A field guide to the far left

A. Belden Fields' book "Trotskyism and Maoism" is a study of Trotskyist and Maoist groups in the United States and France.

I presume Fields has chosen France as his European example, since Trotskyist groups in that nation have a more visible public face than in many other places. He might just as well have chosen Britain, however. The United States, I presume, is the author's backyard.

Since Trotskyism and (until the 1980's) Maoism are the two most well-known and easily studied currents on the "far left", the choice to concentrate on these is also logical. Anarchism is also a force on the "far left", but it's more amorphous and heterogenous, especially in the United States, and thus presumably more difficult to pin down.

I haven't read the entire book, but the chapters on U.S. Maoism and U.S. Trotskyism, plus the section on French Trotskyism, seem to be reasonably correct. I cannot judge the section on French Maoism, however.

Groups mentioned in the book include Lutte Ouvrière, the LCR and the PCI in France, the SWP, WWP and the Spartacist League in the United States, and Maoist groups such as the PLP and the RCP.

The main problem with this work is the author's attempt to sound as if he has written a deep scholarly work on "the theory and practice of Trotskyism and Maoism". He has not. The book is rather a kind of field guide to the most active left-wing groups in the United States and France.

"Trotskyism and Maoism" is a book for left-watchers!

Happy hunting, comrades.