Greek dockworkers block arms shipment to Israel. Photo: Dockworkers Union of Piraeus
Simon Midgley reports on action taken by Greek workers to stop arms shipments to Israel
There are two powers in the world who can halt arms supplies to Israel. One is the Western states sending the arms. The US could stop doing so at a stroke. But they don’t won’t to. Whilst the US government has threatened to halt or delay supplies when Israel’s murderous actions have been too blatantly criminal, it has maintained and even increased its funding of arms supplies to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
Why? Because Israel, no matter how ‘off the leash’ and rabid it seems, is still the US’s frontline attack dog in the Middle East, and is now fighting a proxy war with Hezbollah and Iran on behalf of the US.
The other power is the collective power of organised workers in the supply chain, taking direct action to prevent weapons getting to Israel by land, air or sea.
A few days into the genocidal war on Gaza a call went out from the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) for workers worldwide to take action to stop arms supplies to Israel.
PGFTU called on workers:
- To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel.
- To refuse to transport weapons to Israel.
- To pass motions in their trade unions to this effect.
- To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.
- To pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, funding to it.
Since then, we have had over a year of inaction from union federations in most countries, with a few notable exceptions.
In Greece, on Thursday 17 October this year, in response to calls from local unions, dockworkers blocked the shipment of 21 tonnes of bullets in a container destined for the port of Haifa, Israel, refusing to load the cargo.
The Union of Container Handling Workers (ENEDEP) organised the action. Prior to the stopping of the truck, a statement posted on ENEDEP’s Facebook page read, ‘It’s time to shout loudly that we won’t allow Piraeus port to become a war springboard … We fight for peace … no to Greece’s participation in the war!’
In a video posted on Sky News, workers sprayed ‘Murderers, get out of the port’ on the container and voiced their solidarity with the Palestinian people, chanting slogans such as ‘Freedom for Palestine’.
Markos Bekris, the president of the Piraeus Port Trade Union, and board member of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME), released a statement: ‘We have decided not to allow the shipment of war ammunition from the Port of Piraeus that will continue the genocide of the Palestinian people,’ Bekris said, emphasising that the workers would not stain their hands ‘with the blood of the Palestinian people’.
In Britain, the next national workplace day of action, now backed by the TUC, has been called for 28 November, a day before the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Find out how you can get involved here, and join Stop the War’s Trade Union Network online meeting on 13 November to discuss how to build it.
