Colin Barker

Who is Colin Barker?

Colin Barker is a British sociologist as well as a Marxist historian and writer. A long-standing member of the Socialist Workers Party in Manchester, he is the author of numerous articles and works on Marxism, including a history of the Polish trade union Solidarity, Festival of the Oppressed.

A Trotskyist, Barker was a member of the International Socialism Group in Oxford and Manchester from 1962. He was a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University from 1967 to 2002 and an organiser of the periodic International Conference on Alternative Futures and Popular Protest there.

He regularly speaks at the Socialist Workers Party's annual Marxism event. In 2013, he joined opposition to the SWP Central Committee's handling of the 'Comrade Delta' rape scandal.