IV592 - May 2024

This appeal to workers and activists abroad comes from Ukrainian trade union activists and leaders in Kryvih Rih, as well as supports of various civil society initiatives. It is not an official appeal from any trade union. But it expresses very well the mood and wishes of many Ukrainian trade unionists and NGOs, and the issues they wish to communicate to their counterparts in other countries, less than one month before the elections to the European Parliament.

“The UAW has allocated $40 million for organizing and is looking to organize other plants in the South as well. The union must become larger and stronger if it is to confront the industry as it makes the transition to electric vehicles. The union has organizing drives under way at a Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama and Toyota Motor in Troy, Missouri.”

“It is up to us to fight on the basis of fundamental positions, rejecting their ideas, which remain unacceptable in all forms. We demand open borders and a Europe-wide redistribution of wealth. Immediately, we are in favour of a European minimum wage and equal social rights for all.”

“As we face the horror of the ongoing Zionist genocidal war in Gaza, which has caused after seven months and one week nearly 45,000 deaths (taking into account the unidentified bodies still under the rubble, numbering 10,000 by the lowest estimate), we are facing a war that is no less horrific in Darfur, if measured by the number of deaths that fell last autumn in the city of El Geneina alone in West Darfur, where a UN report estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 were killed at the hands of the Rapid Support Forces out of a total population of 150,000. ”

“These demands are part of a wider popular protest movement against the austerity policy that William Ruto, the new president elected in September 2022, is trying to implement.”

“In this climate it’s necessary both to defend Palestine solidarity activism and to state clearly what antisemitism is – and isn’t.”

What we have learnt from the recent local and mayoral elections in England.

“Since the coming to power of the ultra-neoliberal and reactionary government of President Javier Milei, the eyes of the global left have turned to Argentina to try to understand the phenomenon of the rise of the extreme right in Latin America and around the world.”

“The large, diverse, decentralized, non-violent movement has been driven by young people’s horror at the genocidal war being carried out by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. This has clearly been a humanitarian movement expressing solidarity with the Palestinians, calling for an end to the war, for stopping U.S. provision of arms to Israel, and demanding that universities stop investing in Israel’s arms industry. ”

“I think that at the moment the main task is not so much to think about elections, but rather to think about how we can rebuild an anti-militarist internationalism that breaks with all imperialisms, that is independent of imperial interests and distant from our empires or competitors, that can have class independence and argues that one of the most important elements at the moment is an ecosocialist anti-militarist policy; to also reflect on the link between the climate crisis and the increase in war and armed conflicts.”