Tomás Ó Flatharta

The British Ukraine Solidarity Campaign is a growing force.

It recently won the support of the UNITE trade union, which also organises in Ireland.

UNITE the Union votes overwhelmingly for strong solidarity with Ukraine

But some parts of the British left offer policies which pretend to be anti-imperialist, but they stink.

It reminds this writer of bad old days in the 1960’s and 1970’s when many left organisations – from the Labour party to Official Sinn Féin and the Communist party – refused to practice solidarity with comrades in the six-county part of Ireland because they disagreed with the policies of Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the main republican organisations which had a mass following.

We can not do anything about political mistakes made in the past – but we can learn from them and do better in the future. One big positive example from those days was the formation of the National H-Block-Armagh.

Readers interested. who like to burrow into useful political history, are invited to read this book review :

Smashing H Block:The Rise and Fall of the Popular Campaign Against Criminalization

In the meantime, congratulations to the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign in Britain.

John Meehan October 28 2025

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From Ukraine Solidarity Campaign

We take no joy criticising a young left-wing UK political figure who has often spoken up for workers’ rights and progressive causes. But these barely coherent comments from Zarah Sultana on Ukraine sum up much of what is wrong with her wing of the left: www.instagram.com/reel/DQT62ysjFKK

First up – yes, Zelensky is no friend of Ukraine’s working class in the sense that his government pursues right-wing, neoliberal, anti-worker economic policies.

Unlike Zarah Sultana, we actually know something about this, since we are connected to Ukraine’s unions and have been actively involved in helping them fight these policies.

We don’t recall EVER receiving ANY help with this campaigning from Sultana (unlike many other left-wing Labour MPs).

The reality is that Sultana and co are not actually very interested in workers’ rights and struggles in Ukraine. Talking about Zelensky’s anti-worker policies is just a way of expressing their hostility to Ukraine’s rights.

As Sultana and co know very well, it is perfectly possible to support a people’s struggle for national freedom while opposing the govt or political leadership currently at the head of that struggle. They do not apply this here for a simple reason – they do not support Ukraine.

As part of this hostility to Ukraine, we get a pro forma acknowledgement that Putin is a “dictator”, a “gangster” – immediately followed by the attack on Zelensky, as if the two regimes are the same and also as if which of them rules in Ukraine is a matter of indifference.

To justify this, Sultana laughably equates Western powers sending weapons to Israel and UAE (given its role in Sudan) to sending weapons to Ukraine to defend itself.

So is she an absolutely pacifist now? Sending weapons is wrong / to be opposed in all circumstances?

The left was wrong to call for weapons for the Spanish Republic in the civil war? It should have opposed Soviet & Chinese arms for Vietnam against the US? Should have opposed Indian arms for the Bangladeshi liberation struggle against Pakistan?

To pick a few of many examples…

Of course Sultana is not a pacifist. She is using this kind of argument because it is convenient for opposing aid to Ukraine.

The idea that the only beneficiaries of Ukrainians resisting invasion are Western arms companies is absurd and shameful. It is another way of saying, again, that whether Ukraine maintains its independence or is subjugated and crushed is a matter of indifference.

The capitalist arms industry does benefit from wars. Wherever possible socialists oppose war as a means of resolving disputes; and we certainly oppose profit-making from it (which is why for instance the left has called for public ownership of the arms industry).

But the idea that therefore oppressed people should lie down and be crushed, saying “We want to defend ourselves but not with weapons” or “We want to defend ourselves, and need weapons, but we won’t take them from the only source actually available at the moment” is absurd.

We call on Zarah Sultana and the rest to actually engage with Ukraine’s labour movement and left, show some solidarity and yes, by all means make their arguments – but be ready to engage in some sharp debate!

Meanwhile they should try to raise their own arguments about Ukraine above the kind of soundbites Sultana spouts in the video above – which while briefer and more incoherent than a lot of what the “Stop the War” left puts out, are representative in their utter incoherence.

Sultana cites Russian and Ukrainian speakers she heard at an “anti-war” conference in Paris. We will post on Facebook about this shortly! Meanwhile more on our Twitter thread on this.