Common Weal seeks to build a better world on the pillars of peace, justice, and cooperation, and in these terms we join the countless other organisations and peoples in standing in solidarity with the Ukrainian people as they courageously fight to uphold their sovereignty, territorial integrity, and ultimately their lives. We condemn President Putin’s illegal invasion and call on all governments to deescalate the situation and find resolution through peaceful, diplomatic means. We also stand in support of the many dissenting voices within Russia itself, showing equal parts courage to stand up to the oppressive regime.
The working classes and ordinary people are always most exploited by conflict, and ultimately we must play our part in securing their safety, freedom, and in guaranteeing their human rights. As such, we join others in urging the UK government to open safe passage and ease of access for Ukrainian refugees as so many other countries across Europe have done.
To build a world that puts all of us first, Common Weal supports all efforts to find a swift and peaceful end to the conflict, and secure social justice for the working classes of Ukraine and Russia.
Agreed. Also see Alex Salmond letter in The National today. Sometimes it is a horrible world. However I was born 60 years ago, a few months before the existential stand-off between US and USSR over missile bases in Cuba. By all accounts, it was a close call. Kennedy probably would have started a world war if Kruschev had not backed down. I am still breathing, the human world continues in spite of numerous unreported and reported conflicts across the globe. International, national and local campaigns for equality and human rights continue. Younger folk must strive to build a better, fairer human world at ease with its physical home, Earth. Be concerned, be active; don’t lose heart; don’t give in to fear, ignorance and hatred. Please do better than this generation of (mostly) corrupt, self-serving and sometimes sociopathic “world leaders”; please forgive my generation for allowing them to con us for so long & messing up the planet for the elusive elixir of “economic prosperity”. You deserve much better.
I stand in solidarity with East Ukrainians that LEFT don’t consider HUMAN , the East Ukrainians that have been bombed and shot at by NAZIS for * years and refuse to suck Paul Mason’s dick, Biden’s dick or BoJo’s. Refuse to lie to perpetuate violence!
I watched Question Time last night and was astounded by the shallowness of the panels conception of this terrible conflict. Yes it was wrong for the Russians to invade but it is also wrong of us to relentlessly expand NATO eastwards in direct contradiction of previously made agreements with Russia on the collapse of the Soviet Union. ‘Not an inch eastwards’ This is a proxy NATO war, which avoids the inconvenience of NATO deaths. The west stymied the peace process last March, Ukraine and Russia were going to settle, but we put a stop to that. As a direct result of this and our arming of Ukraine all we achieve is hundreds of thousands more deaths and a terrible stalemate that ultimately will only end in negotiation or escalation to a Third World War. NATO fooked things up in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iran and Libya. We should be suing for peace yet we press on and on with war. And who suffers, not us, but the millions of Afghanis, Libyans, Iranians, Ukrainians and Russians. It is sickening.