Port workers will not become a link in the chain of their wars. This is stated in the document drawn up at the end of the third international meeting held in Istanbul and signed by CGT Port and Docks (France), Enedep (Greece), LAB (Basque Country), LIman-Is (Turkey), ODT (Morocco), USB (Italy) and to which Orsa Porti Gioia Tauro has adhered.
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In the initial part, the document notes that «ports, maritime routes, railways, warehouses, logistics, the entire transport chain, are increasingly openly transforming into war infrastructures, but that for this reason port workers do not work for the wars of the imperialists. prime and of the markets».
Hence, a series of demands, the first of which is the immediate end to the genocide of the Palestinian people and the opening of a safe corridor for humanitarian aid. «The end of colonization, occupation and apartheid imposed on the Palestinian people and the recognition of an independent Palestinian State, recognized by the international community, within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital».
The end of the war in the Middle East is then demanded, as well as all blockades and conflicts worldwide. «No support, no facilitation, no participation in the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, Lebanon or any other imperialist intervention. Fleets and military bases out of the region. We express our full solidarity with the peoples of Cuba and Venezuela, threatened by US imperialism, and of Sudan. We demand the defense of the sovereignty of peoples, resources, territorial integrity, peace with justice and the right to resistance for self-determination».
«Ports – the document continues – must not be used for the transport of weapons, ammunition, military equipment and troops. We ask unions to strengthen vigilance, inform workers, expose war shipments and organize mass collective resistance with all legitimate means at our disposal and with our struggle. We reject the plan for the militarization of ports and critical infrastructures. Ports belong to the people and workers. They are not bases for NATO, the United States or the EU, nor instruments of shipowners and monopolistic groups. No to the war economy and armaments. Money must be used for wages, collective agreements, healthcare, education, social needs and the protection of life and safety at work».
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Health and safety measures in the workplace are then requested, along with collective agreements with real wage increases, stable jobs with rights, a pension policy with better pensions, and a reduction in working hours.
To strengthen international coordination among port workers’ unions and maritime sector workers, a common commitment is the «exchange of information between unions for common action, simultaneous mobilizations and strike initiatives in support of the blockade against war and weapons, as well as solidarity with every union under attack by governments, employers and repressive mechanisms».
«Port workers – the document concludes – will not sacrifice themselves for their profits and their wars. We do not transport bullets, bombs and missiles to kill children. We do not accept our ports being transformed into military bases. Workers will not pay for the war economy, inflation, armaments and the profits of monopolies. Our strength lies in organization. It lies in our unions, in general assemblies, in collective decisions, in solidarity among workers from different countries. We, the port workers, know very well that without us nothing moves. Without our hands, containers remain still, ships are not loaded, war machines are blocked. We ask all port workers’ unions to discuss this declaration, to strengthen our common actions and to organize joint actions, to strengthen the bonds of solidarity between ports».
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