David Korner

David Korner, also known as Barta, was a Romanian Trotskyist militant. Recruited to Trotskyism as a student in Paris in the 1930s he formed the Bolshevik Leninist Group of Romania. When the Spainish Civil War and the June 1936 strikes took place he returned to France and was a member of the Internationalist Workers Party (POI). He then joined the emphmeral Workers and Peasants Socialist Party which collapsed at the start of World War Two. At which point he formed the tiny Group Trotskyist. This group became the Communist Union and concentrated on doing factory work. That work came to fruitation with the Renault strike of 1947 which his group helped lead and organise.

However the strains of that activity caused the group to collapse. It was briefly revived in 1950 but nothing came of it and when some former militants of the UC began publishing Voix Ouvriere in 1956 Barta was not involved. In fact there were hostile relations between Barta and the leadership of the Voix Ouvriere (now Lutte Ouvriere) group until his death.