Dave Renton

Early life and education

Renton was born in London in 1972. His great aunt was the communist historian, Dona Torr. His grandfather was the shoe designer Kurt Geiger. One uncle was an activist in Equity, the actors' trade union, while another was the Conservative MP Tim Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry. He was educated at all-boys private boarding school Eton College where he became a member of the Labour Party. He then studied history at St John's College, University of Oxford.

Academic career and writing

Renton received his PhD from the University of Sheffield for a thesis on fascism and anti-fascism in Britain after the Second World War.

Renton was an academic historian and sociologist, teaching at universities including Nottingham Trent, Edge Hill and Rhodes University and Johannesburg University in South Africa.

His PhD was turned into a book Fascism, Anti-Fascism and the 1940s, and is an account of the interactions between Oswald Mosley's Union Movement, its opponents in the 43 Group, and the police and courts. The historians Peter Davies and Derek Lynch described Renton as a "modern neo-Marxist historian whose Fascism: Theory and Practice is a useful guide to leftist interpretations of fascism." Never Again, his history of Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League, has been reviewed in The Spectator, The Herald and The Quietus.

Law

Since 2009, Renton has practised as a barrister at Garden Court Chambers in London, in employment and housing law.

Renton's clients have included the Bank of Ideas and Dave Smith, a construction worker who in 2012 and 2013 sued Carillion (JM) Ltd for blacklisting, in the aftermath of the Consulting Association scandal. Renton represented Smith at the Employment Tribunal, Employment Appeal Tribunal, Court of Appeal and European Court of Human Rights. It was during Smith's Tribunal hearing that the information first came into the public domain that construction workers had been spied on by the police or security services.

In 2021, Renton represented Stan Keable of Labour Against the Witchhunt, at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which held that Keable was unfairly dismissed for events occurring at the "Enough is Enough" protests against Jeremy Corbyn. The EAT upheld an order that Keable should be reinstated. In 2024, during protests against the genocide in Gaza, he represented the University of Birmingham student Mariyah Ali and other occupiers in contesting the university's right to expel the encampment.

Renton's book about working as a barrister during the COVID-19 lockdown, Jobs and Homes, was reviewed by Anna Minton in Prospect.

Politics

Renton joined the Socialist Workers Party in 1991, but resigned in 2013 during the "Comrade Delta" crisis. Renton supported the female complainants against Martin Smith and became a prominent critic of the SWP leadership, publicly criticising their decisions in a series of posts published on his blog, Lives; Running. In January 2014, he helped to found Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century (rs21).

In 2012, Renton was one of the organisers of the 2012 Counter Olympics Network protest against the London Olympics and took part in protests highlighting the Olympics' role in the gentrification of East London.

In May 2014, he published a piece in the London Review of Books naming the individual who had been the police's principal suspect for the death of Blair Peach, and setting out deficiencies in the inquest which had prevented the jury from having access to findings of the police investigation in the killing.

Selected publications

1990s

• Red Shirts and Black: Fascists and Anti-Fascists in Oxford in the 1930s. Ruskin College, Oxford, 1996.
• Fascism: Theory and practice. Pluto Press, London, 1999.

2000s

• Fascism, Anti-Fascism and the 1940s. Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, 2000.
• Socialism in Liverpool: Episodes in a History of Working-class Struggle. Hegemon Press, 2000. (Editor)
• The Twentieth Century: A Century of Wars and Revolutions?. Rivers Oram Press, 2000. (edited with Keith Flett)
• Marx on Globalization. Lawrence and Wishart, London, 2001. (Editor)
• This Rough Game: Fascism and Anti-fascism. Sutton, 2001.
• Classical Marxism: Socialist Theory and the Second International. New Clarion Press, 2002.
• The Communist Party of Great Britain Since 1920. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2002. (With James Eaden)
• New Approaches to Socialist History. New Clarion Press, 2003. (edited with Keith Flett)
• Dissident Marxism: Past Voices for Present Times. Zed Books, London, 2004.
• Sidney Pollard: A Life in History. Tauris, London, 2004.
• Trotsky. Haus Publishing, London, 2004.
• British Fascism, the Labour Movement and the State. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2005. (Editor and contributor with Nigel Copsey)
• Colour Blind? Race and Migration in North East England. University of Sunderland Press, Sunderland, 2007.
• When we Touched the Sky: The Anti-Nazi League 1977-1981. New Clarion Press, 2006.
• CLR James: Cricket's Philosopher King. Haus Publishing, 2007.
• The Congo: Plunder and Resistance. Zed Books, London, 2007. (With Leo Zeilig and David Seddon)

2010s

• Lives; Running. Zero Books, Winchester, 2012.
• Struck Out: Why Employment Tribunals Fail Workers and What Can be Done. Pluto Press, London, 2012.
• Socialism from Below: Writings from an Unfinished Tradition. Unkant Publishers, 2013.
• Never Again: Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League 1976-1982. Routledge, Abingdon, 2018.
• The New Authoritarians: Convergence on the Right. Pluto Press, London, 2019.

2020s

• Fascism: History and Theory. Pluto Press, London, 2020.
• Jobs and Homes: Stories of the Law in the Lockdown. Legal Action Group, London, 2021.
• No Free Speech for Fascists: Exploring 'No Platform' in History, Law and Politics. Routledge, Abingdon, 2021.
• Labour's Antisemitism Crisis: What the Left Got Wrong and How to Learn From It. Routledge, Abingdon, 2021.
• Against the Law: Why Justice Requires Fewer Laws and a Smaller State. Repeater, London, 2022.
• Horatio Bottomley and the Far Right Before Fascism. Routledge, Abingdon, 2022.
• Discrimination in Housing Law. London, Legal Action, 2024.
• Freedom of Speech and Employment Law. Routledge, Abingdon, 2025.

References

References

1. Renton, Dave. (2015). "Author".
2. Renton, Dave. (2013). "Biography".
3. de Caires, Brendan. (28 May 2008). "Free individual (book review)".
4. Renton, David. (2004). "Dissident Marxism: Past Voices for Present Times". [[Zed Books]].
5. Kelly, Sean. (Spring 2001). "Fascism, Anti-Fascism and the 1940s (review)". Labour History Review.
6. Coupland, Philip. (August 2002). "Fascism, Anti-Fascism and the 1940s (review)". Canadian Journal of History.
7. Cronin, Mike. (October 2001). "Reviews of Books: Europe: Early Modern and Modern". American Historical Review.
8. (2003). "Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right". [[Routledge]].
9. Lynskey, Dorian. (19 January 2019). "Music and revolt".
10. Cooper, Neil. (7 February 2019). "David Renton – Never Again! Rock Against Racism & the Anti-Nazi League 1976-1982".
11. (2 April 2019). "RAR Power: Rock Against Racism 40 Years On".
12. (April 2013). "David Renton".
13. (9 December 2011). "Stephen Knafler QC and David Renton represent Occupy London activists".
14. (11 October 2013). "David Renton acting in Employment Appeal Tribunal case on blacklisting".
15. Boffey, Daniel. (2012-03-03). "Police are linked to blacklist of construction workers". The Guardian.
16. Frot, Mathilde. (2021-10-27). "Council ordered to reinstate worker fired over comments about Zionism and Nazis". Jewish Chronicle.
17. {{cite court. (9 July 2024). link
18. Minton, Anna. (30 August 2021). "Exposed: the frontline of the housing crisis".
19. Renton, Dave. (17 December 2013). "To my comrades, of any party or none".
20. Platt, Edward. (20 May 2014). "Comrades at War".
21. (22 July 2012). "Counter Olympics Torch Relay".
22. Renton, Dave. (22 May 2014). "The Killing of Blair Peach". London Review of Books.
23. Thorpe, Andrew (2007) Review of Nigel Copsey, and David Renton. "British Fascism, the Labour Movement and the State", ''The English Historical Review''. 122.495: 281–283.