Thomas "Moe" Seay
San Mateo, California

Having participated in the New Communist Movement (as a member of the WVO/CWP) I was delighted for many reasons to read this book.

First of all, it was delightful for nostalgic purposes. For many years I have wanted to compare notes with some of my old political colleagues and try to evaluate what happened during the movement and what went wrong. This book definitely sets a framework for analysis of the movement.

A couple of criticisms of the book. I felt that it was quite good about summarizing the period 68-73 but was a bit shallow on the period 1974-1980. For example it barely mentioned the huge miner strikes that took place in the late 70s and the involvement of the NCM in that and its ramifications (having grown up in West Virginia, this is how I got involved). Also, I thought the few lines devoted to the Greensboro massacre and the CWP5 warranted more attention as this had huge ramifications not only for the CWP but for the rest of the Left as well. Another important struggle going on at that time was the student anti-apartheid movement, in which the NCM was heavily involved, which gets no mention at all in the book.

The author does a good job of pointing out the overly optimistic expectations of the movement, the top-down anti-democratic vanguard leninist structure of the movement's groups, the movement's tendancy to be blinded by marxist-leninist dogma, and its pursuit of ideological purity as opposed to building a movement based on existing conditions.

I definitely recommend this book to those interested in US Leftist history, those who were in the movement and still licking their wounds, as well as young people who are getting politically involved now and who want to avoid the errors of the NCM.