Colin Barker (30 June 1939 – 4 February 2019) was a British sociologist as well as a Marxist historian and writer. A former long-standing member of the Socialist Workers Party in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, he was the author of numerous articles and works on Marxism, including a history of the Polish trade union Solidarity, ''Festival of the Oppressed.''

Biography

Trotskyist 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 ...

, Barker was a member of the International Socialism Group in Oxford and Manchester from 1962. He was a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

from 1967 to 2002 and an organiser of the periodic International Conference on Alternative Futures and Popular Protest there. Barker regularly spoke at the Socialist Workers Party's annual Marxism event. In 2013, he joined opposition to the SWP Central Committee's handling of the allegations of rape made against 'Comrade Delta'. He left the organisation in 2014 and joined the newly formed Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century (rs21) group.

Books

*''The Power Game''. London:

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...

, 1972. . *''Festival of the Oppressed: solidarity, reform and revolution in Poland, 1980-81''. London: Bookmarks, 1986. . *''Revolutionary Rehearsals'' (editor) (1987). *''Marxism and Social Movements'' (co-editor). Leiden: Brill, 2013. .Its website i

Selected articles/works

*''Incomes policy, legislation and shop stewards'' (with

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 ...

) (1966)Its web page i

*''Involvement in strikes: some recent case-studies, etc'' (1966) *''A Note On The Theory of Capitalist States'' (1978)Its web page i

*''A ‘New’ Reformism?—A Critique of the Political Theory of Nicos Poulantzas'' (1979)Its web page i

*''Origins and Significance of the Meiji Restoration'' (1982)Its web page i

*''Solidarnosc: from Gdansk to military repression'' (with Kara Weber) (1982)Its web page i

*''Festival of the Oppressed: Solidarity, Reform and Revolution in Poland, 1980-81'' (1986) *''Revolutionary Rehearsals'' (editor) (1987) *''The development of British capitalist society: a Marxist debate'' (edited with David Nicholls) (1988) *''To make another world: studies in protest and collective action'' (edited with Paul Kennedy) (1996) *''Leadership and social movements'' (edited with

Michael Lavalette Michael Lavalette (born 1962) is a member of the Socialist Workers Party and former local councillor in Preston, Lancashire, England. He was first elected as a Socialist Alliance candidate shortly after the Iraq War began in 2003. In 2007, he wa ...

and Alan Johnson) (2001) *''In the middle way'' (review of

Geoff Eley Geoffrey Howard eoffEley (born 4 May 1949) is a British-born historian of Germany. He studied history at Balliol College, Oxford, and received his PhD from the University of Sussex in 1974. He has taught at the University of Michigan, Ann A ...

''Forging Democracy'') (2004)Its web page i

*''The rise of Solidarnosc'' (2005)Its web page i

*''Strike 4 Freedom'', Socialist Worker (2006)Its web page i

*''Southend Trolleybuses'' (2012) *''False Perspective: Murder in the Art Department'' (2013)

Notes

References

External links

Barker's websiteShort bio
at The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University
Short bio in MMU sociology newsletterColin Barker Archive
at Marxists Internet Archive *
Catalogue of Barker's papers
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick {{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Colin 1939 births 2019 deaths Academics of Manchester Metropolitan University British Marxists British sociologists British Trotskyists Historians of communism British Marxist historians Marxist writers