Alexander Theodore Callinicos (born 24 July 1950) is a

Rhodesian Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

-born British

political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized by their ...

and activist. An adherent of

Trotskyism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

, he is a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and serves as its International Secretary. He is also editor of ''

International Socialism Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is the perception of all communist revolutions as being part of a single global class struggle rather than separate localized events. It is based on the theory that ...

'', the SWP's theoretical journal, and has published a number of books.

Biography

Early life

Callinicos's mother, the Honorable Ædgyth Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, was the daughter of the 2nd Lord Acton, descended from the 19th-century English historian

Lord Acton John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli, (10 January 1834 – 19 June 1902), better known as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He is best remembered for the remark he w ...

. Callinicos's Greek father was active in the Greek Resistance to

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupation during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.The Peerage.com
/ref> Callinicos was educated at St George's College, Salisbury (now Harare). He became involved in revolutionary politics as a student at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he read for his BA and came to know

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...

, then himself active in the International Socialists (the SWP's forerunner). He also received his

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

at Oxford. The earliest writing by Callinicos for the International Socialists was an analysis of the student movement of the period. His other early writings focused on

southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...

and the French structuralist-Marxist philosopher

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser ...

. In 1977, Callinicos married Joanna Seddon, a fellow Oxford doctoral student.

Career and activism

Callinicos participated in the Counter-Summit to the IMF/

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

Meeting in Prague, September 2000 and the demonstration against the G8 in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, June 2001. He has also been involved in organising the

Social Forum A social forum is an open meeting place for civil society organizations and individuals opposed to neoliberalism and what its participants regard as the domination of the world by capital and imperialism. The first social forum was the World So ...

movement in Europe. He was a contributor to ''Dictionnaire Marx Contemporain'' (2001), and has written articles in ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...

''. He was Professor of Politics at the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

before being appointed Professor of European Studies at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

in September 2005. He succeeded

Chris Harman Chris Harman (8 November 1942 – 7 November 2009) was a British journalist and political activist, and a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party (UK), Socialist Workers Party. He was an editor of ''International Soc ...

as editor of ''

'' in January 2010 shortly after Harman died and is a British correspondent for ''

Actuel Marx ''Actuel Marx'' is a book series of Marxist studies, edited by Jacques Bidet, Gérard Duménil, and Emmanuel Renault. The series is published by the Presses universitaires de France with support from the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense ...

''. Callinicos joined the central committee of the SWP in the late 1970s; he retains this position. In January 2013, in the context of a serious crisis inside the UK Socialist Workers Party (SWP) associated with the party's response to an allegation of rape against a leading member of the party, known as Comrade Delta, and with the demand for changes to the existing form of the system of

democratic centralism Democratic centralism is a practice in which political decisions reached by voting processes are binding upon all members of the political party. It is mainly associated with Leninism, wherein the party's political vanguard of professional revo ...

within the SWP, he wrote a defence of

Leninism Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vanguardis ...

and democratic centralism. Callinicos disagreed with those who argued for the need to change the existing system.Alex Callinicos
"Is Leninism finished?"
''Socialist Review'', February 2013, posted on 28 January 2013. He called the allegation of rape a "difficult disciplinary case", a comment for which socialist feminist

Laurie Penny Laurie Penny (born Laura Barnett, 28 September 1986) is a British journalist and writer. Penny has written articles for publications including ''The Guardian,'' ''The New York Times'' and ''Salon''. Penny is a contributing editor at the ''New ...

thought he " istooka plea for some basic respect for women's sexual autonomy as an attempt to undermine the revolution from within." Callinicos also took a prominent position on another issue which had divided the Socialist Workers Party (SWP): the use of the Internet in disagreements about confidential party issues. He complained about "the dark side of the Internet" in which individuals have "used blogs and social media to launch a campaign within the SWP". In order to disentangle a conference organised by the ''

Historical Materialism Historical materialism is the term used to describe Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborat ...

'' journal in Delhi during 2013 from the SWP crisis, his invitation to the conference was withdrawn in March 2013.Hugh Muir
"Diary: A message to the SWP from Delhi: stay away"
''The Guardian'', 27 March 2013.

Works

Books / pamphlets

*1976: ''Althusser's Marxism'' (London:

Pluto Press Pluto Press is a British independent book publisher based in London, founded in 1969. Originally, it was the publishing arm of the International Socialists (today known as the Socialist Workers Party), until it changed hands and was replaced ...

) *1977: ''Southern Africa after Soweto'' (with John Rogers) (London: Pluto Press), *1981: ''Southern Africa after Zimbabwe'' (London: Pluto) *1982: ''Is there a future for Marxism?'' (London: Macmillan). *1983: ''Marxism and Philosophy'' (Oxford: Clarendon). *1983
''The revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx''
(London: Bookmarks). *1983

(London: Socialist Workers Party). *1985: ''South Africa: the Road to Revolution'' (Toronto: International Socialists). *1985

(with Mike Simons) (London: Socialist Worker) *1987: ''The Changing Working Class: Essays on Class Structure Today'' (with

) (London: Bookmarks) *1988: ''South Africa Between Reform and Revolution'' (London: Bookmarks). *1988: ''Making History: Agency, Structure, and Change in Social Theory'' (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press). *1989: ''Marxist Theory'' (editor) (Oxford: Oxford University Press). *1990
''Trotskyism''
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press). *1991: ''The Revenge of History: Marxism and the East European Revolutions'' *1991: ''Against Postmodernism: a Marxist critique'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *1992: ''Between Apartheid and Capitalism: conversations with South African socialists'' (editor) (London: Bookmarks). *1994: ''Marxism and the New Imperialism'' (London ; Chicago, Ill. : Bookmarks). *1995: ''Theories and Narratives'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *1995: ''Race and Class'' (London: Bookmark Publications). *1995: ''Socialists in the trade unions'' (London: Bookmarks) *1996

(London: Bookmarks) *1999: ''Social Theory: Historical Introduction'' (New York: New York University Press). *2000: ''Equality (Themes for the 21st Century)'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *2002: ''Against the Third Way'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *2003: ''An anti-Capitalist manifesto'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *2003: ''New Mandarins of American Power: the Bush administration’s plans for the world'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). * 2006: ''Universities in a Neoliberal World'' (London: Bookmarks) *2006: ''The Resources of Critique'' (Cambridge: Polity). *2009: ''Imperialism and Global Political Economy'' (Cambridge, Polity). *2010: ''Bonfire of Illusions: The Twin Crises of the Liberal World'' (Polity). *2012: ''The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx'' (Haymarket) *2014: ''Deciphering Capital: Marx's Capital and its destiny'' (London: Bookmarks).

Articles

(1982)

(1983)

(1989)

(1991)

(1992) *"Wonders Taken for Signs: Homi Bhabha's Postcolonialism". In ''Post-Ality: Marxism and Postmodernism''. Edited by Mas'ud Zavarzadeh, Teresa Ebert, and Donald Morton. Washington, DC: Maisonneuve Press (1995).

(2001)
"Plumbing the depths: Marxism and the Holocaust"
(2001)

(2002)
"Imperialism and Global Political Economy"
International Socialism, 108, Autumn 2005.
"Interview with Alex Callinicos: The Imperial Assault on the Middle East"
(2006)
"Does capitalism need the state system?"
''

Cambridge Review of International Affairs The ''Cambridge Review of International Affairs'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal on international relations, particularly in the fields of international studies, international law, and international political economy. It is publishe ...

'', 20(4), (2007) pp. 533–549.
"Where is the radical left going?"
International Socialism, 120, Autumn 2008. *"The Limits of Passive Revolution" ''Capital & Class'', vol 34, no. 3, pp. 491–507. (2010).
"The internationalist case against the European Union"
''International Socialism'', 148 (2015).
''Brexit: a world-historic turn''
''International Socialism'', 151 (2016).
''The orphaned revolution: The meaning of October 1917''
''International Socialism'', 156 (2017).
Chris Harman and the critique of political economy
''International Socialism'', 165 (2020).

References

External links

Callinicos lecture on "Imperialism and the Global Political Economy," UK: 2009.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Callinicos, Alex 1950 births Living people Academics of King's College London Academics of the University of York Alumni of St. George's College, Harare Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford British Marxists British philosophers British political writers British Trotskyists Critics of postmodernism Marxist theorists Marxist writers People from Harare Rhodesian communists Socialist Workers Party (UK) members White Rhodesian people Rhodesian people of Greek descent

Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...