Swimming Against the Tide

Overview

Focusing on the years 1938 through 1945, this book tells the history of the French Left's activities to subvert the German occupying army. Although there have been many accounts of the French Resistance, this is the first to concentrate on the radical Trotskyists living in France. Incorporating firsthand experiences, the book chronicles the coming of the war and the independent stance taken by Trotskyists in opposition to the French Communist Party. Arguing that mass resistance can, in fact, work, this history also features reproductions of surviving published texts from the period.

Reviews

"Much has been written on the French Resistance but far less is known of the small courageous minority who rejected nationalism and based their activity on the international unity of the working class. Craipeau's book gives a fascinating account of these revolutionaries based on his own first-hand experience of the movement. David Broder has done us a service in making this important book available to English readers."  —Ian Birchall, former senior lecturer, Middlesex University

Author Biography

David Broder is translator and a writer for the Commune. Yvan Craipeau was a French political activist, a writer, and, briefly, the Secretary General of the Internationalist Communist Party. He is the author of Mémoires d'un Dinosaure Trotskyste.