is someone who is a somewhat private person who has a strong personality and ability to read other people.
They are also someone who is creative, expressive, and insightful, and who has a pioneering spirit with self-determination and natural artistic expression.
Justice-seeking and Peaceful
According to Judaism’s Kabbalah tradition, Yvan Craipeau tends to be someone who loves peace and is ready to go to any costs to achieve it. Who has a taste for the good things in life, tends to be a good organizer, has a thirst for knowledge, and who tends to have the respect of friends and acquaintances.
Some of Yvan Craipeau's challenges
While Yvan Craipeau has many strengths, nobody is perfect. They also have some challenging traits they need to manage.
For example, Yvan Craipeau can be Hesitant, Narcissistic, Complicated, Brusque, Indecisive, Materialistic, and Temperamental.
Hesitant and Narcissistic
One of Yvan Craipeau's key challenges is that they are someone who can be hesitant and narcissistic.
Indecisive and Materialistic
Yvan Craipeau is someone who can be indecisive, indulgent, and materialistic, who can have difficulty focusing on a single career or profession, have difficulty following orders or respecting authority, and who can suffer from "analysis paralysis".
Pleasure-seeking and Indecisive
Finally, Yvan Craipeau also can put others first too much, and hem-and-haw too much when making a decision.
