Chris Zeller

In England, Wales and Scotland, there is notable solidarity from the unions with the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian occupation troops. John McDonnell MP, former Treasury Chancellor leading the Labour Party at the time of Jeremy Corbyn, is an active spokesman for the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign [1]. In France, all relevant unions have declared solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance and organized a trade convoy to Ukraine. [2] Attac France already joined a statement in September 2022, by left-wing and trade-based organisations, all of which stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance. [3]

But in Germany the clocks tick differently. The management of the service industry ver. di puts the delegates of the coming Federal Congress on the 17th In September, a lead request for a vote, which also approves arms delivery to Ukraine, but does not explicitly show solidarity with the Ukrainian unions. [4]

Trade union leftists are now uniting against this resolution in a campaign for a petition that neither condemns the Russian occupation war nor expresses solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance.

The petition “Say no” means more that Germany is a “war party” and the German government is running a war course. It compares the current situation historically completely incorrectly with the lack of resistance of trade union leaders against World War I. [5]

This petition expresses the German narrowing of the German left. It does not contain a word of solidarity with the unions in Ukraine, which are actively involved in the resistance against the occupation forces while resisting the neoliberal policies of the Selenskyj government.

The authors see themselves “on the side of the workers fighting against arms supplies in Italy and Greece,” but not by the workers in Ukraine fighting against the Russian occupation. They deliberately don’t mention them. Only “the workers, deniers of war, deserters and refugees from and in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and around the world! “deserve solidarity. Resilient workers in Ukraine are not included in this petition. A western, relatively German arrogance shines through. Or are the Ukrainian workers on the opposite side because they fight for the independence of their country and the survival of their civil society with democratic rights?

By the way, the authors of this petition are similar to the fascist and imperialist dictatorship in Russia with the, albeit corrupt, parliamentary democracy of Ukraine. This is a complete loss and insult to every democratic foundation.

The authors criticize the Ver.di leadership for making the “thousand times affirmed attitude towards ‘general disarmament’ and the ‘right of all people to protection from persecution, torture and war’ the ‘talk of yesterday'”. But they themselves refuse the claim to grant the people of Ukraine “protection from persecution, followers and war”.

If not with weapons, with what else should Ukraine, the Ukrainian society, resist the occupation terror of an imperialist power. All signatories of this petition should ask themselves whether they prefer a victory of Putin over a successful resistance of Ukraine. Large parts of the peace movement believe that without arms supplies the war would have ended. No, the war would continue, and until Putin’s regime achieved its goal: further occupying parts of Ukraine and establishing a Vasallen regime. This went hand in hand with a widespread occupation terror against the population and probably a partisan war against this terror. Is this the perspective the left in Western Europe have to tolerate?

Yes that’s right the ver. to criticize the leadership, but different. You should give. di urge to strengthen their solidarity with Ukrainian unions, quite practically, with concrete sympathy on the spot and here. Unions should be committed to working for erasing Ukraine’s debts, against the neocolonial energy and hydrogen strategy of the German federal government, and for a solid socio-ecological rebuilding perspective.

Yes, it remains right to oppose the upgrade of NATO and the militarization of society. But this is only possible from a pan-European perspective. That means that we have to find ways in which all people in Europe can jointly oppose imperialism, reactionary geopolitics and economic competition for location, in a global solidarity perspective. This is not easy, but a leftist that wants to get back ground and its feet in the present and future cannot push around.

Such a solidarity and ecological perspective follows this petition against the proposed decision of ver. di explicitly doesn’t, but with the historical comparison to the beginning of the First World War in 1914, it completely surpasses the current challenges. It is about supporting the justified anti-colonial and anti-imperialist resistance of the people of Ukraine. Just as progressive forces and trade unions have so far supported anti-colonial and anti-imperialist fights in Latin America, Asia and Africa, they should do so in the case of Ukraine and other oppressed nationalities in Russia and areas of the former Soviet bloc.

This petition is an expression of a complete political negligence of a part of the German left. Instead of abandoning solidarity with pseudo-pacifist arguments, it is more important to affect the German unions – such as their sister organizations in England, Wales and Scotland and France – actively participate in solidarity work with Ukrainian unions. The unions as well as socialists, anarchists and feminists in Ukraine are fighting civilianly and armed against the Russian occupation forces. They need our solidarity.

Sources

[1] https://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/about-2/ ; https://twitter.com/GMB_union/status/1697279494006919233

[2] https://www.cgt.fr/…/les-syndicats-ukrainiens-recus-par… ; https://solidaires.org/…/paris-20-juin-meeting-du…/ ; https://twitter.com/edwyplenel/status/1671207921777094684

[3] https://france.attac.org/…/pourquoi-soutenir-la…

[4] Leading E 084 – Perspectives for Peace, Security and Disarmament in a World in Change https://www.verdi.de/…/++co++eed9dafc-4be7-11ee-a88e… .

[5] https://intersoz.org/sagt-nein/ or here https://www.change.org/…/sagt-nein-gewerkschafter-innen… .