This is a curious and frustrating work. Well over two-thirds of it consists entirely (except for a few connecting words) of direct quotations from some 75-80 political documents. Much of the remainder is a close paraphrasing of those same documents in a reordered presentation. In a brief preface to her bibliography, the author relates that she consulted many other sources, but there is no evidence in the work to support her claim. I could find no indication that she had consulted any secondary works, interviewed any of the participants, or used other primary materials.
Although the title of the book leads one to expect an emphasis on the Spartacus movement in Mexico, the body of the work does not focus particularly on that segment of the Mexican left. Rather, it treats of seven Marxist political movements and parties between 1960 and 1970, only three of which bear the term Spartacus in their titles. Of the remaining four, one is the Mexican Communist party and another the Bolshevik Communist party. At the same time, the author omits from her discussion several major Marxist organizations, such as the People’s Socialist party of Vicente Lombardo Toledano, with no explanation as to why some are included and some excluded.
A third problem with the book is its organization. The first seven chapters are devoted one each to the seven political organizations. Each chapter is divided into seven major divisions, some with subdivisions. The last six chapters consist of one each of the above major divisions (with the exception of “Historical Data”) in which the seven movements and parties are compared and contrasted according to ideology, programs for action, cleavages and expulsions, fusions and coalitions, relations with other parties, and hostile government actions. It makes rather dull reading.
Given the style and format of the work, it will come as no surprise to know that there is virtually no interpretation. Only in the opening pages, where the author argues the lack of any historical or ideological relationship between the Mexican and the earlier German Spartacus movements, and in the closing pages where she shows her sympathies for the Spartacus attempt to create a party of the working class independent of the Soviet party, does she venture forth with her own opinions. This is the frustrating part, because in these few paragraphs the author gives a hint that she could have written a major work on the Mexican left or some part of it.
Let me end on a positive note. The “Diagrama de la Evolución del Espartaquỉsmo,” a chart at the front of the hook, presents an instructive overview of the fragmentation of the Mexican left (or at least a part of it) from 1960 to 1970.
