Colin Barker
Biographic Data
| ID | 3673611 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Colin Barker |
| GIVEN NAMES | Colin |
| FAMILY NAME | Barker |
| SIGNATURE | BARKER C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Manchester Metropolitan University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
To Make Another World: Studies in Protest and Collective Action
M arxism and Social Movements
One distinctive feature of Marxist thought is that it yokes together three ideas: class struggle, social movements, and social revolution. For Marx and Engels, struggle between classes was both a characteristic of exploitative modes of social production, but also the means by which class society could be abolished. Marxism thus generates a central theoretical and practical question. How can humanity emancipate itself from the toils of existing ca…
Class Struggle and Social Movements
This chapter discusses Marxism’s approach to social movements framed by a theory of ‘class struggle’ . Marxists thus face a series of theoretical and practical-strategic problems. The social revolution demanded for two reasons. (1) No other method could separate the ruling class from their property and power. (2) Only active participation in a revolutionary movement could enable the oppressed to get rid of ‘the muck of ages’ and transform themsel…
Marxism and Social Movements: An Introduction
Marxism is a body of theory crafted for social movements. This chapter suggests that the language of ‘class struggle’ translated into a language of ‘social movement’ with a Marxist accent. While contemporary social movement theories rightly stress the networked character of social movements, they pay less attention to their heterogeneity and internal debates. The book includes theoretical accounts of the relationship between Marxism and social mo…
Marxism and Social Movements
Marxism and Social Movements is the first sustained engagement between social movement theory and Marxist approaches to collective action. The chapters collected here, by leading figures in both fields, discuss the potential for a Marxist theory of social movements; explore the developmental processes and political tensions within movements; set the question in a long historical perspective; and analyse contemporary movements against neo-liberali…
Some Reflections on Student Movements of the 1960s and Early 1970s
This article considers the rise and decline of student movements in Europe and America during the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on materials on student movements in a number of countries, it assesses their historical significance, in the context of a larger 'protest wave' with which the student movements of the period intersected. Relating these movements to students' changing position within advanced capitalism, it suggests that their dynamics were s…
Capital and Revolutionary Practice
Fear, Laughter, and Collective Power: The Making of Solidarity at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, August 1980
This chapter discusses the emotional components of the collective action in Gdansk, Poland in August 1980. Every record of August 1980 at Gdansk, where the Solidarity movement was founded, is packed with incidents of human emotionality. Fear, courage, anger, laughter, nervous breakdowns, pride, and solidarity appear at peak intensity during those seventeen days. The narrative is punctuated by displays of feeling, including tears, cheering, booing…
Protest Waves in Western Europe: A Critique of "New Social Movement" Theory
A paradigmatic account of the recent development of social movements has become prominent in European sociology. Labor movements are said to be in decline, and new social movements to be taking their place at the center of contemporary protest and social transformation efforts. These changes are attributed to shifts in the underlying structures of modern society. This article challenges this view, questioning the underlying theoretical assumption…
Some reflections on two books by Ellen Wood
Some time ago, the editors of Monthly Review invited me to submit a short review of two recent books by Ellen Wood: The Pristine Culture of Capitalism, and Democracy Against Capitalism. I found myself, in the course of re-reading these books, filled with admiration for most of what the author said, and indeed, for the manner in which she presented her case. At various points, however, I found myself not fully satisfied. But a short review was not…
Theories of Revolution in the Light of 1989 in Eastern Europe
This article explores several issues related to the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe. How well do contemporary theories of revolution explain these events? What did and did not happen? What theoretical framework makes the best sense of these events? The 1989 revolutions are notable for a number of reasons. Although they were centred in urban areas they were characterized by relatively low levels of popular mobilization. Most importantly, key…
Challenging the Bourgeois Paradigm
Review of Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism, The Pristine Culture of Capitalism: A Historical Essay on Regimes and Modern States by Ellen Meiksins Wood.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website
A Note on the Theory of Capitalist States
In Capital and Class 2, John Holloway and Sol Picciotto (hereafter H & P) published an important contribution to the ongoing debate on the Marxist theory of the state. 1 The Note that follows criticises their article on a couple of points, so I should remark that their argument, taken as a whole, has very significant merits. In particular, its insistence that the capitalist state-form cannot be considered separately from the capital relation is e…
Revolutionary Rehearsals
Festival of the Oppressed: Solidarity, Reform and Revolution in Poland, 1980-1981
Bahro Refuted: "Solidarnosc" and Proletarian Revolution in Eastern Europe
IN 1917, THE RUSSIAN WORKING CLASS became the most revolutionary in the world. Decades of ruthless capitalist exploitation and the crisis of World War I had combined to make the proletariat the leading force in the March Revolution. The March days saw the spontaneous creation of institutions of workers' power in the Soviets which sprang up everywhere, providing a mecha nism for popular control and resistance to an increasingly unpopular provi sio…
A Note on the Theory of Capitalist States
Some Reflections on Student Movements of the 1960s and Early 1970s
This article considers the rise and decline of student movements in Europe and America during the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on materials on student movements in a number of countries, it assesses their historical significance, in the context of a larger 'protest wave' with which the student movements of the period intersected. Relating these movements to students' changing position within advanced capitalism, it suggests that their dynamics were s…
A Note on the Theory of Capitalist States
Capital and Revolutionary Practice
Revolutionary Rehearsals
Protest Waves in Western Europe: A Critique of "New Social Movement" Theory
A paradigmatic account of the recent development of social movements has become prominent in European sociology. Labor movements are said to be in decline, and new social movements to be taking their place at the center of contemporary protest and social transformation efforts. These changes are attributed to shifts in the underlying structures of modern society. This article challenges this view, questioning the underlying theoretical assumption…
Some reflections on two books by Ellen Wood
Some time ago, the editors of Monthly Review invited me to submit a short review of two recent books by Ellen Wood: The Pristine Culture of Capitalism, and Democracy Against Capitalism. I found myself, in the course of re-reading these books, filled with admiration for most of what the author said, and indeed, for the manner in which she presented her case. At various points, however, I found myself not fully satisfied. But a short review was not…
Festival of the Oppressed: Solidarity, Reform and Revolution in Poland, 1980-1981
Theories of Revolution in the Light of 1989 in Eastern Europe
This article explores several issues related to the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe. How well do contemporary theories of revolution explain these events? What did and did not happen? What theoretical framework makes the best sense of these events? The 1989 revolutions are notable for a number of reasons. Although they were centred in urban areas they were characterized by relatively low levels of popular mobilization. Most importantly, key…
A Note on the Theory of Capitalist States
Bahro Refuted: "Solidarnosc" and Proletarian Revolution in Eastern Europe
IN 1917, THE RUSSIAN WORKING CLASS became the most revolutionary in the world. Decades of ruthless capitalist exploitation and the crisis of World War I had combined to make the proletariat the leading force in the March Revolution. The March days saw the spontaneous creation of institutions of workers' power in the Soviets which sprang up everywhere, providing a mecha nism for popular control and resistance to an increasingly unpopular provi sio…
Festival of the Oppressed: Solidarity, Reform and Revolution in Poland, 1980-1981
Revolutionary Rehearsals
A Note on the Theory of Capitalist States
In Capital and Class 2, John Holloway and Sol Picciotto (hereafter H & P) published an important contribution to the ongoing debate on the Marxist theory of the state. 1 The Note that follows criticises their article on a couple of points, so I should remark that their argument, taken as a whole, has very significant merits. In particular, its insistence that the capitalist state-form cannot be considered separately from the capital relation is e…
Challenging the Bourgeois Paradigm
Review of Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism, The Pristine Culture of Capitalism: A Historical Essay on Regimes and Modern States by Ellen Meiksins Wood.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website
Some reflections on two books by Ellen Wood
Some time ago, the editors of Monthly Review invited me to submit a short review of two recent books by Ellen Wood: The Pristine Culture of Capitalism, and Democracy Against Capitalism. I found myself, in the course of re-reading these books, filled with admiration for most of what the author said, and indeed, for the manner in which she presented her case. At various points, however, I found myself not fully satisfied. But a short review was not…
Theories of Revolution in the Light of 1989 in Eastern Europe
This article explores several issues related to the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe. How well do contemporary theories of revolution explain these events? What did and did not happen? What theoretical framework makes the best sense of these events? The 1989 revolutions are notable for a number of reasons. Although they were centred in urban areas they were characterized by relatively low levels of popular mobilization. Most importantly, key…
Protest Waves in Western Europe: A Critique of "New Social Movement" Theory
A paradigmatic account of the recent development of social movements has become prominent in European sociology. Labor movements are said to be in decline, and new social movements to be taking their place at the center of contemporary protest and social transformation efforts. These changes are attributed to shifts in the underlying structures of modern society. This article challenges this view, questioning the underlying theoretical assumption…
Fear, Laughter, and Collective Power: The Making of Solidarity at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, August 1980
This chapter discusses the emotional components of the collective action in Gdansk, Poland in August 1980. Every record of August 1980 at Gdansk, where the Solidarity movement was founded, is packed with incidents of human emotionality. Fear, courage, anger, laughter, nervous breakdowns, pride, and solidarity appear at peak intensity during those seventeen days. The narrative is punctuated by displays of feeling, including tears, cheering, booing…
Capital and Revolutionary Practice
Some Reflections on Student Movements of the 1960s and Early 1970s
This article considers the rise and decline of student movements in Europe and America during the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on materials on student movements in a number of countries, it assesses their historical significance, in the context of a larger 'protest wave' with which the student movements of the period intersected. Relating these movements to students' changing position within advanced capitalism, it suggests that their dynamics were s…
M arxism and Social Movements
One distinctive feature of Marxist thought is that it yokes together three ideas: class struggle, social movements, and social revolution. For Marx and Engels, struggle between classes was both a characteristic of exploitative modes of social production, but also the means by which class society could be abolished. Marxism thus generates a central theoretical and practical question. How can humanity emancipate itself from the toils of existing ca…
Class Struggle and Social Movements
This chapter discusses Marxism’s approach to social movements framed by a theory of ‘class struggle’ . Marxists thus face a series of theoretical and practical-strategic problems. The social revolution demanded for two reasons. (1) No other method could separate the ruling class from their property and power. (2) Only active participation in a revolutionary movement could enable the oppressed to get rid of ‘the muck of ages’ and transform themsel…
Marxism and Social Movements: An Introduction
Marxism is a body of theory crafted for social movements. This chapter suggests that the language of ‘class struggle’ translated into a language of ‘social movement’ with a Marxist accent. While contemporary social movement theories rightly stress the networked character of social movements, they pay less attention to their heterogeneity and internal debates. The book includes theoretical accounts of the relationship between Marxism and social mo…
Marxism and Social Movements
Marxism and Social Movements is the first sustained engagement between social movement theory and Marxist approaches to collective action. The chapters collected here, by leading figures in both fields, discuss the potential for a Marxist theory of social movements; explore the developmental processes and political tensions within movements; set the question in a long historical perspective; and analyse contemporary movements against neo-liberali…
To Make Another World: Studies in Protest and Collective Action
Political science (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Politics (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (9 works) · History (7 works) · Political economy (6 works) · Capitalism (5 works) · Social movement (5 works) · Art (4 works)