The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) condemns the ongoing war in Ukraine and stands in solidarity with the working-class people of Ukraine, Russia, and the world, who continue to suffer as a result of imperialist power games between East and West.
Let us be clear, this war is not being waged in the interests of democracy or peace. It is a war driven by capitalist rivalries, military expansionism, and the quest for regional and global domination — whether by Western imperialism led by the United States and NATO, or by Russian imperialism under Vladimir Putin.
NO TO NATO EXPANSION – NO TO U.S. DOMINANCE
The role of NATO, the European Union, and U.S. foreign policy cannot be overlooked. NATO’s steady eastward expansion, its militarisation of Eastern Europe, and its history of invasions and regime change — from Iraq to Libya — have only intensified global insecurity.
Contradictions have become extreme, such as Donald Trump imposing punitive trade tariffs on Ukraine but not Russia. Trump’s ongoing attempt to withdraw U.S. military support to Zelensky – and to force him to accept Russia’s theft of Crimea and the Donbas – are reflections of his ‘paleo-conservative’ turn away from the ‘neo-conservative’ ideology, but at the same time he aims to override Ukrainian interests by grabbing the non-invaded part of the country’s rare earth minerals, and also by gaining a precedent for Trump’s own threatened invasions of Greenland and Canada.
President Zelensky’s embrace of NATO, dependence on Western weapons (with a coming turn from the U.S. to Europe), neoliberal economic alignment with the IMF and EU, and privatisation, as well as a forthcoming turnover of rare earth minerals to Trump regime cronies, have turned Ukraine into a battleground for Western strategic interests. Under the cover of war, his administration has dismantled labour rights, banned opposition parties, and suppressed independent trade unions, particularly those with left and socialist traditions.
SAFTU stands opposed to this model of neo-colonial dependency, where Western military and financial institutions dictate the economic and political future of sovereign nations.
NO TO PUTIN’S WAR – NO TO RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM
At the same time, we reject the false notion that Russia under Vladimir Putin represents a counterweight to U.S. imperialism. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is an illegal act of aggression, and his regime is itself capitalist, nationalist, anti-worker, and authoritarian. Putin banned independent unions, crushed anti-war protests, jailed opposition leaders and anti-capitalist activists (e.g. Marxist sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky), and used Russian troops and mercenaries (e.g. the Wagner Group) to advance its empire in Syria, Africa, and Central Asia. The tragedy of Sudanese intra-military conflict fueled in part by Russian interests is causing Africa’s worst current famine and bloodshed.
Putin’s war serves oligarchic interests, not the Russian people.
THE WORKING CLASS PAYS THE PRICE
As always, it is the working class — not the oligarchs or generals — who pay the highest price. Ordinary Ukrainians have seen their cities destroyed and lives uprooted. Ordinary Russians are being conscripted and silenced. Millions have been displaced, while military contractors, oil companies, and arms manufacturers reap profits.
The war is also exacerbating the global food crisis, energy inflation, and debt across the Global South, including here in South Africa.
An artificial divide has also opened up, in which South Africa’s foreign policy makers are accused of hypocrisy, given Pretoria’s military collaboration with Russia after March 2022 – such as AK47 purchases from the state’s Lady R in December 2022 and joint naval drills in February-March 2023 – and at the same time South Africa refused Putin attendance rights at the BRICS Summit in August 2023, because of respect for the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Putin for his regime’s kidnapping of more than 20 000 Ukrainian children.
This confusion does not mean South Africa has an objectively ‘neutral’ foreign policy. It means that two wings of the world’s most murderous forces – Russia and the West – leave Cyril Ramaphosa’s government utterly befuddled. The same confusion is palpable in the Middle East, what with Pretoria’s strong Hague Group commitments to ending Israel’s genocide against Palestine via the ICC and International Court of Justice on the one hand, but on the other, Ramaphosa’s brother-in-law Patrice Motsepe and former business partners at Glencore scoring millions of dollars each time they ship coal to fuel the Israel Defense Forces.
SAFTU’S POSITION
• We say NO TO WAR – STOP THE INVASION!
• We say NO TO NATO – DISBAND MILITARY ALLIANCES!
• We say NO TO ALL IMPERIALISM – RUSSIAN AND WESTERN!
• We stand with the working people, trade unions, anti-war movements, and socialist forces in Ukraine, Russia, and across the world.
• We affirm the right of all peoples to national sovereignty and self-determination — not under the boot of NATO nor under Moscow’s tanks.
SAFTU calls for:
• Immediate ceasefire and diplomatic resolution,
• Withdrawal of all foreign troops,
• International solidarity among working-class movements,
• And an end to arms profiteering and military aid that fuels war instead of peace.
A WORLD BEYOND WAR IS POSSIBLE!
As Rosa Luxemburg once declared,
“This madness will not stop unless the workers of all countries say to their governments: ‘We will not be your cannon fodder!’”
This war is not ours, but its effects are global. We call on all unions, social movements, youth, and peace activists to speak out against imperialist wars and demand a world based on social justice, demilitarisation, and global solidarity.
Let us build the power of the working class to resist war and exploitation — not just in Ukraine or Russia, but in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, and wherever imperialism raises its head.
An injury to one is an injury to all!
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU by General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For more details, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku
066 168 2157
Newtonm@saftu.org.za
