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Dockworkers have decided to join forces again and strike against rearmament, the war economy, and genocide in Palestine. From Italy to Spain, by way of Greece, Morocco, Turkey, and France, more than 40 ports will mobilize on October 30, building on the protest held in February. In Italy, the international dockworkers’ strike is being organized by the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB, a grassroots rank-and-file union confederation), which has been joined by ORSA (another independent union). Workers will walk off the job at a time already marked by strong demands across Europe, which have forcefully put back on the political agenda issues sacrificed for years: housing, wages, education. What now ties their underfunding together is the race to rearm, which the dockworkers oppose, arguing that “public resources must be allocated to people’s needs and not to financing war.”

Joining the Italian unions in the international day of action will be CGT Ports and Docks (France), ENEDEP (Greece), LAB (Basque Country), ODT (Morocco), and Liman-İş (Turkey). It was in Istanbul that union delegates had met, three months after the February strike, which mobilized more than 20 ports against rearmament.

In Turkey, they decided to follow up on that protest and expand it. The numbers have thus doubled. On October 30, demonstrations and blockades are expected in at least 40 ports stretching from the Cantabrian Sea (the stretch of the Atlantic off Spain’s northern coast) to the Mediterranean, including Genoa and Gioia Tauro (a major container port in the southern Italian region of Calabria). Coordinated stoppages across more than 40 ports in six countries could disrupt shipping along key Mediterranean and Atlantic trade routes. In Istanbul, the unions also adopted a Declaration that effectively serves as the manifesto of their cross-border struggle.

As their first point, the dockworkers are demanding “an immediate end to the genocide of the Palestinian people and the recognition of an independent Palestinian State recognized by the international community within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.” The position is consistent with the stance dockworkers have taken over the past three years, which has put them on the front lines of demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian people, including taking part in the most recent Flotilla bound for Gaza, which Israel illegally stormed in international waters.

Inextricably linked to the Palestinian genocide are the interests of the war economy, which profits from it, as UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has denounced. It is no coincidence that the dockworkers are demanding a “no to the war economy, to governments’ rearmament plans, and to the militarization of ports and strategic infrastructure.” Instead, they are calling for public resources to be “allocated to people’s needs” and for collective bargaining agreements to guarantee “real wage increases, stable employment, reduced working hours, and a decent pension system.” The mobilization at the ports thus ties into the general strike that USB has called for that same day, October 30, with an appeal to all public- and private-sector workers to turn it into a widespread day of protest.

“What is at stake is the surge in prices, starting with fuel, which weighs heavily on the meager wages of millions of working men and women who can no longer even keep up with inflation, and, on the other side, the inadequacy of the measures taken by the [Prime Minister Giorgia] Meloni government, which has openly sided with the oil companies and the banks.” In southern Italy, farmers and truckers have for days been joining forces against soaring fuel costs, which are pushing thousands of workers and businesses into crisis.

Weighing further on the employment outlook is the closure of the former Ilva steelworks (Italy’s largest steel group, centered on its giant plant in Taranto, in the southern region of Apulia) and the absence of any plans to reemploy its workers, which has triggered open-ended protests in Genoa and Taranto. School occupations (a long-standing form of Italian student protest in which students take over school buildings) are multiplying, with students denouncing unaffordable rents and shortfalls in the “right to study” (Italy’s system of grants, housing, and services meant to guarantee access to education), joining the wave of protest in Spain and France.

The common thread is a challenge to the priorities of policymakers, which have collapsed into cuts to public spending, with the sole exception of military spending.

[L’Indipendente, October 15, 2026, Salvatore Toscano]

L'Indipendente

I portuali di tutto il mondo hanno proclamato uno sciopero globale contro il riarmo - L'Indipendente

I portuali hanno deciso di unire nuovamente le forze e scioperare contro riarmo, economia di guerra e genocidio in Palestina. Dall’Italia alla Spagna, passando per Grecia, Marocco, Turchia e Francia: più di 40 porti si mobiliteranno il prossimo 30 ottobre…

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