Global port workers action: ‘We won’t work for war’
The global port workers strike on Oct. 30, with themes such as “We won’t work for war” and “Ports for peace — Jobs with dignity,” was one of the largest internationally coordinated strikes in world history. At least 113 ports in 22 countries on six continents were hit by work stoppages and related actions.
Piraeus, Greece
A meeting in May, which took place in Istanbul and drew unions from multiple countries, including Türkiye, Morocco, Italy, France, Greece, Italy and the Basque Country, developed the demands raised by the Oct. 30 actions:
- An immediate end to the genocide of the Palestinian people and the opening of a safe corridor for humanitarian aid. An end to colonization, occupation and apartheid imposed on Palestinian people and the recognition of an independent Palestinian state by the international community on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
- An end to the war in West Asia. No support, no facilitation, no participation in the U.S.-Israeli wars against Iran, Lebanon or any other imperialist intervention. Military fleets and bases out of the region. We express our full solidarity with the people of Cuba, Venezuela and Sudan menaced by US imperialism, and we call for defending people’s sovereignty, resources, territorial integrity, peace with justice and the right for resistance for self-determination.
- Ports must not be used for the transport of weapons, ammunition, military equipment and troops. We call on unions to strengthen vigilance, to inform workers, to expose the cargoes of war and to organize mass collective resistance with all our rightful available means and our struggle.
- An end to the militarization of ports and critical infrastructure. Ports belong to the people and the workers. They are not bases for NATO, the U.S. or the EU nor tools of shipowners and monopoly groups.
Rome
- No to the war economy and armaments. The money must go to wages, collective agreements, health, education, social needs and the protection of life and safety at work.
- Health and safety measures in the workplaces. Not one worker dead for profits. An end to intensification, subcontracting, dangerous conditions and employer arbitrariness.
- Collective agreements with real wage increases, stable jobs with rights, a retirement policy with better pensions and a reduction of working time. Technological developments, mechanization, automation, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the development of ports must serve the needs of workers and not lead to the intensification of work or the disappearance of their jobs.
Unions in a number of additional countries and areas held actions, including Palestine, India, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Azores, the U.S, South America and various regions in the Spanish state.
Istanbul
As reported in The Cradle, “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.” (Oct. 30)
This is the second internationally coordinated port workers strike aimed at ending shipments of weapons to Israel that are used in the genocidal murders of Palestinians. Both this strike and a similar action on Feb. 6 were primarily political strikes, although they included some basic economic demands. Unions drew connections between the money going to war and lack of funding for social needs. One of the five Italian unions supporting the strike, Unione Sindicale Italiana, distributed a broadsheet giving examples of this, pointing out that the cost of one fighter jet was equal to the cost of erecting 25 new school buildings.
The political significance of the powerful antiwar port shutdown that just took place cannot be underestimated.
