Read our editorial “Commemorate the Third Anniversary of Al-Aqsa Flood!” here.
On October 30, dockworkers at about 113 ports across 22 countries launched strikes, work stoppages, and demonstrations for an international day of action opposing military cargo shipments that support wars of aggression.
The striking dockworkers also demanded wage increases and job security from automation.
The disruptions involved major European cargo ports Hamburg, Le Havre, Marseille, Genoa, Piraeus, and Algeciras, as well as Tangier Med in Morocco.
The largest actions happened in the Mediterranean Sea. According to Unione Sindicale di Base (USB), one of the unions involved in the campaign, 24-hour strikes were held at three Turkish ports, nine Italian ports, 24 French ports, and ten Greek ports. Eight cargo vessels were delayed at the French port of Le Havre, while 3,000 dockworkers and seafarers walked out in Piraeus, disrupting cargo operations and ferry services to Greek islands.
Port authorities at Nantes Saint-Nazaire said the strike was announced long in advance and that maritime traffic was organized accordingly.
Demonstrations were held at the German port of Hamburg, the Brazilian ports of Espírito Santo and Itajaí, the Uruguayan port of Montevideo, the Australian port of Melbourne, the US port of Oakland, and 11 ports in India.
Dockworkers also protested against seafarers being killed in the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea due to the widening impact of the US war of aggression against Iran and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to Greek seafarers union PENEN, there were 21 attacks on cargo vessels in the Gulf in the first three weeks of October, and 570 attacks in the Black Sea this year, wounding hundreds of seafarers and killing 40.
Shaher Saad, secretary-general of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, said his organization firmly supported the international mobilization. He said the mobilization should lead to sustained international cooperation rather than remain a one-day show of solidarity, according to The New Arab.
The Istanbul Declaration in May 2026 declared October 30 as their day of action and was signed by five unions representing workers at 35 ports across the Mediterranean. The declaration calls for an immediate end to the genocide of the Palestinian people and the recognition of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, an end to the US war of aggression against Iran, and solidarity with the people of Cuba, Venezuela, and Sudan.
The dockworker mobilizations came as Europe faces widespread rebellions due to the economic crisis of imperialism exacerbated by the US-Israel war of aggression against Iran and Iran’s war of national resistance.
Approximately one million people in 50 Italian cities protested for the day of action, answering USB’s call for a general strike on the same day. France has had ongoing rebellions since September, sparked by a teachers’ strike against austerity that has since mobilized students, youth, and broad sections of the masses.
Image: A Palestine solidarity march in Berlin, 2017. Credit: Hossam el-Hamalawy, retrieved from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
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