Last December, dockworkers in Le Havre blocked a shipment of cannons destined for Israel. A concrete example of internationalist solidarity. ---- In June 2025, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu declared, "There are no French arms sales to Israel; this disinformation must stop." A bold lie, given the numerous deliveries of military equipment to Israel, identified and documented[1]since 2023. If further proof were needed, on December 11th, a container from Aubert & Duval, a French company, was to be loaded at the port of Le Havre for shipment to Haifa, in occupied Palestine. The cargo? 18 tons of cannons, manufactured in Firminy (where activists were already mobilized) and destined for the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems for its new howitzer.
This was without taking into account the mobilization of the dockworkers of Le Havre! Informed beforehand by Urgence Palestine and Palestine Youth Movement, they simply refused to load the cargo. Despite the ZIM carrier's attempts to conceal the cargo, the dockworkers stood firm, and the container was unable to enter the port of Le Havre. While it is regrettable that the cargo could only be diverted and not actually stopped, the dockworkers' action is to be greatly commended!
Let's disarm our imperialism!
Like the dockworkers of Fos-sur-Mer and Genoa, or the airline unions before them, their mobilization is fully in line with the internationalist solidarity of our class in the face of imperialist barbarity[2]. This type of action reminds us that the weapons used in the genocide of Palestinians do not manufacture themselves and do not magically appear in Israel. They are partly or entirely designed and manufactured in Western countries like France. The imperialist bourgeoisies, of course, have no qualms about profiting from genocide; it's a normal function of capitalism. But we can act as a class, because it is indeed workers who, coerced by capitalist exploitation, produce and deliver these weapons. They therefore have, through their collective action, the capacity to stop the arming of Israel. Because every weapon that cannot be assembled, every component that cannot be delivered, is one less piece in the Israeli genocidal machine.
But this realization is not spontaneous. It can be all the more difficult because the workers involved benefit in some way (through their standard of living) from this trade. Fortunately, as with the dockworkers of Le Havre, the internationalist union traditions of certain sectors remain firmly rooted. It is up to us, revolutionary activists, to continue the work. Let's support the sectors already mobilized, invest in the Stop Arming Israel campaign, and build links with the sectors concerned. Let's develop the internationalist solidarity of our class, disarm Israel, and disarm our imperialism!
Thomas (UCL Le Havre)
Submit
[1]See also the work of the media outlet Disclose on Disclose.ngo.
[2]See also "Internationalist Solidarity: Inter-union and pro-Palestinian Direct Actions," Alternative libertaire no. 362, July-August 2025. https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Solidarite-internationaliste-Intersyndicale-et-actions-directes-pro
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Internationalisme-La-puissance-du-port-du-Havre
_________________________________________
Link: (en) France, UCL AL #368 - Internationalism: The Power of the Port of Le Havre (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten