[2] In his book on the history of American Trotskyism, James P. Cannon – at the time a major leader of the CLA – provides a detailed account of Field's antecedents and his part in the hotel strike.
In 1932, the CLA regarded the sudden upsurge in unionism among the hard-pressed hotel workers as its big chance, throwing much of its resources and membership into this struggle – among them B.J.
His fame and prestige soared especially after a series of mass meetings, the biggest of which – at the annex of the Madison Square Garden – drew a crowd of no less than 10,000 people.
Thereafter, as Cannon put it, success went to Field's head and he became increasingly distant from the CLA, which he came to regard as "a marginal group of people at a small office on Sixteenth Street" while he was himself "the leader of a upsurging mass movement".
The CLA criticized Field for neglecting the grassroots base of the strike, and placing excessive trust in the mediators sent by the National Labor Board and by New York Mayor La Guardia.
Thereupon, the CLA decided to take the drastic step of expelling Field and his group of adherents, in the middle of the strike – rather than be held responsible for his policies without having a possibility of influencing them.
[1] During the strike the CLA elements worked closely with a group of dissident Lovestoneites led by Benjamin Gitlow called the Workers Communist League.
[4] Though the membership of the group was small in the United States, it was more successful in Canada, taking the whole Montreal section and some of the Toronto branch members from the CLA in April of that year.
[6] The Gitlow group didn't stay long and by October 1934 had decided to enter the Socialist Party of America[7] This left the Fieldites with few experienced Communist or labor leaders.
[11] After being expelled from his own organization, Field dropped out of politics and joined former supporter Nat Mendelsohn's prosperous real estate firm in California.