Strike – rebelbreeze

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

Stoppages, blockades, pickets and demonstrations took place on Friday in over 110 European, Australian and USA ports on the 2^nd Day of Action of Dockworkers in solidarity with Palestine and against militarisation.¹

In a growing movement dockworkers from Italy, Basque Country, Turkey, Greece, and Morocco were joined by others, the expanded list including organizations from Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.

The action was at least partly in response to the call of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)in 2023 to workers and unions to “Stop Arming Israel.” ²

*Dockworkers on internationalist strike against genocide, war and militarisation in Piraeus, Greece.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

And in 2025, the PGFTU asked international workers to “organize days of rage and global solidarity in factories and workshops, in ports and airports, in the streets and public squares, in support of Palestine and its brave people.” ³

Meanwhile while 500 households were forcibly displaced in the West Bank, the Government Media Office in Gaza reported on 2^nd November that the Zionist occupation committed 5,989 violations of the ceasefire agreement, killing 1,593 martyrs, injuring 5,748 people, and detaining 217.

The Occupation has made Gaza a rubble wasteland, thousands living in tents or ruins, hospitals and health centres destroyed, along with schools and universities, actively preventing sufficient food, medical and fuel supplies from entering, along with necessary equipment and spare parts.

Internationalist strikers of Union Sindicale de Base (a rank-and-file union) in Livorno, Italy lead a Palestine solidarity and anti-war and militarisation march 30 October 2026 (Photo: USB)

Dockworkers Do Not Work for War! and No Harbour for Genocide! were two among many slogans finding expression on placards and in voice in dock strikes and blockades.⁴

Separately but related to docker actions, on Thursday, Canada’s main trade union, representing some 3 million workers across the country, announced that it will “refuse to handle weapons and military equipment destined for Israel” and called on the Government to end all such transfers to Israel.⁵

One of the reports of the planned action in docks across the world listed Ireland as one of the locations of workers’ action; however this seems to have been an optimistic error.

Photos showed Belfast docks blockaded by Palestine solidarity activists without the presence of union signage. SIPTU, the largest trade union in Ireland, restricted their participation to hanging a giant banner off Liberty Hall, their Irish state HQ⁶ in Dublin.

This lapse is of particularly importance in the case of Palestine solidarity; despite the dominant Irish society support for the Palestinians and against the Zionist genocide, the Irish state is the EU member importing the most Israeli exports, on the world stage second only to the US.⁷

DOCKWORKERS’ SOLIDARITY ACTION HISTORY

Dockworkers’ industrial actions in internationalist solidarity has a history. In 1920, dockworkers refused to load the Jolly George with munitions intended to support international imperialist intervention in support of Russian counter-revolution against the young Soviet Union.⁸

In 1935 – 36, dockworkers in the southern African ports of Durban, Cape Town, and Lüderitz Bay, as well as in San Francisco, refused to load cargo aboard Italian ships to protest that fascist empire’s invasion of Ethiopia.⁹

In the late 1930s, dockworkers in Local 10, the ILWU’s San Francisco Bay Area branch, partnered with the Chinese community to refuse to load cargo for imperial Japan to protest its invasion of China.¹⁰

The most widespread example of global dockworker activism was against apartheid South Africa. In San Francisco, Brooklyn, Sydney, Port of Spain (Trinidad), Gothenburg (Sweden), Copenhagen, and many other ports, union workers refused to handle cargo.¹¹

In 1978, San Francisco dockworkers and clerks of ILWU Local 34 discovered the US military was secretly shipping weapons to Chile. Local 10 activists partnered with Chilean exiles, Bay Area Latinos, the Catholic Church, and others to press the US government to stop military supplies.¹²

In conclusion

The participation of organised dock workers in boycott and blockade actions against genocide and war is of course wonderful and potentially of great effect, since 80% by volume of world trade goes through ports¹³ and of course could spread to include transport and distribution workers.

The importance of such action spreads beyond effectiveness in internationalist solidarity however as workers become conscious of their potential in organised action not just locally or even nationally but even internationally. And of the historic task of their class to do so.

Of course the ruling classes around the world greatly fear such united action and even more the growing class consciousness and awareness of their potential. It will not be the case that “… all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped.”¹⁴

Of course not. Faced with such a scenario the ruling classes will shed whatever democratic facades they have erected and enact repressive decrees banning action and even militarisation of ports, jailing of organisers and perhaps even shooting of picketers will follow.

But the historic role of the working class is to bury the capitalist system and to replace it with the socialisation of the means of production. The history of both classes shows that this will not be a peaceful process and yet the organised working class must press on to their objectives.

Production, transport and distribution for need, not for greed and, in a socialist world of course not for war. The dockworkers’ actions point part of the way forward and not only revolutionary socialists but others against genocide and war and for the environment should welcome them.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1 https://breakthroughnews.org/2026/10/30/dockworkers-at-110-ports-worldwide-strike-against-war-and-genocide/

2 https://inthesetimes.com/article/dockworkers-palestine-gaza

3Ibid.

4 https://inthesetimes.com/article/dockworkers-palestine-gaza

5The union called on the Canadian Government to “end all direct and indirect transfers of arms and military equipment to Israel”, amidst revelations that military equipment transfers had not only continued to Israel after the Government announced a pause in such exports but actually accelerated, some by indirect routes such as via the USA. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/canadas-central-labour-union-says-workers-will-not-handle-military-cargo-going-israel

6Ironically actually situated on one of the Liffey’s quays, location of the union’s historic birth as the militant and originally syndicalist Irish Transport & General Worker’s Union led by Jim Larkin and James Connolly.

7The is USA is of course the biggest supporter of the Zionist State militarily, politically, financially and economically.

8See ‘Jolly George’ section in https://www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk/project/russian-revolution/british-labour-movement-responses-russian-revolution

9 https://inthesetimes.com/article/dockworkers-palestine-gaza

10Ibid.

11Ibid.

12Ibid.

13 https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/topic/transport/shipping-and-ports

14Big Bill Haywood (1869 — 1928), a resolute class fighter and a leader of the syndicalist International Workers of the World in the USA, quoted in https://inthesetimes.com/article/dockworkers-palestine-gaza

SOURCES:

Dockworkers at 110 ports worldwide strike against war and genocide

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jam-machinery-death-dock-workers-worldwide-protest-against-arms-shipments-israel

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/canadas-central-labour-union-says-workers-will-not-handle-military-cargo-going-israel

https://maritime-executive.com/article/dockworkers-worldwide-strike-against-militarization-wages-and-more

https://www.newarab.com/news/dockworkers-22-countries-strike-over-arms-shipments-gaza-war

A history of dockworkers’ international solidarity strikes: https://inthesetimes.com/article/dockworkers-palestine-gaza

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

300,000 unionised municipal and state-service workers struck work for one day on Wednesday 14^th in pursuance of a living wage among the steadily rising cost of living. A second such day is planned for Wednesday October 21^st.

This is the biggest action of its kind since the financial crisis of 2009 when the Irish Government bailed out the banking section and imposed austerity on worker’s wages and public services.

*Picketers of a number of unions on Wednesday*. (Photo: *PA Media*)

The 2024-2026 Public Service Agreement came to an end without agreement between Government and Trade Union representatives on the next stage, as the unions pointed to an effective 5%-7% loss in the purchasing power of their members’ wages due to rising cost of living.¹

Workers in public health, teaching, sanitation, museums, libraries, parks and historical sites struck work with emergency cover. Not all public services participated, some being privatised or part-privatised, as for example with the telecommunication network, bus and rail passenger transport.

The strike was called by the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), covering 19 unions.

The main unions included Fórsa, with over 100,000 public sector members; SIPTU (75,000 public service members), the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO -5,000), the teachers’ unions (INTO primary level – 48,25O; ASTI and TUI, secondary/ tech 43,000) and the Unite union.

The Government, having refused the workers’ demands during earlier negotiations, tried to prevent or delay the strike by calling for further negotiations which, in the absence of any further offer, the unions naturally refused and went ahead with their industrial action according to earlier ballot.

The mood for action was overwhelming with returned ballots of over 90% of members in the high ninety percentages voting for action.²

As picketers gathered outside their workplaces, the air rang to the horns of solidarity blowing from passing traffic — private, taxis, firms and buses. According to reports, while they remained silent outside Mountjoy Jail, the horns burst into sound while passing the nearby Mater Hospital.³

*DCC Sanitation Department workers outside their depot in O’Rahilly Parade (off Moore Street)*. (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

Some other protests in the city, such as for Palestine solidarity, continued but took on added features of workers’ solidarity. At the weekly Dubs for Palestine solidarity rally 12 noon to 1pm outside Leinster House, numerous supporting references were made to the workers’ actions.

Diarmuid Breatnach sang James Connolly’s song ‘Be Moderate’ there while Jimi Cullen sang the ‘Power to People/ Workers’ chant, both acapella with the audience joining in.⁴

SOCIALIST NOTES

For tens of thousands of workers, this will have been their first experience of a strike. Though many Irish migrants abroad built unions and struck, in Ireland for nearly all, Irish-born and workers from abroad will also for the first time be taking industrial action together.

Union density among workers is estimated at 22%-25% in the Irish state, with the private sector by far the lowest, a huge drop from the around 60% of the early 1980s, blamed on trade unions entering into decades of Social Partnership with Government and employers’ representatives.

While socialists celebrate the workers’ actions they are aware that trade union gains in wages are always temporary and will always fall behind the average costs of living – and even further behind the more rapidly rising costs of daily/ weekly essentials such as food and clothing.

Revolutionary socialists welcome the worker solidarity that trade unions tend to impart, in addition to resistance to impoverishment and fighting for safer and healthier working conditions but also know that trade union consciousness alone does not aim for socialism but for social democracy.⁵

The struggle for a shorter working week has advanced little since the fight for the 8-hour day began on May 1^st 1866 across the USA, with the Chicago police Haymarket Massacre on May 4th followed by seven death sentences and a 15-year jail sentence of workers’ leaders.

Though the working week for most workers has been reduced over years of struggle from six or even seven days to five, 8 hours remain the contracted lot for many, leaving little time and energy for family, socialisation, study and training, especially with hours travelling for many.

While trade union militancy in Ireland now may be a passing phase it may also presage a return to (or even a surpassing) of the Irish trade union militancy of the past, prior to the Social Partnership and such union activity is considered necessary to achieve a successful social revolution.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1For examples, food, heating, transport fuel prices, along with home rental and purchasing costs. Some saw the gap widen to 15% https://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/2026/03/30/unite-trade-unions-public-sector-workers-feeling-cost-of-living-pinch/

2 https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/10/14/tjwd-o14.html

3Both Mountjoy Jail and the Mater Hospital are on the North Circular Road and near to each other. Prison staff had pickets out while maintaining incarceration of inmates and presumably serving meals.

4Ironic title to lyrics of one of Connolly’s entries in Songs of Freedom (New York, 1907), sometimes referred to as We Only Want the Earth. Breatnach sings it to the air of a A Nation Once Again, which arrangement he says first heard from an English Communist. The Power to the People chant is often heard on demonstrations in particular from the PBP group; Cullen added ‘Workers’. Both singers are independent political activists.

5A form of goverment under capitalist exploitation with involvement of trade unions and some social benefits.

SOURCES

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=f%C3%B3rsa%20trade%20union

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41923693.html

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/10/13/qa-who-is-going-on-strike-on-wednesday-and-why

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/2026/03/30/unite-trade-unions-public-sector-workers-feeling-cost-of-living-pinch