Colin Barker (born 1939) is a British Marxist writer and historian, a longstanding member of the Socialist Workers Party in Manchester and author of numerous articles and works on Marxism, most notably a history of Solidarity, Festival of the Oppressed. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a political party of the far left in England. ... Solidarity (Polish:  ; full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarity — Niezależny SamorzÄ…dny ZwiÄ…zek Zawodowy Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards, and originally led by Lech WaÅ‚Ä™sa. ...

Colin Barker was a member of the International Socialism Group in Oxford and Manchester from 1962, and a member of the Executive and National Committee. He was also a member of the editorial board of International Socialism journal for several years. He was a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he worked from 1967 to 2002. The editorial board is a group of people, usually at a print publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publications editorials will take. ... International Socialism (ISJ) is a quarterly journal of socialist theory published by the Socialist Workers Party (Britain) and currently edited by Chris Harman. ... Manchester Metropolitan University is based in Manchester, England. ...

Selected articles/works

• Incomes policy, legislation and shop stewards ( with Tony Cliff) (1966)
• Involvement in strikes: some recent case-studies, etc (1966)
• The power game (1972)
• Theory of Capitalist States (1978)
• A ‘New’ Reformism?—A Critique of the Political Theory of Nicos Poulantzas(1979)
• Origins and Significance of the Meiji Restoration (1982)
• Solidarnosc : from Gdansk to military repression (with Kara Weber) (1982)
• 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 and Alan Johnson) (2001)
• The rise of Solidarnosc(2005)
• Strike for Freedom(2006)
• Articles in Socialist Worker (2006)

Tony Cliff (May 20, 1917 – May 9, 2000) was a Trotskyist revolutionary activist. ... Michael Lavalette during a Make Poverty History rally Michael Lavalette is a RESPECT national council member and councillor in Preston, England who was elected as a Socialist Alliance candidate shortly after the Iraq War. ...

References

• Short bio
• Short bio in MMU sociology newsletter