Harman was born into a working-class family and attended
Leeds University (where he joined the
Socialist Review Group in 1961) and the
London School of Economics (LSE) where he began (but did not complete) a doctorate under the supervision of
Ralph Miliband.[1] He was instrumental in publishing the magazine of the LSE Socialist Society, The Agitator, and was a leading member of the International Socialists (as the SRG had become) 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,
Tạ Thu Thâu, in 1945 after crushing the workers' rising of that year in Saigon.
His main role in the IS (from 1977 the
Socialist Workers Party, or SWP) was as a theorist and he produced numerous books and articles on a wide variety of topics. Almost all his writing 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,[2] when he started editing the SWP's theoretical quarterly International Socialism Journal.
Harman died on 7 November 2009, following a cardiac arrest while lecturing at the Socialist Days conference of the
Center for Socialist Studies (CSS) in Cairo, Egypt. He is buried in
Highgate Cemetery, London, a few yards from
Karl Marx's tomb and adjacent to his comrade
Paul Foot.
Selected works
Books and pamphlets
Education, capitalism and the student revolt (1968)
Molyneux, John (19 November 2009). "Chris Harman: Editor of 'Socialist Worker' whose intellectual stature gave him an influence beyond party ranks". The Independent. London. Available online
here
Rosen, Michael (9 November 2009). "Chris Harman Obituary". The Guardian. London. Available online
here
SWP Central Committee (7 November 2009). "Tragically Chris Harman has died". Socialist Worker. London. Available online
here
External links
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