Dockworkers across five continents launched coordinated strikes on 30 October to disrupt arms shipments bound for “war zones” from transiting civilian ports, Italy’s Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) announced.

The coalition consists of more than 25 unions, with strikes, cargo stoppages, rallies, and protests planned at 113 ports across 22 countries and regions under the banner “Ports For Peace. Jobs With Dignity.”

The unions adopted a joint declaration in Istanbul in May demanding an immediate end to Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people, and international recognition of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The declaration also rejects the use of any port to ship arms, ammunition, military equipment, or troops to war zones.

The scale of the action differs between ports. Unions in France, Italy, Greece, Turkiye, and India have called 24-hour strikes, while workers in Morocco and Cyprus will suspend cargo handling for up to two hours, and other ports will hold rallies and pickets without halting operations.

French port unions expect their strike to halt roughly 95 percent of activity at the country’s ports.

Organizers say the unions involved from the start represent ports that handle about 40 percent of Mediterranean container traffic, and that a single day of action could disrupt or halt the movement of around 40,000 containers.

The Istanbul Declaration further calls for an end to the US-Israeli wars of aggression across West Asia and against Iran, and refuses to let ports serve as military bases for NATO, the US, or the EU, or as instruments of shipowners and monopoly interests.

The joint declaration also affirms the right of all peoples to resist occupation and determine their own future, and expresses solidarity with Cuba, Venezuela, and Sudan.

Each union is choosing its own form of action based on national conditions, but united by what the signatories called a shared commitment to “prevent the loading of death and destruction.”

Dock workers across the Mediterranean, Europe, and North Africa have been organizing against arms shipments to Israel since the start of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023.
Unions and port-worker collectives in France, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Spain, and Turkiye began refusing to handle, load, or transit weapons, ammunition, and military components.

Their actions have included blocking vessels, boycotting ships carrying US military equipment, halting Israel-bound military cargo, and coordinating strikes across Mediterranean ports

Dock workers have also threatened wider blockades and general strikes to defend Gaza-bound aid flotillas in their many missions to break the Israeli siege of the enclave, and have pressed port authorities and shipping firms to disclose cargo and routes kept hidden from public view.

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/ports-for-peace-dockworkers-across-five-continents-stage-mass-strike-against-arms-shipments