John Riddell (born 1942) is a Canadian Marxist essayist, historian, editor, translator and activist. He is best known as editor of The Communist International in Lenin’s Time, an eight-volume series of books of Communist International documents, many of which have been translated into English for the first time.[1][2]
In 1972, Riddell “was the target of an extensive campaign of [anonymous] letters containing various attempts to discredit him.”[8] In 1979, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers testified to an Ontario Public Inquiry that they had written and distributed these attacks, based on false information.[9] Riddell then took part in legal initiatives by Harry Kopyto and Ross Dowson to secure redress[10] in “a series of high-profile, but unsuccessful, lawsuits against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police” with reverberations lasting until 2016.[11]
He returned to Toronto in 1994, and was active with the RWL's successor, the Communist League until 2004 when he broke with the CL and the SWP over their lack of support for demonstrations against the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[14] Subsequently, Riddell has been active in solidarity campaigns for Venezuela, Bolivia, and Palestine and for climate justice.
Works
(ed. with Art Young) Prospects for a socialist Canada. Toronto: Vanguard Publications, 1977.
(ed.) Lenin's struggle for a revolutionary International: documents, 1907-1916, the preparatory years. Monad Press, 1984.
(ed.) The German revolution and the debate on Soviet power: documents, 1918-1919: preparing the founding congress. Pathfinder Press, 1986.
(ed.) Founding the Communist International: proceedings and documents of the First Congress, March 1919. Pathfinder Press, 1987.
(ed.) Workers of the world and oppressed peoples, unite! : proceedings and documents of the Second Congress, 1920. Pathfinder Press, 1991.
(ed.) To see the dawn: Baku, 1920--First Congress of the Peoples of the East. Pathfinder Press, 1993.
(trans. and ed.) Toward the united front: proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922. Brill, 2012. Historical materialism book series, 34.
(trans. and ed.) To the masses: proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921. Brill, 2015. Historical materialism book series, 91.
(ed. with Mike Taber) Fighting Fascism : how to struggle and how to win by Clara Zetkin. Haymarket Books, 2017.
(tr.) The communist movement at a crossroads : plenums of the Communist International's Executive Committee, 1922-1923. Ed. by Michael Taber. Brill, 2018. Historical materialism book series, 160.
^Stursberg, Peter (1975). Diefenbaker - Leadership Gained 1956-62. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 48. ISBN978-0-8020-2130-4.
^Fidler, Richard (1978). RCMP The Real Subversives. Toronto: Vanguard Publications. pp. 60–61. ISBN0-88758-037-8.
^Krever (Commissioner), Horace (1980). Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Confidentialiaty of Health Information, vol. 2. Toronto: The Queen's Printer. pp. 38–48. ISBN0-7743-5569-7.