Current and upcoming activities in solidarity with Ukraine
Saturday February 15th, 11.0 am — 4.0 pm, Conference: End the Russian invasion and occupation. National Education Union, Mabledon Place, London, WC1H 9BD. Register here.
Saturday February 22nd, 12.00 , Demonstrate at the Russian embassy. Assemble 12 noon – St Volodymyr statue, London W11 3QY Rally 1pm – Russian embassy, W8 4QP
Tuesday February 25th
Ukraine’s biggest trade union body, the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU), is organising an international trade union conference in Kyiv to coincide with the third anniversary of Putin’s invasion.
Wednesday March 26th-27th
International conference in solidarity with Ukraine, in Brussels. Here trade unionists, progressive elected representatives, Ukraine solidarity committees, feminist and LGBTI+ groups, environmentalists, and defenders of democratic and civil liberties will come together to strengthen ties with their Ukrainian counterparts and develop practical solidarity initiatives.
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EDM on companies breaking sanction on Russia
Early Day Motion 651
Chris Law MP (Scottish National Party, SNP) has tabled this Early Day Motion in the House of Commons.
“That this House stands with the people of Ukraine against the illegal invasion and occupation of their country by Russia; believes that sanctions on Russian exports and, in particular, Russian-produced fossil fuels, are necessary to help reduce the ability of Russia to fund its ongoing invasion; welcomes that the UK government has prohibited the importation of Russian LNG into the UK; notes with concern, however, that British companies continue to be involved in the transport and sale of LNG from Russia to other countries; further notes with extreme concern that it has been reported that Glasgow-based corporation Seapeak Maritime Glasgow Ltd owns and operates six tankers transporting Russian LNG and at least twelve tankers transporting Russian gas through the Arctic Ocean have protection and indemnity insurance provided by UK-based insurers, including North of England P&I Association, Standard P&I Club per Charles Taylor & Co, and UK P&I Club; believes that companies involved in the sale and exportation of Russian LNG should not be eligible for government assistance, financial or otherwise; and calls on the UK government to close current loopholes that allow British-based companies to transport Russian LNG despite previous sanctions.”
Write to your MP to ask them to sign it. Seapeak Glasgow’s transportation of Russian LNG is financing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to the tune of $4 billion a year.
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Statement initiated by trade unionists in the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign
As friends of Ukraine, supporters of its self-defence and self-determination against Russian imperialism, we support the Ukrainian trade unions’ struggle to defend workers’ rights. In particular we salute their ongoing resistance to a proposed new Labour Code that includes numerous restrictions on the rights of the workers and their organisations; as well as draft law 5344d, restricting the rights and social security of people with disabilities.
(For a detailed summary of these attacks Ukrainian workers are facing, see here.)
We congratulate the Ukrainian unions on their recent victory, in January 2025, pushing the Verkhovna Rada to vote down anti-worker draft law 5054. Attacks on labour rights at work and in society are large-scale, ongoing, and frequent.
Ukraine’s workers’ movement has resisted and continues to resist Russia’s authoritarian assault on independent trade unionism and democratic rights in the occupied territories. Naturally it also rejects any attacks on workers’ rights by its own government.
The severe erosion of labour rights involved in the proposed new Labour Code is the latest in a series of such measures introduced under the cover of the war. This constitutes an attack on the very people who have sustained Ukraine’s war effort against the odds – its working class. Shameful in themselves, such policies also undermine both Ukraine’s self-defence and post-war reconstruction: and are strongly opposed by Ukrainian and international trade union confederations.
We call on the Ukrainian government to repudiate all such changes, reverse earlier attacks on workers’ rights, and change course.
We know that the former UK Conservative government actively promoted anti-worker changes to Ukraine’s labour laws. We call on the Labour government to work with trade unions in the UK and Ukraine to instead defend and promote workers’ rights.
Labour Hub 