HeathrowWorkersPower - Thoughts and news on direct action
At Heathrow, once we’ve decided what we want, what actions shall we take to get it? And what can our method of action tell us about what we want? Some recent events might give us some hints.
Livorno and Naples Dockworkers
Amidst the continuing atrocities against Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories, in mid-May, Italian dock workers at the Port of Livorno are refusing to load weapons destined for Israel. The workers of the USB (Unione Sindacale di Base) in collaboration with the Autonomous Collective of Port Workers of Genoa and the WeaponWatch association discovered the shipment and issued a statement. Dockworkers in Naples with the S.I.Cobas union also stated their determination to refuse to load military shipments destined for Israel, should they discover them. These actions aren’t totally spontaneous, but the result of ongoing organising work. Dockworkers in Genoa did the same in solidarity against the slaughter in Yemen with a shipment destined for Saudi Arabia back in 2019. After that action, Weapon Watch was established – a research group monitoring arms traffic in European and Mediterranean ports. In this region of Italy, links have been formed between researchers, autonomous worker collectives and base unions, to create situations where actions to defend working class people thousands of miles away are possible. Scaled up, these could be perceived as the embryonic rudiments of a counter-power capable of taking on nation-states and transnational corporations.