On Friday 30 October 2026, groups of dockworkers, trade unionists, pro-Palestinian and anti-war campaigners gathered at the front gates of Tilbury docks to call on the lorry drivers and the dockworkers to “Stop Shipping Weapons to Israel”.
The action marked the 2nd International Day of Global Action by dockworkers around the world, answering the call of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) with strikes and demonstrations at 113 ports across 32 countries. And all this whilst major anti-war and anti-austerity strikes and protests unfolded throughout Europe against austerity, repression, immiseration, militarisation, rearmament and genocide.
At Tilbury, protestors holding Irish and Palestinian flags held banners saying: “Workers Do not Work for War!”, and “Stop Shipping genocide!”. In spite of police restrictions, they managed to distribute leaflets to workers and lorry-drivers, whilst some passing cars and container trucks on the highway nearby would hoot in support.
Drums, megaphone speeches and coordinated chants linked the repudiation of genocide in Gaza with the appalling arming of Israel and the war-readiness exhortations of our UK government. The participants (some 150 or 200) demanded loudly an immediate embargo on all arms exports. Their leaflet, specifically addressed to the dockworkers, called on them to refuse to handle any arms shipment to Israel.
Activists from the French and Italian dockworkers’ unions waved large CGT and USB trade union flags, alongside that of the British RMT. The comrades holding the RMT flag came from the Piccadilly and District West RMT branch, supported by anti-war organisations as well as by Southwark, Brent and Greenwich trades councils. Some members of Unite did take part at one time. There were representatives of Health Workers 4 Palestine, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), “UK doctors for Palestine” and others. One of the activists present had sailed and suffered on the Mavi Marmara flotilla.
Aspects of the global action:
This mobilization included strikes and demonstrations spanning five continents. It brought together tens of thousands of workers to strike and/or protest against the shipment of arms, the militarization of ports, the genocide of the Palestinian people, the war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran, the arms supply to Zelensky in the Ukraine war, and the transformation of ports into hubs of war.
In countries like Italy and Greece, there were large protests directly from dockers. In India, the “Forward Seamen’s Union” FSU, reported that “the dockworkers and the seafarers had raised their voice across Indian ports”; they had “walked off the job” in Nhava Sheva Mumbai around slogans like: “Ports for Peace” and “Jobs with Dignity”. They published a document explaining how they took action “to link the fight against war with the fight for collective labour agreements, wage increases, stable jobs, shorter working hours and health and safety; against privatisations. subcontracting and temporary work; against automation and AI used to cut jobs and intensify exploitation”. Technology must reduce the working hours, they said, not feed monopoly profits.
In the UK, dockworkers and their allies organised protests in Belfast, Tilbury and Liverpool in opposition to the transport of weapons and military equipment. These actions did not lead to dockworkers strikes, but they did so in France, in Le Havre, Marseille-Fos, Dunkirk, Calais, Rouen. There were strikes in Italy, Genoa, Livorno, Trieste, Gioia Tauro. And strikes in Spain, Valencia, Barcelona, Algeciras, Bilbao.
In Istanbul’s Haydarpasa port, the dockers left the job for the day.
In the United States, the ILWU participated with walk-outs in Oakland and San Francisco. There were active strikes in Hamburg Germany, in Sweden, Denmark, Cyprus, Portugal, Uruguay, Mexico.
Note that the 1st International Day of Action by dockworkers and port workers was only in Feb 2026, involving 20 ports in 7 countries. That action laid the ground for this 2nd International Day. There is every reason to expect more and more of such actions. These International Days of Action indicate that the global working class is organising internationally – and alongside the general population – in readiness to defeat the war of monopoly capitalism not only on Russia, but on human life and on life itself.
From a world where the Palestinians and their allies have taken the lead, the anti-imperialist and anti-war struggle penetrates insular Britain regardless of frontiers. The general strike in Italy and the global mass movements show that the war of capitalism is hated, and opposed – and that the force exists to have it defeated.
Forward to the greater unification of the World Federation of Trade Unions and the International Transport Workers Federation! Forward with the greater anti-fascist, anti-imperialist and anti-zionist unification of humanity!
. Join the movement!
. Join the Anti-Fascist International created in Caracas and its UK Chapter.
. Forward to the greater unification of the British and world workers’ movements.
posadiststoday.org – 3.11.26
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The British Chapter of the Anti-Fascist International (BCAFI) greets the International Dockworker’s Day of Action initiated by the « International Dock and Transport Workers Against Genocide and War« .
The Day of Action is on Friday 30 October 2026, 9am-12pm Tilbury Docks, Essex, RM18 7NG.
Organised in more than 100 ports around the world, rank and file workers from the International Dock and Transport Workers Against Genocide and Warwill be at Tilbury on 30 October. They call “on UK dockworkers to join the 100+ docks worldwide taking action to stop supplying Israel’s genocide”.
The BCAFI greets the participation in the Day of Action, of dockworkers’ trade unions from France, Greece, the Basque Country, Turkey, Morocco, Italy, India, Ireland, Germany and Mexico. It calls on British dockers and trade unionists to answer this international call by becoming involved.
The BCAFI is a coalition of groups and individuals standing against fascism, imperialism and the barbarity of war. It demands that the British state withdraws all support for the genocidal Zionist project, especially the export of arms to Israel.
Through their demands for Ports for Peace and Jobs with Dignity, the Day of Action underlines the unique ability of the working class to uphold and represent the interests of the whole of humanity.
With the resurgence of fascist forces internationally and the lurch towards another world war, the BCAFI are committed to working in a democratic manner with open platforms to build maximum participation and unity.
The BCAFI calls on all friends connected with the International Dock and Transport Workers Against Genocide, and their respective organisations, to consider joining the BCAFI.
BCAFI – 30.10.2026
