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James Schneider

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James Schneider
Schneider on a Novara Media panel at The World Transformed 2021
Born
James Gerald Hylton Schneider

(1987-06-17) 17 June 1987 (age 37)
Westminster, London, England
Alma materTrinity College, Oxford
Occupations
  • Political organiser
  • communications director
  • editor
  • writer
OrganisationMomentum
Political partyLabour

James Gerald Hylton Schneider (born 17 June 1987)[1] is an English political organiser and writer currently serving as Communications Director for Progressive International. He co-founded the left-wing grassroots movement Momentum. In October 2016, he was appointed public relations advisor to then leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, as Director of Strategic Communications.[2][3]

In 2022, Schneider published Our Bloc: How We Win, laying out a strategy for the British left in the 2020s, both within Labour and beyond.[4] He is also an international chess player, representing Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India in 2022.[5]

Early life

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Schneider was born to Jewish parents in central London.[6] His father Brian was a financier and CEO of Soho-based property company OEM plc and was accused of the theft of £5 million from the company.[7] He died in 2004 at the age of 48, when James was a teenager. James' mother Tessa Lang is a property developer.

Schneider and his brother, Tim, were brought up in Primrose Hill in North London, with a holiday home in Glen Tanar, Scotland.[8]

Schneider attended the Dragon School in Oxford for preparatory school. Then, from 2000 to 2005, he boarded at Winchester College[1] in Hampshire as a member of Chawker's (Hawkins').[1] He went on to study theology at Trinity College, Oxford. During his time at Oxford, Schneider was president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats.[9]

Career

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Schneider joined Think Africa Press in 2010, a role he held until he became the senior correspondent at New African in 2014. He has described his work at Think Africa Press as formative, in which he began to look at local issues using ideas that were critical of capitalism and imperialism.[10] Schneider joined the Labour Party in May 2015 after Labour, under the leadership of Ed Miliband, failed to win government in the 2015 general election.[11] He was a key figure within the left-wing grassroots movement Momentum, which was formed in October 2015 as a support group for Jeremy Corbyn, who had been elected Labour leader the previous month.[12] The group also played a significant role in the 2016 campaign to re-elect Corbyn after a leadership challenge. Following their success in this campaign, Schneider was appointed as Director of Strategic Communications for the office of the Leader of the Opposition in October 2016.[13][14]

Schneider has written articles for publications such as The Independent, the New Statesman, Novara Media, and LabourList.[15] He states that he has read Marxist sociologist Ralph Miliband (father of Ed) and "learned from his critiques", but states that the academic was "writing in a different moment of history".[10]

Personal life

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Schneider was criticised after comments in which he expressed support for Conservative Party candidates and policies, including a post on the right-wing ConservativeHome website, urging a Conservative candidate to defeat a sitting Labour MP. Schneider says that his online comments do not reflect his current thinking, and that "People can and they do change their political views".[16]

Schneider describes himself as "culturally Jewish".[17][9]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Winchester College: A Register. Edited by P.S.W.K. McClure and R.P. Stevens, on behalf of the Wardens and Fellows of Winchester College. 7th edition, 2014. pp. 905 (Common Time 2000 list heading) & 913 (entry for James Schneider). Published by Winchester College, Hampshire.
  2. ^ "This is how Jeremy Corbyn's team believes he can still become UK prime minister".
  3. ^ "The fight of his life: on the road with Jeremy Corbyn". The Guardian. 2 June 2017.
  4. ^ McTernan, John (7 September 2022). "Our Bloc: How We Win by James Schneider review – can the left triumph without Labour?". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  5. ^ "SVG Chess team holding their own at Olympiad". Searchlight. 5 August 2022. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  6. ^ "Momentum: inside Labour's revolutionary movement". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 March 2019.(subscription required)
  7. ^ "OEM shareholder face cash call | London Evening Standard". Standard.co.uk. 30 July 2004. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  8. ^ Charlotte Edwardes (12 March 2019). "Will champagne socialists soon be all Labour has left?". The Tatler. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  9. ^ a b Gilligan, Andrew (13 December 2015). "James Schneider: face of Momentum activists - with education and childhood home 'paid for by fraud'". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  10. ^ a b "Maintaining Momentum". jacobinmag.com.
  11. ^ Bennett, Owen (20 October 2015). "Momentum Is Not A 'Shadowy' Group With A 'Hit List' Of Labour MPs, Says Leading Organiser". HuffPost UK.
  12. ^ "Maintaining Momentum". Jacobin. October 2016.
  13. ^ "Jeremy Corbyn set to get extra media help - but not from Paul Mason". Total Politics. 14 October 2016.
  14. ^ Long, Camilla (23 April 2017). "Corbyn's posh boys can't crush 'the elite'". The Times. Retrieved 3 September 2017. (subscription required)
  15. ^ "Writers". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  16. ^ Jim Waterson (6 August 2016). "Co-Founder Of Corbyn's Momentum Distances Himself From Pro-Tory Comments". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  17. ^ "The Jewish Labour Gurus Striving to Turn Jeremy Corbyns Reputation Around". Haaretz newspaper. 20 September 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2018.


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