IUAFS statement on the suspension of Bill O’Brien

IUAFS statement on the suspension of Bill O’Brien from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), and relations with the Truth and Neutrality Alliance (TANA)

Eleven leading IUAFS activists have been consulted in drafting this statement, and evidence for everything in the statement is available in the form of message screenshots, meeting records and multiple witnesses.

Introduction

IUAFS is a broad front campaign group made up of three organisations, The New Communist Party of Britain, Posadists in Britain and the Consistent Democrats. These organisations have different political views on many issues, but work on the basis of tolerating disagreements.

However, they are all agreed on the progressive role of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China in the world today, and the desire to support the eradication of the scourge of Nazism in Ukraine and the national liberation of the people of Palestine. Its members also oppose fascism and racism everywhere, and support the complete national liberation of Ireland, Cyprus and Korea.

Bill O’Brien’s two year vendetta against the secretary of IUAFS

A dispute arose between Bill O’Brien and Theo Russell, secretary of IUAFS, in May 2024, after a minor disagreement in an in IUAFS meeting. Bill made a denunciation of Sinn Fein president Mary-Lou MacDonald, to which Theo Russell responded “not everyone in this meeting might agree with that”.

Members of IUAFS are fully aware of the limitations of the Good Friday Agreement, and have great sympathy with those who oppose it in Ireland. They also have no illusions about the true nature of Sinn Fein, which could be described as dominated by bourgeois social democratic ideology. But because the GFA had mass support in both parts of Ireland including in the wider Irish republican movement, some members of IUAFS support the GFA and the peace process at the present time. This is irrespective of Sinn Fein’s position on the war in Ukraine, in the same way in which IUAFS has worked with many members of the Labour Party and trade unions whose leaders pursue a mistaken policy on Ukraine.

The issue of Sinn Fein has been repeatedly raised by Bill in many IUAFS meetings due to its relation with the issue of Irish Neutrality. However, in our view any disagreement on these questions should not be allowed to divide IUAFS, and different viewpoints should in fact be respected.

However, Bill responded to Theo’s comment firstly by saying that he had been “attacked”, then by denouncing Theo as a “British imperialist” and an “English colonialist”. Those claims were repeated on many occasions.

Bill then declared, in an IUAFS meeting, that TANA would no longer be coordinating any Ukraine solidarity protests with IUAFS.

In a meeting soon after that Gerry Downing from Socialist Fight challenged Bill, saying his attacks on me were shameful and unacceptable, and accusing Bill of intolerance of the opinions of other IUAFS members.

It is particularly ironic in view of the fact that Theo Russell spent more than 20 years actively participating in support for Irish national liberation, working for many years with the Wolfe Tone Society, the prisoners campaign Saoirse, and the Connolly Association. This work began in the difficult years of the 1990s when the war in Ireland was still ongoing.

We are not pointing this out to promote Theo, but simply to point out how ridiculous it is to call him a “British imperialist” or “English colonialist”. Such accusations could only be true if Theo was in fact a hostile agent, something which no-one in IUAFS or any of its constituent groups believes.

Indeed one of IUAFS’s most valued members, Gerry Downing from Socialist Fight, has actively opposed the GFA since 1998, but that wasn’t an obstacle to his dedicated work on Ukraine ever since February 2014. In fact Gerry and Theo and others formed a group within the organisation Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance In Ukraine (SARU) from 2014 to 2016, which later became the basis of IUAFS, following the abrupt abandoning of Ukraine solidarity work by SARU in 2016.

Since May 2024, as is well known by all the leading IUAFS activists, Bill went on to wage a ceaseless vendetta against Theo Russell, which developed into repeated attempts to have him removed as secretary of IUAFS. In the past three months it became clear that Bill was working with individuals outside IUAFS to undermine and divide IUAFS and set its secretary up for removal, which will be detailed later in this statement.

Regarding IUAFS’s work with TANA, IUAFS activists including Theo Russell and Gareth Murphy visited Dublin on three occasions to support TANA protests, one at the British Embassy in Dublin and two on O’Connell Street. They took a banner and IUAFS leaflets, one of which was a joint IUAFS-TANA leaflet which was suggested by Bill. This leaflet was prepared jointly with Bill, and produced and paid for by IUAFS.

On all three of those visits Theo and Gareth (who came on one occasion) had nothing but superb interactions with all the TANA members they met. However that collaboration effectively ended after Bill declared in an IUAFS meeting that TANA would no longer coordinate any Ukraine solidarity protests with us.

Ben Stimpson, Bill O’Brien and violent threats against Theo Russell

In the past three months two incidents took place which have resulted in a complete loss of confidence in Bill O’Brien’s integrity by the collective leaderships and all the leading activists in IUAFS.

At the end of last December Ben Stimpson (a British volunteer who went to fight in Donbas about 10-12 years ago), came back to Britain, was in prison for 5 years, returned to Ukraine and is now living in Moscow) contacted Theo Russell and launched a series of attacks against him, which culminated with a threat to violently attack him.

Stimpson began by falsely accusing Theo of banning him from IUAFS meetings, when in fact he had never had any involvement in IUAFS.

It was pointed out to him that he hade posted regularly on the IUAFS Facebook group and hadn’t been blocked, and Theo attempted to engage in friendly discussion with him. However he then posted “you love lgbt (sic) and open door immigration” – a hostile, dishonest and somewhat right wing claim.

Stimpson then asked to be added to the IUAFS zoom meetings, and Theo said the easiest way himself to add him was for him to send an email address. But Stimpson then asked Theo “Are you calling me an Anti Semite there too?” “This was clearly a reference an IUAFS meeting, in which Paul Collins, IUAFS chair, accused Ben of being a “Zionist”.

This followed a message from Stimpson to Theo on 25/12/23 saying “Hamas committed a terrible terrorist attack on innocent people, raping, murder and unspeakably disgusting things… I condemn Hamas and support Israel for all it’s ills and wrongdoings… Hamas and Islamic Jihadi must go, all hostages including the 2 million Palestinian Gaza residents. Ceasefire now.” (verbatim).

Stimpson then said “It was discussed in your meeting”, a meeting which Stimpson was not present at. When I asked him how he knew that, he said “That’s what he told me”. It is the collective belief of IUAFS officers that the only possible person who this “he” referred to could have been Bill O’Brien.

The IUAFS officers knew that Bill O’Brien was in contact with Stimpson, as they were both participants in online meetings of the Moscow-based Red Square-Molotov Club.

Theo explained to Ben Stimpson that both of the claims he had st levelled him were untrue, and then asked him for an apology. Ben then replied: “If I see you I will knock you out”.

Then on 22 April Theo Russell received a direct  message from Bill stating: “We are out to get him. You don’t fuck about with the Irish.”

The IUAFS officers regard this as a veiled threat of possible violence.

O’Brien and Stimpson continue attempts to remove Theo Russell

However at a meeting in late January Bill O’Brien was still attempting to use Stimpson’s attacks on Theo to have him removed as secretary, despite Stimpson’s threat of violence against him.

It was at that meeting that Paul Collins accused Ben of being a Zionist, and Bill was challenged by all the officers whether he had leaked details of an IUAFS meeting. Bill denied any knowledge, but by this time the IUAFS officers, and all the leading, highly dedicated IUAFS activists, had completely lost confidence in Bill’s honesty and integrity, in the light of his increasingly aggressive attempts to remove Theo as secretary.

Following that meeting all the IUAFS officers declared their complete support for Theo as IUAFS secretary.

The next episode was last week, when it was revealed that the Workers Party of Britain was planning a protest at the Ukrainian embassy in London marking the Odessa tragedy on 2 May, in which the IUAFS logo had been used without the knowledge of IUAFS officers.

IUAFS activists were particularly angry to see that our logo was displayed next to that of the Unity News Network (UNN). In 2023 IUAFS decided, after intense debates, not to join any platform alongside UNN speakers because its leader David Clews was known to have close relations with the openly fascist group Patriotic Alternative, and is himself a Tommy Robinson type far right influencer.

Unfortunately that decision resulted in the Workers Party severing all relations with IUAFS.

It also became known that TANA had organised a simultaneous event in Dublin on 2 May, which immediately suggested to IUAFS officers that Bill O’Brien was aware of and probably involved in the Workers Party event in London.

At a meeting of a sub-group of IUAFS members two days later, Bill O’Brien not only promoted the Workers Party event, but also promoted Ben Stimpson, a man who had issued threats of violence against the secretary of IUAFS.

According to the IUAFS chair Paul Collins, Bill O’Brien repeatedly said in recent IUAFS meetings that he had been in direct contact with the Workers Party.

However, when Bill was challenged on this at the IUAFS meeting on 13 April about his involvement with the Workers Party event, he denied any knowledge.

In the light of overwhelming evidence, we now know that this denial was blatant lie on Bill’s part.

We wish to make it clear that IUAFS has no objection to TANA organising protests in conjunction with any British organisation. That is entirely TANA’s business. Our problem in this instance is that this coordination was apparently done behind our backs.

It was these developments which led IUAFS officers to suspend Bill O’Brien pending an investigation into the issues surrounding the Workers Party event. However since 13 April Bill has launched a series of attacks on the IUAFS officers, who he has dubbed “the Gang of Three” (the chair, secretary and the deputy chair, Marie Lynam).

Unfortunately the unanimous feeling among IUAFS officers was that Bill’s honestly was in question, and that they could no longer be confident that details of any meeting at which Bill was present would not be shared with individuals or organisations outside IUAFS.

Bill O’Brien attacks on other IUAFS officers

Bill firstly claimed that he didn’t know who the Gang of Three were, although he had joined dozens of meetings at which they were present. He also claimed to have no knowledge of the Unity News Network, even though he had been present in a number of IUAFS meetings where that organisation was discussed.

On 21 April a leading IUAFS activist, Ian Donovan, received a long series of messages from Bill O’Brien. Here are quotes from them verbatim:

“Look yous have behave like fascist towards me… I never heard of  the UNN till you mentioned them tonight. I will come out of this good and you people will have shit all over  you.

“Pity it turned out this way all down to the gang of 3 and mostly the head hongo (a reference to Theo Russell). Looking bad for the head hongo (sic)”.

“More shit I don’t know Clews or anything about him never heard of him also.

“If someone has been using your logo I had no hand in it look Russell the head hongo has had it in for me for over a year or more now.

“I need to take precautions against you people. I will make sure you name is shit all over Ireland and internationally. You are a very isolated group anyway.

“We will (then) be putting out a statement regarding our behaviour and especially the head hongo. We were not having him in Ireland again because of his carry on the last time he was here. Him trying to take over everything and telling us what to do. Then drinking 10 pints of Guinness like the fool that he is. We took he off your social media networks and that’s when he started to turn against me which is the start of all this.

“We have hard evidence on him. He has no evidence on me if he had he would have provided it. The more we look at this the more we dismiss you all.”

On 22 April Bill sent another string of highly abusive messages to Ian Donovan, saying “you are one abusive English fucking Trot. Go back and live in your little Trot shit hole”.

It is important to state here that all contacts from IUAFS members with Bill have been on the basis of respectful language. There is not a single instance of any IUAFS member using abusive language towards Bill.

While we find Bill’s language unacceptable and abusive, we would like to make the following points:

Firstly, the claim that Theo Russell “had it in for me for over a year or more now”. The fact is that as explained above it is Bill who has waged a vendetta against Theo for almost two years, because he couldn’t tolerate Theo questioning Bill’s words about Sinn Fein. All the leading IUAFS activists are aware of this fact.

Second, it is outrageous to claim that on his visits to Dublin Theo was “trying to take over everything and telling us what to do”. As explained above, during those visits the two IUAFS members enjoyed a totally friendly and comradely relationship with everyone in TANA, including Bill himself. This is in fact known to the TANA members they met while in Dublin.

Third, the reference to “10 pints of Guinness” is particularly ironic. In fact on his last visit to Dublin – that is before Bill declared an end to TANA’S coordination with IUAFS – Theo bought two meals and many drinks for Bill. At the time he could afford to do that, and was aware that Bill lives on a pension.

Conclusion – rebuilding relations between IUAFS and TANA?

All the officers and activists in IUAFS feel extremely sad that the events of the past two years have led the suspension of Bill O’Brien. We never wanted any of this to happen, and we never wanted an end to our cooperation with TANA.

However Bill’s increasingly aggressive vendetta against Theo, the growing evidence that Bill was working with individuals and organisations outside IUAFS, and the several attempts by Bill in recent months to persuade IUAFS members to remove Theo as secretary, followed by Bill’s latest attacks and threats, have left them with no choice.

We note that in the statement sent to us by TANA on 22 April our secretary, Theo Russell was particularly targeted in as bearing responsibility for the breakdown of relations with Bill O’Brien and with TANA. Unfortunately that is a version of events which the officers and activists in IUAFS cannot accept, in the light of all the facts outlined above.

The result of this series of events has in fact been to make the officers and activists in IUAFS more united than ever. Unfortunately, they are all in agreement that Bill cannot at this point in time remain a member of IUAFS in the light of his divisive actions, his veiled threats and abusive language against our secretary, and their belief that he has been working with outsiders to effectively undermine IUAFS.

Finally, we would like to repair relations with TANA and with Bill O’Brien. But we feel that that would only be possible if Bill is prepared to acknowledge that his actions over the past two years have been unacceptable.

We greatly regret the fact relations between IUAFS and TANA were already, in effect, severed for the past two years. However, despite everything that has happened, during that time we held back from contacting TANA directly, behind Bill O’Brien’s back, so to speak.

This entire episode has been a painful one for everyone in IUAFS, and particularly so for its secretary, who has been the target of multiple false accusations and threats.

We would welcome any opportunity to repair all of these relations, but that would have to be on the basis outlined above.

Signed:

Paul Collins (Chair, IUAFS, Consistent Democrats, Socialist Labour Network)

Theo Russell (Secretary, IUAFS, New Communist Party)

Marie Lynam (Deputy chair, IUAFS, Posadists in Britain)

Andy Brooks (Deputy chair, IUAFS, New Communist Party)

Ian Donovan (Deputy chair, IUAFS, Consistent Democrats)

Gerry Downing (IUAFS, Socialist Fight)

Diana Isserlis (IUAFS, Consistent Democrats)

Dermot Hudson (IUAFS New Communist Party)

Sandy McBurney (IUAFS, Scotland Against NATO Action Committee)

Robert Laurie (IUAFS, New Communist Party)

Richard Bos (IUAFS, New Communist Party)

23 April 2026

Notes:

1. The Consistent Democrats, Socialist Fight, Posadists in Britain, Socialist Labour Network, Scotland Against NATO Action Committee and the New Communist Party are all affiliates to International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity.

2. For the benefit of all our Irish friends and comrades, we wish to clarify the repeated use of the term “British” in this statement. We are a aware that it is a word which grates on the ears of many Irish republicans, who often prefer to distinguish between the countries making up Britain, England, Scotland and Wales. However among British left organisations it is widely used simply to refer organisations with members in all three countries. Members of IUAFS do NOT regard the North of Ireland as part of Britain, and using that term It is not in any way an endorsement of Britain’s long and shameful history of imperialism and colonialism in Ireland and around the world. The fact is that we operate within the imperialist heartland, and it is normal for us to refer to ourselves as living and working in Britain. We hope our Irish comrades will understand this.

3. Since October 2023 all of the IUAFS activists have worked extremely hard in solidarity with the Palestinian people, joining countless marches and protests individually and in coordinated interventions by IUAFS. IUAFS organised actions at many national Palestine marches in London with placards and leaflets making the connections between the war in Ukraine and the wars