Archive for the ‘Ukraine Russia War 2022’ Category
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) 2023 Conference Unanimously Passes Resolution in Solidarity With Ukraine
We reported on debates about Ukraine at the ICTU 2023 Conference in a recent post :
Trade Unionists for Solidarity with Ukraine -Russian Troops Out of Ukraine Now – Irish Congress of Trade Unions Conference Official Fringe Meeting – Maginnes 3, Lyrath Hotel Kilkenny – Tuesday July 4 2023, 17:30
Des Derwin and Gregor Kerr, members of Irish Left With Ukraine, proposed and spoke in favour of the motion below :

Gregor Kerr speaking in favour of the motion :

The motion was carried unanimously. We look forward to practical trade union action flowing from this decision.
The Neutrality Policy of the Irish State – A rational defence strategy is required
The left campaign to defend the current Irish foreign policy of Neutrality should be supported – (more accurately the campaign should be styled Non-Alignment, in the sense of 100 per cent opposition to membership of NATO or any other imperialist military alliance).
Opponents of the Dublin government’s attempt to move closer to NATO got lucky.
Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin set up a public “consultative” forum examining Irish foreign policy – which is designed to push the Irish state closer to NATO. President Michael D Higgins launched an effective public attack
Irish President Michael D Higgins Mocked a British Empire Dame from Waterford, Louise Richardson – Is this Expert a good choice to chair an Irish Public Forum on the Neutrality Foreign Policy?
Higgins forced the issue into the mainstream media. Otherwise, the Forum would have taken place with much less publicity. Opponents of the government cannot rely on a lucky break like that every time.
The Irish State has ignored its responsibility to police our skies and our seas. It allows other states – primarily Britain – to do that job. Today, in 2023, international global tensions have risen to an alarming degree, and a very serious imperialist and genocidal war is occurring in the heart of Europe, in Ukraine. Russian imperialism is threatening the Irish state’s balancing act. Putin’s regime has openly threatened military action against the Irish state. That should not be laughed off or ignored. That is the reason the Dublin government is under pressure to get involved with a military alliance.
Read the rest of this entry »Will Unite the Union stand with Ukraine?
This post comes from our comrades in the British Ukraine Solidarity Campaign. The author is Sacha Ismail. Source : https://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/2023/06/25/will-unite-the-union-stand-with-ukraine/
Will Unite the Union stand with Ukraine?
By Sacha Ismail


If delegates to Unite the Union’s upcoming biennial policy conference (11-14 July, Brighton) want to support
• withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine
• Ukraine’s right to self-determination
• strong links with Ukrainian trade unions and socialists
• clear demands for strong rights for all refugees
they must support the text submitted by my branch, London and Eastern 524.
Delegates to the first Unite policy conference since Russia invaded Ukraine should vote to push for the UK’s largest private sector union, involved in many of the most successful industrial disputes of the last year, to stand in clear solidarity with Ukraine and its labour movement.
Only one motion on Ukraine has been submitted to the conference (from the Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Process and Textiles ‘Regional Industrial Sector Committee’/RISC for North East, Yorkshire and Humberside). It seems to me, at best, highly politically ambiguous. The substantial amendment submitted by London and Eastern 524 (Central London Voluntary Sector branch) seeks to ensure a strong pro-Ukraine stance. (You can read the text of both below; document with all motions and amendments here.)
Ukraine excommunication. Brokenhearted . Not
Guest post by Des Derwin
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB, ) have the merit of consistently applying the ‘proxy inter-imperialist war’ position. If only for that there is value in reading this, Social imperialism is betrayal (Weekly Worker, Issue 1428, 2nd February 2023).
But even they, for all their bold declaration of ‘revolutionary defeatism’, can’t bring themselves to say they want Ukraine defeated, Russia to occupy Kyiv ‘this time’ and the Russian occupation regime to be extended to the whole of Ukraine, crushing the labour movement in Ukraine and the democratic and civil rights still surviving there.
Who cares that they have irrevocably broken with us and the likes of us. We should break with them and the likes of them. If socialism still has two souls ours is not theirs.





