Across Greece and internationally, dockworkers are once again taking decisive action against genocide and militarisation. From mass blockades in Piraeus to coordinated refusals to handle war cargo across Europe and the Mediterranean, port workers are disrupting Israel’s military supply chains and challenging their governments’ complicity in war crimes.

These actions reflect the growing internationalist tradition of working-class solidarity with Palestine — linking opposition to war abroad with resistance to austerity, privatisation, racism, and repression at home. Greek dockworkers, particularly in Perama and Elefsina, have been at the forefront of this movement.

Yiannis Sifakakis — Stop the War Coalition activist, strike organiser, and recent participant in the international March to Gaza as part of Global Sumud — has written the following article for MENA Solidarity. His contribution situates the February 6 strike within the wider regional and global context of war, imperialism, and workers’ resistance.

The article is published in full below.

On February 6, we are striking and demonstrating in solidarity with Palestine. We are joining forces with port workers’ unions in Italy, the Basque Country, Morocco, Turkey, and Greece, whose slogan is “Port workers do not work for war!” calling for an International Day of Action demanding an end to the genocide in Palestine and all transport of war material, an embargo on Israel and the opening of stable humanitarian corridors, the rejection of the EU’s rearmament plan, which diverts billions from social needs and reinforces the militarization and privatization of services and the attack on workers’ rights and achievements. 

There will be a 24-hour strike in Piraeus, the country’s main port, specifically in Perama, where the Chinese COSCO facilities are located. But also in Elefsina, an area in western Attica, where there is already a military airport assisting in the genocide in Gaza, and following the recent agreement between Greece and the US, the port in the area will also be expanded to become a huge base and transshipment hub. The strike has been called by the two Labor Centers of Piraeus and Elefsina, the port workers’ union in Perama, and a number of primary unions and organizations in the area. ADEDY, the highest confederation covering public sector workers, is calling for a strike in Piraeus and Western Attica, thus extending the strike to workers in hospitals, schools, municipalities, etc. in these areas. 

We also call on the Stop the War Coalition, the Palestinian Community of Greece, and March to Gaza Greece to join the strike and the two rallies that will take place at 10:30 a.m. on that day. We call for a strike with the slogans Freedom for Palestine, jobs and pay rises – no bombs and weapons, no “new Souda” in Elefsina (Souda is the strategically important base operating in Crete), no support for the Trump-Netanyahu plans. As we state in our call: “The strike comes at a critical moment. The new “Peace Council” announced by Trump is a gang of war criminals whose goal is to disarm the Palestinian Resistance and impose a colonial administration – a puppet of the West. At the same time, threats of a new attack on Iran are resurfacing, using its nuclear/missile program and the “solidarity” between Trump and Netanyahu as a pretext for the just uprising of workers, the poor, and youth against the regime. In Syria, Trump is giving al-Shaar the green light to launch attacks on the Kurds in cooperation with Erdogan, and Israel is expanding its occupation in the south of the country in cooperation with the Syrian government. Mitsotakis is one of Trump and Netanyahu’s most loyal allies on all fronts of the war. He declares that he will send troops to the International Stabilization Force and participate in the reconstruction of Gaza. The reactionary “3+1” axis (Greece, Cyprus, Israel + the US) is strengthening, intensifying competition with Turkey from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Greek involvement is deepening with support for the effort to disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon, with new bases in Elefsina, with the purchase of frigates, F35s, and Israeli weapons systems, as agreed by “defense” ministers Dendias and Katz at their recent meeting in Athens!”

This dimension of solidarity with Palestine and Greece’s intensifying involvement is, unfortunately, downplayed in the unions’ call, even though the port workers’ union in Perama has played a role in denouncing the genocide in Gaza with the mobilizations it has called for in recent times against the transport of war material to the Zionist entity. 

Obviously, there are all kinds of connections against the government’s policy of austerity and privatization, which kills workers for the sake of the bosses’ profits, as was the case with the recent “industrial accident” at the “Violanda” factory in Trikala, where five female workers were burned to death when the factory exploded after a propane leak due to the employer’s lack of safety measures. Tomorrow, Tuesday, there will be a strike called by the Food and Beverage Federation in response to this crime. 

It is important to make all the connections with the aim of escalating the strike against the Greek government, whose policies are killing people from Tempi (the crime that cost the lives of 57 people due to the privatization and dismantling of the railways) to Pylos (the biggest racist crime in recent years that drowned 650 refugees), from factories like “Violanta” to Gaza. 

We will participate in the strike on February 6 and we will continue: on February 27 and 28 with a 48-hour strike on the third anniversary of the murder in Tempi, on March 8, the International Day Against Sexism and Oppression, which takes on even greater significance after the new revelations about the dirty deeds of Epstein, Trump, and their friends; on March 28, the International Day Against Racism and the fascist threat, which is also taking on enormous proportions with the explosion against ICE in the US.

“The hand that bombs is the same hand that oppresses us”, shouted our comrades in Italy as they organized their formidable strikes in the fall, which inspired and galvanized the anti-war and broader solidarity movement in Greece and everywhere else. We continue on this path! Until victory, the defeat of Israel and the collapse of the settler state, for a Free Palestine from the River to the Sea, let’s crush the plans of Trump, Netanyahu and Mitsotakis!

The growing coordination of dockworkers shows what real internationalism looks like in practice. When workers refuse to load weapons, they expose the real priorities of governments that cut wages, underfund hospitals and schools, and militarise borders while pouring billions into arms and war infrastructure.

What you can do:

• Send a message of solidarity to the Greek dockworkers organisations via action@menasolidaritynetwork.net
• Download a leaflet version of this article [Greek dockers leaflet] and a poster for a solidarity picture [Port workers solidarity sign]
• Read background resources: Mass blockade in Piraeus port hits Israel’s military supply chain – plus Sudanese dockers send solidarity, Greek dockworkers stand with Palestine: “No participation in war crimes and genocide”, and MENA Solidarity at Tolpuddle: Supporting Greek Dockers Blocking Israeli Arms