UPDATE: PCS conference 2025 ran short of time, and so did not discuss Ukraine. Therefore the union’s existing strong policy in support of Ukraine and its workers’ movement stands. Working with supporters in PCS, we ran an energetic campaign of publicity and argument; the other side ran no campaign at all; and it was evident at the conference that momentum was with us. In addition during the course of campaigning we made many new connections and contacts among PCS activists. It seems the attempt to overturn PCS’s pro-Ukraine policy backfired.

UK civil service trade union PCS (Public and Commercial Services Union) has been a strong supporter of Ukraine and its workers’ movement. In 2022 and 2023 PCS conference voted overwhelmingly to support Ukraine and to affiliate to Ukraine Solidarity Campaign. At both a leadership and an activist level the union has organised extensive practical solidarity with Ukrainian trade unions. (Image above: PCS solidarity delegation with trade unionists in Ukraine, February 2025.)

Now this stance is under threat. A motion has been submitted to PCS’s Annual Delegate Conference (20-22 May, Brighton) to change the union’s policy to seeing the war in Ukraine as a battle not for Ukraine’s rights, but between Russian and Western imperialism, and to actively opposing military aid for Ukraine. By a narrow vote, this motion has received support from the National Executive Committee.

See below for the text of the motion, A30. Absurdly, it calls for “solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians” while also calling for “the UK government to stop arming Ukraine” – the result of which would be for huge numbers of “ordinary” Ukrainians to be killed and brutally oppressed.

Another motion, supporting Ukraine, E194, has been incorrectly “E marked”, with the standing orders committee deciding it is “covered” by A30 and so will not be taken – even though the two motions take opposite positions.

PCS supporters of Ukraine are campaigning to defeat A30 and for E194 to be reclassified so the conference can pass it. (There may also be emergency motions in support of Ukraine.) They are arguing for PCS’s policy to be maintained and developed, so PCS can build even stronger solidarity in alliance with the growing number of UK unions that are adopting firm pro-Ukraine positions.

If you’re in PCS and would like to help, get in touch: info@ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org. We will put you in touch with PCS comrades.

See below for some analysis from the PCS Independent Left group. Excerpted from here.

Why PCS should refuse to abandon our commitment to Ukrainian brothers and sisters

In February, PCS sent a delegation to Kyiv as part of the unions continued commitment to solidarity with Ukraine and Ukrainian workers…

On the second evening, Kyiv came under ballistic attack from Russian missiles – now a weekly if not daily occurrence for the citizens of Ukraine.

Two ballistic missiles got through the Ukrainian air defences, causing the destruction of infrastructure and several fatalities and more casualties. Chris Marks, NEC member and delegation participant made this video the morning after.

On this evening, these two missiles were part of a wider attack of eight – Ukrainian Air Defence was able to knock out the other six.

It was only able to do so due to the weapons provided to Ukraine by other nations, including the UK. Weapons which have consistently been called for by all Ukrainian workers unions, including PCS’s sister unions since the beginning of Russia’s imperialist invasion in 2022.

Just like the Republic in the Spanish Civil War, the Ukrainian people have the right to ask for arms to defend themselves from tyranny wherever they can get them, as the Ukrainian unions do.

Not because they have any trust in the governments they come from, but because they are in a life and death fight against a much stronger imperialist power which has the self-stated desire to conquer and oppress them and destroy their democratic rights.

It is therefore wholly regrettable that the National Executive Committee decided by a slim majority to endorse motion A30, being debated at Annual Conference, which draws the same false moral equivalence between the Russian imperialists and the Ukrainian defenders that has been made by Donald Trump recently and forces the union to campaign to ‘end arms to Ukraine’.

The union hasn’t taken an explicit position on ‘arms to Ukraine’ until now. Some of us would argue that it should have done, but not doing so also allows the union not to conflict with the calls of our Ukrainian counterparts.

It is such a truism, it shouldn’t even need stating: If arms to Ukraine were successfully stopped, Ukraine would loose and the Russian imperialist venture will be victorious.

If PCS passes this motion, it will send a very dangerous message to our members, give a – however minor – propaganda victory to the Russian war effort and will represent a betrayal of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.

Who are we to try and prevent the very thing the Ukrainians are telling us they need?

The motion was only able to be endorsed because the Socialist Party joined all Left Unity NEC members in voting to support it. [Explanatory note: Left Unity is a minority on the NEC but holds PCS’s General Secretary and President positions; on most other issues, the Socialist Party is aligned with Independent Left, forming a majority on the NEC.] This was a huge mistake and has allowed the authoritarian international politics of Left Unity to win out for a motion which purposefully doesn’t reference the Ukrainian workers’ movement or any class demands.

It is a mistake to move PCS away from its position of consistent international solidarity and support of workers fighting imperialism. A position which has been recently reiterated by the former General Secretary…

Motions to PCS Annual Delegate Conference 2025

A30

E194

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