This letter from our Secretary Christopher Ford was published in the Morning Star (newspaper of the Communist Party of Britain, but unfortunately distributed relatively widely in the UK trade union movement) on 21 September. From what we can see they have not published it online. The article by Lindsey German of the “Stop the War Coalition” it replies to is here. For recent UK trade union solidarity with Ukraine, including the unanimous vote at TUC Congress 2026, see here.

Lindsey German’s art­icle on Ukraine (“Ukraine-Rus­sia con­flict is a war against work­ing people every­where,” M Star Septem­ber 16) con­tains inac­curacies that mis­rep­res­ent both the situ­ation of Ukrain­ian trade uni­ons and the decisions of the Brit­ish trade union move­ment.

Ger­man claims that “anti-union laws have effect­ively banned inde­pend­ent uni­ons” in Ukraine and that “only uni­ons whose lead­ers are pre­pared to speak out in sup­port of Zelensky … are still func­tion­ing.”

This is untrue. Not a single trade union has been banned.

Ukrain­ian uni­ons organ­ised in the Fed­er­a­tion of Trade Uni­ons of Ukraine, the Con­fed­er­a­tion of Free Trade Uni­ons and inde­pend­ent uni­ons such as postal and rail work­ers con­tinue to oper­ate fully.

They have repeatedly cri­ti­cised gov­ern­ment policies, engaged in nego­ti­ations and cam­paigns and defen­ded work­ers’ rights. Miners have taken strike action, health work­ers have pro­tested and teach­ers have won pay justice.

Ger­man refuses to listen to what Ukrain­ian uni­ons are say­ing, by West­s­plain­ing that the war is merely a “proxy war between Nato and Rus­sia,” she erases the real­ity that Rus­sia launched an unpro­voked full-scale inva­sion of a sov­er­eign coun­try his­tor­ic­ally oppressed by Rus­sian imper­i­al­ism. Ukrain­ian uni­ons have never faced a choice between “con­tinu­ing the war” or “peace.” Their choice has been res­ist inva­sion or accept occu­pa­tion.

As Ukrain­ian edu­ca­tion union rep Snizhana Oleksun wrote: “If we lower our weapons, we are conquered. Occu­pa­tion does not bring peace — it brings mass graves, child abduc­tion, deport­a­tions, and the destruc­tion of inde­pend­ent uni­ons and civil soci­ety.”

Ukraine has repeatedly called for a full cease­fire — rejec­ted by Rus­sia, which con­tin­ues to tar­get work­ers and work­places. Ger­man also mis­rep­res­ents the Brit­ish trade union move­ment: at TUC Con­gress 2026, the motion on Ukraine passed with no votes against and no absten­tions, reaf­firm­ing the 2023 policy.

The Ukraine Solid­ar­ity Cam­paign will con­tinue work­ing with uni­ons to sup­port Ukrain­ian work­ers, defend imprisoned trade uni­on­ists and oppose Rus­sian imper­i­al­ism.

Christopher Ford (Ukraine Solid­ar­ity Cam­paign sec­ret­ary)

Leave a comment