Les Lambertistes : Un courant trotskiste français [Paperback]

Philippe Campinchi (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 382 pages
• Publisher: Balland (August 31, 2001)
• ISBN-10: 2715813848
• ISBN-13: 978-2715813847
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insider's description, June 12, 2005

By 

Werner Cohn (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Les Lambertistes : Un courant trotskiste français (Paperback)

The Trotskyists in France have, as these things go, struck it big. Unlike their comrades elsewhere, they now have quite a respectable number of people voting for them. Some ten percent of the French electorate, in fact, currently votes Trotskyist.

There may be dozens of Trotskyist groups in France, but only three sizable ones: a) Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, led by Krivine, et al.; b) Lutte Ouvrière, nominally led by Arlette Laguiller but actually by a mysterious old man known as "Hardy," and finally c) the Parti des Travailleurs, led by an octogenarian known as Pierre Lambert.

This last group, the "Lambertistes," is the topic of this altogether extraordinary book.

I have more than a dozen books in my home that deal with the French Trotskyists. Most of them (but not all !) have added to my knowledge to some extent. But only this volume, by the ex-Lambertiste Phillippe Campinchi, is totally satisfactory. He does tell us enough of the dreary version of Marxism espoused by Lambert, but that is not the main contribution of this book, nor is it an inherently interesting subject. What is interesting, and what Campinchi tells in detail and with verve and wit, is how this Trotskyist cult operates from day to day: the absolutism of its leadership cult, the group's obsession with secrecy, the intrigues that allow the group to manipulate trade unions and other organizations, and, not least, the goon squads of toughs that it employs and that compete with the goons of other groups.

This book tells about the Lambertistes, but, by implication, also about a great many other political extremists.