Martin Smith (activist)

Socialist Workers Party stall, London 2011.

Martin James Smith (born October 1963[1]) is a British political activist. He is a former National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), a position he held from 2004 until January 2011.[2] He left the SWP in 2013.

Smith joined the SWP in the 1980s and eventually become a member of the Central Committee. He was involved in disrupting talks at Acas in May 2010 between British Airways and the Unite trade union which he defended on Channel 4 News.[3] He has also been involved at a senior level in Unite Against Fascism. In September 2010, he was convicted of an assault on a police officer during the protest in October 2009 against British National Party leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time. He was sentenced to a 12-month community order.[4]

Smith is a former Director of Sherborne Publications Limited,[1] the company that publishes the Socialist Worker, and of Love Music Hate Racism.[5] At the National Conference in January 2011, he left the post of National Secretary in favour of Charlie Kimber,[2] who remains in this position.

Smith is currently a PhD student at Liverpool Hope University, supervised by Michael Lavalette and Stephen Kelly.[6]

Selected publications

  • John Coltrane: Jazz, racism and resistance, the extended version. Redwords, 2003. ISBN 9781872208220
  • Frank Sinatra: When ole blue eyes was a red. London: Bookmarks Publications, 2005. ISBN 9781905192021
  • Why "British jobs for British workers" won't solve the crisis: Why we need jobs for all. London: Bookmarks Publications. ISBN 9781905192489

References

  1. 1 2 MR MARTIN JAMES SMITH directorsintheuk.co.uk, 21 March 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 Peter Manson "Another one bites the dust", Weekly Worker, No.847, 6 January 2011
  3. ↑ "BA's Willie Walsh 'trying to divide Unite'", Channel 4 News, 23 May 2010
  4. ↑ Martin Smith - 'I will appeal and clear my name' Socialist Worker, 9 September 2010. Retrieved 21 March 2014. Archived here.
  5. ↑ Companies House
  6. ↑ Department of History and Politics
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