Kate Hudson

Who is Kate Hudson?

Katharine Jane "Kate" Hudson is a British political activist and academic who is the General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Prior to her appointment to the post, she had served as Chair of the organisation from 2003 to 2010. She has been an officer of the Stop the War Coalition since 2002.

She was Head of Social and Policy Studies at London South Bank University 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.

Hudson was a member of the Communist Party of Britain until 2011. In 2012 she joined the Respect Party, following the Bradford West by-election victory. Hudson was selected as the Respect candidate for the 2012 Manchester Central by-election, but subsequently stood down in protest at "unacceptable and un-retracted statements about the nature of rape" made by the party's only MP, George Galloway. She resigned as a member of Respect in October 2012. The following March, she joined film director Ken Loach and Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London]], 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.