John Rees (born 1957) is a British political activist, academic, journalist and writer who is a national officer of the

Stop the War Coalition The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against what it believes are unjust wars. The Coalition has c ...

, and founding member of ''Counterfire''. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the ...

. He was formerly a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party and, as an SWP member, was heavily involved in

Respect – The Unity Coalition The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nine ...

. His books include ''Timelines, a political history of the modern world'' and ''A People's History of London'', co-authored with his partner Lindsey German. He also produces documentaries and presents current affairs programmes for the

Islam Channel Islam Channel is a UK-based, free-to-air, English language, Islamic-focused satellite television channel and online media platform funded by advertising and donations. It was founded in 2004 by Mohamed Ali Harrath (born 1963), a Tunisian act ...

Early life and education

Rees was born in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, in South-West England, and was brought up and educated in

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in northwest Wiltshire, England. It lies northeast of Bath, west of London, and is near the Cotswolds Area of Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon and some form of settlement i ...

. His father, William Rees was from

Aberdare Aberdare ( ; cy, Aberdâr) is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare (Dâr) and Cynon. Aberdare has a population of 39,550 (mid-2017 estimate). Aberdare is south-west of Merthyr Tyd ...

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

, and was a lifelong trade union activist and Labour Party member. His mother, Margaret Rees (Shipley) Rees was from

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underw ...

. Rees' first degree was in Politics from

Portsmouth Polytechnic The University of Portsmouth is a public university in Portsmouth, England. It is one of only four universities in the South East England, South East of England rated as Gold in the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework. With approximately 28 ...

and he subsequently undertook research on

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

and

Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Hull University , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

under Dr (now Lord) Bhikhu Parekh. The result of that research, ''The Algebra of Revolution'', was published by

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

in 1998. When Georg Lukacs' unknown manuscript "Tailism and the Dialectic" was discovered and published by

Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a left-wing publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of '' New Left Review''. Renaming, new brand and logo Verso Books was originally known as New Left Books. The ...

in 2000, Rees provided the introduction to the volume. He holds a doctorate on 'Leveller organisation and the dynamic of the English Revolution' from

Politics

Elected a member of the National Executive of the National Union of Students in the early 1980s, Rees is a former member of the Socialist Workers Party, and was for many years on its Central Committee. He was editor of the quarterly 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 ...

'' for ten years and the organiser of the SWP's annual Marxism festival in 1982–1983 and again from 1992–2002. A co-founder and a current national officer for the

, he has been a central organiser of all its marches including that of 15 February 2003. According to Rees, "Socialists should unconditionally stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, even if the people who run the oppressed country are undemocratic and persecute minorities, like

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

." At the same time Rees has always advocated an unrelenting struggle against pro-Western dictators by the people of oppressed countries and to that end Rees became vice president (Europe) of the

Cairo Anti-war Conference The Cairo Conference against U.S. hegemony and war on Iraq and in solidarity with Palestine (later: Popular Campaign for the Support of Resistance in Palestine and Iraq and Against Globalization), generally known simply as Cairo Anti-war Conference ...

which rallied opposition forces against the Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt. John Ress Scotland

He was at the top of

's list in the West Midlands region for the 2004 European election and the Respect candidate for the Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election. He also stood for Respect in the 2006 local election in the Bethnal Green South ward of

Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...

in East London, where he came second to Labour. Rees was not selected by the SWP Central Committee to be on the slate for re-election and did not stand independently at the January 2009 conference. Shortly after his partner Lindsey German resigned from the SWP in 2010, Rees and 41 other members followed disenchanted with the party's direction, internal regime and approach to united fronts (18 others who had resigned in weeks prior also supported the resignations). In 2012, ''A People's History of London'', which Rees co-authored with Lindsey German, was published. The book is a history of London radicalism which documents working (or lower) class struggles in London from the Romans to the present day. Jerry White in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' wrote: "Those who continue to uphold London's living traditions of protest will be able to take heart from this fresh and welcome look at the city's history." White described the book as "a very selective people's history" which does not cover the bombings committed by the IRA and by

Islamists Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is c ...

on 7 July 2005. Jo Lo Dicio in ''The Independent on Sunday'' wrote: "Had these two been political pamphleteers through the ages, one doubts many revolutionary sparks would ever have been lit." A book on the Levellers and the English Revolution based on his doctoral research was published by Verso in 2016. Rees is currently active in the organisation Counterfire for which he has written two short books, ''Strategy and Tactics'' and alongside Joseph Daher ''The People Demand: A short history of the Arab revolutions''.Imperialism and the Arab Revolutions
Counterfire Website He participated in and reported on the Egyptian revolution in 2011 about which he made two TV documentaries, ''Inside the Egyptian Revolution'' and ''Egypt in Revolution''. For the

, he is the writer and presenter of the political history

documentary series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

''Timeline'' and a presenter of ''The Report'' and ''Politics and Media''

current affairs Current affairs may refer to: News * ''Current Affairs'' (magazine) a bimonthly magazine of culture and politics. * Current affairs (news format): a genre of broadcast journalism * Current Affairs, former name for Behind the News Politics * An ...

programmes. He has appeared as a political commentator in

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty ('' Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessn ...

's '' The Spirit of '45'' and in Amir Amarani's ''We Are Many''. In September 2013,

Iain Dale Iain Campbell Dale (born 15 July 1962) is a British broadcaster, author and political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. In 2005, he became the first openly gay Conservative candidate to c ...

and a panel for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' placed him at 85 in a list of the 100 most influential British left-wingers. Around this time, Rees was the founder and organising committee member of The People's Assembly. In 2016, Rees toured the UK to support

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 socialis ...

's bid to become

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Selected works

Articles

"Trotsky and the Dialectic of History"
International Socialism Journal no. 47, Summer 1990, pp. 113–135.

International Socialism 2:65, Winter 1994.

Issue 83 of INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISM JOURNAL Published Summer 1999

International Socialism Journal 87, Summer 2000.

Books

*''Socialism and War'' (1990) *''The ABC of Socialism'' (1994) *''Marxism and the New Imperialism'' (1994) (editor and contributor) *''In Defence of October: A Debate on the Russian Revolution'' (with others including Robin Blackburn) (1997) *''The Algebra of Revolution: The Dialectic and the Classical Marxist Tradition'' (1998) *''Essays on Historical Materialism'' (editor) (1998) *''Imperialism and Resistance'' (2006) *''The People Demand, a short history of the Arab revolutions'' (with Joseph Daher)(2011) *''Timelines, a political history of the modern world'' (2012) *''A People's History of London'' (with Lindsey German) (2012) *'' The Leveller Revolution: Radical Political Organisation in England, 1640-1650'' (2017)

References

External links

John Rees
at ''Socialist Review'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, John 1957 births Living people British Marxists British people of Welsh descent British political party founders British Trotskyists British writers People from Chippenham Respect Party parliamentary candidates Socialist Workers Party (UK) members