By Mick Antoniw MS

The Trade Union Congress at its conference next week will debate a motion tabled by the National Union of Mineworkers, train drivers union ASLEF and the GMB to declare solidarity and support for Ukrainian workers and trade unions in their fight against Russia’s invasion of their country.

The motion is simple and for most trade unionists unequivocal. It calls for the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from all the territories occupied since 2014, it supports financial and practical aid to Ukraine from the UK and it calls for a peaceful end to the conflict. Importantly it recognises the right of Ukrainian workers to defend themselves and  expresses solidarity with the Ukrainian trade union movement in its fight against Russian Imperialism.

The nub of the motion correctly recognises “that there can be no just or enduring peace whilst the Russian state continues its denial of Ukrainian sovereignty.“

The motion is an opportunity for the trade union movement to unite in solidarity with Ukrainian trade unions against Russian fascism.

Several weeks ago I and a couple of trade union colleagues drove 2,300 miles to Pavlograd in the Donbas to deliver vehicles and supplies to the Ukrainian Miners Union  to pass on to their members fighting on the front line.

We met with some of the miners, straight from the front line in Bakhmut. They took the vehicle and supplies and within half an hour headed straight back. The battalion commander is a miner and trade union member.

There were 20,000 miners working at eight pits in the Pavlograd area. A while back they were subjected to a ferocious missile attack on residential buildings. The workforce is now down to 15,000 with 5,000 members now serving on the front line.  They are Russian speakers, the people Putin claims he is defending. They do not want his defence, they spit at the mention of his name and accuse him of being worse than the Nazis.

Pavlograd has a strong anti-Nazi tradition, being one of the few towns that liberated itself without support from the Red Army. In the centre of the town there is a monument to those Ukrainians from Pavlograd who defeated Nazism.

Memories run deep in Ukraine because of its tragic history. The fact that these Russian-speaking Ukrainians, miners, trade unionists are now united in their determination to defend their freedom is telling. They know what will happen to them and their families if Ukraine is defeated. Deportations, Russification, torture, imprisonment, rape and castration, in effect genocide..

As we eat, they toast in vodka, “to victory” “death to the Russian fascists”, “Glory to Ukraine”.

They ask why it is that some in our trade union movement oppose giving them the means to defend themselves. It is difficult to explain. I tell them that there are those who have fallen for Putin’s propaganda, there are the old Stalinist members of the Communist Party who are apologists for Putin; they claim it is a war initiated by Nato. That one always brings out a disbelieving laugh. ”Do they not see what is happening and what the Russians are doing in the occupied territories? Do they want to hand over part of our country and its people to these murderers and fascists?”

Well, apparently they do. That is the position of the factions that now control the Stop the War Coalition and papers like the Morning Star.

It is a faux peace movement. Their problem is that it they are unable to bring themselves to recognise that Russian is a new fascist state in Europe. They apparently believe you can appease fascism. It adopts a faux pacifism, confusing peace with capitulation. They adopt the same arguments used by Western Governments who refused to arm the Spanish Republic in its fight against fascism. They ironically have adopted a  “peace in our time” strategy not dissimilar to Neville Chamberlain’s Munich agreement  with Hitler in 1938.

The reality of their position is that they are not genuinely calling for a peaceful resolution, but are calling for Ukraine to capitulate or be defeated.

There is of course an economic price to supporting Ukraine, but it is as nothing to the price in blood Ukrainian workers are paying on the frontline of European democracy. Were Ukraine to capitulate there will be an even greater price to pay in the long term.

The Ukrainian trade unions are clear: “We represent the working people of Ukraine. We are engaged in a fight for our survival and the survival of the country.”

 Make no mistake: were Russia to win, all these trade union leaders would suffer the same fate meted out by Pinochet’s fascist regime in Chile.

They would suffer the same fate meted out by Franco’s fascist regime to Spanish trade unionists and the same fate Hitler dished out to those brave German trade unionists.

They have called in unison for support from us. We must not betray them. I believe they have the right to expect it. We have the obligation to deliver it. As a life-long trade unionist and socialist, I stand with my comrades, my brothers and sisters in Ukraine. I stand by my family members who are currently fighting on the front line for freedom and self-determination.

Mick Antoniw MS is the Labour Senedd Member for Pontypridd, a member of the Welsh Labour Government as Counsel General for Wales and Minister for the Constitution, writing in a personal capacity.

Main mage: Russian bombing of a school in Kramatorsk, July 21, 2022. Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=421090610058834&set=a.293060042861892. Author: State Emergency Service of Ukraine, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Inset image: Source: Mick Antoniw AS / MS. Author: Senedd Cymru / Welsh Parliament from Wales, licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution 2.0 Generic license.