Robin Murray

Robin Murray (14th September 1940 - 29th May 2017) was an industrial and environmental economist and entrepreneur who advocated and implemented new forms of production and organisation, based on principles of ecological sustainability, social justice and democracy.He developed his thought through practical projects and experiments. A common thread throughout his work was how collaboration, rather than competition, could be a driving force behind economic development and provide the foundation for non-exploitative and egalitarian societies.

Robin Murray influenced in profound ways how people eat, shop, and work, how we create and handle waste. He was an important and influential member of the democratic-socialist movement in Britain, playing a key role in setting up pioneering organisations such as Twin, (an alternative trading and development organisation from which emerged farmer-owned Fairtrade companies Cafédirect, Divine Chocolate and Liberation Nuts), the London Food Commission and The London Climate Change Agency. He also played a significant role as a policymaker, first as Chief Economic Advisor to the Greater London Council in the early 1980s and later in the 1990s in shaping London’s waste strategy. While working on these practical initiatives he taught at the Institute of Development Studies atthe University of Sussex, and later at the London School of Economics and Schumacher College. Over the years he published ground-breaking articles, including those describing the emergent concepts of post-fordism, zero-waste and social innovation. He was awarded posthumously the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts in October 2017, for "pioneering work in social innovation".

Robin Murray was born in a farmhouse in Patterdale on 14th September 1940 in what was then the County of Westmorland (now Cumbria). His mother and two older brothers had been evacuated from their London home at the onset of the Second World War and the London Blitz. His father was Stephen Hubert Murray (1908-1994) a barrister with chambers in King’s Bench Walk in the Inner Temple and from 1951 a farmer in Hallbankgate, Cumbria. Stephen was the youngest son of Professor Gilbert Murray, and Lady Mary Murray of Oxford a connubial conjunction of Irish Catholic stock (via Australia) and English Whig aristocracy.

Robin’s mother, Margaret Murray née Gillett (1907-1979) came from a long line of English Quakers. Her father was Joseph Rowntree Gillett, a banker and social philanthropist who went to work full time in the Rhondda Valley to alleviate suffering in the coalfields during the 1920’s and ‘30’s. Margaret’s mother, Richenda Gillett, was one of the first English women doctors, graduating from the University of London in 1895. Margaret herself was one of Britain’s first female chartered architects, graduating from the University of London in 1930 and practising until the early 1970’s.

Both parents joined theCommunist Party of Great Britain at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, their reason being that the CPGB was the only political party that understood and was taking action against the rise of fascism in Europe. They both left the Party at the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939. Thereafter they both became members of the Labour Party, Stephen particularly active in the League of Labour Lawyers and later the Haldane Society. In early 1939 he was sent to Lithuania to represent Jewish citizens subjected to Nazi oppression. Stephen was heavily involved in the events of 1948 leading to the split of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers from the Labour Party, over the question of communist membership.

The third of four sons, Robin’s older brothers were Gilbert (1931-1963) a physicist and alpinist who died in a rockfall on Fox Glacier, New Zealand; and Alexander (1934-) who is a medieval historian. Hubert (1946-) is an architect living and working in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Murray family moved from Hampstead to Hallbankgate in Cumberland in 1951, Stephen Murray giving up his legal career to farm. Greenside Farm, Hallbankgate, a hill-farm in and around Coalfell, was in a mining area, and a family property of Lady Mary Murray (1865–1956), Stephen's mother and daughter of George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle; she passed it on to Stephen and his sister Rosalind Toynbee, wife of Arnold J. Toynbee.

Robin was sent to a variety of primary schools in the immediate post-war years, and on the move to the farm in Cumbria to White House School in Brampton (now the William Howard School). In 1952 his parents sent him to Bedales School, a coeducational boarding school in Hampshire, founded in 1893 on the Arts and Crafts principles of educating the head, the hand and the heart. Gilbert and Alexander (Sandy) had both preceded him at the school during and immediately after the war. It was at Bedales that Robin met his future wife Frances (née Herdman, 1941-) and together they became head boy and girl of the school (1957-8).

Having completed his exams, in 1959 Murray spent several months in between leaving school and going up to university working for Danilo Dolci in Partinico, Sicily. The moral compass he inherited from his family (on both sides), his experience of working with parents and brothers on their Cumbrian hill farm and the year spent with peasants and villagers on community projects in the face of vested interests were all formative influences in his subsequent intellectual and professional trajectory, harnessed in the interests of social progress.

Murray studied Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford, (1959-1962), then at the College of Europe in Bruges where we received a Diploma in European Studies (1962-1963), finally at the London School of Economics where he earned his MSc in Economics (1963-1966). While studying at the LSE, Murray was an Adult Education Lecturer for the Oxford University Extra Mural Department, the Inner London Education Authority and the Workers Education Association.

1960s

On finishing his studies, Murray became a Lecturer in Economics at the London Business School between 1966 and 1970.He was part of the group that helped bring the May Day Manifesto into being, and then contributed with Michael Barrett Brown to the economics section of the 1968 Penguin edition which was edited by Raymond Williams. The original 1967 edition was edited by Stuart Hall, Edward Thompson and Raymond Williams. Thereafter he joined the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (IDS) as a Fellow in Economics where he stayed until 1993.

1970s

During the 1970’s Murray played a critical role in the Brighton Labour Process Group which provided a series of papers for the inaugural Conference of Socialist Economists (CSE) in the 1970s. He was also involved in the CSE’s evolution, namely the Bulletin of the CSE and later the peer-reviewed academic journal Capital and Class in which he contributed two articles in its first two years, and several articles thereafter. The journal continues to be published. During this period, Murray was involved in setting up and leading the Marxist Capital Reading Group in Brighton and was active in the Brighton local community organisation QueenSpark. For two decades at the IDS, Murray’s academic work focused on industrial strategy, trade policy, Marxist theory, flexible specialisation, and international corporate taxation. As a teacher, he was noted for his use of the Socratic method and metaphor.

1980s

Between 1982 and 1986, Robin Murray worked as the Director of Industry and Employment at the Greater London Council and was tasked with developing the London Labour Plan and London’s Industrial Strategy. The latter set out an action plan to regenerate London’s economy in a socially sustainable way, creating a blueprint for the Labour Party’s future national economic policies.

In the months leading up to the abolition of the GLC, Murray and his colleagues created the Third World Information Network (Twin) which initially imported goods from the Global South in solidarity with the co-operative movement. Following on from this, Robin Murray and colleagues went on to set up Twin Trading, an innovative and groundbreaking organisation which combined trade with social and economic development in partnership with coffee co-operatives in Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua and East Africa. In so doing, Twin and Twin Trading were at the forefront of the Fair Trade movement, one of the great social innovations developed in response to the post-imperial contradictions of political self-determination shackled by economic dependency.

Reflecting on his experience at the GLC, Robin Murray wrote a number of highly influential articles in Marxism Today on the emergent subject of ‘post-Fordism’. These articles played a critical role in introducing the concept of ‘post-Fordism’ to the wider left in the UK. His view was that contemporary forms of production could further the classical democratic socialist objectives of co-operation, democratic self-management, and self-realisation. Drawing on his experience at the GLC, Murray learned the inadequacy of traditional industrial policy to those sectors which were rooted in particular cultural and/or geographical communities (reproduction furniture, clothing, branches of food production, and a range of cultural industries). What they often lacked – economically – was the collective institutions developed most notably in the so-called Third Italy (such as consortia, specialist colleges, centres of ‘real’ services’) which allowed small firms to have access to those services normally only available to large firms; quality control and branding, information on design, markets, and technology, skilled labour and political representation in the capital.

Much of Murray’s work in the 1980s and 1990s was about strengthening these types of economy, particularly linked to the economic development of particular places and communities. This was done partly through advice to governments (local, provincial, and national) and through the work of Twin Trading, the alternative trading intermediary set up to strengthen small farmers from marginal regions in Latin America and Africa in first world markets.

1990s

During this time, Robin Murray became Programme Adviser to the SEEDS Association of Local Authorities (1986-1993). He subsequently became Visiting Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa and a Special Adviser to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade in the Government of Ontario (1993-1995). In Ontario, where he was responsible for Community Economic Development policy for the Provincial Government, his focus was on three sectors: food, culture and green industries. The cultural industries work was directed towards (a) providing support to ethnic communities and areas with high unemployment in establishing and expanding their own cultural industries (through new distribution facilities, training programmes, cultural industry finance, and cultural spaces – including in one case a crematorium) and (b) allowing existing cultural institutions to re-conceptualise themselves within a wider cultural economy – museums, libraries, art galleries, cinemas and theatres.

Upon his return to the UK in the mid 1990s, Murray became the Chair of Twin and Twin Trading, the Fair Trade organisations responsible for developing the fair trade brands Cafedirect, Divine Chocolate, Agrofair UK and Liberation Foods. He held this position until 2007. Between 2005 and 2009 Murray was the Chair of Liberation Foods (formerly The Ethical Nut Company).

2000s

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Murray’s work focused on industrial restructuring in response to environmental pressures (notably waste and energy). It is during this period that Murray wrote Creating Wealth from Waste and Zero Waste. During this period, he was Director of the London Pride Waste Action Programme (1996-1997), Executive Director of the London Recycling Consortium (1997-2004) and Chair of the Tower Hamlets Community Recycling Consortium (2003-2007). Between 1998 and 2002 Murray also helped to devise local waste policies in Essex, Newcastle upon Tyne, Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Between 2003 and 2008, he played a key role as Environmental Adviser to London’s Deputy Mayor, Nicky Gavron in developing London’s recycling policy and setting up the London Climate Change Agency. Between 2001 and 2002 he was a member of the Planning Advisory Group to the Greater London Authority, advising on spatial planning in London. The following year Murray was a member of the Waste Advisory Group for the Cabinet Office of the UK Government, advising on waste policy. In 2003, he was a Special Adviser to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Waste. Between 2005 and 2007, Robin led the development of the Green Homes Concierge Service for London.

Between 2004 and 2005 Murray was the Acting Director of RED, the research and innovation arm of the Design Council. He oversaw projects in Kent and Bolton on co-creating health services. These and other projects developed and refined Murray’s thoughts on the critical role of design in public service reform and social innovation. Murray was able to continue his work in this area as a Visiting Fellow at Nesta (2008-2010) and The Young Foundation (2008 – onwards) where he led a major research project examining the ways to design, develop and grow social innovation. As part of this project, Murray co-authored The Open Book of Social Innovation and Social Venturing and wrote Danger and Opportunity.

2010s

After this, Murray undertook a strategic review of the future of co-operation in the UK for Co-operatives UK (2010-2011). He continued his work on the social economy as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance and then a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at the LSE (2011-2017). He also taught at Schumacher College.

Murray's interests as economist included: Marxian theory; transfer pricing, globalisation and transnational corporations; industrial policy and cooperatives; social innovation and the social economy and the circular economy.

Marxism

In Internationalisation of Capital and the Nation State (1971) Murray argued that the internationalisation of capital weakened the political power of the nation state. His theses in this article were criticised at the time by Bill Warren, who found in particular Murray's discussion of "territorial non-coincidence" unconvincing. With Murray advocating the view that ultra-imperialism was displacing national capitalisms, and Warren instead claiming that imperialism was being replaced by those capitalisms, Robert Rowthorn took an intermediate view, predicting a future of nationalist rivalries.

In two papers from 1977 on Value and Theory of Rent, Murray worked with the assumption that Karl Marx's theory of differential and absolute ground rent applies generally to landed property, of whatever kind. His phrase "founder's rent" has been called "muddled".

Transfer prices

In his editor's introduction to Multinationals Beyond the Market (1981), Murray wrote of the international trade theory of neoclassical economics as faced with challenges on two sides: from the theories around unequal exchange, and also, the focus of the book, from institutional critique. His paper in the volume stated that the arm's length principle for transfer pricing had become problematic for international trade, referring to customs literature for issues on how to carry out the accounting. He mentioned two other public policy approaches: anti-monopoly legislation, and bilateral bargaining to correct the asymmetry present in trading relationships, with state intervention. He had already argued in a 1970 conference paper for a descriptive framework of the bargaining process between international companies and nation states, given that these negotiations often were asymmetric.

Fair trade

Co-founder in 1985 with Michael Barratt Brown of Twin Trading, a fair trade company, Murray played a part in the creation of the brands Cafédirect and Divine Chocolate. Barratt Brown, a personal friend, had retired from Northern College for Residential and Community Adult Education in 1983 and come to work with Murray at the GLC. There he contributed to the London Industrial Strategy. The British government Department for International Development commissioned a report Understanding and Expanding Fair Trade from Barratt Brown, Murray and Pauline Tiffen.

Twin Trading moved after the International Coffee Agreement broke down in 1989, to market a popular coffee. To that end it went into partnership with Equal Exchange, Oxfam and Traidcraft to set up the Cafédirect brand.

Fordism and Post-Fordism

Murray has been credited with the introduction to British debate of "Post-Fordism", a set of concepts found earlier in the regulation school of French economists, concerned with the obsolescence of Fordism. John Harris in a Guardian piece from 2015 traces Murray's interest in the concept to his experience with the Greater London Council, and cited his view of Jeremy Corbyn, with reference to stances from Marxism Today: "I wish he'd speak about the future, not the past." Murray pointed to the way new technology can shift emphasis on mass production towards market segmentation. He was one of the economists of the end of the 20th century, with the theoristsMichael J. Piore and Charles Sabel of flexible specialization), who contradicted Harry Braverman's thesis about the connection of Fordism to deskilling.

In a critical verdict on Fordism, however, characterised by "standardised production and consumption", "the semi-skilled worker and collective bargaining", and "a managed national market and centralised organisation", Murray wrote of its "technological hubris" and "fierce" hierarchies. The approach taken in Soviet planning he considered "the apogee of Fordism". His arguments, including the role of "flexible specialisation", and those of Elmar Altvater, on the nature of state socialism have been doubted by Adrian Smith, in particular on the grounds that they diminish the part played by social relations, with reference to the experience of Czechoslovakia.

In 1965 Murray married Frances Herdman, whom he had known since Bedales School, and they had a family of two daughters, Marika and Bethany.Marika (1968-) has a son Joseph (1999-). Bethany (1971-) has a daughter Isabella (2017-).