A socialist's approach to development, Brighton and beyond
From Diane Elson, Rhys Jenkins, Maureen Mackintosh, Ruth Pearson, Hugo Radice
Among his many other contributions, Robin was an inspiration to the five of us, then a group of young radical economists at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex in the mid 1970s, as we tried to develop an empirically grounded critique of capitalist development, attentive to the changing international forms of this development. At Sussex, Robin led reading groups on Marx’s Capital – and we found ourselves not only reading and debating all three volumes but also The Grundrisse, as Robin encouraged us to think about their relevance to contemporary capitalist economies, and take from them an understanding of capitalist accumulation as a contradictory process, rife with struggles.
He brought together the Brighton Labour Process Group – Diane Elson and Hugo Radice were among the members- which not only debated theories but also investigated the materiality of capitalism, going on field trips to visit factories, coal-mines, processing plants and markets; and engaged with how to create alternative forms of production and distribution. A key part of the BLPG’s work, organised by Robin, was a study of changes in the labour process at the ITT Creed factory that produced teleprinters in Brighton. BLPG members worked closely with shop stewards at the factory and Robin wrote this up as a case study (unfortunately never published).
Robin had taught at the London Business School before arriving at IDS, and he was an expert on multinational companies and studied their internal manipulation of prices to move profits around the world. As on so many issues that Robin engaged with, what at the time was regarded as a relatively esoteric issue has become a mainstream concern with many organisations, including the OECD, addressing the issue of corporate profit shifting and tax avoidance. He inspired three of us, as a PhD supervisor ( Rhys Jenkins) and as a colleague (Maureen Mackintosh and Ruth Pearson), to carry out research in Africa and Latin America on the behaviour of specific TNCs, and industries which combined theoretical insights with detailed empirical work.
He was also a stalwart of the Sussex Conference of Socialist Economists group, to which we all belonged. Robin was one of the founding members of the CSE in April 1969 (together with Ernest Mandel, Michael Barratt Brown, Bob Rowthorn, and Hugo Radice). Robin and Hugo and Sam Aaronovitch then went on to organise the first CSE conference which was held at the Marx Memorial Library in London in Jan 1970. CSE is still operating and publishing the journal Capital and Class.
In 1979 Robin persuaded IDS to host a 6 week study seminar on Socialist Development Strategies, influenced by his work with the Government of Eritrea. This seminar featured a Socialist version of 5- a-side football match, the principle of which was that when one team scored a goal, they had to surrender a selected member of their team to the other side.
Robin was the embodiment of “Think globally , Act Locally”, and was one of the contributors, along with Frances, to the local community newspaper in Brighton Kemptown aptly named QueenSpark, which amongst other things, featured a serialisation of Robin’s notes on Volume 1 of Capital.
Robin was always alive to the possibilities of transforming economies and his agile, creative approach to economic analysis had a deep and long lasting influence on those of us who enjoyed his energising comradeship when we were young researchers. And for a number of us, this influence continued beyond Sussex and IDS.
Maureen Mackintosh recalls being hired – swept up, was more how it felt - by Robin to work in the Industry and Employment Branch at the Greater London Council in 1983, during the Livingstone administration. Robin was the GLC’s chief economic adviser and he pulled in a group of radical economists to work with him, including Irene Breughel who is unfortunately no longer here to reminisce. Maureen remembers that on her first day Robin stalked into the office carrying a huge mound of paper. “London Transport”, he announced, “is trying to sack 2000 bus conductors. Stop them!”. The mound of papers descended onto her desk – and that was it. For the next three years she was GLC transport economist, working with the trades unions on limiting one-person bus operation, including research demonstrating its impact on bus workers’ health, and on trying to stop the closure of London’s transport engineering works; defending big improvements in bus services and the start of the night buses by demonstrating the economic importance of buses for women and lower income Londoners and the economic benefits, while the Thatcher government pushed in the opposite direction; justifying the banning of highly polluting lorries from central London, and making the case for integration of inner London rail with the Tube (blocked by Thatcher, now the Overground).
Robin never ceased to be engaged with all this, his political imagination immediately responding to the arguments – standard now, new then – about the economic, social and political importance of these urban transport struggles as well as other sectors. This is a good example of Robin’s extraordinary ability to engage with concrete economic issues – literally concrete in the case of the anti-road building struggles – while never losing sight of broader political ideas and goals. It’s also a lasting legacy.
Robin Murray had a deep influence on our academic, professional and political development and we- like others- owe him a good deal. We will miss his highly original thinking, wry humour and boundless enthusiasm in the struggles ahead.