Ian Birchall (born 1939) is a British

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

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

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...

, his research interests include the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

, the International Working Class,

Communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

and

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 ...

, France and

Syndicalism Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through Strike action, strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goa ...

, Babeuf,

Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French ph ...

Victor Serge Victor Serge (; born Viktor Lvovich Kibalchich, ; 30 December 1890 – 17 November 1947) was a Belgian-born Russian revolutionary, novelist, poet, historian, journalist, and translator. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks in Janu ...

and

Alfred Rosmer Alfred Rosmer (born Alfred Griot, 23 August 1877 – 6 May 1964) was an American-born French communist political activist and historian who was a leading member of the Comintern. Rosmer is best remembered as a political associate of Leon Trotsky a ...

. He was on the editorial board of '' Revolutionary History'', a member of the London Socialist Historians Group and has completed a biography of

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 ...

. In 2013, Birchall joined opposition to the SWP Central Committee during the internal crisis over allegations of rape and resigned from the organisation in December.Ian Birchal
"2013: Letter of Resignation"
Grim and Dim, 15 December 2013 In August 2015, Birchall was one of 20 authors of ''Poets for Corbyn'', an anthology of poems endorsing

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.

Selected articles/works

''France : the struggle goes on''
(with

) (1968) *''Workers against the monolith : the Communist parties since 1943'' (1974)
''The smallest mass party in the world : building the Socialist Workers Party, 1951-1979''
(1981)

(with Norah Carlin) (1983) *''Bailing out the system : reformist socialism in Western Europe, 1944-1985'' (1986)

(1996) *''The spectre of Babeuf'' (1997) *''Sartre against Stalinism'' (2004) *''A Rebel's Guide to Lenin'' (2005)
''Sartre's Century''
(2005) *''Tony Cliff: A Marxist for His Time'' (2011)

Works translated/edited

*''Lenin's Moscow'', by

(translated from the French) (1971) *''Flowers and revolution : a collection of writings on

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...

'' (edited with Barbara Read)(1997) *''Witness to the German Revolution'' / by

(translated from the French) (1999) *''The German Revolution, 1917-1923'' / by Pierre Broué; translated by John Archer (edited with Brian Pearce) (2005) *''Revolution in Danger – Writings from Russia 1919-20 by

(translated from the French) London: Redwords.(1997)

References

External links

*
Articles
in the

Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive, also known as MIA or Marxists.org, is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Enge ...

''
''Profile at Comment is Free''

Tony Cliff Bibliography
- the writings and works of Tony Cliff by Ian Birchall on Modkraft.dk/tidsskriftcentret
"Grim and Dim"
The website of Ian Birchall 1939 births Living people British Marxist historians British Trotskyists Socialist Workers Party (UK) members {{UK-historian-stub