Katharine Jane Hudson (born 1958) is a British left-wing political activist and academic who is the General Secretary of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...

(CND) and Media Officer of Left Unity. She served as Chair of CND from 2003 to 2010 and has been an officer of the

Stop the War Coalition The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against what it believes are unjust wars. The Coalition has c ...

since 2002.

Life and career

She was Head of Social and Policy Studies at

London South Bank University London South Bank University (LSBU) is a public university in Elephant and Castle, London. It is based in the London Borough of Southwark, near the South Bank of the River Thames, from which it takes its name. Founded in 1892 as the Borough ...

from September 2003 to 2010 and is now a Visiting Research Fellow. She was founding editor of the journal ''Contemporary Politics'', serves on the editorial board of '' Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe'' and is a member of the Board of the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of the new radical left journal, Transform, founded in spring 2017, and linked to the European transform!network, the political foundation of the European Left Party. Hudson was a member of the

Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...

until 2011. In 2012, she joined the

Respect Party The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...

following the party's Bradford West by-election victory. Hudson was selected as the Respect candidate for the

2012 Manchester Central by-election The Manchester Central by-election was a by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Manchester Central held on Thursday 15 November 2012. Lucy Powell of the Labour Party won with 69% of the vote (it has historically been a safe Labo ...

but subsequently stood down in protest at "unacceptable and un-retracted statements about the nature of

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

" made by the party's only MP, George Galloway. She resigned as a member of Respect on 15 October 2012. In March 2013, she joined film director

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty ('' Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessn ...

and Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies at

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury a ...

(SOAS),

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, in a call for a new left-wing party. Hudson has written that over 2,000 gave their support to the campaign within three days of its launch. The campaign founded the Left Unity party in November 2013, and Hudson was elected National Secretary of the organisation at its first policy conference on 29 March 2014. Serving as National Secretary for three years, the maximum term allowed, she was elected as the party's Media Officer in March 2017.

Personal life

In the 1990s, Kate Hudson met and married Redmond O'Neill, (1954–2009) an activist in Socialist Action and adviser to Ken Livingstone. In 2012, Hudson married Andrew Burgin, an officer of the Stop the War Coalition and secretary of the national anti-cuts organisation, the Coalition of Resistance. Hudson is also active in the Greece Solidarity Campaign and the

Venezuela Solidarity Campaign Venezuela Solidarity Campaign is a British political organisation which expresses support to the Bolivarian Revolution and campaigns against its threats. Its Scottish section is known as the Scottish Venezuela Solidarity Campaign (SVSC). Aims ...

Selected works

*''CND – Now More Than Ever: The Story of a Peace Movement'', Vision Paperbacks, (2005) *''Breaking the South Slav Dream: The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia'',

Pluto Press Pluto Press is a British independent book publisher based in London, founded in 1969. Originally, it was the publishing arm of the International Socialists (today known as the Socialist Workers Party), until it changed hands and was replaced ...

, (2003) *''European Communism Since 1989'',

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...

, (2000) *''The New European Left: a socialism for the twenty-first century?'', Palgrave Macmillan, (2012) *''Free Movement and Beyond: agenda setting for Brexit Britain'' (ed)
Public Reading Rooms
(2017) *''CND at 60 – Britain's Most Enduring Mass Movement''
Public Reading Rooms
(2018)

References

External links

Contributor page
for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson, Kate 1958 births Living people Academics of London South Bank University British communists British Marxists British political writers Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists Place of birth missing (living people) Communist Party of Britain members Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom Respect Party parliamentary candidates Academic journal editors

Life and career

Personal life

Selected works

See also

References

External links