Richard Seymour (writer)

Richard Seymour

Richard Seymour (born 1977) is a British Marxist writer, activist and owner of the blog Lenin's Tomb. The author of The Liberal Defence of Murder and other books, Seymour was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland to a Protestant family,^[1] and currently lives in London. A former member of the Socialist Workers Party,^[2] he left the organization in March 2013. He is currently preparing a PhD in sociology at the London School of Economics under the supervision of Paul Gilroy.^[3] He writes for The Guardian,^[4] ABC Australia, Al Jazeera, In These Times and other publications.^[5][6][7][8]

Lenin's Tomb

The blog Lenin's Tomb began in June 2003^[9] and was listed in 2005 as the 21st-most-popular blog in the country.^[10] Although run by Seymour, it also has front-page posts from other contributors, including, occasionally, China Miéville.^[11] It has been cited by the BBC,^[12][13] The Guardian, Private Eye, and Slate magazine.^[14] Seymour writes about "issues such as imperialism, Zionism, Islamophobia and anti-capitalism, and covers strikes and protests with footage, images and reportage".

Beginning in January 2013, Seymour focused his blog on an ongoing scandal involving allegations of rape committed by a (now former) member of the SWP's central committee, and accepted guest entries from other party members criticizing the party leadership's response.^[15] He announced his resignation from the SWP on 11 March,^[16][17] and began using the original blog to convey a more thorough account of the party's crisis than hitherto.^[18] Writing in The Guardian, Seymour responded to an article by Julie Sherry,^[19] a central committee member: "We will take no lessons from the Daily Mail, Sherry says. How right she is. With a record like this, who needs lessons from the Daily Mail?"^[20]

The Liberal Defence of Murder

A review by the journalist Gary Younge of Seymour's 2008 book, The Liberal Defence of Murder, which was featured on the book's cover, describes Seymour as "expertly" tracing the descent of liberal supporters of war "from humanitarian intervention to blatant islamophobia". China Miéville praised the book as an "indispensable" guide to the "pre-history and modern reality of the so-called 'pro-war Left'". Owen Hatherley, writing in the New Statesman, praised the book as "a freshly written, heavily footnoted and clearly obsessively researched history of 400 years of the 'decent left'".^[21] An Independent on Sunday review described it as "an excellent antidote to the propagandists of the crisis of our times", and a later review in The Independent by the policy director of Save the Children described the book as "timely, provocative and thought-provoking".^[22]

A review in The Times praised the book as a "powerful counter-blast against the monstrous regiment of 'useful idiots'" who have "contributed in recent decades to the murderous mess of modern times".^[23] On the other hand, columnist Oliver Kamm, writing for his Times blog, disputed the review, accusing Seymour of some historiographical distortions and spelling mistakes.^[24] Seymour posted a lengthy reply to Kamm's criticisms on his own blog.^[25]

A critical review in The Guardian by Philippe Sands contended that despite the book's "damning material" on the supporters of war, this "potentially important book" was weakened by "the generality" of its conclusions and the failure to concede that there are instances where the use of force is justified.^[26] Seymour also responded to this critique on his blog. An enthusiastic review appeared in Resurgence magazine in March 2010, declaiming that: "Richard Seymour's obsessively researched, impressive first book holds its place as the most authoritative historical analysis of its kind".^[27] A scholarly review in the Journal of American Studies commended the book's "truly impressive breadth and depth", arguing that it provided "a new European perspective – and a warning – on the left’s pragmatic and ultimately shortsighted support for imperialist adventures".^[28]

Computer programmer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz praised the book unreservedly in his 2009 review of books: "This book is like a little miracle. I’m not even sure how to describe it, except to say that it turns one’s understanding of history completely upside-down." ^[29]

A later interview on the literary website, ReadySteadyBook, discussed Seymour's motivations in writing the book, and his responses to critics. He explained that: "The shape the book eventually took, as a genealogy of liberal imperialism, was prompted by the combat clerisy themselves. They were the ones appealing to the legacy of 19th Century liberal imperialism. They were the ones vaunting a kitschy manifest-destinarianism, as well as a muscular determination to visit vengeance on the barbarians. It was they who culled their catchphrases from a disgraced imperial lexicon. Unless I wanted to write a gossipy, huffy polemic in the manner of Nick Cohen's What's Left, I had no choice but to anatomise these discursive strategies from their origins to the present day."^[30]

Unhitched: The Trial of Christopher Hitchens

Unhitched, published in 2013, focuses on Christopher Hitchens's work on religion, his engagement with British politics and his alleged embrace of American imperialism.^[31] Seymour has said of Unhitched, "It is written in the spirit of a trial ... I do attempt to get a sense of the complexity and gifts of the man, but it is very clearly a prosecution, and you can guess my conclusion."^[32]

Published works

• 2008 The Liberal Defence of Murder. ISBN 978-1-84467-240-0, Verso Books.^[14]
• 2008 "The Genocidal Imagination of Christopher Hitchens", in Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq and the Left. ISBN 0-8147-1687-3, New York University Press.^[33]
• 2009 "John Spargo and American Socialism", in Historical Materialism, 17: 2, 2009, pp. 272–285(14).^[34]
• 2010 "The War on Terror as Political Violence", in Marie Breen Smyth, ed., The Ashgate Research Companion to Political Violence, 2010^[35]
• 2010 The Meaning of David Cameron. ISBN 978-1-84694-456-7, Zero Books, 2010^[36]
• 2011 American Insurgents: A Short History of American Anti-Imperialism. ISBN 978-1-60846-141-7, Haymarket Books.^[37]
• 2012 Unhitched: The Trial of Christopher Hitchens. ISBN 978-1-84467-990-4, Verso Books.^[38]

Selected articles

• "The Slaying of Jean Charles de Menezes", MRZine
• "The Genocidal Imagination of Christopher Hitchens", MRZine
• "The Sadrist Revolt", MRZine
• "Sudan: A Young Imperialist's Guide to Darfur", Socialist Review
• "In the name of decency: the contortions of the pro-war left", International Socialism Journal
• "Taking Apart the West", New Statesman
• "Obama the imperialist", The Guardian
• "The changing face of racism", International Socialism Journal
• "The Axeman's Jazz", New Left Project
• "Cameron: Care Bear, or lame duck?", The Guardian
• "The Tories are less ideologues, more skilled political pugilists", The Guardian
• "Have the firefighters blown it by calling off strike?", The Guardian
• "Lewisham anti-cuts protesters have been pushed to the edge", The Guardian
• "David Cameron's Tea Party", Radical Philosophy
• "With unpaid overtime, we're giving our employers £29bn worth of free labour", The Guardian
• "The siren song of the neocons in David Cameron's cabinet", The Guardian
• "Working-class Tories become an endangered species", The Guardian
• "Vilifying Gaddafi externalises evil", The Guardian

Talks

• "Racism in Britain Today" SOAS, 2 August 2010
• "The Return of the Public", with Dan Hind, Cafe Oto, 1 February 2011
• "Class and capitalism: mentioning the c-words" 6 Billion Ways, Rich Mix, 5 March 2011
• "Towards a new model commune" ICA, 19 March 2011

References

External links

• Lenin's Tomb