Convicted war-criminal Biljana Plavsic’s name appears on letter in support of UCU’s anti-Ukraine resolution

The University and College Union, the principal trade-union for academic staff in the UK, passed a motion at its congress on 27 May calling for the British government to stop arming Ukraine. The UCU is a corrupt union enjoying a cosy relationship with university managers, and can be relied upon to let its members down wherever possible, but it is also largely controlled by a clique of Corbynites and tankies who use it as a platform to advance their own extremist agenda that has nothing to do with the union’s purported mission. In this case, their agenda involves sabotaging Ukraine’s defence against Putin’s Russia.

The resolution also committed the UCU to supporting the pro-Putin group ‘Stop the War’, which supports Russia’s annexation of Crimea and blames the war on the West rather than on Russia.

The passage of the resolution was naturally met by widespread outrage among UCU members and others, prompting supporters of the resolution to publish a letter in support of it. Among its listed signatories were Alex Callinicos of the Socialist Workers Party, and Biljana Plavsic, vice-president of ‘Republika Srpska’ during the 1990s Bosnian war and convicted war-criminal.

After Callinicos shared the open letter on Twitter and it was pointed out to him that a convicted war-criminal was listed among its signatories, her name was removed.

It is unclear whether the letter was signed by the real Biljana Plavsic or by someone seeking to embarrass the supporters of the UCU’s resolution. Either way, that her name should have been included says a lot about the sort of politics these people represent.