Christopher John 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. He was an editor of ''

International Socialism ''International Socialism'' is a British-based quarterly journal established in 1960 and published in London by the Socialist Workers Party which discusses socialist theory. It is currently edited by Joseph Choonara who replaced Alex Callini ...

'' and ''

Socialist Worker ''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since 1968, a ...

''.

Life

Harman was born into a working-class family and attended

Leeds University The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed ...

(where he joined the Socialist Review Group in 1961) and the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

(LSE) where he began (but did not complete) a doctorate under the supervision of

Ralph Miliband Ralph Miliband (born Adolphe Miliband; 7 January 1924 – 21 May 1994) was a British sociologist. He has been described as "one of the best known academic Marxists of his generation", in this manner being compared with E. P. Thompson, Eric Ho ...

. He was instrumental in publishing the magazine of the LSE Socialist Society, ''The Agitator'', and was a leading member of the International Socialists (as the SRG had become) by 1968. He was involved in the

Vietnam Solidarity Campaign The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) was originally set up in 1966 by activists around the International Group with the personal and financial support of Bertrand Russell. Ralph Schoenman acted both as Director of the Vietnam Solidarity Camp ...

and outraged many leftists when, at a meeting in the

Conway Hall Conway Hall in Red Lion Square, London, is the headquarters of the Conway Hall Ethical Society. It is a Grade II listed building. History The building was commissioned by the South Place Ethical Society, which had previously been accommodated ...

, he denounced

Ho Chi Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...

for murdering the leader of the

Vietnamese Trotskyist movement Trotskyism in Vietnam () was represented by those who, in left opposition to the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) of Hồ Chí Minh, identified with the call of Leon Trotsky to re-found " vanguard parties of proletariat" on principles of "pro ...

Tạ Thu Thâu Tạ Thu Thâu (1906–1945) in the 1930s was the principal representative of Trotskyism in Vietnam and, in colonial Cochinchina, of left opposition to the Indochinese Communist Party (PCI) of Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh). He joined the Left Op ...

, in 1945 after crushing the workers' rising of that year in Saigon. His main role in the IS (from 1977 the Socialist Workers Party, or SWP) was as a theorist and he produced numerous books and articles on a wide variety of topics. Almost all his writing appeared in the publications of the IS and SWP or has been published by related publishing houses, such as Bookmarks. He was first editor of ''Socialist Worker'' in 1976-77 and returned to the role after a break in 1982, remaining in the post until 2004, when he started editing the SWP's theoretical quarterly ''International Socialism Journal''. Harman's work on the

May 1968 events in France May 68 () was a period of widespread protests, strikes, and civil unrest in France that began in May 1968 and became one of the most significant social uprisings in modern European history. Initially sparked by student demonstrations agains ...

and other student and workers' uprisings of the late 1960s, ''The Fire Last Time'', was recommended by rock band

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...

in the album liner notes for ''

Evil Empire An evil empire is a speculative fiction trope in which a major antagonist of the story is a technologically advanced nation, typically ruled by an evil emperor or empress, that aims to control the world or conquer some specific group. They are ...

''. Harman died on 7 November 2009, following a cardiac arrest while lecturing at the Socialist Days conference of the Center for Socialist Studies (CSS) in Cairo, Egypt. He is buried in

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...

, London, a few yards from

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

's tomb and adjacent to his comrade Paul Foot. Highgate Cemetery - East - Chris Harman 01

Selected works

Books and pamphlets

*''Education, capitalism and the student revolt'' (1968)
''Russia: How the Revolution Was Lost''
(1967) *''Unemployment and how to fight it'' (with Dave Peers) (1971)

(1975)

(1979) *''New technology and the struggle for socialism'' (1979)

(1981) *''Days of Hope: The General Strike of 1926'' (with

Duncan Hallas Duncan Hallas (23 December 1925 – 19 September 2002) was a prominent member of the Trotskyist movement and a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party in Great Britain. Biography Born into a working-class family in Manchester, Duncan Hall ...

) (1981) *''Gramsci versus Reformism'' (1983)
''The Revolutionary Press''
(Summer, 1984) *''Explaining The Crisis: A Marxist Reappraisal'' (London, 1984) *''The Changing Working Class: Essays on Class Structure Today'' (with

Alex Callinicos Alexander Theodore Callinicos (born 24 July 1950) is a Rhodesian-born British political theorist and activist. An adherent of Trotskyism, he is a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and serves as its Internatio ...

) (London: Bookmarks, 1987) *''Russia: from workers' state to state capitalism'' (with Peter Binns and

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

) (London, 1987) *''Class Struggles in Eastern Europe, 1945-1983'' (London, 1988)
''The Fire Last Time: 1968 And After''
(London, 1988) *''The revolutionary paper'' (1991) *''In The Heat of the Struggle: 25 Years of Socialist Worker'' (editor) (with an introduction by Paul Foot) (1993) *''Economics of the Madhouse: Capitalism and the Market Today'' (London, 1995)
''How Marxism Works''
(London, 1997) *''The Lost Revolution: Germany 1918-23'' (London, 1997) *''Marxism and History: Two Essays'' (London, 1998)
''A People's History of the World''
(1999)
''The Prophet And The Proletariat: Islamic fundamentalism, class and revolution''
(London, 1999) *''The IMF, Globalisation and Resistance'' (2000) *''Revolution in the 21st Century'' (2007)

(2008) *''Zombie Capitalism: Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx'' (London, 2009) *''Selected Writings'' (2011)

Articles

"Gramsci Versus Reformism""The 'workers's' government"
(with Tim Potter)
"The State and Capitalism Today""Spontaneity, strategy and politics""Gramsci, the Prison Notebooks and philosophy"''Trotsky and the New Stalinism''

References

Notes Sources * Available onlin

* Available onlin
here
* Available onlin
here

External links

(Blog containing notes, position papers and old articles)
''International Socialism Journal''
from ''The Left in Britain'', 1956–68, edited by David Widgery
Chris Harman speaking on the 'Economics of the Madhouse' in the United States in 1996

"Taking Apart the West"
Richard Seymour reviews Harman's ''People's History of the World'' in ''New Statesman'', July 2008. Obituaries and posthumous articles on Chris Harman
Chris Harman (1942-2009
Links to obituaries, sites, articles, videos etc. + books online, on Modkraft.dk
Chris Harman: A life in the struggle
by

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 Mid ...

, ''International Socialism'', 125, (2010)
Obituary
by John Molyneux, ''The Independent'', 19 November 2009.
RIP Chris Harman
The Third Estate Blog, 7 November 2009
Obituary
by

, ''Socialist Worker'', 9 November 2009.
Obituary
by

Michael Rosen Michael Wayne Rosen (born 7 May 1946) is an English children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster, activist, and academic, who is a professor of children's literature in the Department of Educational Studies at Goldsmiths ...

, ''The Guardian'', 9 November 2009.
Chris Harman and 1968
by John Rose
Another Side of Chris Harman
by Joseph Choonara, ''International Socialism'', 125, (2010)
A whiff of teargas
by Andy Durgan, ''International Socialism'', 125, (2010)
Tribute
by Panos Garganas
'A thinker and a polemicist'
by Larry Elliott
"Obituary: Chris Harman 1942-2009"

, ''Socialist Worker'' 14 November 2009
''Chris Harman, 1968 and the historic Open Letter to the Polish Communist Party''
by John Rose, ''International Socialism'', 158 (2018).
''Chris Harman and the critique of political economy''
by

, ''International Socialism'', 165 (2020). {{DEFAULTSORT:Harman, Chris 1942 births 2009 deaths Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of Leeds British anti-capitalists British economics writers British Marxist historians British newspaper editors British Trotskyists Burials at Highgate Cemetery Marxist theorists British Marxist writers Socialist Workers Party (UK) members