A trade union conference was violently attacked by fascist thugs on June 26 in Kiev. The Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine was holding its congress and was due to elect the union leadership, when it was interrupted by a violent attack by “Right Sector” and “Social-National Assembly” neo-nazi thugs, as well as the Maidan self-defence militia.

The police force arrived after most of the damage and violence have been done and have failed to intervene effectively, while several Afghan war veterans attempted to defend the conference on their own.

The attackers, who burned flags, used pepper spray against their opponents, broke glass doors and windows, and set fire to one of the corridors in the building, had declared the leadership elections illegitimate and demanded that the Federation adopt measures of “lustration” against most of its former leaders, especially Party of Regions members.

This is just another move towards suppressing dissent by the regime. Whether the FPU is bureaucratic or not is irrelevant in this case, this is a problem that workers in Ukraine have to deal with themselves, not neo-Nazi thugs.

As in other spheres of society, where secret police, aided by fascist thugs, carries out arrests against dissenters and left-wing activists, here the Kiev regime uses neo-Nazi militants in an attempt to push through politically loyal leadership into trade union organisations – like the so-called Independent Miners’ Trade Union, where the leadership is affiliated to the nationalist “Batkivshchyna” (Fatherland) party and has played a strike-breaking role during the Donbas miners’ industrial action.

The “Right sector” neo-nazis say they advocate the creation of “independent nationalist trade unions.”