Lindsey German

Lindsey German

Lindsey German (born 1951) is the convenor of the British anti-war organisation Stop the War Coalition and a former member of the central committee of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party. She was editor of Socialist Review for twenty years until 2004. She has twice stood as a left wing candidate for Mayor of London, coming fifth in 2004 and most recently standing as the Left List mayoral candidate in the May 2008 elections. She has written several books, including two on women.

History

This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (April 2009)

Lindsey German was born in London in 1951 and educated in Hillingdon. She studied law at the London School of Economics, where she first became an active socialist.^[1] In 1970 she attended the "Stop the '70 Tour" demonstration organised by Peter Hain against the tour of the all-white South African cricket team. She had planned to attend a march against the Vietnam War in 1968, but did not.^[2] She was part of the original National Abortion Campaign in 1975 and was involved in struggles to achieve equal pay for women.^[3]

German joined the International Socialists, forerunner of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the early 1970s, later becoming part of its elected central committee and therefore a full timer for the group by 1977. She was employed by the organisation continuously until she resigned from the party's Central Committee at the SWP party conference in January 2009. She was editor of the SWP's monthly magazine, Socialist Review, from September 1984 until May 2004.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the US, German helped to found the Stop the War Coalition, which was established to oppose what later became known as the War on Terrorism. German became convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, speaking at meetings and demonstrations.

In January 2004, German supported the move to form Respect – The Unity Coalition, which included the SWP and other opponents of the war in Iraq, including fundamentalist Muslim groups,^[4] and which stood as a left alternative to the Labour Party in elections. At the SWP's Marxism 2003 event she commented: "I'm in favour of defending gay rights, [...] but I am not prepared to have it as a shibboleth, [created by] people who . . . regard the state of Israel as somehow a viable presence."^[5]

She was Respect's candidate for Mayor of London in 2004, in addition to standing in the election for a seat in the London Assembly. She came 5th in the mayoral election and was within 0.43% of winning a seat on the assembly. In 2005 she stood for the West Ham, London, constituency in the general election, coming second with 19.5% of the vote.

On 18 April 2007 she was selected as Respect's candidate for the 2008 London Mayoral election. However, a subsequent split within the organisation meant that German was not able to use the party's name in the election. Instead German stood as the candidate of the Left List.^[6], finishing in eighth place.

German currently lives with John Rees, her partner, another member of the SWP, in London E20.

Books

Lindsey German is the author of numerous books and articles including;

• Material girls: Women, men and work ISBN 1905192177
• Sex, class and socialism ISBN 0-906224-54-3
• The Balkans: Nationalism and Imperialism (editor), ISBN 1-898876-50-9
• Why We Need A Revolutionary Party
• Socialists and Class , ISBN 1-898876-05-3
• Stop the War: The story of Britain's biggest mass movement, (editor with Andrew Murray), ISBN 1-905192-00-2
• Frederick Engels
• Theories of Patriarchy
• Reflections on the Communist Manifesto

References

External links

• Lindsey's Blog German's blog at Stop the War Coalition
• On Campaign Trail German's blog of her May 2005 election campaign
• Lindsey for London Lindsey German for Mayor election website