Michael Kidron (20 September 1930 – 25 March 2003)
was a British
cartographer
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...
. He was one of the early founders of the
International Socialists (forerunners of the
Socialist Workers Party; SWP) through the 1960s and 1970s, and the first 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 ...
'' journal.
He is perhaps best remembered for writing ''The State of the World Atlas'', jointly with
Ronald Segal
Ronald Michael Segal (14 July 1932 – 23 February 2008) was a South African activist, writer and editor, founder of the anti-apartheid magazine '' Africa South'' and the Penguin African Library.Denis Herbstein"Ronald Segal"(obituary), ''The Gua ...
and
Dan Smith.
Early life and career
Kidron was born on 20 September 1930 in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
to a family of
Zionists
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Jew ...
, but joined his parents in Palestine just after the
Second World War
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 ...
, and soon rejected Zionism. After schooling in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
, he studied economics at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
.
Following emigration to the United Kingdom, he was accepted for doctoral studies 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 ...
in 1955 under the supervision of
Thomas Balogh
Thomas Balogh, Baron Balogh (2 November 190520 January 1985), born Balog Tamás, was a British economist and member of the House of Lords.
The elder son of a wealthy Budapest Jewish family (his father was head of public transport, his mother ...
.
Kidron became a theoretician in the
Socialist Review Group
The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a far-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded as the Socialist Review Group by supporters of Tony Cliff in 1950, it became the International Socialists in 1962 and the SWP in 1977. The party con ...
(SRG) and was to be found in the extended family 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 nam ...
, who had married Kidron's sister
Chanie Rosenberg
Chanie Rosenberg (20 April 1922 – June 2021) was a South African-born artist, former teacher and socialist. She was the sister of Michael Kidron, the partner of Tony Cliff, and a founder member of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain.
Life
...
, which was the informal core of the group. He would also serve as editor and writer on various group publications through these early years.
It is Kidron's name that appears as publisher of the first public edition of Cliff's work ''State Capitalism in Russia'' which was published in 1955. A small pamphlet on
automation
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
appeared in 1956, which although not dissimilar to the ideas of the
Johnson-Forest Tendency or ''
Socialisme ou Barbarie
Socialisme ou Barbarie () was a French-based radical libertarian socialist group of the post-World War II period whose name comes from a phrase which was misattributed to Friedrich Engels by Rosa Luxemburg in the ''Junius Pamphlet'', but which pro ...
'' did not simply dismiss existing workers organisations as these tended to do. From then on, Kidron was a major source of theoretical writing within the
SRG and later the
Socialist Workers Party.
Economic writings
Among Kidron's many writings were ''Western Capitalism Since the War'' and ''Capitalism and Theory'' (1968).
His main contribution was to develop the theory of the
permanent arms economy
Military Keynesianism is an economic policy based on the position that government should raise military spending to boost economic growth. It is a fiscal stimulus policy as advocated by John Maynard Keynes. But where Keynes advocated increasing p ...
, which argued that
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
had been temporarily stabilised by the
production of arms
The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and serv ...
, which acted as a counter
tendency to the falling rate of profit. Crisis, then, was not eliminated from the system, but merely postponed. This came at a time when other tendencies were emblazoning their publications with banner headlines proclaiming that capitalism had entered its final crisis. Related to this was the conception that
state capitalism
State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital a ...
was a distinct period within the imperialist stage of capitalism and not simply a new label to be plastered upon the Russian state.
These ideas and experience of the workers movement in Britain were to develop a deeply rooted understanding in Kidron's writings that the revolutionary movement must be democratic in order to fit the working class to rule. The PAE also meant that this analysis was reflected in the understanding of the IS that the 'locus of reformism' had moved from parliamentary bodies to the shop floor. In short workers were seeking gains through localised class struggle at the point of production where the institution of the elected and recallable shop steward was key. The task of revolutionaries was to generalise and politicise such struggles.
Kidron was critical of the move within IS to a more traditionally
democratic centralist
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 revol ...
structure in the wake of the
events of 1968, and as IS grew, he moved away from its core, both physically, obtaining an academic post in
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...
, and politically. Nonetheless, he took no direct part in the factional struggle which saw a split in the central ''IS'' cadre in 1975.
Later work
Kidron's last major articles in the journal ''
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 ...
'' cast doubt on his own earlier work, but without renouncing
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
as so many former revolutionaries would during the downturn of class struggle that marked the 1980s. Yet following a debate in the pages of ''International Socialism'' with
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 ...
, who defended what is now the traditional ''IS'' position, Kidron was to leave active revolutionary politics.
He was closely associated with
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 ...
since the early 1970s (''IS'' had helped set up the company in its first period), and his talents were expended on works such as ''The State of the World Atlas'' ( in its 9th edition),
and ''The War Atlas'' ( in its 4th edition),
both with
Dan Smith. Kidron remained a Marxist committed to changing the world and therefore understood the necessity of developing a theoretical understanding of how the world works precisely in order to change it. His final article appeared in the Autumn 2002 issue of ''International Socialism'' on "The Decline of Capitalism", and spoke of a sure and certain knowledge that another world is not just possible but demanded. As ever, the revolutionary role of the working class in the core countries of capitalism was reasserted and the goal of a communist society reaffirmed.
Mike Kidron had five children;
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
,
Beeban, Cassia, Petra and Ruby.
Kidron died on 25 March 2003 at the age of 72.
References
External links
Michael Kidron Internet Archive*Michael Kidron
''International Socialism Journal'', Issue 96, Winter 2002
*
Ian Birchall
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 Mi ...
"Michael Kidron (1930–2003)" ''International Socialism Journal'', Issue 99, Summer 2003
*
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 ...
''Permanent Legacy'' (Mike Kidron obituary) ''Socialist Review'', Issue 273, April 2003
"Marxist Political Economy and the Crisis" (June 1974 speech) ''International Socialism'', 4 October 2006
''Modern Capitalism'' (July 1977 speech) ''International Socialism'', 162, 18 April 2019.
''Michael Kidron's Marxism''Interview with Richard Kuper and John Palmer, ''International Socialism'' 165, 10 January 2020.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kidron, Michael
1930 births
2003 deaths
Anti-Zionist Jews
Marxist theorists
Socialist Workers Party (UK) members
South African Jews
British Trotskyists
British Jews
Jewish socialists
Theorists on Western civilization