CEREES Panel

 

Monday 10 February, 18:00-20:30

‘The British Left and Ukraine’

Venue: Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road London E1 4NS [The precise location of this panel will be circulated to all registered ticket holders]

 [QMUL Campus Map linked here]

Book here: Eventbrite

About the Panel:

The election of a UK Labour government and rise of independent and left of Labour voices in Westminster prompts the question as to the relation of the UK left to Ukraine. While many elements of British society, including in universities and the armed forces were not sufficiently attentive to Ukraine prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022,  this panel will seek to consider whether the UK left specifically has had and still has a blind spot with regard to Ukraine, and (insofar as this is the case) why that is, and whether it is likely to change. Panelists will approach the historical and contemporary political aspects of this question, considering how it plays out in various UK political organisations and institutions, while also considering how this looks from the Ukrainian perspective.

About the Speakers:

Paul Mason is journalist, with columns in The New European, Social Europe, and Frankfurter Rundschau. He was Business Correspondent and then Economics Editor of the BBC Two television programme Newsnight from 2001, and Culture and Digital Editor of Channel 4 News from 2013, becoming the programme’s Economics Editor in 2014. He left Channel 4 in 2016. He is the author of several books, and a visiting professor at the University of Wolverhampton.

Christopher Ford is organiser of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, he has written number of books and articles on Ukrainian labour history including: ‘Ukapisme – Une Gauche perdue,’ ‘Le marxisme anti-colonial dans la révolution ukrainienne 1917–1925,’ and is editor of Ivan Maistrenko’s, ‘Borotbism: A Chapter in the History of the Ukrainian Revolution.’

Yuliia Yurchenko is a Senior Lecturer and researcher in political economy at University of Greenwich. She is currently in Ukraine on an extraordinary leave. And while she writes that she is, for the moment, in relative safety, that could change any moment. Being a Ukrainian, an activist and an academic, Yuliya traveled to Ukraine on Feb 19, 2022 as part of a fact-finding and solidarity mission with a number of MPs, trade unionists and journalists. The goal, she says, of this mission is to connect with civil society organizations, trade unions, activists and politicians, and “to express direct, cross-border solidarity from the UK working class to the Ukrainian working class.”

Richard Johnson is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations. He has published extensively on UK politics, especially Labour Party history. He is the co-author (with Mark Garnett & Gavin Hyman) of Keeping the Red Flag Flying: The Labour Party in Opposition since 1922 (Polity, 2024). He has published academic research on British women’s opposition to the Common Market, Labour’s changing policy on Europe under Neil Kinnock, the history of the European Parliamentary Labour Party, Theresa May’s record on LGBT rights, and Jeremy Corbyn’s foreign policy outlook (with Mark Garnett). He has written profiles of prominent Labour figures for Tribune, including Michael Foot, Barbara Castle, Peter Shore, and Anne Kerr, as well as a reflection on Englishness and the Left.

 

Event outline:

Welcome, by Andy Willimott & Jeremy Hicks (QMUL) – 18:00

Panel Discussion – 18:05

Discussion, chaired by Natalya Chernyshova (QMUL) – 18:50

Drinks reception, meet the speakers – 19:30

Finish – 20:30

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