Socialism and the Cold War in
Western Europe
Sponsored by Queen’s University Belfast, the Society for the Study of
Labour History (SSLH) and Liverpool University Press
Friday 17 and Saturday 18 April 2015
Senate Room, Queen’s University Belfast
Programme
Friday 17 April
14.00: registration and welcome from Dr Paul Corthorn (Queen’s)
14.15-15.45: panel one: Varieties of Anti-Socialism
Chair: Professor Keith Laybourn (Huddersfield and President of the SSLH)
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Dr Matthew Grant (Essex), 'Anti-Communism and the Good Citizen
in early Cold War Britain'
Dr Linda Risso (Reading), 'NATO's Anti-Communist Crusade'
Dr Robert Mason (Edinburgh). '"That road to British ruin": American
conservatives and West European socialism, 1945-c. 1960'
15.45-16.00: tea and coffee
16.00-17.30: panel two: Human Rights and Détente
Chair: Dr Stephen Goss (Queen’s)
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Professor Tom Buchanan (Oxford), 'Human Rights and the Cold War'
Dr Michele Di Donato (Sciences Po, Paris), 'The Italian Communist
Party and Social Democracy: a story of European Détente?'
Dr Martin D. Brown (Richmond), 'Pro-détente versus anti-détente
camps: British public opinion, foreign policy and the CSCE, 19691975'
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Socialism and the Cold War in Western Europe
17.45-18.45: plenary lecture, introduced by Professor Peter Gray (Head
of School of History and Anthropology, Queen’s)
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Dr Frédéric Heurtebize (Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) 'The
United States and Eurocommunism in the 1970s'
18.45-19.45: drinks reception, School of History and Anthropology
Common Room, 13 University Square
19.45: conference dinner at Deanes at Queen’s, followed by:
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Dr Gill Bennett (former Chief Historian of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office) on 'From Soviet Ally to Soviet Adversary: the
Attlee government and the Cold War', introduced by Professor
Keith Jeffery (Queen’s)
Saturday 18 April
09.30-11.00: panel three: The early Cold War
Chair: Dr Charlotte Alston (Northumbria)
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Dr Tony Insall (King's London), 'The Foreign Office and the Labour
Party: IRD and the growth of European socialist cooperation 19451951'
Massimiliano Nastri, (Queen’s), ‘The Choice for Stalinism: the
Communist Parties of Italy, Yugoslavia and Trieste, 1945 – 1948 –
1951’
Dr Stephen Goss (Queen’s), 'The Left in Northern Ireland and the
Cold War'
11.00-11.15: tea and coffee
11.15-12.45: panel four: The wider Cold War
Chair: Professor Sean O’Connell (Queen’s)
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Dr Peter Gurney (Essex), 'The Co-op and the Cold War'
Professor Glen O'Hara (Oxford Brookes), 'British views of the Soviet
economies'
Dr Dianne Kirby (Ulster), 'The impact of the religious Cold War on
socialist clerics in Western Europe'
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Socialism and the Cold War in Western Europe
12.45-13.45: lunch (Senate Room) and SSLH Executive Committee
meeting (room G02 in 17 University Square)
13.45-15.15: panel five: The West European Left
Chair: Dr Daniel Laqua (Northumbria)
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Professor Martin Conway (Oxford), '"Socialism the goal, Democracy
the Means": West European Socialist Attitudes towards Democracy,
1945-65'
Dr Daniel Gordon (Edge Hill), 'Crossing Cold War Lines on the Streets
of Paris: Jacques Chirac and Henri Krasucki's Secret Pigalle
Negotiations in May 1968'
Jan de Graaf (Portsmouth), ‘The Left from Zero Hour to the Cold
War: Window of Opportunity?’
15.15-15.30: tea and coffee
15.30-17.00: panel six: 1956 and its Long Aftermath
Chair: Professor John Belchem (Liverpool and Chair of the SSLH)
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Professor Holger Nehring (Stirling), 'The Internationalism of the British
New Left reconsidered'
Dr Paul Corthorn (Queen’s), 'The British Labour Party and the Visit of
Khrushchev and Bulganin to Britain in 1956'
Dr Alex Titov (Queen's), 'The Central Committee of the CPSU and
the European Communist Parties'
17.00: Informal drinks and dinner at an Indian restaurant
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