Colin Turbett's Website

Social History, Social Work, Socialism - and a bit about bikes

Slava Ukraina!

Building Solidarity With the People of Ukraine

Writing and researching the USSR books brought me into contact with people in Ukraine, and Valentina Kudinova and her family in Kharkiv more than anyone else. I made contact with her as soon as the full scale invasion started, and have kept in touch regularly since - hearing her stories of the attacks on her city and the repulsion of attempts to capture it in 2022.  This has been quite dramatic and emotional and guided my views on the war, its causes, and how it might be ended.

In 2023, I terminated a long membership of the Scottish Socialist Party after they confrmed a position on the war in Ukraine that took no account of the views of people there - including those in the trade union and socialist movement who opposed the Russian invasion (the vast majority).  The SSP's support for an arms embargo was (and is) tantamount to handing victory to Putin and his supporters. Later in the year I joined with others to form the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Scotland (USCS). This was aligned closely with the UK wide Ukraine Solidarity Campaign - formed after the Russian invasion of Crimea and Donetsk in 2014. Our aim is to build links with the left and trade union movement in Ukraine, support their resistance to invasion, help them resist neoliberalism encroachment, and counter the Kremlin narrative that Ukraine was under the control of nazis and extreme nationalists. 

In April 2024, having raised funds through a Crowdfunder, I visited Kharkiv for a week, meeting trade union and community activists, and social work services (see images above). I was able to deliver some immediate practical support, and bring back news and requests for further help, to Scotland. This has aided USCS efforts to forge links between trade unionists in Scotland and colleagues in Ukraine. This activity continues.