THE HISTORY OF CERMTRI

THE HISTORY OF CERMTRI


Having to suffer repression from three directions – the bourgeoisie, fascism and Stalinism – for more than fifty years of the labour
movement's history, Trotskyist and other revolutionary militant activists have always had to hide and sometimes even destroy part or all of
their archives.

Often, when those archives fell into the hands of reaction or the Stalinists, they were either pulped or hidden away. There is therefore the
risk that whole portions of the history of Trotskyism, of the world's revolutionary vanguard, could be missing.
Starting from this realisation, and being concerned to set down and develop the collective memory of the revolutionary vanguard, a small
team of militant activists decided in 1976 to prepare to set up the Centre for Study and Research on the International Trotskyist and
Revolutionary Movements (CERMTRI in French). They began to make enquiries, search, write, collect, and then classify and make an
inventory of the collection.

To the collections of archives and documents entrusted to the CERMTRI by the OCI (Organisation Communiste Internationaliste) came to
be added collections passed on by old militant activists who had often played or who were still playing an important role in the Trotskyist
and revolutionary movement, such as Jean Rous, Fred Zeller, Biline, Demaziere, Gérard Bloch, Louis Eemans and many others.
The CERMTRI's founding meeting took place on 26 November 1977, at which a 21-member Board of Directors was elected.

As stipulated in Article 3 of the Board's declaration dated 21 April 1978, “the CERMTRI is an association whose aim is to gather together
all documents dealing with the history of workers' movements, especially those dealing with the activity of the Trotskyist and revolutionary
organisations, and to place those documents at the public's disposal under conditions that will allow and facilitate research and study,
whilst at the same time ensuring the best possible conservation of the archival collections entrusted to it”.

Since those early years, the CERMTRI has therefore collected together archives, documents and publications of the workers' revolutionary
movement, and especially those of the Trotskyist movement since the days of the Left Opposition.
·It currently puts at the disposal of activists, historians and researchers
– over 22,000 books and pamphlets
– thousands of documents and newspapers

– the Cahiers du CERMTRI, a quarterly publication featuring unpublished texts or rare historical documents

·It publishes the Cahiers du movement ouvrier, a history review
·It organises conferences at its premises on subjects concerning the history of the labour movement.


THE CERMTRI HAS PUT TOGETHER
A UNIQUE COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL ARCHIVES

If you are a researcher, academic or labour activist, you will find important historical documents at the CERMTRI.


By entering your email address at the place indicated in our home page, you will be kept informed of the CERMTRI's activities and
initiatives, and you will begin receiving the CERMTRI's news bulletin from the next issue onwards.


CERMTRI
28 rue des Petites Ecuries - 75010 PARIS
Open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 1.30 pm to 6.00 pm
Telephone: +33 1 44 83 00 00 email: cermtri@wanadoo.fr