Chris Harman (8 November 1942 – 7 November 2009, Cairo, Egypt) was a British journalist and political activist, and a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party. He was formerly the editor of International Socialism, and Socialist Worker.
Born into a working class family, Harman attended Leeds University (where he joined the Socialist Review Group) and the London School of Economics (LSE) where he began (but did not complete) a doctorate under the supervision of Ralph Miliband. He was instrumental in publishing the magazine of the LSE Socialist Society, The Agitator, and was a leading member of the International Socialists (as the SRG had become) by 1968. He was involved in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and outraged many leftists when, at a meeting in the Conway Hall, he denounced Ho Chi Minh for murdering the leader of the Vietnamese Trotskyist movement, Ta Thu Thau, in 1945 after crushing the workers' rising of that year in Saigon.
His main role in the IS (from 1978 the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) was as a theorist and he produced numerous books and articles on a wide variety of topics. Almost all his writing appeared in the publications of the IS and SWP or has been published by related publishing houses, such as Bookmarks. He was first editor of Socialist Worker in 1976-77 and returned to the role after a break in 1982, remaining in the post until 2004, when he started editing the SWP's theoretical quarterly International Socialism Journal.
Harman's work on May 1968 in France and other student and workers uprisings of the late 1960s, The Fire Last Time, was recommended by rock band Rage Against the Machine in their album sleeve notes for Evil Empire.
Harman died on 7 November 2009 following a cardiac arrest while lecturing at the Socialist Days conference of the Center of Socialist Studies (CSS) in Cairo, Egypt.
