EFJ condemns the attack of Russia on Ukraine

Here is the state­ment issued today by EPSU and PSI. The EFJ ful­ly asso­ciates itself with this call.

This morn­ing the Russ­ian army attacked the Ukraine. We con­demn this vio­la­tion of the integri­ty of Ukraine. War and occu­pa­tion bring suf­fer­ing for work­ers, for their fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties. This now hap­pens to peo­ple in Ukraine as bombs fall and they seek shel­ter or flee from the vio­lence, includ­ing hun­dreds of thou­sands evac­u­at­ed to Rus­sia. The suf­fer­ing will also impact work­ers and peo­ple in Rus­sia and Europe, as the con­se­quences of the con­flict are felt.

We sup­port the call of Ukrain­ian trade unions and the Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the UN to ask Rus­sia to imme­di­ate­ly stop the attack and to bring the Russ­ian army back to Rus­sia. Nego­ti­a­tions are the only way for­ward to bring last­ing secu­ri­ty, democ­ra­cy, respect for human and trade union rights, peace and pros­per­i­ty for the peo­ple in Ukraine, Rus­sia and Europe. We are sure that bombs, bul­lets and boots do not.

Our thoughts are with our com­rades in the Ukrain­ian unions. We received the first reports of attacks that affect union mem­bers as well. Our sol­i­dar­i­ty is with the peo­ple of Ukraine. We are con­vinced that this war is not what the major­i­ty of work­ing peo­ple in Ukraine and Rus­sia want.

We stand with the Ukrain­ian work­ers and with the trade union move­ment and we will mobi­lize for peace and sta­bil­i­ty in Ukraine and in Europe. We stand with all pub­lic ser­vice work­ers called on to treat the casu­al­ties of war. We call on the Euro­pean Union and the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to pro­vide sup­port and asy­lum for the peo­ple flee­ing the war zones.