On 17 October a group of dock workers and union members at the port of Piraeus stopped a container filled with bullets bound for Israel from being loaded onto a vessel. The action, led by the ENEDEP union and supported by other groups, was a stand against arms shipments fuelling Israel’s war on Gaza.
Dockworkers in Greece have blocked the shipment of a container, reportedly holding 21 tons of ammunition, destined for Israel, refusing to load the cargo onto a vessel at the Port of Piraeus.
Having found out that a container on a lorry had tonnes of bullets to be loaded onto a ship headed to Haifa, dozens of workers gathered at the gate of Piraeus and stopped the vehicle on a public road leading to the port.
The container, reportedly transported to Greece via North Macedonia, was meant to be shipped to Israel’s Haifa port on a Marshall Islands-flagged ship, the Marla Bull, owned by Israeli company ZIM Integrated Shipping Services.
However, in response to calls from local labour unions, dockworkers at the Piraeus port gathered and took a firm stance, preventing the shipment from proceeding.
According to ERT (Greek state television), the workers had written “Murderers, get out of the port” on the container and voiced their solidarity with the Palestinian people, chanting slogans such as “Freedom for Palestine”.
The Marla Bull sailed off without its lethal cargo.
President of the Piraeus port trade union Markos Bekris released a statement condemning the shipment of ammunition intended for the ongoing conflict in Gaza:
“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”.
Bekris also urged Greece to halt any involvement in the conflict, calling for an immediate cessation of the country’s participation. “We demand that our country immediately stop engaging in the war,” he added.
Reuters reports that “The truck with the cargo remains with port authorities and an investigation has been launched into the incident. An arrest warrant has been issued for a union leader, one of the coast guard officials said.”
In June, EDENEP members at Piraeus had prevented another vessel, MSC Altair, from approaching the port after establishing that it was transporting military materiel to Israel.
Workers in Greece have also acted to ensure arms were not transported to fuel Nato’s war on Russia in Ukraine. In April 2022, dock workers in Thessaloniki refused to load Nato equipment for onward transit to Ukraine.
Workers all over the world need to be emulating the Greek dockers, who are setting a fine example of internationalism. British workers should be demanding that their unions back them in boycotting arms shipments at very least to Israel, for how can anyone hold up their heads if they have remained passive while genocide is being committed in Gaza and is now spreading to Lebanon?
And if the unions refuse to back them, the workers should act anyway to frustrate as far as possible the war crimes that Israel is committing with the full backing of US, British and EU imperialism.
If workers in Britain are men, not mice, we need to go ahead and prove it.
