John Rees (born 1957) is a British political activist, academic, journalist and writer who is a national officer of the Stop the War Coalition, and founding member of Counterfire. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was formerly a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party and, as an SWP member, was heavily involved in Respect – The Unity Coalition. His books include Timelines, a political history of the modern world and A People's History of London, co-authored with his partner Lindsey German. He also produces documentaries and presents current affairs programmes for the Islam Channel. Early life and education Rees was born in Wiltshire, in South-West England, and was brought up and educated in Chippenham. His father, William Rees was from Aberdare, South Wales, and was a lifelong trade union activist and Labour Party member. His mother, Margaret Rees (Shipley) Rees was from Darlington. Rees' first degree was in Politics from Portsmouth Polytechnic and he subsequently undertook research on Hegel and Marx at Hull University under Dr (now Lord) Bhikhu Parekh. The result of that research, The Algebra of Revolution, was published by Routledge in 1998. When Georg Lukacs' unknown manuscript "Tailism and the Dialectic" was discovered and published by Verso Books in 2000, Rees provided the introduction to the volume. He holds a doctorate on 'Leveller organisation and the dynamic of the English Revolution' from Goldsmiths, University of London. Politics Elected a member of the National Executive of the National Union of Students in the early 1980s, Rees is a former member of the Socialist Workers Party, and was for many years on its Central Committee. He was editor of the quarterly journal International Socialism for ten years and the organiser of the SWP's annual Marxism festival in 1982–1983 and again from 1992–2002. A co-founder and a current national officer for the Stop the War Coalition, he has been a central organiser of all its marches including that of 15 February 2003. According to Rees, "Socialists should unconditionally stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, even if the people who run the oppressed country are undemocratic and persecute minorities, like Saddam Hussein." At the same time Rees has always advocated an unrelenting struggle against pro-Western dictators by the people of oppressed countries and to that end Rees became vice president (Europe) of the Cairo Anti-war Conference which rallied opposition forces against the