An appeal from Ukrainian activists to peace movements worldwide; an upcoming conference in solidarity with the people of Ukraine; an appeal from South Asian activists in solidarity with Ukraine; a statement by UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies activists in opposition to a resolution passed by the recent conference of the University and College Union; and how to stay up to date with the latest information from Ukraine in the bulletins of the Ukraine Information Group.
Ukraine Peace Appeal
Towards A More Informed Solidarity – From Ukrainian Civil Society Organisations To Pacifist And Peacebuilding Movements Worldwide
1. We, Ukrainian civil society activists, feminists, peacebuilders, mediators, dialogue facilitators, human rights defenders and academics, recognise that a growing strategic divergence worldwide has led to certain voices, on the left and right and amongst pacifists to argue for an end to the provision of military support to Ukraine. They also call for an immediate cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia as the strategy for “ending the war”. These calls for negotiation with Putin without resistance are in reality calls to surrender our sovereignty and territorial integrity.
2. We ask for nothing less than the full respect for internationally agreed humanitarian and human rights law and the UN Charter and the practical means to defend ourselves, our popular sovereignty and our territorial integrity, to resist the Kremlin’s expansionist and imperialistic attempts to re-colonize its neighbours. Yes, we need diplomacy, and yes, we need humanitarian aid, but make no mistake, Ukraine needs to continue to be supported with modern weaponry and other military assistance and strict economic and legal
sanctions on the Kremlin.
3. Stopping weapon deliveries to Ukraine now would not lead to “peace by peaceful means” but offer a pause for Putin’s authoritarian regime to renew its aggression against Ukraine. It is a dangerous call for appeasement. We have documented how the Kremlin treats prisoners of war and civilians in the occupied areas. We have seen how it treats its own legal political opposition. This is not peace. We believe that a strong defence and sustained resistance with steady and informed global solidarity for the Ukrainian people is the best incentive in such a radically asymmetric conflict for a cessation of violence and a negotiated withdrawal of Russian forces.
4. Acceptance of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories and resulting impunity would set a dangerous precedent for other authoritarian regimes wishing to revise international borders. It would also lead to an increase in the proliferation of nuclear weapons globally, as it would signal to others a destructive idea that possession of nuclear weapons is the only guarantee of one’s security.
5. We ask that international organisations and movements respect the right of Ukrainians to be at the front and centre of determining how to make their peace and how to defend themselves and their rights. We ask for respect for our calls for inclusion and that when it comes to determining our future there should be “nothing about us without us”. We object to conferences and marches for “peace in Ukraine” where Ukrainians are neither meaningfully involved nor fairly represented.
6. We find the language on the right and left that Ukrainian soldiers are somehow fighting as proxy’s for the West deeply offensive. This argument denies us our humanity and diminishes Ukraine’s history of hardwon independence and the legitimacy of the peoples’ choice of their democratically elected government. This is deceptive and harmful political rhetoric. Russia’s invasion and illegal annexation of parts of Ukraine in 2014 was a result of Russian aggression and expansionism and was not a response to any credible threat.
7. We appreciate continued international mediation and mediation support for humanitarian negotiations calling for Russian withdrawal and on the exchange of prisoners of war, return of deported Ukrainian children, eliminating the nuclear threat and for the free transport of grain. These are hugely important, should be sustained and developed further.
8. We ask for your continued international understanding and informed solidarity. This needs to be done with a new imagination and a new approach to working internationally for peace with mutual respect, understanding our complexities, sustaining, and not breaking social connections and networks of the global constituency for justice, peace and democracy.
9. We believe in the face of this resistance, and with your support, over time, we will overturn Russia’s unsustainable occupation, and they will lose this brutal and illegal war of attrition. We hold them to account for what they have done. We know that solidarity comes at a price, and this price is shared across many shoulders. We choose to live in a world where human lives matter, where democracy matters, where international law matters, and we have not given up on fighting for the world we want to see for our children and their children.
10. We thank the international community for standing beside us and for sharing this painful price for peace.
This Appeal has been initiated by the Ukrainian Community of Mediators and Dialogue Facilitators, and Ukrainian Feminist Network for Freedom and Democracy; and supported by Ukrainian civil society including the following organisations and individuals:
CENTRE OF PUBLIC INITIATIVES ”IDEAS FOR CHANGE”
”FEMINIST LODGE” INITIATIVE
NGO ”DOM4824”
IVANO-FRANKIVSK INITIATIVE ”WOMEN UA”
OKSANA POTAPOVA, CO-FOUNDER OF UKRAINIAN FEMINIST NETWORK FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY/UFNFD
MEDIATION AND DIALOGUE RESEARCH CENTER, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF KYIV-MOHYLA ACADEMY
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MEDIATORS OF UKRAINE
INSTITUTE FOR PEACE AND COMMON GROUND
FACILITATION PARK
”DIALOGUE IN ACTION” INITIATIVE
CENTER FOR LAW AND MEDIATION
UKRAINIAN INSTITUTE OF MEDIATION AND FACILITATION
ODESA REGIONAL GROUP OF MEDIATION
LABORATORY OF PEACEFUL INITIATIVES
UKRAINIAN MEDIATION CENTER
LEAGUE OF MEDIATORS OF UKRAINE
ASSOCIATION OF FAMILY MEDIATORS OF UKRAINE
ITC ”MEDIATION SCHOOL”
LVIV MEDIATION CENTER
PRYDNIPROVSKY MEDIATION CENTER ”VILNA PEACEMAKING SPACE”
INTELLECTUM ARTI
SENSE 2 SENSE COMMUNICATION
NATIONAL PLATFORM FOR RESILIENCE AND SOCIAL COHESION
HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER ZMINA
NGO ”CRIMEASOS”
LUHANSK REGIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CENTRE ALTERNATIVE
UKRAINE WITHOUT TORTURE, NGO
ASSOCIATION OF RELATIVES OF POLITICAL PRISONERS OF THE KREMLIN
REGIONAL CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
СENTRE OF CIVIL EDUCATION ”ALMENDA”
POLISH-UKRAINIAN COOPERATION FOUNDATION PAUCI
”MY ACTION”, PYRYATYN, POLTAVA REGION
WOMEN’S INITIATIVES, NGO
PUBLIC ASSOCIATION ”CIVIC INITIATIVES OF UKRAINE”
YOUTH CENTRE FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
POSTUPOVYY GURT FRANKIVTSIV
SUPPORT FOR FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH FUND
EUROPEAN CENTER FOR STRATEGIC ANALYTICS
CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Source here
ANOTHER UKRAINE IS POSSIBLE
Conference: Saturday 17 June
London, 11.30am – 5pm
Another Ukraine is Possible
A Conference on Resistance, Reconstruction and Transformation of Ukraine
Saturday 17 June, 11:30 registration
Derbyshire House, St Chad’s Street, London, WC1H 8AG
Ukraine’s courageous struggle for freedom from Russian imperialism is central to European and global politics today. An important international discussion is underway on Ukraine’s economic, social and ecological recovery from the effects of war.
The UK government is hosting an international Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on 21-22 June, already a vision taking shape of a recovery in the interests of big business with the danger of corporate elites exploiting a war damaged economy. But just as progressive reforms in post-war Britain showed after 1945 that reconstruction can be in the interests of the many, not the few, then Ukraine doesn’t need to return to the exploitation of oligarchs – another Ukraine, and another world, are possible.
Join us at a day of discussion and debate with Ukrainian and UK social activists and academics, trade unionists and MPs on the key issues of Ukraine’s struggle for freedom and reconstruction.
Join us at a day of discussion and debate with Ukrainian and UK social activists and academics, trade unionists and MPs on the key issues of Ukraine’s struggle for freedom and reconstruction.
Register: https://bit.ly/anotherukraine
Standing together: UK South Asian activists supporting Ukraine
Please add your name below
As people of South Asian origin or heritage in the UK, trade unionists, social justice and internationalist activists, political organisers – supporters of liberation struggles all over the world – we stand in solidarity with Ukraine against Russian imperialism.
Ukraine is fighting a power that over decades has engaged in a series of bloody assaults, in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, increasingly in Africa, and elsewhere. We support Ukraine for the same reason socialists and internationalists supported Vietnamese self-determination against the US. For the same reason we support the rights of the Kashmiris, the Balochis, the Tamils in Sri Lanka, and all people denied self-determination in South Asia today. For the same reason we oppose all imperial violence, from Israel’s crushing of the Palestinians to the Uyghur genocide to Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.
Like the invasion of Iraq, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent a signal to imperialists and predators everywhere to go ahead. Once again we see a permanent member of the UN Security Council lie to the world to justify an illegal invasion, further diminishing any notion of an international system based on democratic and peaceful conflict resolution. Defeat of Russia by Ukraine will create better conditions for democratic struggles against imperialism, including against the Western powers that oppose Russia.
It is no surprise that, despite their ties to Western powers, Narendra Modi’s regime and India’s Hindu nationalist movement support Putin. Suppression of democracy in the interests of corporate profit-making; vicious persecution of oppressed groups; promotion of racist, sexist and anti-LGBT politics, and of far-right movements internationally; the chauvinist and militarist irrendentism of “the Russian World” and “Akhand Bharat” – the affinity between these nationalist authoritarianisms is clear… We note efforts to conclude a new India-Russia free trade agreement, no doubt at the expense of working and oppressed people in both countries (like the potential UK-India trade agreement).
We oppose the authoritarians and totalitarians striving to crush democracy in many parts of the world – in the name of equality, workers’ solidarity and internationalism.
While supporting Ukraine’s resistance to Russian imperialism, we specifically support socialist, anti-racist, feminist, LGBT and workers’ organisations, and migrants, oppressed minorities and victims of racism in Ukraine. We support the Ukrainian labour movement’s struggles against Zelensky’s neoliberal economic reforms and attacks on workers’ rights, and for a more just post-war reconstruction. We demand cancellation of Ukraine’s debt – as part of a wider international programme of debt cancellation for poverty- and conflict-stricken countries.
We support oppressed minorities in Russia – disproportionately providing cannon fodder for the Russian war machine – and anti-war, feminist and labour activists.
We demand free welcome to the UK and the right to work and access benefits and services for refugees from all over the world, and dismantling of the anti-migrant hostile environment.
Initial signatories (all pc):
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East
Praveen Kolluguri, Kingston and Surbiton Constituency Labour Party (CLP) BAME Officer, CWU and Prospect trade unions
Camila Bassi, Sheffield Hallam University UCU Chair
Vijay Menezes-Jackson, Edinburgh, Chair, PCS National Young Members’ Committee
Sacha Ismail, Unite activist, South London
Rattan Bhorjee, GMB, Coventry
Annapurna Menon, UCU, Sheffield
Sofia Karim, London, architect
Jo Krishnakumar, London, Doctoral Candidate
Faisal Rahim, Broxtowe CLP
Ellie Clarke, PCS rep, Cabinet Office, London
Kas Witana, Penistone and Stocksbridge CLP Political Education and BAME Officer, Unison member
Vino Sangarapillai, Camden Trades Council Secretary, Unison
Lotika Singha, Member, International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India)
Rajeev Singha, Newcastle-under-Lyme
Source here
An open letter to UCU from SSEES staff
UCU passed one of those cod-anti-imperial feints at its Congress, the people who actually study the region object.
We – the undersigned members of UCU at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) – condemn in the strongest possible terms the motion passed at the recent UCU Congress under the title ‘Stop the War in Ukraine – peace now’ (see Motion 5, pp.5–6 in the Congress agenda).
This disgraceful motion is based on a profound and willful misrepresentation of Russia’s war against Ukraine. It turns the focus away from the sole perpetrator – Russia – and onto NATO, pushing the discredited notion of a ‘proxy war’. Most horrifically, it calls for UCU to support a position whereby Ukrainians are deprived of adequate means for self-defence, and thus left vulnerable to being kidnapped, tortured, raped or bombed in their homes by the Russian armed forces. It also features an entirely gratuitous point associating the Ukrainian president, Israel, and the US – a common antisemitic trope. Finally, it commits UCU to supporting the deeply problematic and divisive politics of Stop the War UK.
As UCU members who are experts on Ukraine, Russia and eastern Europe, we find it particularly difficult to reconcile our professional expertise and our consciences with membership of the Union while it holds the position adopted at the Congress. Several of us have decided to resign in protest. Others share the revulsion of those who have left the Union but do not feel able to resign as we need Union representation, either because of contractual concerns or because we are participating in the Marking and Assessment Boycott. Others of us have, through gritted teeth, decided to remain members of the Union to carry on the fight for a stance that represents the values of our profession. We are all, however, united in our disgust for the motion passed this weekend.
We are aware that the 27 May motion does not, in all likelihood, represent the opinions of a majority of UCU members. We are concerned that a vocal minority is able to hijack UCU mechanisms in order to associate the Union with extreme positions. Those of us who have resigned emphasise that we wish to be able, as soon as possible, to rejoin a Union that is committed to workers’ rights and progressive values, and that we are ready and willing to work in dialogue with UCU to turn this hope into reality.
Since the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we have been disappointed by UCU leadership’s seeming reluctance to make public statements in support of Ukrainian students and colleagues, so many of whom have been severely impacted by the war. While UCU is very vocal on a range of political questions, it is strikingly quiet on Ukraine. Nevertheless, we tried, in our branch and at the national Congress, to fight for an unambiguous position that would focus on questions directly related to UCU’s sphere of interest – supporting Ukrainian students and colleagues – and not on questions of geopolitics over which UCU has no influence.
We acknowledge your statement, posted on Twitter on 31 May, expressing your solidarity with the people of Ukraine and your opposition to the 27 May motion. We call for swift action from UCU to overturn Motion 5 as soon as possible, so that our Union’s official position is not to leave Ukraine defenceless in the face of Russia’s ongoing and brutal aggression.
*
Tim Beasley-Murray, Associate Professor of European Thought and Culture
Grazina Bielousova, Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Sociology
Uilleam Blacker, Associate Professor in Ukrainian and East European Culture
Peter Braga, Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Politics
Pawel Bukowski, Lecturer in Economics
Jelena Ćalić, Associate Professor (Teaching) in Serbo-Croatian (BCMS) and Applied Linguistics
Serian Carlyle, Postgraduate Teaching Assistant and PhD Student in Russian and Soviet Cinema
Sasha Dovzhyk, Associate Lecturer in Ukrainian
Pete Duncan, Honorary Associate Professor (until retirement, Associate Professor of Russian Politics and Society)
Christian Emery, Associate Professor (teaching) in International Politics
Eric Gordy, Professor of Political and Cultural Sociology
Seth Graham, Associate Professor of Russian
Seán Hanley, Associate Professor in Comparative Central and East European Politics
Mukesh Hindocha, Operations and Resources Manager
Anna Koch, Lecturer in Modern German History
Alex Krouglov, Associate Professor (Teaching) in Russian
Richard Mole, Professor of Political Sociology and incoming Director of SSEES
Rachel Morley, Associate Professor of Russian and Soviet Cinema and Culture
Michał Murawski, Associate Professor of Critical Area Studies
Ben Noble, Associate Professor of Russian Politics
Kristin Roth-Ey, Associate Professor of Modern Russian History
Maria Sibiryakova, Lecturer (Teaching) in Russian Language
Aglaya Snetkov, Associate Professor of International Politics
Snejana Tempest, Lecturer (Teaching) in Russian Language
Riitta Valijärvi, Associate Professor (Teaching) of Finnish and Minority Languages
Anne White, Professor of Polish Studies
Sarah Young, Associate Professor of Russian
Peter Zusi, Associate Professor of Czech and Comparative Literature
Source here
The Ukraine Information Group continues to produce a weekly bulletin of news from Ukraine which foregrounds Ukrainian voices. The latest bulletin is here. You can subscribe by emailing 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com and follow on twitter here
Image: Kharkiv downtown street destroyed by Russian bombardment. Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=321813666640956&set=pcb.321813919974264.Author: Міністерство внутрішніх справ України, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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