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John Ross (blogger)

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Ross in 2022

John Ross is a British economist and blogger, known for his leadership of the Trotskyist party Socialist Action and his support for the Chinese government. He is better known in China as his Chinese name Luo Siyi (Chinese: 罗思义). Ross currently contributes to multiple Chinese news media including CGTN and China Daily.

Socialist Action, Labour and Ken Livingstone

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Ross joined the Trotskyist International Marxist Group (IMG) in the late 1960s. His party name in the IMG was Alan Jones. He worked with Bob Pennington to form the IMG Opposition Group. Ross was a central figure in the leadership of the IMG in the 1970s and early 1980s. In December 1982, the IMG renamed itself the Socialist League.[1] The group fully entered the Labour Party and in 1983 began publishing the Socialist Action newspaper, by which name the League was often known.

Ross wrote the book Thatcher and Friends - the Anatomy of the Tory Party (1983).

Ross gradually lost the support of much of its membership.[2][3][4][5] Ross was leader of one of three groups which emerged from the crisis of this group in the mid-1980s, the one which retained the name Socialist Action. They left the Fourth International and increasingly ceased to function as a normal left-wing group. The group adopted an entryist strategy "to protect members from any potential Militant-style purge".[6][7]

In the 1990s, according to rival Trotskyist group the Alliance for Workers Liberty, Ross lived in Russia.[7]

SA's leaders became advisors to Labour Party politician Ken Livingstone.[6] Running as an independent candidate for Mayor of London in 2000, Livingstone's decision to appoint members of Socialist Action to his administration during his first term drew criticism in the media, including accusations of cronyism.[8] Ross was appointed Livingstone's Policy Director of Economic and Business Policy.[9][6][10] In 2007 Livingstone changed the GLA rules so that his eight key advisers, four associated with SA (including John Ross and the late Redmond O'Neill), who as temporary appointments would not normally have been entitled to severance pay, received an average of £200,000 each.[11]

Following Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour Party leader and Leader of the Opposition in 2015, Ross was linked to Corbyn's inner circle.[12][13]

China

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In the 2010s and 2020s, John Ross has been a prominent supporter of the Chinese government and its economic policies.[14][15] He featured in a Chinese government advertising billboard video in Times Square in 2016 asserting the country's claim over the South China Sea, frequently appears on Chinese state media platform China Daily[16] and has appeared on Chinese state media platform CGTN to blame Britain for the clashes related to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.[17]

He is the author of The Great Chess Game? A New Perspective on China's Destiny (2016) [18] and the journal article "Management Philosophy of the Greater London Authority". He is a columnist in English at the state media China Internet Information Center[19] and is translated into Chinese at Guancha.cn[20] and Sina Finance Opinion Leaders.[21]

He is a senior fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.[22][17][23]

In a video with Jodie Evans of Code Pink, he describes allegations of persecution of Uyghurs in China as “farcical” and a “total lie.” He has written:

If the real meaning of the term ‘human rights’ is used, it is evident that China has the best human rights record in the world — and those words are carefully chosen. … What is particularly striking is the factual contrast between what China has achieved and the laughable claim of the U.S. to a superior human rights record.[23]

In the New Statesman, left-wing journalist Paul Mason identified Ross and his paper Socialist Action as "committed to whitewashing China's authoritarian form of capitalism".[24][25][26][27]

References

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  1. ^ Collection of International Marxist Group Archived 2020-08-03 at the Wayback Machine, British Library of Political and Economic Science (LSE Library).
  2. ^ Patrick Avaakum, "Bob Pennington and the Trotskyist archipelago[permanent dead link‍]", Workers Liberty, April 1997, pp.42-44
  3. ^ Pitt, Bob. Review: The Economics of the Left Opposition Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine in What Next? Marxist Discussion Journal.
  4. ^ Oliver, Johnathan. Ken Livingstone’s aides ‘in secret Marxist cell’ in The Sunday Times, January 20, 2008.
  5. ^ Bright, Martin. I now believe Ken is a disgrace to his office Archived 2009-12-01 at the Wayback Machine in London Evening Standard, January 21, 2008.
  6. ^ a b c Andrew Hosken (2008), Ken: The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone, Arcadia Books
  7. ^ a b ""Success" for China. And for China's workers?". Workers' Liberty. 2022-01-18. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  8. ^ Leo McKinstry (2002-07-13). "Revenge of the Killer Newt". The Spectator.
  9. ^ Greater London Authority. London's Economy Today Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine, Issue 1, August 2002.
  10. ^ "The fraught business of appointing mayoral advisors". Local Government Chronicle (LGC). 2020-11-24. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  11. ^ Ken cronies' £1.6m payoff, Evening Standard, 4 August 2008
  12. ^ "Corbyn angers MPs with anti-war dinner | The Sunday Times". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 13 December 2015.
  13. ^ Wilson, Jeremy (2016-03-09). "Everything we know about the coup being plotted right now against Jeremy Corbyn". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  14. ^ Ni, Vincent (2021-12-06). "China attacks 'US-style democracy' prior to Biden summit". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  15. ^ "John Ross: from Trotskyism to power-worship". Workers' Liberty. 2021-06-15. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  16. ^ "South China Sea campaign airing in Times Square falsely uses British MP to back China's claim - ABC News". ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). 2016-07-28. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  17. ^ a b Moore, Matthew (2019-08-16). "George Galloway defends China over Hong Kong protests - News". The Times. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  18. ^ [英] 罗思义（John Ross） 著. "《一盘大棋？中国新命运解析》([英]罗思义（John Ross）)【摘要 书评 试读】- 京东图书". Item.jd.com. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  19. ^ "Opinion". China.org.cn. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  20. ^ 罗思义观察者网特约作者，中国人民大学重阳金融研究院高级研究员. "观察者网-中国关怀 全球视野". Guancha.cn. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  21. ^ http://finance.sina.com.cn/zl/china/luosiyi.shtml [bare URL]
  22. ^ "Profile". Guardian.co.uk.
  23. ^ a b "The Big Business of Uyghur Genocide Denial". New Lines Magazine. 18 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  24. ^ Mason, Paul (2020-08-05). "Why the left must condemn China's brutal authoritarianism". New Statesman. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  25. ^ "Socialists should oppose the new cold war against China – a reply to Paul Mason". Morning Star. 2020-08-14. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  26. ^ Mason, Paul (2022-01-05). "The left must stand against Xi Jinping's totalitarian China". New Statesman. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  27. ^ "Paul Mason, China and Marxism". Workers' Liberty. 2022-01-11. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
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