Commemorating the Leeds Convention of 1917

To mark the centenary of the historic Leeds Convention of 3 June 1917, where some 3,500 democrats and socialists pledged solidarity with the Russian Revolution and voted to set up Worker's and Soldiers' Councils in Britain, Leeds Trades Council and the Ford-Maguire Society with the generous support of the Lipman-Miliband Trust are holding a one day event at the Swarthmore Centre in Leeds on Saturday 3 June from 10-4pm. Speakers include Michael Meadowcroft on the Leeds Convention, John Newsinger on the Russian Revolution, Janet Douglas on Arthur Ransome, Leeds and the Russian Revolution, and Jill Liddington on 'Leeds Suffrage Stories: Isabella Ford, Mary Gawthorpe and Leonora Cohen'. There will also be an evening Love Music Hate Racism gig at the Fox and Newt with American folk singer David Rovics performing.


A new centenary edition of the original conference proceedings together with other material relating to the Convention has recently been published in time for the anniversary by Spokesman Books British Labour and the Russian Revolution - the Leeds Convention of 1917, edited by Janet Douglas and Christian Hogsbjerg with Ken Coates' original introduction.