Online book launch and round table discussion: European Socialists Across Borders

European Socialists Across Borders: Transnational Cooperation and Alternative Visions of Europe After 1945, edited by Mélanie Torrent and Andrew J. Williams (University of London Press, 2025, Open Access)
 

Based on several of the case studies at the heart of the volume, the round table will discuss the relevance, channels and limits of cooperation across borders for a fairer world in the contemporary period. Contributors will aim to shed light on what their historical expertise – on planning and European construction, on unfinished ends of empire and the fight against racism, and on the use of diplomacy for peace and peace-building – can bring to movements and parties of the left in Europe, as they formulate ideals, consider priorities but also navigate key challenges. They will also reflect on various states of international (dis-)orders and on the changing place of multilateralism, on the role of consensus-building and avenues for bridge-building.

Synopsis of the book
From postwar debates on institutionalised cooperation in Western Europe to the ambitions of the European Union in the post-Cold War era, this volume investigates the impact of socialist networks on European construction and integration, and the role of European socialism in international (dis)orders. It assesses how socialist networks were influenced by relations with socialist parties and groups outside Europe, and how they navigated local, national and global politics. Collectively, the chapters explore four main areas: the relationship between the ideals of European cooperation and daily, routine and domestic politics; the shifting definitions of political elites and popular understandings of Europe, including the influence of people of African, Caribbean and Asian descent on the transformation of socialist thought, policies and practices in the European (ex-) imperial powers; the extent to which European socialists attempted to propose a postcolonial, postimperial agenda for Europe; and how European institutions were used, and with what results, by socialists and their contacts.

Reflecting on the successes and failures of transnational processes of socialisation, the role of cultural intermediaries and bridge-builders, and the reasons behind misunderstandings, failed projects and missed opportunities for peace and equality, the book examines how socialist politicians and activists conceived of Europe’s role in worldmaking in the transition out of conflict and empire. In doing so, the volume contributes to a better understanding of, and support for, cooperation across borders.

Speakers:

• Pedro Aires Oliveira (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
• Tommaso Milani (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
• Lubna Qureshi (Independent scholar)
• Pamela Ohene-Nyako (Université de Genève)
• Carlos Wallhead (The Socialist International)

Discussants:

• Mélanie Torrent (Université de Picardie Jules Verne)
• Andrew J. Williams (University of St Andrews)
• Emma Gallon (University of London Press)

Chaired by Brigitte Leucht (University of Portsmouth)

Taking Stock of Official History, past, present and future

Keynote Lecture: Reflections from an Official Historian (Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman) 

Panel discussion
Chair: Philip Murphy (History & Policy)

• Sir Lawrence Freedman (Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King’s College London)
• Helen McCarthy (Professor of Modern and Contemporary British History, University of Cambridge)
• Matthew Jones (Professor of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science) 
• Roger Smethurst (Deputy Director, Propriety and Constitution Group, Cabinet Office)

IHR Seminar Series: Official History: Past, Present and Future

Editors and Officials in the writing of Official History

• Minute by Minute: The Problem of Officials in Official History (David Kaufmann)
• The unknown editor: Lillian Penson and British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898-1914 (Luke Gibbon)

IHR Seminar Series: Official History: Past, Present and Future

Consultation in Germany and the UK: Past, Present and Prospects

Speakers: John Edmonds (former General Secretary GMB Trade Union and author), Ronald Staples (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany) and Michael Whittall (Trade union secretary, IG-Metall, Germany)

IHR Seminar Series: History & Policy Trade Union Forum

This event concludes a series of three seminars we have organised in the recent past focusing on the prospects for employee consultation in a European context. The first was in May 2022 on Consulting Employees: Past, Present and Future to commemorate twenty years of the EU ICE regulations, with the second in January 2023 on European Works Councils: The Effects of Brexit. This one compares and contrasts trends and prospects in Germany and the UK.

Programme

Michael Gold (Chair) Introduction

John Edmonds- Restricted Rights or Pragmatism: The Search for an Effective System of Consultation in Britain

John will examine the evolution of consultation in Britain since 1900 and suggest why Britain has taken a different route from most European countries. He will explain how British governments withdrew from any attempt to enhance, or even influence, the process and why British trade unions have always insisted that only they should represent workers in consultation with employers. He will argue that the present state of consultation in Britain is deplorably weak and speculate on how it might be strengthened.

Ronald Staples and Michael Whittall- Navigating Co-Determination in Germany’s Digital Era: Between Constraint and Empowerment

Michael and Ronald will survey the current landscape of industrial relations in Germany amidst digital transformation, focusing on the dual forces of constraint and empowerment within co-determination practices. Drawing on empirical research and practical experience from the union perspective, they will explore how digitalization challenges traditional co-determination structures and offers new opportunities for employee participation, highlighting a recent conflict that illustrates the tensions between technological advancements and established labour relations. Insights from their co-authored book Partizipation und Un_Gleichzeitigkeit (Participation: Synchronicity and Asynchronicity) provide a theoretical framework for understanding these dynamics.

The Foreign Office and British Foreign Policy

Speakers: Gaynor Johnson (University of Kent), Niaz Cary-Pernon (Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University) & Jolanta Mysiakowska (The Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw, Poland)

IHR Seminar Series: Official History: Past, Present and Future

• The Foreign Office and Official History: historiography, methods and people (Gaynor Johnson)
• Official histories of the Berlin Crisis, 1948-1949 in the UK: methodological traditions, ontological challenges (Niaz Cary-Pernon)
• In the ruins of Old Europe: Official History, British foreign policy and Eastern Europe after the First World War (Jolanta Mysiakowska)