GMB members were urged today to reconsider giving “blind support to Ukraine’s neoliberal, anti-trade union government as it cracks down on the workers’ movement.”

Union member Joshua Boyle, who uses they/them pronouns, warned that, amid the ongoing Russian invasion, the West is repeating past mistakes. They also asked: “If war is an industry, how can there be peace in a capitalist world?”

The intervention came during a debate at the general union’s annual congress in Brighton on whether GMB should continue to “campaign to increase arms sales to Ukraine, provide material support and build direct links with Ukrainian trade unions.”

They said: “We cannot end a conflict by providing more arms. The only way a conflict can end this way is the total destruction of one side.

“We’ve seen the effects of flooding countries with arms. Just look at the mojahedin in Afghanistan, the contras in Nicaragua and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.”

Osama Bin Laden, who was part of the US-armed mojahedin forces which fought the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the late 1980s, was the mastermind of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the US.

They added: “The current Ukrainian administration passed Law 5371, which severely limits the ability of trade unions within Ukraine to effectively organise.

“It’s opened, and I quote, a ‘Pandora’s box of draconian measures,’ which are affecting almost 70 per cent of all workers.

“These include measures that severely curtail the ability of trade unions to represent their members, introducing suspension of employment and giving employers the right to unilaterally suspend collective agreements.”

The speech was met with some applause, but the vast majority of delegates in the Brighton Centre rejected the argument and endorsed the original motion.