of the IMG central committee to explain he was supporting the 'turn to industry' because of his sincere convictions, Peter shocked him by denouncing 'this anti-Trotskyist turn'. Peter also rejected the increasingly improbable notion that there was something 'anti-imperialist' in the leadership of the Iranian regime, insisting that a central
OBITUARY part of the upsurge that threw out the Shah had been an urban-based reactionary mass movement, with nothing progressive about it ("as if we haven't seen reactionary mass movements challenge states
Being centrally involved in permanent factional mayhem and an organisation clearly going crazy was too much for Peter, just as much as for Tariq Ali.
Outside an organised far left group Peter's energies found three inter-related focuses. He had been central to the IMG's East European commission, which had worked with other sections of the FI to make links with, and give material aid to, Marxist and other radical dissidents in the eastern bloc. assembled a talented team around the journal Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, designed to build broader support in the left and labour movements for anti-Stalinist activism and organisation in the Stalinist states. The magazine lifted the curtain on the then largely unknown developments in the eastern bloc and provided a platform for the emerging dissident movements. While other talented Marxists like Patrick Camiller, Sheila Malone, Andy Kilmister, Günther Minnerup and Gus Fagan worked on the magazine, it was around Peter Gowan's substantial interventions that the magazine developed its ideological position and analysis.
Second, Peter became a lecturer in European Studies at North London Polytechnic, later part of London Metropolitan University. This gave him the stimulus and motivation to develop an analysis of the European Union in the 1980s, and its relationship with the United States and an increasingly
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OBITUARY Peter Gowan inspired hundreds of people in many countries with the ideas of Marxism, applied to the central questions of our time. It is awful that such a brilliant man has died in his early 60s crisis-racked eastern bloc. Peter saw the EU as an undemocratic bosses' club, which took decision in the Council of Ministers and was deliberately designed to be outside democratic control of the European workers - a perspective now widespread in the European Left.
Third, Peter became a member of the New Left Review editorial board, working alongside other ex-IMG members like Robin Blackburn, Tarig Ali and (until the early 1990s) Quentin Hoare and Branka Magas. It was his repeated interventions in the NLR that made him well known world-wide amongst the radical intelligentsia and the Left. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc, and with the first Gulf War in 1991 his international focus rebalanced, giving more emphasis to explaining and charting American imperialism. He engaged in a deep study of the roots of US expansionism and was greatly influenced by the work of one of the foremost "revisionist' US historians, Gabriel Kolko - whose main theorisation of the rise of US imperialism is set out in his Main Currents of American History.
Peter used Labour Focus to write a major piece opposing the US-led assault on Serbia, the so-called 'Kosovo war', in 1999. He campaigned with crusading zeal against the humanitarian interventionism' espoused by many liberals and former leftists - and used as a cover by many for supporting the second Iraq war.
Peter's theory of the 'Dollar-Wall Street regime' eventually led to the publication by Verso of Global Gamble - America's Faustian Bid for World Leadership (1999). After 9/11 he was in his element:
MULETRA one week in Brazil, the next in the US, then in China. He waged his own intellectual jihad against the war on terror and American imperial power. He was in his element again at the 2004 European Social Forum in London where, together with Perry Anderson, he clinically dissected and denounced US imperial power to an audience of hundreds of young people from across the continent.
There will doubtless be many memoirs of Peter from different perspectives. From the viewpoint of people who knew him from the early IMG years, it was perhaps a pity that the descent of that organisation into craziness prevented him from being a more long-term leader of a revolutionary organisation. In a bigger organisation with a broader political culture he could have been a long-term member of a broad leadership team. But that would have
35 meant him living in another country, at another time, with another culture altogether.
But Peter did maintain links with the organised far left, particularly the International Socialist Group (later Socialist Resistance) and the Fourth International more generally. He strongly influenced the ISG's international politics; and he frequently spoke at meetings organised by FI supporters and their allies in the radical left. of the most important Marxist intellectuals writing in the English language. His writing was invariably original, always sparkling with ideas and insights - as was his speaking. Peter was utterly charismatic and had an ability to inspire people and excite them with his creative Marxism. He oozed personal charm, a quality not over-abundant in the British far left. He was completely intransigent ideologically, and was unphased about telling anyone, no matter how rarified the company, that he was a Marxist and a Trotskyist.
Peter Gowan inspired hundreds of people in many countries with the ideas of Marxism, applied to the central questions of our time. It is awful that such a brilliant man has died in his early 60s. NOTES 1 Recounted in the Penguin book
of the time, Edward Thompson's
Warwick University Limited. 2 A tactic which reached its nadir
in the 'Cowley Moles' saga,
when MI5 and the British
Leyland management caught the
organisation sending more than a
dozen young people into the Cowley
(Oxford) car factory. PHIL HEARSE 15/06/09
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DECEMBER 2009 CHANCE TO SAVE THE CLIMATE? NUUNUT 607 NOILOTOS ЭHL NOS International Revolutionary Youth Camp Saturday 25ch July to Friday 315c July Each year the Fourth International organises a week long camp that brings together hundreds of young revolutionaries, feminists and ecologists from all over the world. It's a unique chance to meet activists, share experiences and discuss ideas. The 2009 camp is being held in Greece where thousands of young rebels fought pitched battles with the police just a few months ago and where the trade unions can bring the country to a standstill. Socialist Resistance is sending a group of its supporters. If you agree with what you've read in the magazine and want a week in the sun discussing how to change the world, you COPENHAGEN THE MOST IMPORTANT We can any ren dangerous
INTERNATIONALMEETING world acts together LAST SURE LONDON 05.12.09 COPENHAGEN need your voice. 12.12.09 GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION natecampain.org We are arranging transportation from London to Copenhagen. email: [email protected] for more details Campaign against Climate Change www.campaigncc.org 020 7833 9311 [email protected] Top Floor, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX climate change if the whole in Copenhagen on 7 - 18 December 2009 could be our last chance to secure a global agreement to reduce emissions and build a zero carbon economy before our planet's climate system destabilizes irreversibly. it isn't too late to act, but we Join our demonstrations and demand a global agreement to stop climate change in 2009.
word about Copenhagen 2009 here. See www.newlifecopenhagen.com/ should come along too. It will cost between f80-€100 with your food included. and we'll get in touch with you. You can also contact us Name Age Address Phone E mail
37 COPENHAGEN 2009 December 12th will be the Global Day of Action on Climate 2009. The CCC will be working with partners in the Global Climate Campaign to make this Global Day as succesfull as possible with demonstrations as big as possible, in as many places as possible, all around the world. The Campaign against Climate Change is looking at ways of organising transport to Copenahgen, especially for the weekend of the 12th-13th. If you are interested in going to Copenhagen for the 2009 Talks please contact us at : [email protected] to help us plan transport. Meanwhile you can download a flier to help spread the Want somewhere to stay in Copenhagen during the COP? Send your details to us at PO Box 62732, London SW2 9GQ through Facebook - look for IV International Youth Camp.
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Socialist Resistance 38 These are just some of the titles we have published to date, and more are in the pipeline. They can be bought from Socialist Resistance, at the address below; or ordered online through Amazon.co.uk Socialist Resistance PO Box 62732 London SW2 9GQ 1 Mexico's Zapatista rebels and the Seattle demonstrators were the tip of an iceberg of social and political revolt against the injustices of corporate-led globalisation. In 2002 John Holloway, working in Puebla, Mexico, published Change the World without Taking Power. This book debates the implications of that slogan. £6 €7 $10 2 Documents of the differences which developed last year in how Respect should be organised and built, and which led to the split promoted by the SWP following criticism of its leadership role by almost everyone else, including Socialist Resistance. £3.50 €4 $6 Middle East has suffered a seemingly unending period of war, foreign domination, and mass resistance to the this book, that resistance speaks in its own words, in a collection of some of the most powerful articles written in the last sixty years by socialist, £10 €12 $17 4 A collection of important contributions to the debate New books from on the ecology and global warming, and the limits of capitalism's ability to control the resulting destruction of the environment. A collection of important contributions to the debate on the ecology and global warming, and the limits of capitalism's ability to control the resulting destruction of the environment. This reprinted second edition is essential reading for anyone getting to grips with ecosocialism. £6 €9 $10 5 Kautsky's 1908 Marxist classic is an account of how what began as a minor sect in Palestine became the state religion of the Roman Empire. "There was a time when Kautsky was in the true sense of the word the teacher who instructed the international proletarian vanguard." - Leon Trotsky £12 €18 $25 6 Celia Hart comes from a family of veteran Cuban revolutionaries who fought with Fidel against the Batista dictatorship. Celia has been an outspoken defender of the political and revolutionary heritage of Leon Trotsky. Her recent articles on this subject have provoked an intense debate on the question of Trotsky internationally. £6 €7 $10
ADVERTISEMENT 7 The title of the collection
"Reform or Revolution' and Other Writings" comes from the famous Red Rosa's best known work. In this 1899 polemic, Luxemburg explains why capitalism can never overcome its internal contradictions. An effective refutation of revisionist interpretations of Marxist doctrine, it defines the position of scientific socialism on the issues of social reforms, the state, democracy, and the character of the proletarian revolution. £6 €7 $10 8 Ron Ridenour's follow-up to his "Cuba at the Crossroads", written while he was livng and politically active in Cuba. £10 €12 $17 9 Forthcoming [not shown]: a French title, Number 1 of Les Cahiers du Crabe (Notebooks of the Crab): "'intervention soviétique en Afghanistan (1979)". It presents chronologically documents from the internal discussion bulletins of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire and from its publications-the weekly Rouge, Critique Communiste (the LCR's theoretical review), and Inprecor (International Press Correspondance, news review of the Fourth International). £6 €7 $10
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ADVERTISEMENT TAKE THE
ERTO FLAWORLD GLOBALISATION AND THE DEBATE ON POWER -Edited with an introduction by Phil Hearse
KARL KAUTSKY FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY 5
MY LIFE UNDER
WHITE SUPREMACY
AND
IN EXILE
LEONARD NIKANI 2 BESPENT: DOCUMENIS -DIE TITROIS George Galloway, Salma Yaqoob, Alan Thornett, and others NEW EXPANDED EDITION SOCIALIST RESISTANCE Celia Hart a by Walter L Is never too late to love or rebe And the two latest: Left: "My Life Under White Supremacy" is struggle of a black activist in South Africa. It records the founding and growth of the a stern and reasoned critique of the ANC describes his exile, a clandestine mission back into South Africa, his escape to and to Sweden, where he died in 1999. £10 €12 $17 crisis, construct a socialist analysis of its causes, and propose socialist solutions. £6 €7 $10
3 Middle East: war, imperialism, and ecology Sixty years of resistance 4CLOSED PROMISED LAND 4 MILE Edited by Roland Rance and Terry Conway REFORM -revolution AND OTHER WRITI ROSA LUXEMBURC INTRODUCTION BY PAUL BUHLE 7 the autobiographical account of the life and revolutionary left organisations, and includes and South African Communist Party. Nikani imprisonment in Swaziland, and his final exile Right: The credit crunch of 2008 produced an international recession in 2009. In Socialists and the Capitalist Recession, Claudio Katz and Michel Husson, fellows of the International Institute for Research and Education, and SSP activist Raphie de Santos, describe the present
39 4 ECOSOCIALISM OR BARBARISM Edited by Jane Kelly and Sheila Malone Ron Ridenour CUBA: BEYOND THE CROSSROADS Socialist Resistance, London 8 Socialists and the Capitalist Recession
with "Basic Theories of Karl Marx"
Claudio Katz, Ernest Mandel and others
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FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE SATURDAY 12 SEPTEMBER, 10.30am till 5.30pm FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE, EUSTON, LONDON Seminar organised by Green Left + Socialist Resistance Debates and discussions will include: › A Green New Deal / Alternative production • Alternatives to the market 1 Uniting Reds and Greens ) The voice of the Global South / Gender, ecology and socialism 1 Ecosocialists and the capitalist recession • The global fight for climate justice Speakers will include: ) lan Angus (editor, The Global Fight for
Climate Justice) ) Cir Romayne Phoenix (Green Left)
Raphie de Santos (SSP)
Liam Mac Uaid (Socialist Resistance) The Global Fight for Climate Justice is edited and has contributions by lan Angus. This is a collection of 46 essays by anticapitalist activists around the world, on topics ranging from the tood crisis to carbon trading to perspectives from indigenous peoples. They make a compelling case that saving the world from climate catastrophe will require much more than tinkering with technology or taxes. Only radical social change can prevent irreversible damage to the earth and to civilization. "Essential reading for everyone who is serious Publisher: Resistance Books (London) ISBN: 978-0-902869-87-5 Publication Date: July 2009 Price £10 (£2 discount with advance booking to the seminar THE GLOBAL FIGHT Tickets: Advance: £8 / £4 conc On the door: €12/ £6 conc Advance booking entitles you to a f2 discount on the accompanying book Orders for tickets and/or the book can be sent to: Socialist Resistance PO Box 62732 London SW2 9GQ Cheques should be made out to Socialist Resistance
The Global Fight
for Climate Justice
Anticapitalist Responses to Global Warming
and Environmental Destruction
foreword by Derek Wat priter we lan Anet CLMATENOW
"Essential reading for everyone cho is serio about confronting the climate emergency FOR HER, CEDOK OF GREEN LAFT WEEKE