Category Archives: Britain

Kevin Wingfield

John Molyneux

Terrible news – John has died. He was a revolutionary all his adult life, a Marxist writer and great explainer. He wrote regularly for SWP publications and since his move more than a decade ago, was a key member of the People Before Profit and Socialist Workers Network in Ireland.

This is only to scratch the surface of his life’s revolutionary activity.

Personally I counted him as a important friend and comrade. His generosity of spirit has got me out of a hole more than once. Generations of socialist revolutionaries in these islands will be forever in his debt for his inspiration, clarity of thought and example.

Condolences to his partner Mary and all his family, friends and comrades everywhere.

Geoff Dexter

It is with great sadness to hear that our comrade John Molyneux has died.

He was an inspiration to me. He explained complex ideas in a way that I could understand. As someone who has always found it hard to read, John’s explanations meant I had access to concepts and ideas that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. It meant I could take part in political life and strenthen my ideas, thinking and imagination – one of the biggest gifts anyone can give. He made even the most difficult theories accessible with real life examples and everyday relatable explanations. His short books and pamphlets were relevant, relatable, and brought me so much clarity. Hearing him speak helped me understand things I wouldn’t have from reading alone.

I had dismissed high art and didn’t understand it when I was younger. I found it inaccessible but his analysis and explanations helped me to decode and makes sense of it from a historical materialist perspective. He kept alive great work such as from John Berger, someone I never would have known about otherwise, and helped me see art, design and my own work in an entirely different way. I loved visiting John and Mary in Ireland for May day in Dublin one year, visiting the picket lines and ca.paigning for Equal Marriage. I learnt so much from one of the the kindest, most generous comrades i could ever know. He was always willing to explain and encourage. And as a Leninist no more so of the need for a revolutionary party. He was not afraid of polemic but his work on Marxism and anarchism during the 2010 student and workers uprisings scross the world was non dogmatic. It demonsteated a real understanding of the context, the arguements and brought sharp clarity and understanding to those of us navigating a very fluid social and political movement. Personally I used it to sharpen my understanding of identity politics – not because it was the same issue but because its attraction was a manifestation of the same political period. Something that required the same sensitivity and non dogmatism in exposing it as a political cul -de sac – something John had clearly understood by being honest about its attractions. Political life will not feel the same without him.

As the title he chose for one of his books on philosophy he quoted Marx saying “the point is to change it” and as someone from the ’68 generation John would be the person I would most attribute to being inspired to find out more for myself and learn all about art in the Russian revolution and art as a tool for change.

John’s introductions to so many ideas quite literally opened my eyes to seeing the world and visual communication in a different way. I owe many years of experiences being enriched by this lens. By insight and meaning I would not have seen otherwise.

“Travailleurs la lutte continue; constituez-vous en comité de base.” (Workers, the fight continues; form a basic committee).

“La lutte continue!”

(The struggle continues)

Rest in power John ✊️❤️🌈

Debashis De is feeling sad

(News/Passing/Comrade) Hearing news about the passing of Comrade John Molyneux (a giant in the Irish & British Socialist movement), Academic, passionate Internationalist activist, Great thinker, a principled man, who was kind, and always helpful. Deepest sympathies to Family, Friends and Comrades…Rest in Power ✊️🙏🌹

Jon Woods

There are so many things I would like say on behalf of Portsmouth Socialist Workers Party following John Molyneux’s death in Dublin on Saturday 10 December. It is such an immense loss in so many ways. We are devastated. Our thoughts and condolences go out to Sara, Jack and Mary and all of John’s family, comrades and friends.

I first met John in 1986 when I joined the SWP in Portsmouth and became an active member. John’s exceptionally deep understanding of Marxism and his ability to explain things in ways you could really understand was one of the first things that struck you. John had been part the revolutionary turmoil at the end of the 60’s and had glimpsed at how another world is possible. He was on the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations and in Paris in 68 when students and workers rose up. John’s writing about the future socialist society reflects this and in my opinion has never been bettered.

John excelled in all aspects of being a revolutionary socialist. He wrote wonderful books which have been read around the world in various translations. He was an inspiring and brilliant speaker, whether at a small meetings, at rallies in Dublin, at the Marxism Festival or on the steps of Portsmouth Guildhall. He was an active trade unionist. He was a stalwart on Commercial Road selling Socialist Worker. He was instrumental in United Front work such as the Anti Nazi League and the Stop the War Coalition. He was completely involved in building the SWP and the International Socialist Tendency at the level of the branch, nationally and internationally. For example, his books had big impact on comrades in South Korea and he played a very active part in the Cairo Conferences and work with our Egyptian comrades.

John did all this while working and bringing up a family. His work rate was phenomenal and he drove himself too such high standards throughout his life. His passion for getting rid of the ‘muck of ages’ and freeing up the true potential of humanity never dimmed. John was truly an outstanding Marxist and his legacy and influence will live on in the international workers movement for years to come.

John could really write, whether short columns, articles or books. His last book of selected writings is something to treasure and gives us a flavour of the breadth and depth of his work. John’s passion for, and understanding of, art was unparalleled. His book ‘The Dialectics of Art’ is amazing and many of us remember to the wonderful talks he gave at the Marxism Festival on art. There are so many books that John wrote that are essential reading.

But John wasn’t just an exemplary revolutionary. He was one of the kindest, most generous people I have ever known. If someone John knew was in need, John would always do everything he could to help. Class solidarity was not an abstract concept or just on picket lines for John. His humanity was not confined to party members or activists. He understood at very deep and personal level how the brutal system of capitalism wrecks people lives and how we need to support and care for each other. John was a wonderful example of what a revolutionary socialist should be like. He talked the talk and he walked the walk.

John’s influence has a profound effect on many of us. As Huw Williams has said, he was such and amazing resource for anyone who really wants to change the world. There are so many comrades who were influenced by John. We used to joke about if all the comrades who spent time in Portsmouth SWP Branch had stayed after finishing at the Polytechnic/University, we would have been the biggest in the country! It is in a large part testament to John that many of those comrades are still very active and leading the party.

John was truly an independent thinker. His knowledge of Marxism was second to none, but he did not shy away from hard arguments and being in minority at times. His loyalty to the International Socialist Tendency and the SWP was never in doubt, but he was always in favour of open and honest debate.

When John moved to Ireland in 2010 is was a big loss for us in Portsmouth but we all knew we owed such a debt to John that we did all pull together made sure he had a branch he could remain proud of. We loved keeping in touch with John and hearing about the movement in Ireland. John was always interested in his comrades and what they were doing. Only 2 weeks ago John was in Portsmouth giving the eulogy to his dear friend and comrade, Max. We spent the evening with John in the pub and I’m sure many of wish we had been able to tell him how much he means to us and how much he changed our lives.

John Molyneux will never be forgotten, he will always be in our hearts and we will honour him by continuing the struggle for socialism, the struggle in which he was such a beacon.

Dave Holes

So clear and incisive

I, like many, will so miss John Molyneux. I remember when he started curating art exhibitions in the SOAS basement at Marxism and included a piece by myself.

I was particularly amazed the next year when we all could see the incredible stone bust of Tony Cliff by Chanie Rosenberg amongst other 3D pieces.

His meetings and contributions were always so clear and incisive.

Dave Holes

Tim Evans, Swansea Branch

Incident at a restaurant

Still trying to deal with the shock of hearing that my dear friend and comrade John Molyneux has died. I worked closely with John in the Portsmouth branch from 1998 to about 2005. He helped me at Portsmouth Uni on my (still unfinished) Phd on the language of the Blues, introducing me to the work of Bakhtin, Voloshinov and Walter Benjamin. 

He was a Marxist writer and speaker of great effectiveness and a central figure in the building nationally of the IS and the SWP. But he was also engaged with building Portsmouth branch at many levels. On a rainy, windy Saturday, often accompanied by his friend and comrade Max, he was always first at the town centre paper sale, unfolding the table and generally setting things up. As a writer and speaker, he had that rare ability to explain complex things simply, which was why for years before I met him, his regular Socialist Worker column was always the part of the paper I read first. He was a demon at chess and poker. Watching him eviscerate an opponent at chess was a delight as well as an education. 

But there was one incident that I remember as summing up so many aspects of the man. He and I were in a Chinese restaurant opposite King’s Cross. It was fairly late when a group of about seven customers decided it would be a good laugh to get up and leave without paying.

It was a small family restaurant and the stunt was clearly racist. The small, middle-aged Chinese woman on the till was begging them. Seven meals with lagers was a lot of money. John got up, walked over and engaged the ringleader in conversation. Quite quietly and calmly he questioned the man: did he really think it was a good idea to take money off these people, who had very little to start with, and who worked all the hours in the day to be able to afford the rent? Would he have done the same if the restauranteurs had been white? And so on in the same vein, without a trace of anger or aggression. And in the end, amazingly, the group paid up. 

That was John. We have lost not just a brilliant Marxist, but also a fighter against injustice and an implacable tribune of the oppressed. Rest in power, my friend.

Tim Evans, Swansea Branch

Dr John Fisher, formerly Director of Research and Education, TGWU (now Unite)

Fifth best poker player in Britain

Jules Townshend, (later Professor of Politics at Manchester Met) Mel Doyle (later DGS of the WEA) and myself were mainly responsible for enrolling John into the Southampton branch of the IS.

John arrived at Southampton University in 1967 having originally attended Cambridge, but rejected it after a term and walked out. In between, he was able to make a living as a poker and chess player.

He modestly claimed he was the fifth best poker-player in the country at the time and was certainly good enough to be welcomed at the Victoria Sporting Club among the high rollers, even though he was a scruffy student.

Having been robbed on a visit to New York, he was able to support himself by playing chess for money against the locals and came back with more money than he took with him.

So he was very, very clever, and hungry to learn about Marxism and socialism. We were ahead of him in this, and in our shared student house in Thornhill he would drain our brains with endless questions and follow-up discussions.

You felt him coming up on the rails, ready to fly past you. We had recently set up the IS in Southampton, mainly with student members, and a few campaigns around the docks and other industries. John’s focus was on Socialism and Marxism, rather than nuts-and-bolts trade union struggles, and this is what he concentrated on throughout his life, linking these to jazz, art and culture.

Dr John Fisher, formerly Director of Research and Education, TGWU (now Unite)

Sasha Simic

A giant of Marxism

The death of the great Marxist revolutionary John Molyneux is a huge loss to the International Socialist movement. A veteran of Paris May 1968, he had first-hand experience that workers had the potential to overthrow capitalism.

He also understood the necessity of the revolutionary party to that process. He kept faith with both in the course of his long, rich and productive life.

John was a great teacher of Marxism. His long-running column in Socialist Worker was crucial to my political development. I’m sure there are many comrades who owe him the same debt. It was the first thing I turned to every week,

It helped me apply Marxism as a tool of analysis and as a guide to action.I wish I’d told him that while he was alive.

John was a giant of Marxism, and he will not be forgotten.

His work will continue to light the road to socialism. My thoughts are with his partner Mary, his comrades in Ireland and his family and friends. Thank you for your service to the working-class John.

Rest in Peace.

Sasha Simic, Hackney SWP

Alex Callinicos

John Molyneux, a stalwart revolutionary who fused theory and practice to shape socialist politics around the world, writes Alex Callinicos

Socialists around the world were shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden death of John Molyneux in Dublin on Saturday. He was 74. John was one of the most important Marxist writers and activists in the generation of students and young workers who rebelled against the system in the 1960s and 1970s.

He joined the International Socialists (IS), predecessor of the Socialist Workers Party, in 1968.  A student at Southampton University, he was radicalised by his involvement in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and by a visit to Paris during the great May 1968 revolt. He was actually recruited to (IS) by its founder Tony Cliff.

John remained a committed revolutionary socialist for the rest of his life, first in the SWP and later in its Irish sister organisation, now the Socialist Workers Network (SWN). John taught as a lecturer at Portsmouth Polytechnic, later the University of Portsmouth. His influence helped to attract many of his students towards revolutionary Marxism. He was a determined activist, and the mainstay of the SWP’s Portsmouth branch till he moved to Ireland.

But his most important contribution was as a writer. His first book, Marxism and the Party—in completing which he enjoyed Cliff’s editorial assistance—was published in 1978. This was a time of confusion and debate among revolutionaries internationally, and John brought tremendous clarity to the central problem of socialist organisation.

He showed the same combination of lucidity and erudition in the weekly column he wrote for Socialist Worker for many years. It would arrive like clockwork, handwritten but always perfectly legible, demonstrating the relevance of the Marxist tradition to the issues and debates of the day. Some were spun off as pamphlets or collected in books.

One of John’s most influential texts was the article “What is the Real Marxist Tradition?”, first published in 1983 and widely reproduced and translated in pamphlet form and online. Here he sought to distinguish the classical revolutionary Marxism of Marx and Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, Luxemburg and Gramsci and its conception of socialism as the self-emancipation of the working class from the distortions and corruptions of Stalinism and social democracy.

But John wasn’t content to remain a simple expounder of orthodoxy. In Leon Trotsky’s Theory of Revolution, 1983 he sharply criticised what he regarded as the theoretical and political weaknesses shown by the Marxist he also described as his great hero. Similarly, his practice as an activist was never unthinking or mechanical. John broadly agreed with the approach the SWP leadership took to building the party amid all the twists of turns of the situation in Britain and internationally.

At the same time, he wasn’t afraid to criticise and even to challenge us when he thought we got it wrong, particularly in how we conducted debates within the party. But when Respect, the radical left coalition we had helped to initiate, went into crisis in 2007-8, John sprang to the SWP’s defence. It was a class question, he said.

As time went on, John’s Marxism became broader and more creative. He became increasingly interested in the Marxist approach to art, nourished by a lifelong love of painting. He developed his conception of art as “work produced by unalienated human labour and characterised by a fusion or unity of form and content” in The Dialectics of Art, 2020. He wrote superbly about individual artists such as Rembrandt, with an eye for detail that never lost sight of the historical context.

As ever with John, theory and practice were united. As a lecturer at the School of Art and Design at the University of Portsmouth from 1992 onwards, he inspired students in their own art. In 2007-10 he organised the Left in Vision art exhibition at the annual Marxism Festival.

In 2010 John retired, and moved to Ireland to be with his partner, Mary Smith. He threw himself into political activity in Dublin, and joined the SWN leadership as it became the driving force of the highly successful People before Profit coalition.

He was as busy as ever—editor of the SWN theoretical journal Irish Marxist Review and a member of the Coordination of the International Socialist Tendency. But John’s greatest efforts went into hammering out a Marxist approach to the accelerating destruction of nature by capitalism.

We both agreed that climate change was simultaneously the greatest threat to humankind and the greatest stimulus to revolution. This preoccupation is reflected in John’s final Selected Writings on Socialism and Revolution, 2022. He initiated the Global Ecosocialist Network to coordinate and strengthen the anticapitalist response to this existential crisis.

The closest I came to downtime with John was when we both attended a conference at Niteroi, in Brazil, in 2009. John was staying in Rio de Janeiro, on the other side of the bay from the conference. Getting around the Rio area isn’t that easy, so John had to travel a lot. But he was always full of energy, questions, arguments, curiosity, and comradeship. He befriended a Brazilian student who invited him to visit his family in the favela they lived in.

One could truly apply to John the motto Marx adopted for himself—“Nothing human is alien to me.” But now this stream of non-stop activity has been quenched. All my sympathies go to Mary, John’s partner, and to his family, especially his children Sara and Jack, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as well as to his comrades and friends in Ireland, Britain, and around the world.

Tim Evans – ‘Poker in the Strand’

John did not write about politics to the exclusion of all else. In 2002 he wrote a piece called ‘Poker in the Strand’ specially for this book, about his life as a neophyte gambler in sixties London (he was a dab hand at poker, and earned a fair bit of money from it).The place he played was an illegal gambling den called the En Passant, in the Strand. Here is just a taste of it: “The En Passant was a poker club, hiding behind the very tiniest fig leaf of a chess club. Actually, this is not quite true. It was really a poker game, not a club. There was nothing you could join, no membership fee or list, no records of any kind, no entrance fee, no reception or receptionist, no doormen, no security – though the people who went there, some of them at least, were more than capable of dealing with any trouble that might present itself and capable, if they chose, of creating more trouble than any doorman or security could handle. There was just a game of poker, occasionally two games – seven or eight men sitting round a table playing cards permanently…in its heyday the poker game at the En Passant ran continuously 24 hours round the clock, one endless game of cards without beginning or end…The small gangster types all had Runyonesque nicknames: Johnny the Builder, Chills Tony, Little Art, Jumbo, Scouse Billy, Paddy George, Chrissy Doobie, Brian the Burglar and such like…Johnny the Builder was a small wiry man, middle aged going on old, with a harsh rasping voice that testified to chain smoking and could hardly utter a sentence without several expletives. “Fucking cards. I ain’t seen a fucking pair since bloody eight o’clock…”

It may be out of print by now but if you can get hold of a copy it’s a great read. Try Bookmarks first.

https://bookmarksbookshop.co.uk/

Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries at Portsmouth University

Newsletter of the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries at Portsmouth University.

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of former University of Portsmouth School of Art, Design and Media lecturer, John Molyneux, who was a ‘giant’ of socialist and anti-racism causes. John was a leading figure in a variety of causes across the city and beyond, with his efforts ranging from anti-racism marches to protests against the war in Iraq in 2003. John, who was much loved by staff and students, went on to write extensively on socialism and Marxism, attracting an international audience for his books and articles. His most recent books The Selected Writings on Socialism And Revolution (2022) and The Dialectics of Art (2021) were showcased at the recent 30th UoP celebrations in Eldon Buiding.

Jack Molyneux

Sadly we lost my Dad yesterday. He was so much to me. In the beginning he was my primary caregiver, my teacher, my guide, my playmate, my number one supporter.

In later years he was still my number one supporter, but he was also my confidant,my friend and when times were tough always my rock.

He was an amazing husband to my mum and I believe partner to Mary, whom it was so nice to see him find love with, later in life.

He fought so hard and bravely, for social justice and societal change, and was always on the right side of history. Overall he was my role model, my inspiration and some might say hero. I will miss him more than words can express.

Huw Williams

It’s impossible to convey into words how devastating the death of John Molyneux is. On a personal note I have known John since 1985 when I moved to Portsmouth already an active revolutionary and became part of the local SWP branch. I had of course read his weekly column in Socialist Worker, seen him speak at the annual Marxism festival which had been running for a few years and read his first major book “Marxism and the party”. I was 20 yrs old.

I last spoke to John on Friday discussing arrangements for the couple of days he was going to visit between Xmas and new year. He was delighted to hear about a local anti racist “Riot ” in a Bristol school and wanted to know how my son Dylan’s first meeting had gone and how I must be really proud and whether he could get a card to him for his 18th birthday or leave it until he came to stay. We discussed China , Iran and the UK strikes and he outlined his concerns for the recent racist mobilisation in Dublin and how this could be combatted. World cup also featured but not for long This would be a fairly typical conversation with John. We would often start a conversation with a statement like “Will have to be quick” but end up as then speaking for over an hour.

We became very close comrades in Portsmouth and afterwards even closer as friends and have remained so for the following 37 years. I consciously took the decision to take advantage of being in the same branch as him and discuss and debate and pick his brains as much as possible. The recollections of those days sitting in his house after the weekly branch meeting , smoking , drinking whiskey sometimes until the light came up will always remain. He had an amazing ability to do this and then around 5am we would discuss what next weeks “Teach yourself Marxism ” column should be which he would then write up and in those days phone in to the Socialist Worker paper at around 8:30am . Whilst I would head off home to my bed shattered he would go to work in the local FE college ! I think we worked out he wrote about 650 of these columns . He didn’t seem to sleep at all.

Then myself and two other young members Jon Woods and Richard Peacock moved into a house on the same road as John. John would often pop in after work and being utterly skint we would cadge his beloved golden Virginia roll ups which he would then leave and say he’d forgotten them . We built a relatively large branch in Portsmouth and some of us thought John was conservative (John I think got the scale of the miners defeat in a way I simply didn’t) and we had i remember a meeting in Tony Cliff’s chalet at Skegness to iron out the difficulties. John could well have been pissed off with me but was the exact opposite and said young revolutionaries should be inpatient. He lent me book after book, article after article , got me to do meetings in Portsmouth and ringing up other branches to book me and encouraged other young comrades to do likewise . He listened to people and wanted to know what they were thinking and why.

John politically was yes an independent thinker and I think the IS/SWP tradition was encouraging of that and its what he loved about it and for a period I guess in the 90’s felt a bit of despair of our defensiveness sometimes . Debate and questioning everything was John’s way. He was so shaped by 1968 . When we recently discussed what chapters should be in his book we laughingly (Not seriously) discussed one that could be entitled “Articles that have got me in the shit” .

John however was to his core a revolutionary who was totally committed to building revolutionary organisation. He was and totally remained very much someone shaped buy the politics of Tony Cliff even when he disagreed with him! John didn’t do much reminiscing but when he did it was often related to Cliff and his impact. John I think encapsulated the SWP at its best – one of a relatively large number of very serious marxists who wrote and thought and debated even if they weren’t on the central leadership of the organisation which in Johns case was in my view a bad mistake. . He was however I think pretty unique in that he combined this with daily revolutionary activity and had very sharp disdain for academic marxists not engaged in practice. He would be involved in myriad of campaigns both national and local, workplace and community. He was also for a while a NAFTHE branch sec. He booked the speakers for the party branch for about 30 or more years !! He was always talking and thinking about the future and how radical revolutionary politics needed to connect with much wider forces.

Lastly the loss of John will I know be of huge sadness for his children Jack and Sara and his grand children. He was so proud of them all. He was really looking forward to seeing them all at Christmas . When John’s life long partner Jill tragically died this had a terrible impact on John who shortly afterwards said to me he wasn’t going to write about politics anymore but only occasionally about art. John was in a very dark place at that time and I am sure I wasn’t the only person to think this was going to end soon in tragedy.

How come then he was at his most industrious writing large numbers of article and books in the following years? The simple answer it seems to me was for him to meet Mary Smith and decide life was still worth living . Anyone who could get John to go walking, and lose lots of weight, eat healthly must have meant the world to him ! and it was so abundantly clear she did. He had such huge respect for Mary obviously but also politically and the move to Ireland and its new politics opened up for John a new lease of life. He said to me he learned so much from the Irish comrades and that it gave him a new perspective on revolutionary organisation and its relationship to the working class.

So today is an awful day and I am no writer but the thought of not seeing or talking to John ever again is very painful. My son Dylan said to me that John was like family and that was sort of true. However when I was sat at home devastated I thought of John and jumped in the car and went to the postal workers picket line as I know he would have said that’s where we need to be . These workers wouldn’t have known or heard of John but is it too trite to say he was there in spirit? I don’t think so.