An open letter to UCU from SSEES staff
UCU passed one of those cod-antiimperial feints at its Congress, the people who actually study the region object.
Sorry folks, I know when I started this I promised not more than one post a week. But this is important to us. A nonrepresentative group in our union got a resolution passed claiming lots of nonsense, sneaking in some antisemitic slurs for good measure, and advocating that Ukraine should be surrendered. It is a union representing academics. We are the academics who actually research this stuff, and a group of us do really object, very strongly. Some of us have left the union, some have not, this uncertainty underlines just how nasty it is to pull this kind of stunt in the union while we have a strike on.
For the record: it is not necessary for the Universities and Colleges Union to take any position on international policy issues at all. But if it does, then it would be nice if it could adopt positions that are not in direct collision with the fundamental values of our profession. Here is the text.
UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
31 May 2023
Jo Grady (General Secretary of the University and College Union, UCU),
We – the undersigned members of UCU at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) – condemn in the strongest possible terms the motion passed at the recent UCU Congress under the title ‘Stop the War in Ukraine – peace now’ (see Motion 5, pp.5–6 in the Congress agenda).
This disgraceful motion is based on a profound and willful misrepresentation of Russia’s war against Ukraine. It turns the focus away from the sole perpetrator – Russia – and onto NATO, pushing the discredited notion of a ‘proxy war’. Most horrifically, it calls for UCU to support a position whereby Ukrainians are deprived of adequate means for self-defence, and thus left vulnerable to being kidnapped, tortured, raped or bombed in their homes by the Russian armed forces. It also features an entirely gratuitous point associating the Ukrainian president, Israel, and the US – a common antisemitic trope. Finally, it commits UCU to supporting the deeply problematic and divisive politics of Stop the War UK.
As UCU members who are experts on Ukraine, Russia and eastern Europe, we find it particularly difficult to reconcile our professional expertise and our consciences with membership of the Union while it holds the position adopted at the Congress. Several of us have decided to resign in protest. Others share the revulsion of those who have left the Union but do not feel able to resign as we need Union representation, either because of contractual concerns or because we are participating in the Marking and Assessment Boycott. Others of us have, through gritted teeth, decided to remain members of the Union to carry on the fight for a stance that represents the values of our profession. We are all, however, united in our disgust for the motion passed this weekend.
We are aware that the 27 May motion does not, in all likelihood, represent the opinions of a majority of UCU members. We are concerned that a vocal minority is able to hijack UCU mechanisms in order to associate the Union with extreme positions. Those of us who have resigned emphasise that we wish to be able, as soon as possible, to rejoin a Union that is committed to workers' rights and progressive values, and that we are ready and willing to work in dialogue with UCU to turn this hope into reality.
Since the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we have been disappointed by UCU leadership’s seeming reluctance to make public statements in support of Ukrainian students and colleagues, so many of whom have been severely impacted by the war. While UCU is very vocal on a range of political questions, it is strikingly quiet on Ukraine. Nevertheless, we tried, in our branch and at the national Congress, to fight for an unambiguous position that would focus on questions directly related to UCU’s sphere of interest – supporting Ukrainian students and colleagues – and not on questions of geopolitics over which UCU has no influence.
We acknowledge your statement, posted on Twitter on 31 May, expressing your solidarity with the people of Ukraine and your opposition to the 27 May motion. We call for swift action from UCU to overturn Motion 5 as soon as possible, so that our Union’s official position is not to leave Ukraine defenceless in the face of Russia's ongoing and brutal aggression.
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Tim Beasley-Murray, Associate Professor of European Thought and Culture
Grazina Bielousova, Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Sociology
Uilleam Blacker, Associate Professor in Ukrainian and East European Culture
Peter Braga, Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Politics
Pawel Bukowski, Lecturer in Economics
Jelena Ćalić, Associate Professor (Teaching) in Serbo-Croatian (BCMS) and Applied Linguistics
Serian Carlyle, Postgraduate Teaching Assistant and PhD Student in Russian and Soviet Cinema
Sasha Dovzhyk, Associate Lecturer in Ukrainian
Pete Duncan, Honorary Associate Professor (until retirement, Associate Professor of Russian Politics and Society)
Christian Emery, Associate Professor (teaching) in International Politics
Eric Gordy, Professor of Political and Cultural Sociology
Seth Graham, Associate Professor of Russian
Seán Hanley, Associate Professor in Comparative Central and East European Politics
Mukesh Hindocha, Operations and Resources Manager
Anna Koch, Lecturer in Modern German History
Alex Krouglov, Associate Professor (Teaching) in Russian
Richard Mole, Professor of Political Sociology and incoming Director of SSEES
Rachel Morley, Associate Professor of Russian and Soviet Cinema and Culture
Michał Murawski, Associate Professor of Critical Area Studies
Ben Noble, Associate Professor of Russian Politics
Kristin Roth-Ey, Associate Professor of Modern Russian History
Maria Sibiryakova, Lecturer (Teaching) in Russian Language
Aglaya Snetkov, Associate Professor of International Politics
Snejana Tempest, Lecturer (Teaching) in Russian Language
Riitta Valijärvi, Associate Professor (Teaching) of Finnish and Minority Languages
Anne White, Professor of Polish Studies
Sarah Young, Associate Professor of Russian
Peter Zusi, Associate Professor of Czech and Comparative Literature