With a video published on Thursday, May 7 and a a press release on Friday, May 8, the Grassroots Trade Union (Unione Sindacale di Base, USB) and the Italian Port Workers Collective (Collettivo Autonomo Lavoratori Portuali, CALP) which organizes dockworkers in the port of Genoa, among others, called for a general strike on May 18 to demand the release of Global Sumud Flotilla co-organizers Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila, and to denounce the complicity of the Italian government in their abduction and in the genocide in Gaza.
Dockworkers in Genoa, Italy, threaten to go on strike if Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek — activists of the Global Sumud Flotilla who continue to be held in Israeli detention — aren’t released in 10 days. During the Flotilla mission last fall, Italian dockworkers led the charge to “Block Everything,” inspiring workers across Europe into using the power of the strike to surround the mission with active solidarity and raising their banners for Palestine. Once again, the Genoese dockworkers are showing the way, fighting for the release of Thiago and Saif, and against the genocide in Gaza, raising the spectre of a nationwide general strike on May 18. #freesaifandthiago #freepalestine
On the night of Wednesday, April 29, into Thursday, April 30, over 600 miles from Gaza, the Israeli army launched a large-scale operation to intercept the flotilla in international waters. After a brutal detention marked by physical and psychological violence, almost all of the activists were disembarked and released in Greece, with the exception of Ávila, a Brazilian national, and Abu Keshek, a Swedish-Spanish-Palestinian national. Both Ávila and Abu Keshek have been held for over a week in an Israeli prison.
While the two activists have been on hunger strike since their detention, Italian port workers—who last fall organized several days of general strikes across Italy to protest the boarding of previous flotillas and the genocide in Gaza—have announced that they will call for a general strike if the two activists are not released within the next 10 days.
Since the two co-organizers of the flotilla were on a ship flying the Italian flag at the time of their abduction, trade unionists from the USB and CALP intend, in particular, to denounce their government’s complicity in the abduction. Their struggle is part of a broader mobilization against militarization and austerity in Italy. On Thursday, May 7—the same day that the dockworkers published their call—a strike and demonstrations took place in Rome to protest against the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and against the austerity-driven dismantling of public education.
At the demonstrations, students, professors, protesters of all stripes voiced strong support for Saif and Thiago. The Meloni government—a key imperialist ally of the U.S. and Israel—has good reason to fear that the call for a strike on May 18 could once again trigger a national general strike.
The Genoa dockworkers are yet again showing the way forward to secure the release of Saif and Thiago and to fight against the genocide in Gaza. Let us take their lead by building, from the ground up, an international mobilization of the working class against the genocide in Gaza, against the imperialist war in Iran and Lebanon, and for the defeat of all imperialism!
The post Italian Dockworkers Call for a Strike if Detained Activists Are Not Released appeared first on Left Voice.
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