- No to war in Ukraine! For the right of Ukrainians to decide their own future, including the right of self-determination for minorities!
- For the withdrawal of Russian troops!
- No to military intervention by Nato powers, stop the arms race, oppose Nato expansionism
- No confidence in any of the “peace keeping” imperialist forces involved – no trust in the Tories to help ordinary Ukrainians.
- Open safe and legal routes to Britain for refugees. Demand access to decent housing, health services and benefits for all.
- No illusions in diplomacy by the warmongers. Build a massive anti-war and anti-imperialist movement linking up workers and youth over borders. Solidarity with the workers and youth protesting the war in Russia.
- For an internationalist working class socialist alternative to capitalism and its war and destruction.
Around the world people are watching events unfolding in Ukraine with horror: Bombs hitting residential buildings, leaving people with life changing injuries or worse. Families cowering in basements and Metro stations to hide from the assaults. Desperate refugees queuing to get across the borders to safety. The death and destruction of capitalism is laid bare for all to see.
In Ukraine, many are collecting weapons and resisting the invasion in any way they can. Across Europe there have been huge anti-war demonstrations in solidarity with ordinary people in Ukraine. Heroically, this includes significant demonstrations in Russia, facing brutal state repression.
Socialists, trade unionists and activists in Britain should work to build real solidarity with their counterparts in Ukraine and Russia.This must include mass protests and demonstrations as part of building an international working-class movement against war and imperialism. We must also fight for the right of refugees to safe passage and decent conditions of living. We stand against the disgusting racism being faced by black people trying to leave Ukraine.
This type of solidarity is what offers the best chance of ending the war in a way that offers a decent and safe future for the working class across the region. We must oppose the hawkish stance of Johnson’s government, along with the enthusiastic war-drum beaters who now lead Labour. Sickeningly, in the face of a huge domestic crisis particularly fuelled by the Downing Street party-gate scandal, Johnson has even tried to use posturing over Ukraine as a way to save his own political skin. In reality, the only concern of these representatives of capitalism is furthering the interests of Western imperialism in the New Cold War – a true defence of the Ukrainian people is not their motivation. In fact the role of Western imperialism – including pushing for the expansion of Nato’s blood-soaked military alliance in Eastern Europe – has contributed to the escalation of conflict in the region in the lead up to Putin’s barbaric invasion.
The countries heading the ‘hardline’ approach on Russia are the same ones who have spent the last two decades wreaking the most appalling devastation across the Middle East. They fully back the state terror of the Israeli regime against the Palestinians. The ‘liberators’ and ‘democrats’ of NATO have left behind an Afghanistan in which 20 million now face starvation, and the Taliban’s reactionary theocratic dictatorship is restored.
Johnson’s sanctions against Putin are hypocritical and tokensitic given that governments of all parties have allowed the City of London to function as a laundry service and financial playground for oligarchs and kleptocrats the world over. Indeed, the Tory party has itself benefited from the donations of Russian billionaires. Meanwhile, as well as the impact that some sanctions are already having on working-class people in Russia – who are not responsible for the actions of Putin’s brutal regime – the impact on the supply of oil and gas from Russia to western Europe has the potential to intensify the already serious cost of living crisis in Britain.
Working class people can rely only on our own strength to end this war, and indeed to offer a future free from all wars. Capitalism is a system of imperialism and war. It needs and breeds nationalism, violence, oppression and exploitation. Only an international working-class struggle for a socialist society – where the wealth and resources of the world are collectively owned and democratically planned to meet the needs of all people and of the planet – can offer a decent, peaceful future for all.
