by FUTURA D’APRILE
Port workers in Italy are refusing to bloody their hands for wars they don’t support – from Yemen to Gaza, and their resistance is inspiring others. Futura D’Aprile reports on a burgeoning movement for peace.
A new anti-militaristic, internationalist movement is growing in Italy thanks to port workers who, in the 1903 words of famous Italian anarchist Pietro Gori, have declared a ‘war against the war’. Since 2019, workers have been refusing to load ships with weapons or other military equipment that could be used to kill civilians. These workers are part of a larger, expanding international network, from the US to New Zealand, and across Europe and Africa.
The protests began in May 2019 when Genoa port workers refused to load two electricity generators onto a Saudi Arabian ship called the Bahri Yanbu. José Nivoi, from the Genova Collettivo Autonomo Lavoratori Portuali (Autonomous Port Workers Collective, CALP) explained to New Internationalist that the generators were registered for civilian use, but would have been used by the Saudi Civil Guard to fight in Yemen.
Workers from CALP documented what was inside the shipment and shared the information with the Port Authority. Then they went on strike. ‘We kept protesting until the Delta company, which takes care of the loading for the Bahri in Genoa, and the Bahri company itself refused to take on the shipment here,’ said Nivoi. This was the CALP’s first win. We decided not to collaborate with the transit of weapons that would be used to kill people
‘Now we are more mature, more aware of the extent of the arms traffic through the Italian docks and our network is growing day by day,’ explained Nivoi. ‘Since 2019, we have started to attend different public assemblies in Italy and Europe to explain what we do and why we have joined this internationalist movement against war.’
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