This looks like something worthy of backing by Labour party members and supporters in the UK.
The Labour Party believes and has always believed in a world governed by rules, in liberal democracy and in the territorial integrity of nations. Nowhere is the battle for those ideals more fiercely raging than in Ukraine.
Labour Friends of Ukraine exists to show solidarity with this pluralistic, democratic society in its struggle against Russian aggression.
We hope to strengthen relations between Britain and Ukraine, supporting those striving for peace, tackling corruption and taking the country further down the road towards EU and Nato membership.
We foster constructive and informed discussion within the Labour movement.
Thankfully this bunch will have nothing to do with it.
I can’t find comparable Conservative or Liberal Democrat Friends of Ukraine (I don’t need to bother looking for George Galloway’s Respect party), but there actually was a Conservative Friends of Russia, accused of close ties with the Putin regime, as recently as 2012.
I’d hate to think there’s a connection between this and all the contributions to the Tories from Russian oligarchs. I mean, despite all the evidence, and despite all the financial power wielded in London by Russians with ties to the Putin regime, I’d really hate to think that.
Update: Here’s another reason why people on the Left should oppose the pro-Russian separatists and why leftists who support them should be made to feel like the sellouts and scabs they are.
Independent trade unions are now banned in the so-called Luhansk Peoples Republic – the Order was issued on 20th January2015 by the Minster of Justice A.V. Shubin entitled: “Concerning the Ban for Registration of Independent Trade Unions on the Territory of the People’s Republic of Luhansk Peoples Republic”. The order has become fully apparent as when an attempt was made by the Indepenent Miners Union sought to register at the Barakov Coal Mine.
(Looks like something Republican governors Nikki Haley and Scott Walker could get behind, but never mind.)
