Obituary: Chris Harman 1942-2009
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A Socialist Schism
A Socialist Schism: British socialists' reaction to the downfall of Milošević by Andrew Michael William Cragg Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Marsha Siefert Second Reader: Professor Vladimir Petrović CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2017 Copyright notice Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This work charts the contemporary history of the socialist press in Britain, investigating its coverage of world events in the aftermath of the fall of state socialism. In order to do this, two case studies are considered: firstly, the seventy-eight day NATO bombing campaign over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, and secondly, the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in October of 2000. The British socialist press analysis is focused on the Morning Star, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world, and the multiple publications affiliated to minor British socialist parties such as the Socialist Workers’ Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee). The thesis outlines a broad history of the British socialist movement and its media, before moving on to consider the case studies in detail. -
Chris Harman
How Marxism Works Chris Harman How Marxism Works - Chris Harman First published May 1979 Fifth edition published July 1997 Sixth edition published July 2000 Bookmarks Publications Ltd, c/o 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE, England Bookmarks, PO Box 16085, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA Bookmarks, PO Box A338, Sydney South, NSW 2000, Australia Copyright © Bookmarks Publications Ltd ISBN 1 898876 27 4 This online edition prepared by Marc Newman Contents Introduction 7 1 Why we need Marxist theory 9 2 Understanding history 15 3 Class struggle 25 4 Capitalism—how the system began 31 5 The labour theory of value 39 6 Economic crisis 45 7 The working class 51 8 How can society be changed? 55 9 How do workers become revolutionary? 65 10 The revolutionary socialist party 69 11 Imperialism and national liberation 73 12 Marxism and feminism 79 13 Socialism and war 83 Further reading 87 Introduction There is a widespread myth that Marxism is difficult. It is a myth propagated by the enemies of socialism – former Labour leader Harold Wilson boasted that he was never able to get beyond the first page of Marx’s Capital. It is a myth also encouraged by a peculiar breed of academics who declare themselves to be ‘Marxists’: they deliberately cultivate obscure phrases and mystical expressions in order to give the impression that they possess a special knowledge denied to others. So it is hardly surprising that many socialists who work 40 hours a week in factories, mines or offices take it for granted that Marxism is something they will never have the time or the opportunity to understand. -
Alasdair Macintyre As a Marxist and As a Critic of Marxism Paul Blackledge
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Leeds Beckett Repository Alasdair MacIntyre as a Marxist and as a critic of Marxism Paul Blackledge1 Introduction In his 1995 introduction to Marxism and Christianity, Alasdair MacIntyre claimed that Marxism ‘is the only secular post-enlightenment doctrine to have’ a metaphysical and moral scope comparable to that of Christianity.2 This was not meant as a mere academic point, for Marxism: An Interpretation (the title of the first, 1953, edition of Marxism and Christianity) was written as a contribution to what he hoped would be a renewal of Christianity. MacIntyre was drawn towards Marxism because, as he saw it, Marx’s political theory converged with his vision of critical Christian ethics: ‘Marxism is of first-class theological significance as a secularism formed by the gospel which is committed to the problem of power and justice and therefore to themes of redemption and renewal which its history cannot but illuminate’.3 Moreover, he perceived a parallel between the situation faced by Marx in the early 1840s and that encountered by contemporary [1950s] Christians. Whereas Marx ‘was faced with a stark antithesis’ between both Hegel’s and Feuerbach’s visions of human freedom, and the reality of the world of work and suffering, contemporary Christianity accepted a split between the sacred and the secular such that it had lost any critical perspective on the world. Indeed, because modern Christianity had reduced faith to a matter of personal taste, it no longer concretely criticised social injustice and thus did not interfere with daily secular existence. -
The Life and Politics of David Widgery David Renton
The Life and Politics of David Widgery David Renton David Widgery (1947-1992) was a unique figure on the British left. Better than any one else, his life expressed the radical diversity of the 1968 revolts. While many socialists could claim to have played a more decisive part in any one area of struggle - trade union, gender or sexual politics, radical journalism or anti- racism - none shared his breadth of activism. Widgery had a remarkable abili- ty to "be there," contributing to the early debates of the student, gay and femi- nist movements, writing for the first new counter-cultural, socialist and rank- and-file publications. The peaks of his activity correspond to the peaks of the movement. Just eighteen years old, Widgery was a leading part of the group that established Britain's best-known counter-cultural magazine Oz. Ten years later, he helped to found Rock Against Racism, parent to the Anti-Nazi League, and responsible for some of the largest events the left has organised in Britain. RAR was the left's last great flourish, before Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, and the movement entered a long period of decline, from which even now it is only beginning to awake. David Widgery was a political writer. Some of the breadth of his work can be seen in the range of the papers for which he wrote. His own anthology of his work, compiled in 1989 includes articles published in City Limits, Gay Left, INK, International Socialism, London Review of Books, Nation Review, New Internationalist, New Socialist, New Society, New Statesman, Oz, Radical America, Rank and File Teacher,Socialist Worker, Socialist Review, Street Life, Temporary Hoarding, Time Out and The Wire.' Any more complete list would also have to include his student journalism and regular columns in the British Medical Journal and the Guardian in the 1980s. -
A People's History of the World
A people’s history of the world A people’s history of the world Chris Harman London, Chicago and Sydney A People’s History of the World – Chris Harman First published 1999 Reprinted 2002 Bookmarks Publications Ltd, c/o 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE, England Bookmarks, PO Box 16085, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA Bookmarks, PO Box A338, Sydney South, NSW 2000, Australia Copyright © Bookmarks Publications Ltd ISBN 1 898876 55 X Printed by Interprint Limited, Malta Cover by Sherborne Design Bookmarks Publications Ltd is linked to an international grouping of socialist organisations: I Australia: International Socialist Organisation, PO Box A338, Sydney South. [email protected] I Austria: Linkswende, Postfach 87, 1108 Wien. [email protected] I Britain: Socialist Workers Party, PO Box 82, London E3 3LH. [email protected] I Canada: International Socialists, PO Box 339, Station E, Toronto, Ontario M6H 4E3. [email protected] I Cyprus: Ergatiki Demokratia, PO Box 7280, Nicosia. [email protected] I Czech Republic: Socialisticka Solidarita, PO Box 1002, 11121 Praha 1. [email protected] I Denmark: Internationale Socialister, PO Box 5113, 8100 Aarhus C. [email protected] I Finland: Sosialistiliitto, PL 288, 00171 Helsinki. [email protected] I France: Socialisme par en bas, BP 15-94111, Arcueil Cedex. [email protected] I Germany: Linksruck, Postfach 304 183, 20359 Hamburg. [email protected] I Ghana: International Socialist Organisation, PO Box TF202, Trade Fair, Labadi, Accra. I Greece: Sosialistiko Ergatiko Komma, c/o Workers Solidarity, PO Box 8161, Athens 100 10. [email protected] I Holland: Internationale Socialisten, PO Box 92025, 1090AA Amsterdam. -
A Brief History of Rank and File Movements
Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk McIlroy, John (2016) A brief history of rank and file movements. Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, 44 (1-2) . pp. 31-65. ISSN 0301-7605 [Article] (doi:10.1080/03017605.2016.1173823) Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/20157/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Works, including theses and research projects, may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from them, or their content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). They may not be sold or exploited commercially in any format or medium without the prior written permission of the copyright holder(s). Full bibliographic details must be given when referring to, or quoting from full items including the author’s name, the title of the work, publication details where relevant (place, publisher, date), pag- ination, and for theses or dissertations the awarding institution, the degree type awarded, and the date of the award. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. -
Socialist Workers Party Records
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1k40019v No online items Register of the Socialist Workers Party records Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Archives Staff Hoover Institution Archives 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA, 94305-6010 (650) 723-3563 [email protected] © 1998, 2016 Register of the Socialist Workers 92036 1 Party records Title: Socialist Workers Party records Date (inclusive): 1928-1998 Collection Number: 92036 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Archives Language of Material: English Physical Description: 135 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box(57.8 linear feet) Abstract: Correspondence, minutes, resolutions, theses, and internal bulletins, relating to Trotskyist and other socialist activities in Latin America, Western Europe, Iran, and elsewhere, and to interactions of the Socialist Workers Party with the Fourth International; and trial transcripts, briefs, other legal documents, and background materials, relating to the lawsuit brought by Alan Gelfand against the Socialist Workers Party in 1979. Most of collection also available on microfilm (108 reels). Creator: Socialist Workers Party. Access Collection is open for research. The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Socialist Workers Party Records, [Box no.], Hoover Institution Archives. Acquisition Information The Hoover Institution Archives acquired records of the Socialist Workers Party from the Anchor Foundation in 1992. -
Industrial Militancy, Reform and the 1970S: a Review of Recent Contributions to CPGB Historiography
FJHP Volume 23 (2006) Industrial Militancy, Reform and the 1970s: A Review of Recent Contributions to CPGB Historiography Evan Smith Flinders University The historiography of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) has grown rapidly since its demise in 1991 and has created much debate for a Party seen as only of marginal interest during its actual existence. Since 1991, there have been four single volume histories of the Party, alongside the completion of the ‘official’ history published by Lawrence & Wishart and several other specialist studies, adding to a number of works that existed before the Party’s collapse. In recent years, much of the debate on Communist Party historiography has centred on the Party and its relationship with the Soviet Union. This is an important area of research and debate as throughout the period from the Party’s inception in 1920 to the dissolution of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1943 (and even beyond), the shadow of the Soviet Union stood over the CPGB. However an area that has been overlooked in comparison with the Party in the inter-war era is the transitional period when the CPGB went from being an influential part of the trade union movement to a Party that had been wrought by internal divisions, declining membership and a lowering industrial support base as well as threatened, alongside the entire left, by the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. This period of CPGB history, roughly from 1973 to 1979, was heavily influenced by the rise of Gramscism and Eurocommunism, in which a significant portion of the Party openly advocated reforms and a shift away from an emphasis of industrial militancy. -
Where's the Working Class?
tripleC 16(2): 535-545, 2018 http://www.triple-c.at Where’s the Working Class? Peter Goodwin University of Westminster, Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), UK, Germany, [email protected] Abstract: From the Communist Manifesto onwards, the self-emancipation of the working class was central to Marx’s thought. And so it was for subsequent generations of Marxists including the later Engels, the pre-WW1 Kautsky, Lenin, Luxemburg, Trotsky and Gramsci. But in much contemporary Marxist theory the active role of the working class seems at the least marginal and at the most completely written off. This article traces the perceived role of the working class in Marxist theory, from Marx and Engels, through the Second and Third Internationals, Stalinism and Maoism, through to the present day. It situates this in political developments changes in the nature of the working class over the last 200 years. It concludes by suggesting a number of questions about Marxism and the contemporary working class that anyone claim- ing to be a Marxist today needs to answer. Keywords: Marxism, proletariat, working class, self-emancipation 1. Introduction None of the authors in this Marx bicentenary issue believe that Marxism will be two hundred years old on May 5, 2018. Newly born babies, even ones who would turn out to be as sharp as Karl Marx, do not have such world views ready-made in their heads. It took more than two and a half decades for Marx to become a Marxist and for Marxism itself to be born. As to exactly when that was – and why – there would be a range of differing opinions. -
Albert Glotzer Papers
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1t1n989d No online items Register of the Albert Glotzer papers Finding aid prepared by Dale Reed Hoover Institution Library and Archives © 2010 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6003 [email protected] URL: http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives Register of the Albert Glotzer 91006 1 papers Title: Albert Glotzer papers Date (inclusive): 1919-1994 Collection Number: 91006 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives Language of Material: English Physical Description: 67 manuscript boxes, 6 envelopes(27.7 Linear Feet) Abstract: Correspondence, writings, minutes, internal bulletins and other internal party documents, legal documents, and printed matter, relating to Leon Trotsky, the development of American Trotskyism from 1928 until the split in the Socialist Workers Party in 1940, the development of the Workers Party and its successor, the Independent Socialist League, from that time until its merger with the Socialist Party in 1958, Trotskyism abroad, the Dewey Commission hearings of 1937, legal efforts of the Independent Socialist League to secure its removal from the Attorney General's list of subversive organizations, and the political development of the Socialist Party and its successor, Social Democrats, U.S.A., after 1958. Creator: Glotzer, Albert, 1908-1999 Hoover Institution Library & Archives Access The collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Acquisition Information Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1991. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Albert Glotzer papers, [Box no., Folder no. -
The Impact of Anti-Communism on the Development of Marxist Historical Analysis Within the Historical Profession of the United States, 1940-1960
BUILDING THE ABSENT ARGUMENT: THE IMPACT OF ANTI-COMMUNISM ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARXIST HISTORICAL ANALYSIS WITHIN THE HISTORICAL PROFESSION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1940-1960 Gary Cirelli A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2010 Committee: Dr. Douglas J. Forsyth, Advisor Dr. Don K. Rowney Dr. Timothy Messer-Kruse © 2010 Gary Cirelli All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Douglas Forsyth, Advisor This study poses the question as to why Marxism never developed in the United States as a method of historical analysis until the mid-1960s. In this regard, the only publication attempting to fully address this question was Ian Tyrrell’s book The Absent Marx: Class Analysis and Liberal History in Twentieth-Century America, in which he argued that the lack of Marxist historical analysis is only understood after one examines the internal development of the profession. This internalist argument is incomplete, however, because it downplays the important impact external factors could have had on the development of Marxism within the profession. Keeping this in mind, the purpose of this study is to construct a new argument that takes into account both the internal and external pressures faced by historians practicing Marxism preceding the 1960s. With Tyrrell as a launching pad, it first uses extensive secondary source material in order to construct a framework that takes into account the political and social climate prior to 1960. Highlighting the fact that Marxism was synonymous with Communism in the minds of many, it then examines the ways in which the government tried to suppress Communism and the impact this had on the academy. -
![A People's History of the World. by CHRIS HARMAN. Bookmarks, London [Etc.] 1999. Vii, 729 Pp. &Pound;15.99](https://docslib.b-cdn.net/cover/5331/a-peoples-history-of-the-world-by-chris-harman-bookmarks-london-etc-1999-vii-729-pp-15-99-4695331.webp)
A People's History of the World. by CHRIS HARMAN. Bookmarks, London [Etc.] 1999. Vii, 729 Pp. &Pound;15.99
International Review of Social History 46 (2001), pp. 77±110 # 2001 Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis BOOK REVIEWS Harman,Chris. A people's history of the world. Bookmarks, London [etc.] 1999. vii, 729 pp. £15.99. Chris Harman's A People's History of the World is an ambitious attempt to provide an accessible single-volume overview of human history from a historical materialist perspective. Harman, a prominent British socialist, explicitly aims to provide a general history that uses class analysis and, for once, brings the subordinate classes and their struggles with the ruling classes to the centre of the historical drama in a real ``history from below''. Harman quotes Bertolt Brecht's ``Questions from a Worker Who Reads'' on the ®rst page: [:::] In what houses Of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live? Where, the evening that the Wall of China was ®nished Did the masons go? Great Rome Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? [:::] So many reports. So many questions. He succeeds admirably in giving some of the answers in an eminently readable, frankly fascinating survey of humankind's history from preclass primitive communalist societies to the emergence of class societies in the mists of antiquity 5,000 or 6,000 years ago, through the empires of the ancient world, to the birth of capitalism ®ve centuries ago. In each instance, Harman is at pains to show how technologies and class structure and struggles shaped historical outcomes. The agricultural revolution of ten millennia ago allowed permanent settlements to develop, a slow expansion of the human population from around ten million people to 200 million by 1500 AD, and ongoing technological advance.