Hastings turns out in numbers to show support for Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has provoked among the local population strong reactions of revulsion against the Putin regime and expressions of solidarity with Ukrainians, as evidenced by the unexpectedly large turnout for a march and rally held on Sunday at short notice. Nick Terdre reports.

At a rough guess several hundred, many carrying Ukrainian flags and wearing the country’s blue and yellow colours, joined the march from the pier to the Stade open space on Sunday afternoon. Here several speakers, including Ukrainians resident in Hastings, addressed the crowd. Donation buckets for the Disaster Emergency Committee’s Ukraine appeal were passed round.

The rally on the Stade was organised by local resident Ray Gerlach, who was approached by willing speakers as soon as he made his plan public.

First up was Labour Cllr Maya Evans, who called for peace talks to start, China to be encouraged to put pressure on Putin to stop the war, Conservatives to stop receiving donations from Russian oligarchs, and for a stop to be put to the arms trade which profits from wars such as that in Yemen.

She then strayed off-topic onto local party political topics, referring to the need of local residents in her ward of Hollington and elsewhere to make use of food banks, in an apparent dig at local Tory councillors present, a move which several eye-witnesses told HOT appeared to be deliberately provocative.

She was barracked by one of them, Cllr Mike Edwards, who shouted “We’re here to talk about Ukraine!,” marched onto the stage and tried to take the microphone from her. Cllr Peter Chowney eventually persuaded him to leave the stage.

At an event intended to bring people together in solidarity with Ukraine, the incident left a sour taste. The council said on Thursday that it had received a number of complaints about the matter which it would investigate under its code of conduct procedures.

The focus at the rally switched back to Ukraine when local resident Taisia Laskevits from that country took the microphone. She denounced the shelling of civilians, houses, schools and hospitals, which was causing many to flee to neighbouring countries. Ukrainians were not giving up — they were united like never before, she said.

Refugees

Polly Gifford, wearing her Hastings Supports Refugees hat, then welcomed refugees from Ukraine as from other countries. “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here,“ she proclaimed.

The plight of Ukrainian refugees wanting to come to the UK was addressed by Felicity Lawrence of Hastings Community of Sanctuary. If the numbers who had arrived in Calais tried to cross the Channel to this country without permission they would be criminalised along with refugees from other countries by the government’s proposed Nationality and Borders bill, she said, calling on people to write to MP Sally-Ann Hart and urge her to vote against the bill.

Sasha, a young Ukrainian studying in the UK, said Hastings was a city similar in ways to his hometown of Odesa on the Black Sea coast, and expressed the hope that the leaders of Russia and Ukraine would sit down together and negotiate peace.

Finally Nadene Ghouri, an author and journalist whose son was born in Ukraine, called attention to the fact that there are some 71m refugees in the world, a number which had escalated at its fastest following the invasion of Ukraine. “Ukrainians are not just fighting for Ukraine, they are fighting for Europe, for us,” she said.

And they were crying out for medical supplies – we should listen to the groups on the ground to find out what they wanted. She denounced the government’s “disgusting” bill and said we should remember all refugees: there were thousands of Afghans freezing to death on the Belarus/Poland border. “There but for the lottery of birth go all of us,” she said.

Ghouri ended by reciting the lyrics of Edwin Starr’s War (“What is it good for? Absolutely nothing…”).

Counting in donations submitted since the rally and Gift Aid contributions, a sum of around £1,000 had been collected for the DEC appeal, Gerlach told HOT on Friday. Further action will follow, he said. “We can’t let this go cold now.”

Meanwhile a separate rally was held on Saturday outside the former Debenham’s building in the town centre, where a crowd of some 30-40 were addressed by local Ukrainians. Again donations were collected — amounting to just over £500, according to Facebook reports.

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