MINNEAPOLIS — “Working people the world over should stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine’s fight for sovereignty,” Frank Forrestal, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Minnesota, told 75 people here at a May 9 protest against the Russian government’s interference in Ukraine. “Ukrainian toilers overthrew Moscow’s puppet government of Viktor Yanukovych, opening up space to debate, discuss, organize and gain self-confidence.”

“Moscow is worried that Russia’s working people will follow the example of the mass uprising in Ukraine,” said Forrestal, who took part in a March Militant reporting trip there. “The propertied rulers of Russia and Ukraine — as well as in Western Europe and America — fear the mobilization of working people.”

“Workers in the U.S. and Western Europe should demand their governments provide unconditional economic aid, not more loans, and cancel Ukraine’s debts,” Forrestal said. “The Socialist Workers Party is opposed to imposing sanctions against Russia, as this will come down hardest on working people in Russia and play into Moscow’s game of dividing Russian workers from workers of other nationalities and ethnic groups.”

The demonstration was organized by Maidan Minnesota, and included a range of speakers, several of whom were recently in Ukraine and Crimea.