Alan Johnson is a British political theorist and activist. He is a senior research fellow at the

Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre The Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) is a UK-based organisation which acts to promote awareness of Israel and the Middle East in the United Kingdom. BICOM publishes materials such as briefings and a journal, ''Fathom'', ...

. Previously he was Professor of Democratic Theory and Practice at

Edge Hill University Edge Hill University is a campus-based public university in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England, which opened in 1885 as Edge Hill College, the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England, before admitting its first male stu ...

Early life

Johnson was born in

North Shields North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...

and developed as a socialist in 1979 as a volunteer at the Marxist bookshop Days of Hope in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. In 1984, Johnson helped found the Merseyside Museum of Labour History (later the

Museum of Liverpool Life The Museum of Liverpool Life was a Museum in Liverpool, England, part of National Museums Liverpool, that focused on the contribution that the people of Liverpool made to national life. It closed in 2005 and was replaced by the Museum of Liver ...

Career

From 1991 to 2011 Johnson was an academic at

in the Social Sciences. He became a reader in 2001 and professor of democratic theory and practice in 2007. In 2011 Johnson left Edge Hill University and became a senior research fellow at the

(BICOM). Johnson is editor of BICOM's '' Fathom Journal'' magazine.

Political positions

Johnson was an editor of the journals ''

Democratiya ''Democratiya'' was a free quarterly online review of books that aims "stimulate discussion of radical democratic political theory". Sixteen editions were produced from 2005 until a final edition in Autumn 2009. ''Democratiya'' merged with ''Diss ...

'' (2005–2009) and '' Engage Journal'', the former of which he also helped found. He is a scholar of the labour movement in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

, and is a founding member of

Labour Friends of Iraq Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

. A former

Trotskyist 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 ...

and long-term member of the Socialist Organiser Alliance, researching

Hal Draper Hal Draper (born Harold Dubinsky; September 19, 1914 – January 26, 1990) was an American socialist activist and author who played a significant role in the Berkeley, California, Free Speech Movement. He is known for his extensive scholarship on t ...

, Johnson is a co-author of the

Euston Manifesto The Euston Manifesto ( ) is a liberal conservative, pro-American, 2006 declaration of principles signed by a group of academics, journalists and activists based in the United Kingdom, named after the Euston Road in London where it had its meetin ...

. He was opposed to the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. Since 2003 he has worked with

Abdullah Muhsin Abdullah may refer to: * Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village * ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan * '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...

of the Iraqi Workers Federation. Critical of the blanket labelling of advocates of military intervention against dictatorial regimes as

neoconservatives Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and cou ...

in foreign policy, he calls for a "proper consideration of the social democratic antitotalitarianism of

Paul Berman Paul Lawrence Berman (born 1949) is an American writer on politics and literature. His books include ''Terror and Liberalism'' ( a ''New York Times'' best-seller in 2003), ''The Flight of the Intellectuals'', ''A Tale of Two Utopias'', ''Power and ...

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...

Adam Michnik Adam Michnik (; born 17 October 1946) is a Polish historian, essayist, former dissident, public intellectual, and editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper, ''Gazeta Wyborcza''. Reared in a family of committed communists, Michnik became an opponen ...

, Ladan Boroumand, Kanan Makiya,

Azar Nafisi Azar Nafisi ( fa, آذر نفیسی; born 1948)Following eighth grade, Nafisi's parents sent her to England for schooling from 1961 to 1963. Nafisi 2010, chapter 8, pp. 69-70; chapter 13, p. 115 is an Iranian-American writer and professor of Englis ...

, Bernard Kouchner,

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

, or

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

" and points out that "

neo-conservatives Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and coun ...

" in the Democratic Party deserve "their share of the credit" for "undermining cynical and self-defeating 'realism' and embracing democracy-promotion." He is 'a long time socialist and a supporter of Palestinian statehood' and is an activist for the two states for two peoples solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The Dissent Editor and US political philosopher Michael Walzer argued Johnson's Democratiya was similar to Dissent in politics and style. 'Two commitments give shape to the Democratiya project. The first is to defend and promote a left politics that is liberal, democratic, egalitarian, and internationalist. Those four adjectives should routinely characterize left politics, but we all know that they don’t. The second commitment is to defend and promote a form of political argument that is nuanced, probing, and concrete, principled but open to disagreement: no slogans, no jargon, no unexamined assumptions, no party line. This argumentative style . . . is also a moral style.' In his ''A Foreign Policy for the Left'', Michael Walzer wrote of Johnson's influence. 'I have also learned a great deal from two very different sets of friends in Great Britain, the authors of the Euston and Kilburn Manifestoes.

Norman Geras Norman Geras (; 25 August 1943 – 18 October 2013) was a political theorist and Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Manchester. He contributed to an analysis of the works of Karl Marx in his book '' Marx and Human Nature'' and the ...

, Alan Johnson, Shalom Lapin and Nick Cohen are the Eustonites. Michel Rustin and Stuart Hall are the Kilburnites'. Johnson has criticised the political theory of Slavoj Zizek as authoritarian and “left-fascist” over several essays. Zizek responded angrily in his 2013 lecture in London and in the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

'', calling Johnson "that jerk who pronounced me a leftist fascist', adding 'I think we should take over these - all of these authoritarian gestures - unity, leader, sacrifice - f*ck it! Why not?"

Books

*''2001: Leadership and social movements'', Manchester University Press, 2001, co-authored with Colin Barker and Michael Lavalette. *2003: ''Marxism and the American Worker'' (editor) a special issue of ''Historical Materialism: Critical Research in Marxist Theory'', Vol 11. Issue 4. *''2006: Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Unions'', TUC Publications, co-authored with Abdullah Muhsin. *2007
Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews

Foreign Policy Centre The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) is a British think tank specialising in foreign policy. It was founded in 1998 by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and his colleagues. It was launched at an event with Prime Minister Tony Blair, with the aim of develo ...

, 2007, Editor. *2013:
The New Histadrut: Peace, Social Justice and the Israeli Trade Unions
', TUFI, London. * 2019:
Institutionally Antisemitic: Contemporary Left Antisemitism and the Crisis in the British Labour Party
', Fathom Publications.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Alan (political theorist) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Academics of Edge Hill University British political philosophers British activists British social commentators People from North Shields Alliance for Workers' Liberty people