SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE Conference supporting the Ukrainian people’s national and social rights (Brussels, March 26-27, 2025)

SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE Conference supporting the Ukrainian people’s national and social rights (Brussels, March 26-27, 2025)

Author

ENSU

Date
February 28, 2025

Trump-Putin: Ukraine is not for sale! * No to partition! * Russian troops out!

Click here to register

Wednesday 26-March

De Markten, Rue du Vieux Marché aux Grains 5, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium (Metro De Brouckère)

09:00-09:15 Welcome, announcements (main hall)

09:15-10:45 Challenges facing Ukraine (main hall)

Threat of a Trump-Putin deal * The view from Ukraine * European responses

Chair: Julie Ward (Former MEP for UK Labour Party). Speakers: Tanya Vyhovsky (US State Senator for Vermont), Jonas Sjöstedt (MEP for the Left Party, Sweden), Vitaly Dudin (Social Movement, Ukraine), Judith Kirton-Darling (General-Secretary, IndustriALL)

10:45-11:00 Break (refreshments)

11:00-12:30 Multiple sessions

Trump - Putin deal? (main hall)

Chair: Sacha Ismail (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, England and Wales). Opening comments: Li Andersson (MEP for Left Alliance, Finland), Zofia Malisz (RAZEM, Poland), Christopher Ford (Secretary, Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, England and Wales)

State of Ukraine’s economy (workshop)

Chair: Bev Laidlaw (Deputy President, Public and Commercial Services Union, UK) Opening speakers: Yuri Levchenko (People’s Power (Narodovladdia) Labour Party), Yuliya Yurchenko (Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, University of Greenwich, UK), Vitaly Dudin (Social Movement, Ukraine)

Other workshops to be confirmed

12:30-13:30 Lunch

15 EUR/person, pay online or at the conference reception.

13:30-15:00 What peace?

Territorial integrity and no population transfers * Armaments and security guarantees * Debt, reparation and natural resource sovereignty

Chair: Catherine Samary (French Committee of the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine) Speakers: Mounir Satouri (MEP for Les Écologistes, chair of the Human Rights Sub-committee of the European Parliament), Oleksandr Kyselov (Social Movement, Ukraine), Søren Søndergaard (MP for Red-Green Alliance, Denmark), Simon Pirani (writer, historian and energy researcher, England), Yuri Levchenko (People’s Power (Narodovladdia) Labour Party, Ukraine)

1500-1515: Break (refreshments)

15:15-17:00: Multiple sessions

Military and non-military aid (main hall)

Chair: Opening comments: Adrià Guevara (Secretary for International Relations, Republican Left of Catalonia), Mira (Solidarity Collectives, Ukraine)

Civil resistance in occupied territories (workshop)

Chair: Simon Pirani writer, historian and energy researcher, England) Opening comments: Mikhail Romanov (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group)

Russian anti-war opposition (workshop)

Chair: Peter Veltmans (SAP-Antikapitalisten / Gauche anticapitaliste and trade union activist) Opening comments: Maria Menshikova (Doxa), representative of Feminist Antiwar Resistance (FAR), Dmitrii Kovalev (Left for Peace without Annexations)

Stop LNG/fossil fuels campaign (workshop)

Chair: Peter Cooper (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Scotland) Opening comments: Valeriya Izhyk, EU Affairs Advisor, Razom We Stand

17:00-17:30 Report back from workshops (main hall)

Time to be confirmed: Solidarity concert (ULB)

Music: Lena Ivanova & Alain Vanclooster, bar and cafe

Thursday 27 March

Pianofabriek, Rue du Fort 35, 1060 Saint-Gilles, Brussels

09:00-09:15 Welcome, announcements (main hall)

09:15-10:45 Organising solidarity (main hall)

Trade union and labour movement * Russia: boycotts and sanctions * Supporting progressive military * Supporting civil liberty organisations

Chair: Laurent Vogel (Belgian Committee of the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine) Speakers: Yulia Yurchenko (representative of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine in UK), Valeriya Izhyk (EU Affairs Advisor, Razom We Stand), Mikhail Romanov (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group), Bernard Dréano (Chairperson of the Centre for Initiatives and Studies on International Solidarity, France)

10:45-11:00 Break (refreshments)

11:00-12:30 Multiple sessions

Labour solidarity (main hall)

Chair: Elaine Jones (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, England and Wales, National Executive Member, UNISON) Speakers: Sacha Ismail (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Trade Union Liaison Officer, trade union activist), Cati Llibre (Vice-president, General Union of Workers (UGT), Catalonia), Felix Le Roux (Solidaires, France)

Feminist struggles in Ukraine (workshop)

Chair tbc Opening comments: Ivanna Vynna (Bilkis)

Labour and democratic struggles in Georgia (workshop)

Chair tbc. Online presentation by Raisa Lapetaliani, Vice-President, Georgian Trade Unions, followed by discussion

12:30-13:30 Lunch

15 EUR/person, pay online or at the conference reception.

13:30-15:00 Which reconstruction? (main hall)

Social protection * What macroeconomic model? *What integration with the EU? * Post-war ecological recovery and paths to sustainability

Chair: Natalie Kopytko (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, England and Wales. Deputy Director of the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds) Speakers: Vasyl Andreiev (Vice-President, Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine), Galyna Krasovska (Social-Democratic Platform, Ukraine), Yuliya Yurchenko (Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, University of Greenwich, UK), Adam Novak (European Network for Solidarity With Ukraine).

15:00-15:15 Break (refreshments)

15:15-17:00  Multiple sessions

Women’s role in reconstruction (main hall)

Chair: Oksana Koslova (Lecturer, Free University of Brussels) Speakers Oksana Slobodiana (Be Like Us (formerly Be Like Nina), Ivanna Vynna (Bilkis)

Why the European states continue their economic relations with Russia (workshop)

Coordinator and speaker: Christian Zeller (editor, emanzipation)

17:00-17:30 Report back from workshops (main hall)

17:30-19:00 Break

18:00-18:30  Media conference (location tbc)

Speakers: tbc

19:00 – 21:00 Public meeting (Free University of Brussels)

Co-Chairs: Graham Campbell (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Scotland, Scottish National Party (SNP) Councillor, Glasgow, Co-convener SNP Socialists), Aude Merlin (lecturer in political science, Free University, Belgian Committee of the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine) Speakers: Tanya Vyhovsky (US State Senator for Vermont), Oksana Dutchak (editor of Commons Journal of Social Criticism, Ukraine), John McDonnell (Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, former shadow Minister of Finance, UK), Tea Jarc (Confederal Secretary, European Trade Union Confederation), Lydia Mutyebele (Parti socialiste, Belgium), Natalia Ostach (President of the Union of Ukrainian Women in Belgium)

Further speakers and video messages - to be confirmed