Chris Bambery - Political Activity

Political Activity

Originally from Edinburgh he began his political career as a member of the International Marxist Group in 1972. After leaving Edinburgh University, where he had been Vice President of the Students Representative Council, he became a full-time organiser for the IMG in Glasgow in 1978-79 but left that organisation in May 1979 joining the Socialist Workers Party seven months later. In late 1981 he became the SWP's Glasgow organiser.

In 1983 he moved to North London as an organiser for the SWP and was elected a member of its Central Committee in 1987 becoming its National Organiser shortly afterwards, a position which he held to 2004 when he replaced the long serving Chris Harman as editor of Socialist Worker.

In 2001 he led the International Socialist Tendency at the Genoa Group of Eight Summit protest in Italy with fellow SWP member Alex Callinicos.

After considerable political tension within the SWP regarding the party's response to the economic crisis, Bambery made public his resignation letter to SWP National Organiser Charlie Kimber on April 11, 2011. His resignation was joined by 38 other party members, predominately based in Scotland, who shared Bambery's analysis that the SWP had retreated from building a political opposition to austerity and the recession along the lines of the highly successful Stop the War Coalition which the SWP was heavily involved with in previous years.

Following his resignation, Bambery was a founding member of the International Socialist Group - the organisation set up by the 39 former SWP members to formulate a united front approach to the recession and develop a Left argument for Scottish independence in the 2014 referendum. Since then, Bambery supported calls for the ISG to help build a Scottish section of the broad united front Coalition of Resistance to campaign against austerity.