A socialist activist for over forty years in Scotland, London, and Sudan, Bonnar has wide-ranging experience in the trade union movement and community politics. He worked as an aid worker in Sudan before the 1989 coup,[1] and has worked full-time in the field of Community Development and Social and Economic Regeneration for the past 25 years.
He worked for two years as a Community Worker in South Lanarkshire, seven years as Development Officer with housing associations in Glasgow and South Lanarkshire, including Govan Housing Association,[2][3] and five years as a Social Enterprise Advisor with Glasgow Regeneration Agency.
Bonnar has a degree in Politics and History from the University of Stirling. He is married to Vivienne and they have two daughters, Katie and Jenny.
At some point, Bonnar served on the editorial committee of Marxism Today,[4] a theoretical magazine generally seen as the standard-bearer for the "reformist" wing of the CPGB.[5]
While in London, Bonnar worked for left-wing bookshop Central Books, and was chairperson of the Connolly Association's London South branch. He has held various trade union positions in Glasgow and London. During his time as an aid worker in Sudan, he was an active member of the then-legal Sudanese Communist PartyinDarfur and Khartoum.[1]
Bonnar was re-elected as the Scottish Socialist Party's co-chair alongside Frances Curran at its 2014 conference.[11] At the party's 2015 conference six months later, he stood down as co-chair and was returned unopposed as National Secretary, taking over from Kevin McVey.[12] He was also his party's unsuccessful nominee for Glasgow South West at the 2015 general election.[13]
