Ukraine

Photo report and interview: 2nd International labour union convoy returns from Ukraine.

The International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggles organised its second convoy to Ukraine at the end of September 2022. Here are photos of this solidarity action.

October 15, 2022

Solidaires (CM)

Interview in French and English by clicking here

Kryvyi Rih, mining town, working class town.

Exhibition in the city center of Russian military equipment recovered during the battles, the sunflowers symbolize Ukraine.

In Warsaw before departure, conference organised by our IP comrades, those from Ukraine are in Visio, but we will join them soon.

The van is full to bursting with what we have bought here : generators, walkie-talkies, medical and self-defence equipment, and what our comrades have added : warm clothes, sleeping bags... not forgetting the hygiene and food products that a solidarity association from the Ile-de-France region has entrusted to us for the transport. Polish comrade, who is driving, is a former member of Solidarnosc in the 80's, all fights come together.

Conference with trade unionists fighting against military aggression and fighting for workers' rights, they are on the front line.

The delegation and the van with Ukrainian comrades : Solidaires from France, IP from Poland, CSP Conlutas from Brazil, ADL Cobas from Italy, Cobas from the Spanish state, Emancipation from France. And the flag of our comrades from the independent miners' union of Kryvyi Rih.

The self-defence equipment is handed over to the women of the union who had urged us to do so just before we left.

The trade union room, whose heating has been switched off and which is monitored by camera.

Unloading of generators, sleeping bags, food products from the van...

First aid kits purchased with donations from the Arta Solidari association in Majorca

Care materials: granules for haemostatic dressings.

Walkie-talkies are particularly popular.

Informal discussions and a walk before curfew where we are told about the life of the Cossacks, the life and struggle of Makhno and Marusya, the birth of Trotsky in the region, and always the trade union experiences, the struggle against the powers and corruption.

On the road leaving Kryvyi Rih Chernozium, the famous black lands of Ukraine (Chernozium), those which produce wheat, sunflower... as much coveted as coal and iron.