The statement agreed
the need for peace talks but did not believe that these could effectively take
place if support for Ukraine was withdrawn as “implied by Composite Q”
On a show of hands the
Composite was defeated, albeit with a substantial minority in favour.
Moving the composite,
ATUC’s Mike Martin reminded delegates that on 24 February
2022, the Russian Federation launched a military intervention into Ukraine,
marking a serious escalation of the civil war in Eastern Ukraine which broke
out in early 2014.
“We oppose the unilateral use of force against any
sovereign state in contravention of the United Nations Charter and
international law.
“At the same time, we recognise that the current
crisis is the outcome of a decades-long policy of eastward expansion of the
NATO military alliance, the consequences of which were rightly warned against
in advance by leading figures of the US foreign policy establishment.”
Mike said that today, we are witnessing how war breeds
fear, hatred, and jingoism, with the flames often being fanned by our
politicians and media institutions.
“This conflict has the potential to spiral out of
control and bring the United States and Russia – the world’s two largest
nuclear powers, who together account for 90% of all nuclear warheads – into
direct conflict,” warned Mike.
“We urgently call on all parties to immediately pursue
a diplomatic resolution of this conflict. Now more than ever, the priority is
peace, a call supported by many across Europe and a majority in the Global
South.
“In order to end this war and minimise the suffering
and death of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, it is urgently necessary that
we understand how we arrived at this moment – only then can we navigate our way
out.”