I demand the immediate and unconditional release of Bogdan, and so should every member of this union, and every member of the working class. On August 10th, a court in Ukraine sentenced Bogdan Syrotiuk, a 27-year-old socialist and opponent of war, to 15 years in prison for writing that Russian and Ukrainian workers have no reason to kill each other and calling on them to unite against the war.
My name is Will Lehman. I work at Mack Trucks in Macungie, Pennsylvania, and I am a rank-and-file candidate for president of the United Auto Workers.
We have been told for four and a half years that Ukraine is fighting a war for democracy, but it has become a police state that jails its left-wing opponents. Zelensky’s term expired in May of 2024, and he has ruled by decree ever since under permanent martial law, with 11 opposition parties suspended, the largest banned outright, and strikes prohibited. The same frame-ups, arrests, and repression are being prepared for workers here who oppose austerity, war, and dictatorship.
The war in Ukraine is a central battleground in the opening stages of a third world war, which is now merging with Trump’s criminal war against Iran. They take our money for these wars and then they take our children to fight them, sent to seize oil, resources, and markets for the same corporations that are cutting our jobs and wages at home.
UAW members build weapons at General Dynamics Electric Boat, at Lockheed Martin, at General Dynamics Land Systems, and at plants across the country being retooled for war. The means of destruction must be converted into means of production geared for human needs, with every job guaranteed and the workers who do the work deciding what’s getting made.
Despite Shawn Fain’s repeated posturing as an opponent of war, his real record is that of a fervent supporter of American imperialism. He has promoted our plants for years as the “Arsenal of Democracy.” He was among Biden’s closest labor allies when that administration waged the war in Ukraine. At the UAW’s political conference in January of 2024, Fain endorsed Genocide Joe Biden while the slaughter in Gaza was underway, and the delegates who chanted “Ceasefire Now” were dragged from the hall by UAW security and the Secret Service while Fain looked on, an attack I denounced at the time.
Fain and the UAW bureaucracy have said nothing in defense of Bogdan Syrotiuk or against the war in Ukraine.
Sign the petition for Bogdan’s release at WSWS.org and send a letter of protest to the court in Ukraine. Bring a resolution demanding Bogdan’s freedom to your local and put it before the membership and demand that it be voted on. Bogdan Syrotiuk is in a Ukrainian prison cell for insisting that workers of every country share one common interest. Take up his defense as your own. Free Bogdan.
Sign the petition: freebogdan.org
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