French and Italian dockers refuse to handle Israeli arms shipment
French dock workers from the CGT union have refused to load weapons destined for Israel, protesting what they describe as support for genocide.
At the Fos-sur-Mer port in Marseille, a ship belonging to the ZIM company was set to sail from the port with 14 tons of machine gun ammunition parts. But in an act of defiance, CGT members have refused to load the ship with the bullets in solidarity with Palestine, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
“We are very proud of this action led by our comrades and which is part of the CGT’s long internationalist tradition for peace,” CGT secretary general Sophie Binet said.
“It is unacceptable that CGT dockers should be the ones forced to uphold the fundamental principles of international law and French values. The government must immediately block all arms deliveries to the state of Israel,” she added.
The CGT said its boycott underlined workers’ refusal to “participate in the ongoing genocide orchestrated by the Israeli government”.
The boycott was successful, and is a resounding victory for workers taking action against Israel. On Friday, the ZIM ship left Fos-sur-Mer without any of the genocide ammunition on board.
But the resistance has spread beyond France. CGT members told workers at the port of Genoa in Italy that the ZIM ship was sailing to dock at Genoa on Friday.
Workers in the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) immediately called a picket line at the port to prevent the ZIM ship from docking. The USB said, “We strongly reiterate that we do not want to be complicit in the genocide in Gaza and that we firmly oppose all wars.”
USB members are using the action as a springboard for wider action, calling a general strike on 20 June. They’re drawing attention to how Georgio Meloni’s government’s “war policies” do “nothing but impoverish an Italian population already burdened by inflation and low wages”.
Last year, CGT dockers also denounced the stopover of a Nexoe Maersk ship. Workers slammed Fos-sur-Mer management for allowing the ship, carrying F-35 jet parts, to stop over at the port.
But management did nothing, so workers responded with a strike around the call to stop arming Israel.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is a key tool to bring down the Israeli apartheid state. As well as consumer boycotts, workers’ action and their refusal to handle Israeli good and arms are a crucial part of BDS.
Winning the argument that all workers need to boycott Israeli goods and arms is a crucial step forward for the Palestine movement. Join the Palestine Solidarity Campaign action outside arms factories on Tuesday 17 June.
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