What can a global strike of dockworkers achieve for Gaza?

Dock and port workers have long had a tradition of solidarity with the oppressed, upheld by solid labour unions and workers' rights.

Key points

• Dockworker unions in India, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay and the west coast of the United States have all pledged to take part, the spokesperson continued.
• Mohammed al-Attar, a dockworker who left Gaza in 2015 and is now based in Hamburg, Germany, remarked the workers "are the power".
• More than 25 dockworkers' trade unions, representing more than 110 ports in 22 countries and regions throughout five continents, are taking part.
• In early 2025, dockworkers in the Mediterranean area came together to discuss how to concretely act "against privatisation, and against the genocide in Palestine".
• All these 56 ports are projected to be on strike on October 30, representing a major disruption, even if only for a day.

In February 2025, almost a year and a half into Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, dockworkers' unions from Mediterranean countries came together to disrupt weapons shipments to Israel and Western countries' military backing of the onslaught.

"Weapons need transport, infrastructure, and workers' hands to reach their destination, " Markos Bekris, leader of Greece's dockworkers' union, ENEDEP, at the Port of Piraeus in Athens, informed Al Jazeera. "That is where our power lies."

Now, dock and port workers in 22 countries throughout five continents are holding a strike on Friday. It workers and researchers informed Al Jazeera is projected to be "historic" in scale. The International Day of Action of Dockworkers and Port Workers – additionally called "Dockworkers do not work for war" – involves 110 ports and 25 trade unions.

"Every union will do what they choose, but be connected to the same principles and struggle, " Francesco Staccioli, the national secretary of transport and ports in Italy's USB trade union, informed Al Jazeera.

For context, the unions' main demand is "an immediate end to the genocide of the Palestinian people and all imperialist wars".

"We can save thousands of lives if we stop working just for two days, " he remarked.

Al-Attar feels hopeful regarding the global strike, but is "deeply disappointed" in his trade union Ver.di in Germany. It he accused of "incomprehensible silence" over Gaza.

What is the International Day of Action of Dockworkers and Port Workers?

For context, the original session included five unions organising in 20 ports throughout five countries, but continued to grow. The unions met a number of times, first in Athens, then in Genoa, and afterwards in Istanbul. That was where unions from more than 35 ports published the Istanbul Declaration in May this year, and declared October 30 as their day of action.

In an official note, the unions pressed the "recognition of an independent Palestinian state, recognised by the international community, within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital", and "an end to the US-Israeli wars of aggression in the Middle East and against Iran, and full solidarity with the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela and Sudan".

"Refusing the war is giving humanity a chance to live better. This is what I'm really convinced regarding, " the USB's Staccioli informed Al Jazeera. How plenty of ports and unions are taking part?

More than 25 dockworkers' trade unions, representing more than 110 ports in 22 countries and regions throughout five continents, are taking part. Most of the strikes will happen at regular working hours, but in France, Italy, India, Greece and Turkiye, 24-hour strikes have been called.

Strikes of up to two hours have additionally been unveiled in Morocco, Cyprus and other ports.

While in Italy the USB has called on a general strike, organisers informed Al Jazeera that workers and trade unions from other sectors have been called on to join with port workers, notably in Greece.

"It's bigger than we thought, " Staccioli remarked. "This has spread all over the world."

No Harbour for Genocide (NHG), a campaigning collective that researches weapon supply chains, supports the action. A spokesperson informed Al Jazeera that maritime infrastructure was notable in "facilitating military trade within the context of the genocide in Palestine".

In practice, the Palestinian labour movement endorsed the strike and called on more to join, urging unions to "escalate Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) pressure to end all state, corporate and institutional complicity in Israel's illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide." How are these ports involved in wars?

Of the ports participating, Genoa, Livorno and Gioia Tauro in Italy, Marseille in France, Piraeus in Greece, and Tangier in Morocco all have proven links to weapons shipments to Israel, according to No Harbour for Genocide.

According to The group, between August 2025 and September 2026 it tracked 315 shipments of components for Elbit Systems, Israel's largest arms manufacturer, moving through 56 commercial ports in 29 countries. All these 56 ports are projected to be on strike on October 30, representing a major disruption, even if only for a day.

NHG remarked it expects that more than $2bn worth of cargo will sit idle on October 30.

"Up to 95 percent of Israel's imports and exports travel by sea, relying on port infrastructure across the Mediterranean, " the campaign's spokesperson remarked. "Tangier, Piraeus, Gioia Tauro and Genoa, where the largest vessels unload containers onto smaller ships for the rest of the sea, are a few of the Mediterranean's most frequently applied transshipment hubs. All four are taking part on Friday."

"The participating Mediterranean ports handle 63 percent of all container activity in the sea, " the spokesperson continued, noting that "between southern France and Piraeus, the striking ports hold 74 percent of container activity. Worldwide, the ports taking part handle 13.5 percent of global shipping."

Linda Maggiore, an Italian journalist and activist, remarked that she has discovered a number of examples of increasing weapons shipments from Italy's major ports to Israel since the start of the war on Gaza.

"In Europe, a regulation on military mobility is about to be approved, which will make it even easier for arms to be transferred without scrutiny, " Maggiore informed Al Jazeera. "Blockades are essential actions, because they make it clear that civil society does not wish to be complicit."

From the Vietnam war to Iraq, the USB's Staccioli remarked that "dockworkers have a long tradition of rallying against any imperialist war or aggression in the world." Are protest actions prosecuted?

In Greece, union leader Bekris is facing prosecution for a protest in which he and other workers blocked the loading of a container holding 21 tonnes of ammunition destined for Israel in October 2024.

"We carry forward the tradition of workers who refuse to load weapons against other people, " Bekris informed Al Jazeera on the eve of the global strike. "Our hands obtain covered in grease and sweat every day. We refuse to let them be stained with the blood of other individuals."

For now, what can a global strike of dockworkers achieve for Gaza? Remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.