Ukraine

Free Russian internationalist Igor Kuznetsov!

John McDonnell MP and other protesters demand release of jailed labour movement activists outside the Russian embassy in London, 2022 In September 2021 Russian socialist and trade unionist Igor Kuznetsov was arrested for “inciting mass disorder” (though the Telegram messenger system!) Two months he was also charged with participation in an “extremist community”, the socialist organisation Left Resistance. Now, in a move reminiscent of the treatment of dissidents in the late Soviet Union , Kuznetsov has been sent to a psychiatric institution. The Serbsky Centre to which he has been sent is the...

Dam probably breached by Russia

The Nova Kakhovka dam, spanning the gigantic Dnipro river in southern Ukraine, collapsed on the early morning of 6 June. The dam was captured early in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. As early as March 2022 rumours began that the Russians had mined the dam with the intention of blowing it up if the Ukrainians looked like retaking it. The dam was completed in 1956 and held 18 cubic km of water. Normally the water surface was held at about 16m above sea level, although at the start of 2023 the level had dropped to 14m, rising rapidly until, just before the dam was...

Israel and Ukraine: both no right to exist?

People who want to see Putin prevail in Ukraine were overjoyed by the recent UCU congress vote against Ukraine having the arms it needs to defend itself. Andrew Murray wrote in the Morning Star that “The University and College Union (UCU) vote to oppose the continuing war in Ukraine, including arms sales, and to support the campaigning of the Stop the War Coalition against British government policy over the war is a beacon to the rest of the movement”. Just days earlier, the PCS conference had passed a resolution supporting Ukrainians’ right to defend themselves and liberate their country. The...

Socialist Worker dismisses pro-Ukrainians as “NATO trolls”

Socialist Worker (SW), paper of the Socialist Worker Party (SWP), is ecstatic. At last it has found a trade union (the UCU, which organises workers in post-school education) that has passed a motion at its annual congress backing the Stop the War Coalition (StW) line on Ukraine. True, the motion was passed by just nine votes. True, the motion contained an antisemitic trope jumbling up Ukraine and Israel as imperialist outposts. True, Jewish UCU members critical of the motion have been targeted for antisemitic abuse. True, another, and far better, motion on Ukraine was passed by a much larger...

Ukraine: backlash in the UCU

Statement by UCU members in solidarity with Ukraine (still open for signature) UCU Ukraine solidarity organising meeting (hybrid), 5pm, 17 June The backlash against the decision of the 27-29 May congress of the Unity and College Union (UCU) to back the Stop the War Coalition (STW) line on the war in Ukraine continues to gather momentum. The motion adopted by the congress (though just 130-121) portrayed Russia’s imperialist aggression as a proxy war between Russia and the US, opposed Ukraine being provided with the weapons which it needs to defend itself, and committed the UCU to backing events...

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