New critical Approaches on Communists and Communism in Belgium.

On October 22, CegeSoma/State Archives, in collaboration with CArCoB/Dacob and MoSa 1800-2000 (KU Leuven), is pleased to invite you to participate in an international workshop on the theme 'New critical Approaches on Communists and Communism in Belgium.'

It's no coincidence that this Research Workshop takes its name from a collection of essays by José Gotovitch (1940-2024). Former director of CegeSoma, professor at ULB and linchpin of the Centre d'Histoire et de Sociologie des Gauches and CArCoB, José Gotovitch embodied like no other the intersecting history of the Second World War and the Cold War. Just over a year after his death, we would like to explore new avenues of research, focusing on innovative methodologies and sources that were recently made available.
Although the focus is on the history of communism in Belgium, the aim is also to consider it as an intrinsically transnational phenomenon.

PROGRAMME :

12:00 Welcome coffee and registration

12:15 Introduction: Chantal Kesteloot & Widukind De Ridder

Session 1 : Transnational Solidarity Movements

• 12:30-13:00 : Une histoire des Jeunesses et Étudiants communistes en Belgique pendant la guerre d’indépendance algérienne, 1954-1962, Paul-Emmanuel Babin (Université de Lille)
• 13:00-14:00 : Dénoncer les liens militaires et économiques belges avec l’Afrique du Sud en 1980 : resituer la plaidoirie de Paulette Pierson-Mathy dans une échelle locale et globale, Aline Martello (Université de Lausanne)
• 14:00-14:30 : Spectres of Eurocommunism in Flanders: Anti-Apartheid between 1966 and 1989 In Light of the Development of a Progressive Culture, Jitske Quanten (MA, KULeuven)

14:30-14:40: Coffee Break

• 14:40-15:10: Le Parti Communiste de Belgique (PCB) et le Parti Communiste d’Espagne (PCE) de la Guerre d’Espagne à la fin du Franquisme et la transition démocratique (1939-1981), Sigfrido Ramírez (ULB, Max-Planck-Institut)

Session 2: New Sources, Research Questions and Methodologies

• 15:00-15:30: The View from Above: State Officials, the Revolutionary Left, and Anti-Subversive Preoccupations in France and Italy in the Sixties and Seventies, Luca Provenzano (KULeuven)
• 15:30-16:00: Le monde communiste belge des « années 68 ». Nouvelles sources, nouvelles questions, nouvelles approches, Elie Teicher (Université de Lausanne)

16:00-16:10: Coffee Break

• 16:10-16:40: On the concept of ‘antifascism’: The Intricacies of Politics, Historiography and Public Memory from the Spanish Civil War to the Cold War, Widukind De Ridder (CegeSoma/State Archives- KULeuven)
• 16:40-17:10: The PCB-KPB and the Politics of Production, Guy Coppieters (State Archives)
• 17:10-17:40: Communist Parliamentarism, 1925-1985, Frederik Verleden (KULeuven)
• 17:40-18:00: The Research Archives of José Gotovitch: Some preliminary findings, François Bellot (CArCoB) &Theun Vonckx (Dacob)

 18:00 Reception