The Industrial Workers Rank-and-File Committee (IWRFC) in Australia has passed a resolution demanding freedom for 27-year-old Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk, who was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison by a fascistic court.

The IWRFC, which includes postal, factory, logistics and other workers, provides a venue for those in disparate sections of industry to discuss the struggles they confront in their own workplaces, as well as the broader global political context behind attacks on the working class.

The IWRFC unanimously adopted the following resolution:

The Industrial Workers Rank-and-File Committee condemns the August 10 sentencing of Bogdan Syrotiuk, a 27-year-old Ukrainian socialist, to 15 years’ imprisonment by a fascistic court.

This amounts to a death sentence in Ukraine’s decaying prison system, where Bogdan has already been denied urgently needed medical treatment for more than a year.

Bogdan has committed no crime. He was convicted for political articles published on the World Socialist Web Site which opposed both the Putin regime’s invasion of Ukraine and the US-NATO proxy war, exposed the glorification of Nazi collaborators by the Zelensky regime and called for the unity of Ukrainian and Russian workers.

The effect of this verdict is to criminalise socialist and anti-war political speech.

This frame-up is a warning to the working class that the escalation of imperialist war is inseparable from the destruction of democratic rights internationally.

The Industrial Workers Rank-and-File Committee:

• Demands the immediate and unconditional release of Bogdan Syrotiuk and the annulment of the fraudulent verdict;
• Recognises that Bogdan’s fate cannot be left to the fascist Zelensky regime’s kangaroo courts and that his freedom can only be fought for through the mobilisation of the international working class;
• Resolves to make Bogdan’s freedom a standing priority of this committee;
• Commits to circulate the Free Bogdan Syrotiuk petition through a wide range of workplaces, to collect signatures and statements of support from workers and to use every signature as an occasion to discuss the political meaning of the frame-up;
• Agrees that a report on the campaign be placed on the agenda of every regular committee meeting, with members reporting on workplaces visited, signatures collected, discussions held and obstacles encountered;
• Calls on trade union branches, labour councils, student clubs, civil-liberties organisations and anti-war groupings to join the campaign for Bogdan: pass resolutions, issue public statements and sign and circulate the petition for his freedom;
• Resolves to link the fight for Bogdan’s freedom to our own struggles—recognising that the same forces driving imperialist war abroad are waging war on wages, conditions, and democratic rights at home; and
• Pledges to fight to build the international movement of the working class that alone can secure Bogdan’s freedom.

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Several of the workers who attended the IWRFC meeting sent their own statements of support for Bogdan Syrotiuk.

Jim, an Australian postal worker, wrote:

“Bogdan committed no crime. He was convicted for six articles published on the World Socialist Web Site—articles that opposed both the Putin regime’s invasion and the US-NATO proxy war, exposed the Zelensky government’s glorification of Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera, and called for the unity of Ukrainian and Russian workers against their respective ruling classes.

“The frame-up of Bogdan Syrotiuk is not an isolated event in a distant country. Bogdan was jailed because he represents the perspective of socialist internationalism. That perspective is the mortal enemy of every government driving toward World War III, whether in Kiev, Washington, London or Canberra. Every ruling class preparing for war must suppress the opposition of the working class.

“The Albanese government has fully integrated Australia into the US-led drive to world war. Through AUKUS, the expansion of US basing arrangements, the Pine Gap spy and targeting base and the deployment of Australian forces and war matériel to the Middle East, Labor has made this country an active belligerent in multiple theatres: the genocide in Gaza, the assault on Iran, the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, and the military build-up against China in the Indo-Pacific.

“At the same time, Australian governments are escalating their assault on democratic rights at a furious pace. Mass demonstrations against the Gaza genocide have been met with violent police repression, while healthcare workers and university staff have had their livelihoods threatened for expressing any criticism of the Israeli regime and its war crimes.

“There is a connection between the war drive abroad and the assault on jobs, wages and conditions at home. Workers are being made to pay for a war that serves only the ruling class.

“The billions being funnelled into AUKUS submarines and war preparations are being stripped from public services, health, education and the postal service. Australia Post has been subjected to endless restructuring, thousands of posties driven out, real wages cut—all while the union bureaucracy collaborates with management and the government.

“Bogdan Syrotiuk’s fight is our fight. His imprisonment is a warning to every worker and young person in Australia: What is being done to Bogdan today—the criminalisation of political speech, the suppression of anti-war opposition, the branding of socialists as traitors—is being prepared for us.”

Neil, a cleaner from New South Wales, wrote:

“The jailing of Bogdan Syrotiuk on August 10 for “high treason” is a crime and violates international human rights law. Bogdan is opposed to the war, this is shown by his call for all workers in Ukraine and Russia to unite to oppose the war.

“Bogdan posted anti-war articles on the World Socialist Web Site and in opposition to the Ukrainian government.

“Bogdan’s conviction for high treason is a frame-up by a government that has outlawed left-wing politics and suppressed all independent political and trade union activity. Even elections have been suspended and Zelensky rules by his own decree.

“The world media is not reporting on Bogdan’s case. Only the World Socialist Web Site is writing on this. The fight to free Bogdan must mobilise the working class internationally. We demand the release of Bogdan Syrotiuk.”

Stankovic, an Australian postal worker, wrote:

“Bogdan Syrotiuk is no agent of Putin. He is a principled opponent of all capitalist governments—including the Kremlin. He fights for an end to the US-NATO war against Russia through the unity of Ukrainian, Russian and international workers on a socialist basis.

“That is his real ‘crime’: advancing the perspective of working-class internationalism against a war being waged at the expense of millions of ordinary people.

“As an Australian postal worker, I understand that this war is not our war. The Australian government, in lockstep with Washington, has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into arming Ukraine while attacking the wages, conditions and living standards of workers at home.

“The working class has no side in this war. Our enemy is not Russian or Ukrainian workers—it is the capitalist class in every country, including our own, that drives us into war and poverty. Bogdan Syrotiuk has had the courage to say so openly.

“I call on my fellow postal workers and all working people in Australia and around the world to join this campaign. The freedom of Bogdan Syrotiuk is a democratic demand of the entire international working class. Workers of the world, unite—and free Bogdan Syrotiuk!”

Nicholas, a manufacturing worker in Brisbane, wrote:

“I call for the immediate release of Bogdan Syrotiuk. His only crime has been fighting for the unification of Ukrainian and Russian workers to oppose the war that the two nations engage in—a war that comes at the expense of those workers through their pockets and blood.

“Bogdan fights for workers internationally and the international community should come to the aid of those representatives that fight for their interest.

“This political persecution cannot be tolerated. It is a shutdown of political discourse, an assault on democracy and stripping a young man of 15 years of his life for writing articles that contain nothing but the truth and the anti-war sentiments that most people have. He deserves his freedom and support to continue his work.”