* Auguste Lecoeur; French Resistance Leader in World War II

Auguste Lecoeur, 80, a leading member of the French Resistance during World War II and a top official of France’s Communist Party for nearly 30 years. Lecoeur was a militant Communist and active member of the miners union by the age of 16. Recognizing his organizational talents, the Communist Party sent him to join the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War and he served as a battalion commander. Lecoeur joined the French Resistance in 1940 and organized a nationwide miners strike in 1941, the first such action under Nazi occupation. He also continued work with the underground leadership of the French Communist Party until France was liberated. After the war, he rose quickly in the party ranks, was elected mayor of Lens in northern France and a National Assembly deputy from the Pas-de-Calais region. At the height of his career in 1952, Lecoeur ranked third in the party and was being groomed to be secretary general. But in 1954, he was expelled after a dispute with then-party leader Maurice Thorez. In Paris on Sunday of undisclosed causes.