The International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggle will host an online conference, “Workers’ Aid to Ukraine,” with and trade unionists from the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih on December 17. [I]
At this conference, activists and trade unionists from around the world will have the opportunity to hear a live account of the situation of the working class after nine months of war.
We are facing a new situation in the war in Ukraine. On the one hand, a succession of Ukrainian victories around Kharkiv in the northeast of the country and the reconquest of Kherson in the south opens the prospect of a Ukrainian victory. Contrary to what the mainstream Western press reports, the imperialist countries are not handing over the weapons necessary for Ukrainian victory. In fact, the Ukrainian advances are mainly due to the great participation of the working class in the war effort. [II]
On the other hand, Russia, which like Ukraine has already lost tens of thousands of soldiers, has adopted a war tactic of systematically bombing power and gas distribution plants, leaving cities in the dark without heating or water. Putin wants to demoralize the Ukrainian resistance by causing thousands of deaths and waves of millions of refugees in the midst of a harsh winter. Despite the growing dissatisfaction of the Russian population with the war, Putin has modern weapons and the direct or indirect support of regimes in several countries such as China, India, Iran, Israel, Hungary, and others. Thus, despite the defeats in Kharkiv and Kherson, Putin spares no effort to continue to attack the Ukrainian resistance and take their territory.
International Solidarity
The Trade Union Network decided at its fourth meeting held in April in Dijon, France, to launch a Workers’ Aid campaign to Ukraine and to send a humanitarian aid convoy to the miners’ and metalworkers’ union in Kryvyi Rih.
This campaign has become one of the major internationalist workers’ aid actions since the beginning of the war.
The first convoy arrived in Ukraine at the end of April, carrying 800 kilos of humanitarian aid. Workers delivering the aid participated in the “Dimensions of War” Conference held on May 1 in the city of Lviv. The organizations Solidaires (France), IP (Poland), ADL-Cobas (Italy), CSP-Conlutas (Brazil) and G1PS (Lithuania) participated. [III]
A second convoy with a ton of humanitarian aid was sent in September, bringing an international delegation of ten trade unionists who met with a delegation of Ukrainian trade unionists in Kryvyi Rih, 50 kilometers from the military front. In addition to the organizations’ participating in the first convoy, comrades from Co.Bas Madrid (Spanish State) and L’Emancipation (France) were added, as well as financial contributions from Arta Solidari of Mallorca and the TUC of Liverpool. [IV]
The IWL-FI supports the campaign of Workers’ Aid to Ukraine through the participation of its militants, and the initiatives to build workers’ solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance. the IWL-FI denounces the neocolonialist aims of Western imperialism and demands the delivery of the weapons necessary for Ukrainian victory. The IWL-FI advocates the independent organization of the working class to defeat Putin and build an alternative to Zelensky and the Ukrainian oligarchy. For the IWL-FI, the road to the end of the war necessarily passes through the expulsion of Russian troops from all Ukrainian territory, which includes the Donbass and Crimea.
Notes:
[I] https://laboursolidarity.org/en/n/2449/workers-aid-to-ukraine—online-conference
[II] https://litci.org/en/ukrainian-military-resistance-and-the-new-momentum-of-the-war/
[III] https://litci.org/en/may-day-in-ukraine-celebrates-workers-international-solidarity/
[IV] https://litci.org/en/trade-union-network-prepares-second-workers-aid-convoy-to-ukraine/
