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Peter Fryer (18 February 1927 – 31 October 2006) was an English Marxist writer and journalist. Among his most influential works is the 1984 book .
In 1945, Fryer became a member of the Communist Party. In 1947 he was dismissed from his job after refusing to leave the party.
In October 1956, Fryer was sent to Hungary to cover the uprising. His dispatches, including a description of the suppression of the uprising by Soviet troops, were either heavily censored or suppressed. He wrote a book about the uprising, Hungarian Tragedy (1956). "Peter Fryer", Spartacus Educational. Fryer was expelled from the Communist Party for criticising Hungarian Tragedy's suppression in the "capitalist" press. Many members left the party during the crisis that followed.
Fryer then became the editor of The Newsletter, the journal of The Club, a Trotskyist organisation led by Gerry Healy, and with Healy was a founder member of the Socialist Labour League. He soon parted company with Healy, however, and worked away from organised politics until 1985, when he wrote a weekly column for the Workers Press.
His interests eventually led to him writing the substantial and influential book, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (1984). This book discussed the long history of black people in Britain as well as the racist structures that were created by white British capitalists for their own economic benefit. It had a substantial section of notes and appendices.
Subsequent publications on the same theme by Fryer include: Black People in the British Empire (1988), Aspects of British Black History (1993) , The Politics of Windrush (1999), and Rhythms and Resistance (2000).
Fryer received some criticism for being a white man writing a substantial work on black history. Some critics such as Ziggi Alexander came to feel mutual respect and value Fryer's contributions.
He died on 31 October 2006, aged 79.
On 26 June 2023, a blue plaque (organised by the Nubian Jak Community Trust) was unveiled in Fryer's honour outside a former residence of his in Highgate, London.
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