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'' and '' Socialist Worker''.

Life

Harman was born into a working-class family and attended Leeds University (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. 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 and outraged many leftists when, at a meeting in the Conway Hall, 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, Tạ Thu Thâu, 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 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''. 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, 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) (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) (London: Bookmarks, 1987) *''Russia: from workers' state to state capitalism'' (with Peter Binns and Tony Cliff) (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, ''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 Alex Callinicos, ''Socialist Worker'', 9 November 2009.
Obituary
by Michael Rosen, ''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"
Alex Callinicos, ''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 Alex Callinicos, ''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