UPDATE: See bottom of blogpost

Colin Barker, a long-time campaigner, activist and scholar, died earlier this week.  Many Mancunians (and of course people from much further afield) have benefited over the years from his hard work, his insight and his good humour.  For many many years (from 1995) he organised the annual “Alternative Futures and Popular Protest” conference,  an all-too-rare space for committed activists and engaged academics to talk with each other about their work.

Among Colin’s many fine qualities was his ability to concisely and constructively point to the weakness in an argument (I distinctly remember him exposing the vacuity in what Joseph Stiglitz was proposing back in 2000 or 2001: all done without rancour or aggression).

There will be various obituaries published (and this post will be updated to include links to those). For now, there are two from the SWP newspaper here and here

Colin’s funeral will be on Wednesday 20th February at 1pm in Chorlton Crematorium.

Please feel free to leave your memories in the comments box below – I will make sure they come to the attention of Colin’s family.

UPDATE: email address for your memories to be shared.

Hi there Colin and Ewa’s comrades, friends and family