SOCIALIST UNITY

7 November, 2009

RIP Chris Harman

Filed under: SWP — Phil BC @ 10:17 am

Very sad and totally unexpected. More at Luna 17 and Lenin’s Tomb

89 Comments »

That is very sad, condolences to his family and friends.

Chris Harman was the SWP writer/theorist I respected most, I must say however that his most insightful stuff in my eyes is from the late 60s/early 70s in IS, and, of course, his role in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign.

Comment by David — 7 November, 2009 @ 10:29 am
Tragic news. The international socialist movement and the SWP have lost a great comrade.

MRD

Comment by MRD — 7 November, 2009 @ 10:47 am
Utterly shocking, and a huge loss to the socialist movement.

Comment by Rev9 — 7 November, 2009 @ 11:46 am
Sad news , produced some excelent books esp Fire Last Time

Don’t agree with much but please he said it

Condolences to his family

Comment by VofH — 7 November, 2009 @ 11:54 am
Awful news. I agree with VofH- Fire Last Time was one of the few SWP books I kept and have re-read.

A huge loss not just to the SWP but the movement as a whole.

Comment by RobM — 7 November, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
I have never been a member of the SWP, and have had considerable disagreements with it, especially over the Respect project. Nonetheless, I consider that Chris Harman was an honest revolutionary and dedicated Marxist, and the left as a whole is poorer for his passing. My condolences to his comrades and family.

Comment by Dr Paul — 7 November, 2009 @ 12:15 pm
LONDON PARIS ROME BERLIN
WE SHAL FIGHT
WE SHALL WIN
LONG LIVE HO CHI MINH

In retrospect, does anyone REALLY believe that all the public fuss made about Vietnam was instrumental in influencing Wilson or any other Prime Minister?

In the event, the people of South Vietnam [and Laos and Cambodia] suffered appallingly and ended up - unsurprisingly - with thoroughly corrupt, despotic and unequal societies where everything can be bought under the counter in US dollars.

Comment by Lenny — 7 November, 2009 @ 12:20 pm
I think “Long live Ho Chi Minh” is particularly out of place on this thread. But there you go.

Really shocked and upset about this. All the very best to those close to Chris.

Comment by KrisS — 7 November, 2009 @ 12:22 pm
So sorry…my condolences to his family.

Comment by Jane Ennis — 7 November, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
shocking news.

Comment by johng — 7 November, 2009 @ 1:05 pm
RIP Chris. Condolences to his family.

Comment by Rory — 7 November, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
Am reading and re-reading probably the best summation of the perspective he is most associated with. Probably to try and forget he is gone:
http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/harman/1967/xx/revlost.htm

Comment by johng — 7 November, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
Lenny seems to want an argument. Not a bad tribute to Chris, who could be a redoubtable polemicist.

So let me answer briefly:

a) Yes, I think the opposition to the Vietnam war organised in the labour movement and through mass demonstrations did have some influence in making Wilson decide not to send British troops to Vietnam - though he slavishly supported the Americans every other way. Chris played his part in this, especially in the VSC.

b) Chris always stood for unconditional support for the NLF against US imperialism. But he also played an important role within the solidarity movement in arguing about the limitations of the national liberation struggle, notably in his notorious speech at the Ho Chi Minh memorial meeting. See also http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/harman/1968/xx/vietnam.htm
What Lenny says about the long-term results of the Vietnam war is largely true. For many sections of the left this led to demoralisation -for example the ex-Maoists who became the “New Philosophers” in France. Those who had read and heard Chris’s arguments were to some extent immunised against such disillusion.

Comment by Grim and Dim — 7 November, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
Chris made a massive contribution to the movement. He will be sorely missed

Comment by WF Trades Council — 7 November, 2009 @ 2:40 pm
- 13 -

Arguing about the events in Indochina between 1945 and 1975 is as fruitless as the lengthy row Evelyn Waugh had with unflinching Protestants after the publication of his life of Edmund Campion.

Even now, the subject of the Indochina war can start quite rational people snapping and snarling about facts and interpretations.

Is it known beyond any doubt that Harold Wilson was determined to send a token force to the aid of the Republic of Vietnam* and that only rebel Labour MPs and a few thousand noisy demonstrators stopped him?

Or was Wilson canny enough to tell LBJ that he - personally - was keen enough to send some troops but that public opinion in the UK wouldn’t stand for it?

There can be no sane person these days who doubts that the NLFSV was a creation and a controlled entity of the Politburo in Hanoi.

Once the French had evacuated the North and unchallenged power was in Vietminh hands, the Politburo in Hanoi suppressed all flickers of dissent in the North [including the liquidation of ALL oppositionists, including those identified - rightly or wrongly - as ‘Trotskyists’] and set about fomenting armed insurrection in the South at the earliest opportunity.

As we all know, the Politburo in Hanoi eventually triumphed, largely because public opinion in the USA was sick, sorry and tired of an unending, expensive and blood-sapping war which had as its object supporting a corrupt and apparantly disliked and/or unpopular and/or hated regime.

Once the country had been briskly reunited, the eventual result - after the tragedy of the ‘boat people’ mass exodus and the state-sanctioned extortion of the ‘Orderly Departure Program’ - was the emergence of Vietnam as a country which exports prostitutes [and indoor hydroponic marijuana-cultivation serfs for the U.K. market] and imports stolen cars.

The Lao PDR is a despotism, a political satellite of Vietnam and, to a certain extent, an economic colony of Thailand.

Cambodia, an incurable aid junkie, is a semi-despotism under Hun Sen and his gang.

Not that any power on earth could have transformed the political culture of Indochina into that of Sweden or even Malaysia.

Even now people with as much decency and sense as Peter Tatchell are ready and willing to write utter nonsense about “the national liberation struggle” of the Vietnamese people against “The American invaders.”

* It will be remembered that the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines aided the Republic of Vietnam.

Comment by Lenny — 7 November, 2009 @ 2:53 pm
Terrible news,Harman always wrote in a clear style that avoided academic jargon and pretension.Big loss to the socialist movement.

Comment by graham — 7 November, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
Chris Harman’s four International Socialism Journal articles on the Marxist theory of economic crisis, which were later collected in Explaining the Crisis, were a wonderful introduction for me to the Marxism of the SWP and confirmed my desire to join the organisation.

Chris was a formidable Marxist thinker and wrote some very fine books. He made original contributions in developing the theories of the permanent arms economy, state capitalism and a Marxist understanding of economic crises. He had an incredible capacity to assimilate vast amounts of often esoteric material whilst at the same time being an outstanding editor of Socialist Worker.

I was fortunate enough to have the privilege of working closely with Chris when I was responsible for Bookmarks Publications. He was a very kind man in my experience and a man of integrity and principle, with a dry sense of humour. And he was a generous host who, together with his partner Talat, put on a terrific spread at their parties.

His death is not only a devastating loss to his family and friends and those who knew him, but this is, as Graham says, a huge loss to the socialist movement as a whole.

Comment by rob hoveman — 7 November, 2009 @ 3:56 pm
This is stunningly sad news. I once heard CH speak on the revolutionary paper while editor of Socialist Worker. He spoke with theoretical precision and with extraordinary clarity in a way that has stuck with me ever since.

Many of his writings are quite wonderful, even if you can disagree (to challenge ‘prevailing ideology’ is the point of writing for any socialist). My personal favourites would be The Lost Revolution, 1968: Fire Last Time and Class Struggles in Eastern Europe. His work on developing the economic analysis underpinned by Kidron’s permanent arms economy and the transition from feudalism to capitalism are also well worth investigation.

A truly fascinating thinker, historian, activist and writer.

Comment by Dirty Red Bandana — 7 November, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
condolences etc, can be sent to the address here:
http://www.socialistworker.org.uk/art.php?id=19502

Comment by johng — 7 November, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
Socialist Resistance has publish an obituary at http://socialistresistance.org/?p=728

Comment by Duncan Chapel — 7 November, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
Very sad news. Condolences to all who knew him.

Comment by Ken MacLeod — 7 November, 2009 @ 4:23 pm
I am very sorry and saddened to hear of Chris Harmans sudden death in Cairo yesterday.

I did not know him extreemly well but on one of the occasions we were talking
( I think it was after the STW demo on Lebanon)
there were some people who were
complaining that why should they bother going out on mass if there was knowone
who is listening and was it worth it?

What I found really nice about Chris is about the way he connected he had a
very good way of explaining things without coming across to highbrow.
He went on to explain on why IT WAS important being militant and the importance
of being solid firstly he said the authorities “do not like it” He went on to tell me about some incidents in the Thatcher years that he was proud to be part of.

He explained about the steel strikers in Sheffield and how areas that they stood so solid showed that the “workers united cannot be defeated” Perhaps they were his words?.

He was very keen to tell me about how Willie Whitelaw wanted the police to do more
with the strikers as they were getting far to much attention from the media and other
outlets He said that the police at the time were very hesitant and would never ever try
mass arrests. they said if they were to arrest 100 or 500, that there would be 5,000 the next day and 10,000 the next day.

This he said put “The Thatcher government under the spotlight ” and the poll tax riots
soon after showed that combining people power was the only way to beat the establishment .

Personally I am not the greatest supporter of the SWP and do not know much about Chris and his ideas on Vietnam which caused some ructions with his comrads But I do thank him for those words of encouragment and they have remained with me.

What I do know that there is a now a void in the left where he once stood proud no matter what party he stood for.

my condolences go to his family and friends
May He Rest Peacefully

Comment by Carole Swords — 7 November, 2009 @ 4:30 pm
Condolences to his family and comrades

Comment by David Rosenberg — 7 November, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
Chris was a huge asset to the socialist movement and will be sadly missed.

Comment by FFLP — 7 November, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
How sad - our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time. A loss to the whole Socialist movement.

Comment by Neil Williams — 7 November, 2009 @ 4:44 pm
RIP Chris, I hope your memory will live on, especially in the thousands of socialists like myself who were educated by you. CH’s writings had a huge influence on me and many others. My feelings go out to all his family and close friends in this terrible time. I think Chris had lived with an awareness of fatal heart disease in his family, after loosing his father at an unfairly young age. Thus we always saw a lean and healthy Chris, and it was delightful to watch him begin the approach his own older age in good health. An activist and thinker to the last, he will be missed by thousands of us both inside and outside the SWP. Shocked and saddened.

Comment by Barry Kade — 7 November, 2009 @ 4:58 pm
Chris on 1968:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCwFx2sEAAA&feature=player_embedded#

Comment by johng — 7 November, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
Thanks johng

Comment by KrisS — 7 November, 2009 @ 5:10 pm
A tribute from Socialist Resistance to comrade Harman is at http://socialistresistance.org/?p=728

Comment by Liam — 7 November, 2009 @ 5:14 pm
Chris was the outstanding Marxist of his generation and an inspiration to a generation of activists. His death is a tremendous blow for the SWP, but he will be mourned by a great many others besides.

Comment by Andy Wilson — 7 November, 2009 @ 6:18 pm
I heard this bad news at the No2EU conference this morning.
It was quite a shock, especially after the recent series of early deaths on the left.

I chaired a meeting on State Capitalism addressed by Harman in 1972 and still have the cassette tape. Like many, I cut my teeth on the debates between Mandel and Harman on this topic , which were argued quite vehemently between the IS and IMG. His book on the German Revolution was very good. I saw him last at Marxism a few years ago.

Comment by prianikoff — 7 November, 2009 @ 6:39 pm
The death of Harman is a blow not on to his group but to the hopes of all revolutionary socialists. He made mistakes, as do we all, and the SWP is weaker today than it might have been as a result of some of those errors. But his contributions will outlast any errors and without doubt help to educate a rising generation who will destroy once and for all time this most rotten of all class societies.

For Communism!

Mike Pearn.

Comment by neprimerimye — 7 November, 2009 @ 6:59 pm
Waste of a life?
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/791/triumvirate.php

Comment by Hugh — 7 November, 2009 @ 9:23 pm
Deeply, deeply shocked and profoundly sad.
Chris’s immense contribution to socialism is breathtaking. His commitment, precision and joy in the ideas and ideals that were with him since the ’60s, enthused generations of us with the profound belief in the necessity for, and possibility of, socialist transformation from below.
Looking back Chris was central to some of the most pivotal moments of my political life - his warmth, humour, and diffidence making the most complex of ideas human and accessible - he delivered one of the most inspiring meetings I ever attended at Marxism when he opened up the turbulent history of the lost German revolution with such fire, and enthusiasm that even though time ran out none of us listening wanted to leave the room; on the Right to Work march from Manchester to London in ‘76; sitting down in Whitehall; in Lisbon, April ‘75, savouring and probing the Portuguese revolution; leading an educational at Surrey University in’71 on State Capitalism with such clarity that it cemented my decision to join IS; listening intensely to the contributions of us worker comrades on the SWP NC, especially during the very difficult period of downturn, and acknowledging the range and unevenness of our experiences; and so much more over the years. I was privileged to know Chris as a comrade and pal.
My condolences to all his family for their sad, sad loss.

Comment by Caroline Conway — 7 November, 2009 @ 10:00 pm
So sad to see a great thinker depart this world.
For me Chris Harman’s legacy to my political education was The Prophet and the Proletariat.
http://www.marxists.de/religion/harman/index.htm
Comrades from the SSP who were involved in the meetings of EACL also relate their shock at his passing.
Condolences to all of Chris Harman’s family, friends and comrades

Comment by Eddie Truman — 7 November, 2009 @ 10:22 pm
#33 - waste of a life? Are you serious? If you can dismiss a lifelong Marxist and committed revolutionary with such contempt, one can only wonder what you think of the rest of the human race. Who is not doomed by your implacable judgement?

Don’t mourn, organise.

Comment by Jonathan — 7 November, 2009 @ 11:40 pm
Chris was not only one of the greatest Marxist thinkers of modern times, but also a great organiser.
As editor of SW for so many years he seemed to dominate so much of the ‘Left’.
May we all as socialists take strength from his example.

Thanks Chris.

My condolences to his family and friends on such a loss.

Comment by Halshall — 8 November, 2009 @ 12:10 am
Did I know Chris Harman? No. Did I ever meet him? Maybe, but unwittingly. I “know” Chris Harman from a very thin, very easy-to-read paperback called “How Marxism Works”. Being left leaning all my life some people said all I needed was the right theory to fill out my beliefs. And hence the book. A very simple, very easy to read book, a marvelous introduction to Marxism to the uneducated such as myself. Be that as it may, it was still one that changed my life. Thankyou Chris.

Comment by K&CDan — 8 November, 2009 @ 12:15 am
How ironic that the RIP Chris Harman article should appear directly above one for huge unmitigated praise for the DDR.

Moreover how bizarre to use the christian phrase RIP to describe the untimely death of a lifelong marxist. Presumably a deliberate insult?

Comment by martin ohr — 8 November, 2009 @ 12:28 am
waste of a life? my arse!

chris was as, others have better put it, a completely committed comrade and brilliant theorist,

whoever you are you should hang your head in shame re ‘a waste’……

the left and obviously the SWP have lost an exceptional theoretican and activist,

simply put, chris never sold out …….

his loss is huge, his legacy is immense,

RIP Chris,

condolences to talat and the youngsters’,

many of us will never forget chris,

his encouragement when times were tough to some of us, as Wapping strikers, against Murdoch, was invaluable

and inspiring……….this is a real blow to revolutionaries ,

chris would want us to keep fighting,

in his memory, we will

Comment by cliff foot — 8 November, 2009 @ 12:38 am
I never knew Harman. I met him, in passing, just the once, so I can’t say a great deal about him. He did, however, write some really excellent stuff and his extroardinary commitment is something we should all remember, and if possible emulate. A sad loss. Condolences to his family and friends.

Not than unexpected or surprising that some on the “Left” (you know, middle-aged losers who’ve made such a mess of their pitiful lives that they joined moronic cultish outfits so as to feel important) are celebrating Harman’s passing away.

Comment by Tawfiq Chahboune — 8 November, 2009 @ 12:46 am
What a terrible loss for the whole socialist movement.

For me Chris’ greatest strength was not just his longer works - of which The Lost Revolution was the most significant for me in my reading as an eager young socialist - but his ability to find a single phrase or sentence to encapsulate complicated Marxist theories is the most simple and understandable ways. In this his ‘Thinking it through’ columns in Socialist Review were very often socialist writing at it’s absolute best.

I remember, as a teenager, joking with a comrade at Manchester Poly that Chris Harman seemed to have a ‘brain the size of a small planet’. Well the socialist universe does seem a little smaller today.

Deepest condolences to Talat, Seth and Sinead.

Comment by Clive Searle — 8 November, 2009 @ 1:44 am
It’s very sad to hear of Chris’s death. I really learnt a lot from reading his books and articles. He always criticised his opponents politics by putting forward their argument as well as his own counter argument. He was polemical but didn’t resort to personal attacks.

He seemed very involved with discussion and debate at Marxism and his meetings were always informative. My only criticism was that he occasionally mumbled and I missed things but then that was his particular characteristic as a speaker. He was a leading member of the SWP with a long history of involvement in class struggle. His knowledge and experience were invaluable and will be missed not just by our comrades but by much of the left. Whenever the left loses a comrade, especially one of such long standing, it’s sad because their experience and contribution enrich the movement. I shall miss Chris at Marxism this year.

Comment by Ray — 8 November, 2009 @ 2:08 am
“How ironic that the RIP Chris Harman article should appear directly above one for huge unmitigated praise for the DDR.

Moreover how bizarre to use the christian phrase RIP to describe the untimely death of a lifelong marxist. Presumably a deliberate insult?”

Can you not, for once, get over your bitter sectarian approach to politics and just be fraternal for a change?

Despite my disagreements with you and others on this blog I would not use a thread about a comrades death to launch a political attack. It’s incredibly disrespectful and showing respect for a comrade who has just died has nothing to do with religious morality. Socialists have a long tradition of showing respect for comrades who have died (even those we may have disagreed with politically) because we want to acknowledge the contribution they have made to the movement.

The fact that you are making the title of this thread an issue says more about your bitter sectarianism than it does about anything else. No one is asking you to pretend to have agreed with Chris Harman’s politics. All that is expected is a modicum of respect for a comrade who has just died.

Comment by Ray — 8 November, 2009 @ 2:23 am
Oh, and there’s nothing wrong with someone who is religious marking the death of a comrade in their own respectful way. The left is not just comprised of atheists Martin, even if you or I believe that religion is the opiate of the masses. It also represents a heart in a heartless world for some who are on the left or sympathetic to us.

Comment by Ray — 8 November, 2009 @ 2:50 am
DELETED

Comment by shitmarx — 8 November, 2009 @ 4:55 am
Re 46 (which will prob be deleted) I didn’t know Nick Griffin was such an early riser..

Comment by up the posties!! — 8 November, 2009 @ 7:18 am
By the way the flowers will be roses (red of course)so your arse will need medical treatment afterwards.

Comment by up the posties!! — 8 November, 2009 @ 7:19 am
Always a sad loss when a contributor to socialism passes.
The best way to remember CH is to honestly and constructively appraise his work in order for us to grow stronger.
Was CH the main proponent of the ‘downturn’ theory with Cliff?

Comment by Ian — 8 November, 2009 @ 8:12 am
I never met Chris Harman or heard him speak, but like a number of commentators on this thread, I was deeply impressed by The Lost Revolution when I read it in my early 20s.

As I didn’t know the guy I can’t be any more personally affected by his untimely passing than in the manner of John Donne’s famous poem (No man is an island etc).

I knew Seth briefly in Manchester, and although we didn’t get on politically, we were on the same side against the then Gulf war and the BNP, and I know what it’s like to lose a loved one of that age suddenly and unexpectedly, so my condolences go out to him.

Comment by Armchair — 8 November, 2009 @ 9:22 am
I was very upset to hear of Chris’s death. I worked with Chris on Socialist Worker and on the International Socialism Journal, and at other events. Chris combined a penetrating Marxist analysis of society with boundless enthusiasm for the struggles of today. I went with Chris to Seville to cover a city-wide strike and anti-capitalist protest for Socialist Worker. It was Chris, not the younger members of the party, who insisted that we stayed up all night to join the strikers picketing out Seville’s many bars, and go straight from there to the picket lines.

Chris could be fiercely polemical when necessary, but he always valued the contribution made by people outside the Socialist Workers Party. He valued the experience and resilience of older comrades and the energy and audacity of the young. Chris analysed sophisticated historical and economic processes so intensely that he found it really hard to remember the names of people around him. Over 300 students came to hear Chris speak at a Globalise Resistance event at Leeds University. An anarchist rushed up and pushed a custard pie in Chris’s face. I handed him a towel, and Chris merely blinked, swallowed and carried on speaking, to great applause. In meetings, just when you thought Chris was snoozing, he would sit up and make a really sharp contribution.

Chris was kind, supportive and funny. He could apply his brilliant Marxist understanding to any aspect of life. He not only wrote The People’s History of the World, he was one of the few Marxists to recognise the significance of the TV show, Midsomer Murders, explaining how it revealed the violence beneath the idea of a rural idyll and the wealthy’s obsession with inheritance and class. Condolences to Chris’s family, friends and comrades in the SWP. He will be missed enormously by many across the left.

Comment by judy cox — 8 November, 2009 @ 9:29 am
I want to echo Judy Cox’s comments above. I worked for many years with Chris on Socialist Worker. Chris was a brilliant editor. He always had his finger on the tempo of the struggles of the day. He always seemed much more in touch than many younger comrades. I also always remember Chris bringing editorial meetings down to earth by insisting that the paper covered the hardships and concerns of its working class readers.
He was also immensely supportive and encouraging to unconfident writers like myself - even when he felt forced to rewrite your copy! Like Judy, I remember him not only for his incisive Marxist analysis of the economy, but also for his recommendations to me of what novels to read, and for our chats about films he’d seen and his favourite TV detective shows.
I owe him an immense amount personally, and the whole movement has lost a brilliant theoretician, a passionate class fighter and a lovely man.

Comment by Hazel Croft — 8 November, 2009 @ 10:12 am
#49 “Was CH the main proponent of the ‘downturn’ theory with Cliff?”
Not direcltly. There had been a big dispute about the so called “punk” Socialist Worker. When the proponents of the punk paper (including Paul Foot) resigned following a conference defeat, Chris returned to the editorship, but Cliff played a part in getting him removed very quickly. Though Chris always acknowledged his enormous theoretical debt to Cliff, on practical questions they sometimes diverged quite sharply. At this time Chris wrote a remarkable article called “The Crisis of the European Revolutionary Left” (International Socialism, second series, No. 4) - unfortunately it’s not available on-line as far as I know. This came at some of the arguments about the downturn from a different angle. So Chris’s work complemented Cliff’s, but they weren’t coordinated - I think they were barely on speaking terms at the time.

Comment by Grim and Dim — 8 November, 2009 @ 11:52 am
Grim and Dim,

The article about the European Revolutionary Left is now on line. It appeared a few days ago- if you google ‘Chris Harman’s Back Pages’ you’ll find it along with quite a few articles to be found on line for the first time.

Comment by stuart — 8 November, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
Sad news.

My Sympathies to Talat at this difficult time.

Comment by Theo Saurus — 8 November, 2009 @ 12:18 pm
#54 Thanks - that is excellent news.

Comment by Grim and Dim — 8 November, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
http://chrisharman.blogspot.com/2009/11/crisis-of-european-revolutionary-left.html

Its really excellent to have this piece again. Very useful read at present.

Comment by johng — 8 November, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
Thanks for posting Johng

It seems so dated all that stuff about newspapers. How times have changed.

Comment by VofH — 8 November, 2009 @ 2:17 pm
Chris Harman was truly a Marxist but not a communist. His Marxist understanding to any aspect of life was profond. Condolences to Chris’s family, friends and comrades in the SWP. He will be missed enormously by many across the left.Lal Salam (Red Salute).

Comment by Aloke Kumar — 8 November, 2009 @ 2:22 pm
To whomever posted the “Long Live Ho Chi Min” slogan: was that a satirical intervention? Or just crass stupidity? Harman denounced Ho Chi Minh for murdering the leader of the Vietnamese Trotskyist movement, Ta Thu Thau, in 1945 after crushing the workers’ rising of that year in Saigon.

Ouch!

Comment by Jimbo — 8 November, 2009 @ 2:58 pm
My sincere condolencies to Talat, Seth & Sinead.
Chris was a brilliant comrade who, like Cliff, had the real power to make the very complicated understandable. His leagcy will be a genuine contribution to the very best of socialist writing, his books, pamphlets and speeches will be used by socialists for a long time forward.

Don’t mourn, organise is how Chris would put it.

Comment by Roger Smith — 8 November, 2009 @ 3:19 pm
It is very shocking news at that time when capitalism is in serious crisis and alternative socialism at the agenda , Crish’s contribution at that time is for the bright future of humanity . We learn many things from crish from theory to practice.
kuldip

Comment by kuldip singh — 8 November, 2009 @ 3:24 pm
As a former member of the IS and SWP (an still an active socialist and trades unionist, I was shocked to hear of the death of Chris Harman. I knew Chris during my years in the IS/SWP and he remained friendly to me in recent yeqars when I occasionally met him at parties or meetings.

He was a giant in the socialist movement and a committed life-long Marxist. My son Brendan used his People’s History as a source more than once when he was doing his history degree. He was also shocked to hear of Chris’s death and sends his condolences to all, as I do also.

At a time when capitalism is in crisis, the movement can ill-afford to lose comrades of the stature of Chris. It is a great loss to our movement.

Comment by Gerry Kelly — 8 November, 2009 @ 4:10 pm
Utterly shocked. Chris’s contributions to the Marxist understanding of capitalist economy is/was invaluable. He will be sorely missed by all socialist movements worldwide.

Comment by Ray Riley — 8 November, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
Comment #58 contains a link to an American neo-fascist/white-supremacist website and needs deleting.

Comment by Daphne — 8 November, 2009 @ 7:03 pm
Yes Daphne, we must censor, censor, censor and destroy all of our political enemies at once, smash them!

Comment by Censorship4UK — 8 November, 2009 @ 7:22 pm
Roger,

You forgot to mentin that Cliff was an Israeli ethnic cleanser, who fought in Israel’s “War of Independence”.

Comment by Adam — 8 November, 2009 @ 8:35 pm
#68 Adam, as Cliff’s biographer I should be most interested if you can produce one minute shred of evidence for your claim. Cliff left Palestine in 1946, before the founding of Israel. I have inspected his passports and can trace his location at any date. I wonder what Jabra Nicola, a courageous Arab revolutionary and a close comrade and friend of Cliff’s, would have had to say about your absurd lies.

Comment by Grim and Dim — 8 November, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
Chris was quite simply a superb Marxist. His breadth of interests and knowledge was extraordinary. He eschewed the rather arrogant pose that too many of us too often strike: that by having some vague grasp of a powerful political theory or of a couple of apparently relevant quotations we somehow have a philosopher’s stone that obviates having to find out actually what’s going on and thinking long and hard about it.

So his polymath reading and research were evident not only in works such as The Lost Revolution or A Peoples History of the World, which are rightly valued by activist Marxists whatever their narrower tradition; it informed his shorter articles, meetings, and editorship of Socialist Worker and other publications.

One of his most brilliant articles, in my view, is the journal piece following the 1981 riots. It combined a sense of history, a theoretical standpoint and extensive empirocal knowledge with great empathy.

Chris had a rare gift for crystallising a nuanced political position or difficult concept into a few, vivid words of plain English. It required a formidable level of understanding to do so. The effort he expended, and made those of us working on the paper sweat over too, to make even a single headline accurately capture a complex reality and cut through it was an indication of how seriously he took the task of communicating our tradition to a mass audience.

His rigour never dimmed when that audience was less than we hoped for.

It was very hard to budge him in an argument - over anything (including the utility of the passive voice, which he was utterly wrong about) - and you knew you would have to prepare seriously to do so. But whatever the outcome, you never once felt that he bore any grudge, because he didn’t.

I always found that remarkable and admirable.

I put it down to a genuine intellectual openness and deep integrity.

He was self-effacing, fun and great company. If anyone else you’d shared an office with for 10 years forgot your name mid-sentence you’d likely be offended. But with Chris you were totally absorbed yourself with the rest of what he was saying. And that tended to make others think and usually, though not always, avoid some course of action that would later be regretted.

As with others who earned great respect, he had no regard for personal gain or adulation.

I still have the warm image of one of the finest minds of revolutionary Marxism rummaging through rather ripe game birds in Ridley Road market in search of a bargain to be served up to guests who, upon complimenting the food, would have explained to them the political economy of the supermarkets and food production.

Chris was a product of 1968 and sought soberly to maintain and apply the revolutionary impetus of that period to changing circumstances. Everyone attempting to do the same and to reintegrate the Marxist tradition into contemporary society will be weaker for his untimely passing.

He leaves behind an enormous body of work and nearly five decades of socialist commitment. But in addition to missing him, I’ll miss the profound insights he was capable of throwing up as the movement he did so much to sustain enters yet new circumstances.

Deepest condolences to Talat, Seth and Sinead.

Comment by Kevin Ovenden — 8 November, 2009 @ 9:14 pm
My condolences to his family and comrades. There are a few trolls like Adam #67 who should be deleted.

For all Chris Harman’s many mistakes, and his refusal to speak out when he must have known the SWP was travelling down the wrong road e.g. with Respect, this is very sad. One of the last if not the last of the old guard has died. When the International Socialists took off in the wake of May 1968, Harman was one of the key far-left leaders at the LSE with Robin Blackburn and in IS. His ‘The Fire Last Time’ was the best history there is of those times.

It is unfortunate that with his talents that he did not put them to better use within the SWP in order to get it to turn out towards facing up to the decline of the far left.

His was in many ways a talent wasted as the SWP has degenerated for the last 20 years.

Tony Greenstein

Comment by Tony Greenstein — 8 November, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
On a more personal note its his mumbling I’ll miss. Sitting rather unhappily and awkwardly in any social gathering he’d suddenly hear something political and there would be this kind of grumbling/groaning noise and he’d be off. For social misfits who can’t talk about anything else then politics: I mean who am I to talk to at SWP socials now? Always a port in the storm for those of us who hang around in the kitchen at partys. The difference being that it was always worth it.

Comment by johng — 8 November, 2009 @ 9:41 pm
I should add that I’m deeply moved by both Kevin and Judy’s tribute.

Comment by johng — 8 November, 2009 @ 9:49 pm
Hi folks, I’m writing Chris’s obit for the Guardian. If anyone knows Chris’s exact date of birth (late 1962 is all I know), his exact place of birth (I think Watford, but not absolutely sure) and the exact course he studied at Leeds University 1962-65, then could you send it to me at rosenmichael@hotmail.com

Thanks a lot,
Michael

Comment by Michael Rosen — 9 November, 2009 @ 12:40 am
Sorry - late 1942, I mean.

Comment by Michael Rosen — 9 November, 2009 @ 7:38 am
Very sad to hear of Chris’ death. From my days in the SWP I remember him as an incisive thinker, speaker and writer but more than that he was a thoughtful, kind man and a good comrade. I’m currently re-reading his “People’s History of the World” and it’s everything you’d want from a left history book and, more uniquely, a great read. All socialists should mourn the loss of Chris from our movement. My thoughts are with his family.

Bill Scott, SSP member

Comment by Bill Scott — 9 November, 2009 @ 10:31 am
Aaaaagh this is awful news -

There are a million intellectual and political reasons why it’s wrong wrong wrong for Chris to have gone, and they’d all be valid, but the main reason, I think, is his humanity.

This seemed to complete the two apparently diverse sides to the man. At one level there was the brilliant academic mind, capable of illuminating complex ideas with such clarity. One of the first pamphlets I read upon joining the SWP was ‘How Marxism Works’, and it made everything seem so frustratingly clear I’d quote chunks of it down the pub, to workmates, my mum, random passers-by, unable to see why they didn’t immediately announce they would dedicate the rest of their lives to Marxism.

Similarly, after reading ‘Class Struggles in Eastern Europe’, you felt like knocking next door and yelling ‘Listen to this account of the Prague Spring - you see, the Communist Party is a RULING CLASS - it’s OBVIOUS’, at a bewildered neighbour.

As such his writing was magnificently influential, but not in the sense this term is usually applied to academics, as a compliment on how it alters the thinking within academia. It was influential because it spoke to those who weren’t academics. It took the passion of 1968, the explanations of the decline of Rome or the rise of science, and the debates about philosophy into the arenas that most academics would never consider, and made them the property of the pub, the workplace and random passers-by.

And that was clearly because he wrote with a purpose of contributing to and influencing the socialist movement, which meant no matter how complex the subject, he was aiming to show how this affected the lives of the people at the bottom of society, and how the actions of those people have changed the world.

He was also a splendid character to get drunk with, the slurred dialogue reaching places no drunk conversation should ever find. One night, as we enjoyed a lock-in somewhere in Hackney after a fund-raising benefit, he tried to convince me my stand-up routine showed influences of some Bolshevik linguist called Voroshilov, or some such name. Which, I suspect, is a somewhat unusual response to a comedy night.

But he’d rather get drunk in a seedy bar than suffer the dinner-party circuit of your average intellectual, for the same reason he chose to employ his talents to educate and encourage the people the intellectual world usually passes by; because however awkward or mumbly he could sometimes be, he was clearly driven by a warmth and humanity that made him such a dedicated socialist.

Comment by Mark Steel — 9 November, 2009 @ 12:15 pm
I have let this run for a while to see what you morons would come up with and I have not been surprised. Harman was a failed human being and a piece of shit who almost got me and other people sent to prison when, along with fellow scum Trot Paul Hollorborrow, he and the then scum IS tried to take over a local demonstration on the 12th of June 1976 in Brick Lane.

I was working with the local community around the issues of racial attacks and ARC-AEL, the Anti Racist Committee of Asians in East London organised a meeting at the then Naz cinema. Knowing what scum the Marxist left was and is all groups were contacted and told that while they were welcome banners and placards of a purely party political nature would not be allowed.

The meeting was a great success and eventually 3000 people, mostly Bangladeshis, marched around the area to protest about racial attacks. Darcus Howe was the chief steward but as he was giving it the big one with the press it was left to me and the youth of the Vigilante Groups to organise those coming out of the cinema.

The aseembled left was there and, as requested, did not bring there own placards. Then the IS turned up and began to hand out their own placards. I insructed the stewards to take them down, which they did and threw them at the side of the road.

Harman, Hollowborrow and their groupies picked them up and handed them out again. This time I instructed the stewards to break them and throw them over the fence where the police shop now stands in Brick Lane.

When this happened Harman ran towards me, in full view of the police and tried to hit me. Being still boxing at that time I gave him a smack and he went down. I was arrested and spent the demo in Bethnal Green nick.

It was clear to me from what was being said in the police carrier that the whole thing was a set up and that Harman was a police agent provacateur. When I tried at my trial to compel he and Hollowborrow to come to court they refused summonses and the police said that they had no recollection of anyone trying to attack me in spite of eye witness evidence I produced including photos of their presence.

I was convicted of harrassing the demonstrators and nearly went to prison. Harman and Hollowborrow were working for the state as are most of the central committe of the SWP.

Comment by billaricaydickey — 9 November, 2009 @ 1:19 pm
#77

Terry Fitz

While it is nice (??) to have you back commenting here, I suggest this is not the time to vent 30 year old grievances against a man recently departed, and while friends, family and colleagues are still in raw grief.

Comment by Andy Newman — 9 November, 2009 @ 1:26 pm
thanks terry for that bitter but extremely relevant anecdote about placards and punching a recently deceased man 30 years ago. i can’t help feeling that i’ve heard that particular story before, from you, on this site, about fifteen billion times. tell us the one about not seeing uaf leafletters at underground stations next please.

Comment by Ted — 9 November, 2009 @ 3:28 pm
[content deleted]

Comment by billaricaydickey — 9 November, 2009 @ 3:46 pm
Chris Harman (1942-2009) Marxist thinker of modern times

Chris Harman, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party died 7th November 2009 in Cairo of a cardiac arrest, where he was speaking at a Congress of Socialist Revolutionaries.

Chris Harman was not only an intellectual, a writer and a theorist of the most extraordinary quality He had something much more. Harman took Marx out of the hands of academics. This explains why attending a public meeting when he was speaking was a great experience. Chris Harman could write so well precisely because he had grasped the full wealth of Marxist ideas. He has produced numerous books, pamphlets and articles on a wide variety of topics: on the state capitalist tyrannies of the former Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe, how the Russian revolution was lost, the failed German revolutions, the dynamics of modern capitalism, on the 1968 revolts, on political Islam, on Imperialism and many more. His writings comprised a valuable tool for revolutionaries wanting to intervene in the every day political and workers’ struggles with clarity of ideas, strategy and tactics.

Harman was a towering figure in Britain and he made an immense theoretical and personal contribution to the Socialist Workers Party He edited the International Socialism journal, and had written an accessible critique of mainstream economic theory, Zombie Capitalism.

In addition, his historical work, culminating in the magisterial ‘A People’s History of the World’, provided an invaluable introduction to the topics. Chris inspired our generation to be revolutionaries. His commitment to the building of a revolutionary party internationally was unflinching. He had nothing insular. He had that trait of the real revolutionary that would not allow him or her to be indifferent to people’s predicament wherever they may be confronting oppression and injustice. Harman’s writings, his efforts and contribution have played a significant part in germinating the seeds of revolutionary Marxist groups and organizations in whatever part of the world. He will remain an inspiration to successive generations of socialists.

Born into a working class family, Harman attended the London School of Economics (LSE) where he joined the International Socialists. He was instrumental in publishing the magazine of the LSE Socialist Society, The Agitator, and was a leading member of the IS 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 for murdering the leader of the Vietnamese Trotskyist movement, Ta Thu Thau, in 1945 after crushing the workers’ rising of that year in Saigon.

His main role in the IS (from 1978 the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)) was as a theorist and he has produced numerous books and articles on a wide variety of topics. Almost all his writing has 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 has left behind his wife Talat and children Seth and Sinead.
.
RIP is a Christine concept, so let me end with a Lal Salam ( Red Salute).Chris Harman Lal Salam

Comment by Aloke Kumar — 9 November, 2009 @ 3:57 pm
What I like about terryfitz’ contribution is that, in attempting to paint Harman as this evil agent of the state, all he does is prove his own absolute lunacy. The fact that fitz is a dribbling irrelevance these days is incredibly helpful to all serious anti-fascists and socialists.

Comment by Handy Strawman — 9 November, 2009 @ 4:17 pm
Chris helped my small generation of American activists become revolutionary socialists in early 1990’s. It’s hard to imagine making sense of the world without Chris for those of us who came of age during the end of Reaganism and the collapse of the so-called communism. I did not know him well, but I still vividly remember his speeches from the various Marxism conferences I attended in the 1990’s and I always came away feeling more confident that working class revolution was the only possible alternative to capitalism. His death is a tremendous loss. Condolences to his friends, family and comrades.

Todd
Oakland, CA

Comment by Todd Chretien — 9 November, 2009 @ 5:10 pm
Michael Rosen’s obituary http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/09/chris-harman-obituary and Alex Callinicos’s http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=19504

Comment by rachel trickett — 9 November, 2009 @ 10:16 pm
Obituary at The Commune

Comment by Jim Higgins — 11 November, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
My first meeting with Chris {not long after meeting Cliff} was back in the mid 90’s when as a youngster I had travelled over from Belfast to speak at my first Marxism in London event.

Chris like Cliff had a real influence on me in both their writings and words {And I must say that I was crapping myself as I saw Chris sitting in the audience as I had rose to speak back then - as I had thought of all the knowledge and history he held.

Nevertheless his words at the end where softly spoken, comforting and reassuring. And although I left the SWP 5 or so years ago {as I began to draw other conclusions} nevertheless his books and writings I had still read through at times, as a source of not only knowledge but also of inspiration.

Condolences to all who knew and grieve for Chris, his legacy will no doubt live on to educate many in that tradition.

Davy Carlin
Belfast

Comment by Davy Carlin — 11 November, 2009 @ 4:40 pm
Although not a member of the SWP I was shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Chris Harman who will be a great loss to international socialism. It was regrettable that his immense knowledge and brilliant analyses of world events rarely, if ever, found any exposure in the mainstream media.

Comment by Dave Taylor — 13 November, 2009 @ 9:49 am
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Comment by hydroponics — 16 November, 2009 @ 8:25 pm
John Molyneux’s obituary from today’s Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/chris-harman-editor-of-socialist-worker-whose-intellectual-stature-gave-him-an-influence-beyond-party-ranks-1823003.html

Comment by Ger Francis — 19 November, 2009 @ 11:34 pm

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7 November, 2009

RIP Chris Harman

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