We also went on another important trip in August. Together with our partners from Catalunya, we traveled to help trade unions in four different regions.

This was the fourth time when activists from Lucha Internacionalista and the UIT-CI came to Ukraine to support workers —both those who continue working in companies and those who have been mobilized to the AFU. This time, they were also joined by an activist from the Spanish trade union CGT.

Our first stop was Mykolayiv, where we met with a trade union of educators. Due to the war, dozens of schools and kindergartens in the Mykolayiv Region have been destroyed. Some of the teachers have survived occupation. But the horrors did not end there. When the Kakhovka HEPP was destroyed, water in River Inhulets rose and flooded many villages and towns. So the educators, who were already poor, often lost everything they had left.

We delivered bed sheet sets, warm blankets and pillows to the educators of the Mykolayiv Region. “This is more than I have left,” complained one of the teachers.

Our next stop was Kryvyi Rih. Here, we visited the activists of the ArcelorMittal metal workers union and gave them 20 tourniquets and 5 tactical backpacks for the mobilized workers of the factory.

Then we went to Zaporizhia. We brought 69 food packages for members of the independent railway workers union, one of the most militant unions we’ve ever seen. And finally, another 22 tourniquets and a vehicle night vision device was given to the railway workers of Korosten. Many workers from the local train repairs depot have also been mobilized or volunteered to go fight at the frontline, and they really need support. Unfortunately, wages at the depot today are only a few thousand hryvnias per month, which makes these people extremely vulnerable in the conditions of the difficult economic situation in Ukraine.

We are incredibly grateful to our Catalinyan comrades from Lucha Internacionalista, CGT, and all the initiatives that made this convoy possible. Solidarity knows no borders!