Alexander Theodore Callinicos (born 24 July 1950) is a

Rhodesian Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

-born British

political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Ancient * Aristotle * Chanakya * Cicero * Confucius * Mencius * ...

and activist. An adherent of

Trotskyism Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

, he is a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and serves as its International Secretary. Between 2009 and 2020 he was the 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 ...

'', the SWP's theoretical journal, and has published a number of books.

Biography

Early life

He became involved in revolutionary politics as a student at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

, where he studied for a BA and came to know

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British and American author and journalist. He was the author of Christopher Hitchens bibliography, 18 books on faith, religion, culture, politics, and literature. He was born ...

, then himself active in the International Socialists (the SWP's forerunner). He also received his

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at Oxford. The earliest writing by Callinicos for the International Socialists was an analysis of the student movement of the period. His other early writings focused on

southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

and the French structuralist-Marxist philosopher

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...

. In 1977, Callinicos married Joanna Seddon, a fellow Oxford doctoral student.

Career and activism

Callinicos participated in the Counter-Summit to the

IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of la ...

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

Meeting in Prague, September 2000 and the demonstration against the G8 in

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, June 2001. He has also been involved in organising the Social Forum movement in Europe. He was a contributor to ''Dictionnaire Marx Contemporain'' (2001), and has written articles in ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...

''. He was Professor of Politics at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

before being appointed Professor of European Studies at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

in September 2005. He succeeded

Chris Harman 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 '' S ...

as editor of ''

'' in January 2010 shortly after Harman died and is a British correspondent for ''

Actuel Marx ''Actuel Marx'' is a book series of Marxist studies, edited by Jacques Bidet, Gérard Duménil, and Emmanuel Renault. The series is published by the Presses universitaires de France with support from the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense ...

''. Callinicos joined the central committee of the SWP in the late 1970s; he retains this position. Callinicos was a critic of the humanitarian interventions in

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

and

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

, arguing that they were conducted solely to promote the global capitalist expansion. He has described

Russia's invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

as "an ongoing battle between imperialist rivals, driving forward by capitalist competition". He has argued against Western efforts to provide arms for Ukraine. In January 2013, in the context of a serious crisis inside the UK Socialist Workers Party (SWP) associated with the party's response to an allegation of rape against a leading member of the party, known as Comrade Delta, and with the demand for changes to the existing form of the system of

democratic centralism Democratic centralism is the organisational principle of most communist parties, in which decisions are made by a process of vigorous and open debate amongst party membership, and are subsequently binding upon all members of the party. The co ...

within the SWP, he wrote a defence of

Leninism Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...

and democratic centralism. Callinicos disagreed with those who argued for the need to change the existing system.Alex Callinicos
"Is Leninism finished?"
''Socialist Review'', February 2013, posted on 28 January 2013. He called the allegation of rape a "difficult disciplinary case", a comment for which socialist feminist

Laurie Penny Laurie Penny (born Laura Barnett, 28 September 1986) is a British journalist and writer. Penny has written articles for publications including ''The Guardian,'' ''The New York Times'' and ''Salon''. Penny is a contributing editor at the ''New S ...

thought he "

istook Ernest James "Ernie" Istook Jr. (born February 11, 1950) is a retired American lawyer and politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Oklahoma's 5th congression ...

a plea for some basic respect for women's sexual autonomy as an attempt to undermine the revolution from within." Callinicos took a prominent position on another issue which had divided the Socialist Workers Party (SWP): the use of the Internet in disagreements about confidential party issues. He complained about "the dark side of the Internet" in which individuals have "used blogs and social media to launch a campaign within the SWP". In order to disentangle a conference organised by the ''

Historical Materialism Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...

'' journal in Delhi during 2013 from the SWP crisis, his invitation to the conference was withdrawn in March 2013.Hugh Muir
"Diary: A message to the SWP from Delhi: stay away"
''The Guardian'', 27 March 2013.

Works

Books/pamphlets

*1976: ''Althusser's Marxism'' (London:

Pluto Press Pluto Press is a British independent book publisher based in London, founded in 1969. Pluto Press states that it publishes "radical, left‐wing non‐fiction books", and is anti-capitalist and internationalist. It belongs to The Internat ...

) *1977: ''Southern Africa after Soweto'' (with John Rogers) (London: Pluto Press), *1981: ''Southern Africa after Zimbabwe'' (London: Pluto) *1982: ''Is there a future for Marxism?'' (London: Macmillan). *1983: ''Marxism and Philosophy'' (Oxford: Clarendon). *1983
''The revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx''
(London: Bookmarks). *1983

(London: Socialist Workers Party). *1985: ''South Africa: the Road to Revolution'' (Toronto: International Socialists). *1985

(with Mike Simons) (London: Socialist Worker) *1987: ''The Changing Working Class: Essays on Class Structure Today'' (with

) (London: Bookmarks) *1988: ''South Africa Between Reform and Revolution'' (London: Bookmarks). *1988: ''Making History: Agency, Structure, and Change in Social Theory'' (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press). *1989: ''Marxist Theory'' (editor) (Oxford: Oxford University Press). *1990
''Trotskyism''
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press). *1991: ''The Revenge of History: Marxism and the East European Revolutions'' *1991: ''Against Postmodernism: a Marxist critique'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *1992: ''Between Apartheid and Capitalism: conversations with South African socialists'' (editor) (London: Bookmarks). *1994: ''Marxism and the New Imperialism'' (London; Chicago, Ill. : Bookmarks). *1995: ''Theories and Narratives'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *1995: ''Race and Class'' (London: Bookmark Publications). *1995: ''Socialists in the trade unions'' (London: Bookmarks) *1996

(London: Bookmarks) *1999: ''Social Theory: Historical Introduction'' (New York: New York University Press). *2000: ''Equality (Themes for the 21st Century)'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *2002: ''Against the Third Way'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *2003: ''An anti-Capitalist manifesto'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). *2003: ''New Mandarins of American Power: the Bush administration’s plans for the world'' (Cambridge: Polity Press). * 2006: ''Universities in a Neoliberal World'' (London: Bookmarks) *2006: ''The Resources of Critique'' (Cambridge: Polity). *2009: ''Imperialism and Global Political Economy'' (Cambridge, Polity). *2010: ''Bonfire of Illusions: The Twin Crises of the Liberal World'' (Polity). *2012: ''The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx'' (Haymarket) *2014: ''Deciphering Capital: Marx's Capital and its destiny'' (London: Bookmarks). *2023: ''The New Age of Catastrophe'' (London: Polity).

Articles

(1982)

(1983)

(1989)

(1991)

(1992) *"Wonders Taken for Signs: Homi Bhabha's Postcolonialism". In ''Post-Ality: Marxism and Postmodernism''. Edited by Mas'ud Zavarzadeh, Teresa Ebert, and Donald Morton. Washington, DC: Maisonneuve Press (1995).

(2001)
"Plumbing the depths: Marxism and the Holocaust"
(2001)

(2002)
"Imperialism and Global Political Economy"
International Socialism, 108, Autumn 2005.
"Interview with Alex Callinicos: The Imperial Assault on the Middle East"
(2006)
"Does capitalism need the state system?"
''

Cambridge Review of International Affairs Cambridge ( ) is a city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of t ...

'', 20(4), (2007) pp. 533–549.
"Where is the radical left going?"
International Socialism, 120, Autumn 2008. *"The Limits of Passive Revolution" ''Capital & Class'', vol 34, no. 3, pp. 491–507. (2010).
"The internationalist case against the European Union"
''International Socialism'', 148 (2015).
''Brexit: a world-historic turn''
''International Socialism'', 151 (2016).
''The orphaned revolution: The meaning of October 1917''
''International Socialism'', 156 (2017).
Chris Harman and the critique of political economy
''International Socialism'', 165 (2020).
Marx and Spinoza
''International Socialism'', 180 (2023).

References

External links

Callinicos lecture on "Imperialism and the Global Political Economy," UK: 2009.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Callinicos, Alex 1950 births Living people Academics of King's College London Academics of the University of York Alumni of St. George's College, Harare Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford British Marxists British philosophers British political writers British Trotskyists Critics of postmodernism Marxist theorists British Marxist writers People from Harare Rhodesian communists Socialist Workers Party (UK) members White Rhodesian people Rhodesian people of Greek descent

Alex Alex is a given name. Similar names are Alexander, Alexandra, Alexey or Alexis. People Multiple * Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Cook (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Forsyth (disambiguation), multiple people * Al ...

Far-left politicians in the United Kingdom