Dockworkers at more than 20 Mediterranean ports are planning a strike next week to protest arms shipments to Israel and their governments’ “complicity” in the Gaza genocide, demanding an immediate halt to weapons transfers.
The Italy-based grassroots dockworkers’ union, Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), announced it will participate in an international general strike on February 6.
“If we don’t take this step, all our other demands will be crushed under war,” Francesco Staccioli of USB warned.
Italian dockworkers will join colleagues across Greece, the Basque Country, Morocco, and Turkey in a coordinated action opposing the growing militarization of key transport infrastructure.
The strike aims to prevent arms shipments, reject rearmament, and oppose the impact of a war economy on workers’ rights and social security systems.
According to organizers, the day of action will help “ensure that European and Mediterranean ports are places of peace, free from any involvement in war.”
Representatives from USB have stated that industrial action against genocide, militarization of ports, and US imperialism are inseparable from local labor struggles.
They stated that European governments have been adopting repressive measures against workers who take action in solidarity.
Trade unionists from Piraeus in Greece also stressed that if workers stand together, “ports can become a barrier to war, not corridors for weapons deliveries.”
Since 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal campaign in Gaza, a growing number of dockworkers have taken action to block arms shipments to the occupying regime.
Last year, Italian ports and cities saw widespread protests in solidarity with Palestinians and against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government.
Israel launched its brutal Gaza offensive on October 7, 2023, following a historic operation by Hamas in retaliation for the regime’s intensifying atrocities committed against the Palestinian people.
According to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, at least 71,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza.
In October last year, a fragile ceasefire, brokered by the United States, was reached in Gaza. Despite the truce, Israeli forces have killed over 526 Palestinians.
IMAGE CREDIT: Dockworkers in the U.S. have blocked shipments of weapons to Israel. Photo via AROC / Oakland Rallies to Block Boat Carrying Israeli Arms Shipment in November 2023
[ SOURCE: PRESS TV and NEWS AGENCIES ]
