Project Statement on PCS’s Ukraine Motion

The recent passing of a conference motion “In support of Ukraine” by the Public and Commercial Services Union, filled with utter distortions of reality, shows us yet again how far the leadership of the trade union movement has fallen and how much it is wedded to British imperialism.

The motion is remarkable in how much detail it leaves out with regard to the war in Ukraine. Firstly, it fails to acknowledge that the war in Ukraine began nine years ago in 2014 following a coup that was carried out by fascist gangs in Kiev. It fails to mention that the residents of the Donbas region have been under artillery fire for almost a decade and that over ten thousand people had died before the special military operation even began. Shockingly though this motion, passed by something that still calls itself a trade union, fails to mention the massacre of at least 40 people who were burnt to death in the Odessa trade union hall in 2014. They were cornered and murdered by a fascist mob. Yet the ridiculous motion passed by PCS fails to mention any of this. They also fail to mention the key role played by Boris Johnson in blocking a potential peace settlement this time last year, on the orders of the Biden administration.

This yet another example of how the leadership of major British trade unions routinely parrot the most ridiculous lies of the government over matters of war and peace. It is no coincidence that the finest trade unionists of the modern era, Arthur Scargill and Bob Crow, had anti-imperialism as a key part of their politics. They would stand in solidarity with those oppressed by British imperialism and not side with it in the most disgraceful and dishonest way that PCS has.