Statement by the International Committee of FAU on the Russian invasion of Ukraine

We, the International Committee of the FAU Federation, condemn in the strongest possible terms the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. We call on all solidary workers in Germany to provide all possible help to those affected in Ukraine as well as to the courageous anti-war demonstrators in Russia and Belarus.

The military aggression of the Russian government is currently causing deaths and injuries, destroying cities, communities and livelihoods, it pursues the interests of power and business less, paid for with the blood and lives of thousands. In the long term, it threatens to wipe out the freedoms of the Ukrainian population – which are already limited today – in favor of the political dictatorship.

As a transnational and grassroots trade union movement, we stand behind the working people and the destitute who suffer the greatest casualties in all wars. We also stand behind everyone who today has the courage to stand up against this war despite the enormous repression in Russia.

Even if we welcome the current pressure against the Russian government and banks, we consider the moral indignation of the NATO states and the EU to be little credible against the background of their own imperialist policies. We are thinking, for example, of the Turkish government’s wars of aggression in Armenia, northern Iraq, north-eastern Syria, we are talking about the lack of support for the uprisings in Belarus or Hong Kong, we are talking about the lack of support for the resisters in Sudan and Myanmar. We resolutely oppose any form of imperialism.

Ultimately, Russia and the EU and NATO are nation-state constructs. And as is usual with such power structures, they primarily serve the interests of capital. Capital interests that contradict our interests as workers. With this in mind, we also condemn the announcement by Chancellor Scholz (SPD) of spending billions on German rearmament, billions that are of no use to the people of Ukraine and that are lacking in Germany in the social, nursing, health, education and environmental sectors.

In the current war of aggression against the Ukrainian population, we call on you: organize apartments, jobs, government support and transport services for refugees from Russia and Ukraine, donate money, medicines, protective equipment such as helmets and protective vests to left-wing self-defense and medical units, support deserters: inside both sides, also scandalizes the use of double standards with regard to the aggressive wars of the NATO state Turkey.

We ask all solidarity workers to share contacts in Ukraine with us and to coordinate with us how to proceed.

As workers in solidarity, we face tremendous challenges in a destabilizing world. We have to organize ourselves, worldwide, grassroots democracy and binding. We have to expand our solidarity funds, our translator and media networks, we have to build structures for the self-protection of the workers and for overcoming humanitarian crises. No handshake for the war and its profiteers – everything for global solidarity!

International Committee of the FAU Federation of Trade Unions,
Organized in the International Confederation of Labour
In German: www.fau.org