Ian Birchall (born 1939) is a British Marxist historian and translator, a former member of the Socialist Workers Party and author of numerous articles and books, particularly relating to the French Left. Formerly Senior Lecturer in French at Middlesex University, his research interests include the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

, the International Working Class,

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and

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 ...

, France and

Syndicalism Syndicalism is a Revolutionary politics, revolutionary current within the Left-wing politics, left-wing of the Labour movement, labor movement that seeks to unionize workers Industrial unionism, according to industry and advance their demands t ...

, Babeuf,

Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

Victor Serge Victor Serge (; 1890–1947), born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich (russian: Ви́ктор Льво́вич Киба́льчич), was a Russian revolutionary Marxist, novelist, poet and historian. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks fi ...

and

Alfred Rosmer Alfred Rosmer (born Alfred Griot, 23 August 1877 – 6 May 1964) was an American-born French Communist political activist and historian who was a leading member of the Comintern. Rosmer is best remembered as a political associate of Leon Trotsky a ...

. He was on the editorial board of ''

Revolutionary History ''Revolutionary History'' was a British journal covering the history of the far left. It was established in 1988 by Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson and maintained an editorial board representing many strands of British Trotskyism.

'', a member of the London Socialist Historians Group and has completed a biography of

Tony Cliff Tony Cliff (born Yigael Glückstein, he, יגאל גליקשטיין; 20 May 1917 – 9 April 2000) was a Trotskyist activist. Born to a Jewish family in Palestine, he moved to Britain in 1947 and by the end of the 1950s had assumed the pen na ...

. In 2013, Birchall joined opposition to the SWP Central Committee during the internal crisis over allegations of rape and resigned from the organisation in December.Ian Birchal
"2013: Letter of Resignation"
Grim and Dim, 15 December 2013 In August 2015, Birchall was one of 20 authors of ''Poets for Corbyn'', an anthology of poems endorsing

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

in the Labour Party leadership election.

Selected articles/works

''France : the struggle goes on''
(with

) (1968) *''Workers against the monolith : the Communist parties since 1943'' (1974)
''The smallest mass party in the world : building the Socialist Workers Party, 1951-1979''
(1981)

(with Norah Carlin) (1983) *''Bailing out the system : reformist socialism in Western Europe, 1944-1985'' (1986)

(1996) *''The spectre of Babeuf'' (1997) *''Sartre against Stalinism'' (2004) *''A Rebel's Guide to Lenin'' (2005)
''Sartre's Century''
(2005) *''Tony Cliff: A Marxist for His Time'' (2011)

Works translated/edited

*''Lenin's Moscow'', by

(translated from the French) (1971) *''Flowers and revolution : a collection of writings on

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...

'' (edited with Barbara Read)(1997) *''Witness to the German Revolution'' / by

(translated from the French) (1999) *''The German Revolution, 1917-1923'' / by

Pierre Broué Pierre Broué (8 May 1926 – 27 July 2005) was a French historian and Trotskyist revolutionary militant whose work covers the history of the Bolshevik Party, the Spanish Revolution and biographies of Leon Trotsky. Background Broué was born in ...

; translated by John Archer (edited with

Brian Pearce Brian Leonard Pearce (8 May 1915 – 25 November 2008) was a British Marxist political activist, historian, and translator. Adept and prolific in Russian-to-English translation, Pearce was regarded at the time of his death as "one of the most ...

) (2005) *''Revolution in Danger – Writings from Russia 1919-20 by

(translated from the French) London: Redwords.(1997)

References

External links

*
Articles
in the

Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels ...

''
''Profile at Comment is Free''

Tony Cliff Bibliography
- the writings and works of Tony Cliff by Ian Birchall on Modkraft.dk/tidsskriftcentret
"Grim and Dim"
The website of Ian Birchall 1939 births Living people British Marxist historians British Trotskyists Socialist Workers Party (UK) members {{UK-historian-stub