In June, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) scored a major (though partial) victory in its campaign to shut off supply chains to Israel as it conducts its genocide against the Palestinian people. Maersk is a global shipping company deeply complicit in Israel’s crimes against humanity. It has contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense to ship equipment central to the campaign against Palestinian civilians, including Armored Personnel Carriers and F-35 jet parts. The victory is partial because Maersk has only committed to cutting ties with settlements in the West Bank, although these include links to significant nodes of the Israeli war industry. Maersk has committed to end its practice of transporting goods in and out of these illegal settlements.
Launched in January, the global campaign has relied on corporate research and grassroots mobilization to put pressure on Maersk through a variety of tactics, including attempts to inform and enlist dockworkers, pressure on Maersk’s board and shareholders, and mobilizations to executives’ homes. Pressure also manifested in the Spanish government blocking some Maersk ships from docking in their ports, 1,000 activists shutting down the company’s Copenhagen headquarters and, most interestingly, dockworkers in Morocco and France refusing to load F-35 parts onto Maersk ships.
The biggest weapons supplier to Israel by far is the U.S. This means U.S. dockworkers have a special ability to be able to prevent shipment of these weapons, although they have not organized to refuse to load this cargo. While seven U.S. unions have called for the U.S. government to cut off aid to Israel, dockworkers’ unions were not among them. Because the war industry is so central and profitable to U.S. exports, it is important that workers recognize they play a huge role in the struggle against imperialism. During this campaign, activists tried hard to connect the crimes of the U.S. empire to the struggles of U.S. workers facing the militarization of the police, whose tactics and weapons were developed through Israeli oppression of Palestinians. But this didn’t result in any worker-led actions at U.S. ports.
It will take sustained rank and file organizing to develop the international consciousness needed for these key workers to organize. The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions asked workers of North America and the world to “Let your solidarity with us be a light in the darkness of bias, and let your courageous positions be the voice of truth in the face of falsehood.” We must all work towards answering their appeal.
