Bolshevik Burlesque

This is a story about outsiders, and the outsiders' outsiders - dissident Trotskyists within the Trotskyist movement, Trotskyists within the left, Jews in the diaspora, ideological minorities of Jews within the Jewish communities. It is also a story of memory: the scrambled memory of fictional character Owen Owen (loosely based on British activist Pat Jordan, a leading figure in the anti-Vietnam war movement) and the memory of the working class and the Jewish experiences. The madcap, screwball caricature and satire is very loosely based on the political life of Max Shachtman and his friends James P Cannon ("O'Bannion" in the story) and Martin Abern ("Mortie Behrens" in the story). Together they formed a Trotskyist movement in the USA. It was one of the most influential and important Trotskyist groups in the world and they had the best treehouse den and jolly-japes that any group of friends could hope for.