On Friday, Socialist Equality Party members Nick Beams and John Davis spoke on the Central Hunter Radio (2CHR) station to discuss the global campaign to free imprisoned Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk.

The SEP representatives were interviewed by Warren Parsons on a local program. It covers parts of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley, a working-class area north of Sydney historically associated with coal mining, steel production and other manufacturing.

Beams and Davis stated that Syrotiuk is the victim of a gross frameup. He has been charged with high treason and slandered as an agent of the Russian government. In reality, Syrotiuk, as the leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists, has fought to unite workers in Ukraine and Russia against the US-NATO instigated war and all the governments, including the Putin regime.

The interview touched on the growing danger of nuclear war posed by ever more direct US involvement in the Ukraine war, and the relationship between the conflict there and the global war drive of American imperialism, including its support for the Gaza genocide and preparations for a catastrophic conflict with China.

Beams and Davis called on listeners to join the struggle for Syrotiuk’s freedom, as part of a fight to defend democratic rights and mobilise the working class against the threat of a new world war.